Building High-Performance Teams
Scaling your business isn’t just about strategies or processes—it’s about people. No matter how great your vision, your ability to scale hinges on your team’s alignment, engagement, and trust. Building a high-performance team is more than hiring skilled individuals; it’s about fostering a culture of collaboration and commitment.
High-performing teams can drive innovation, solve problems faster, and sustain growth even in turbulent times. Yet, many SMB CEOs and founders struggle with the dynamics of managing and maintaining such a team. It’s not about perfection—it’s about connection.
Entrepreneurs cannot build or scale their business without people. Teams execute the vision, foster innovation, engage customers, and scale operations. Employees also build culture, solve problems collaboratively, and provide leadership pipelines, essential for growth.
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs
When scaling a business, strategy is the roadmap forward. When coaching leaders, I’m often reminded that the best strategy will not survive a bad culture which impacts execution time and again. As David J. Friedman details in Culture by Design:
“no single factor – not sales, marketing, finance, strategy, or operations – has more influence of the ultimate success of an organization that its culture”
(Credit: Culture by Design)
Do you have the right people to achieve your goals? If you do, read on to learn how to go from an ordinary team to a high-performing one.
As we continue to explore The Five Focuses for Agile Business Growth through this series, building a team that scales your vision needs to be a key focus.
What Makes a Team High-Performing?
The best teams don’t just work together; they grow together. Research by Google’s Project Aristotle found that psychological safety—the belief that team members won’t be punished or embarrassed for speaking up—is the most critical factor for team success. Other key elements include clarity of purpose, dependability, and impact.
High-performance teams are also adaptable. In a fast-changing market, they can pivot and find solutions without losing momentum. For example, companies like Netflix and Amazon have thrived by fostering agile, innovative cultures that empower teams to act quickly and collaboratively.
(Credit: symondsresearch.com)
Key Challenges CEOs Face
Misaligned Goals: When team members don’t see how their roles contribute to the bigger picture, engagement drops.
Lack of Trust: Distrust can lead to micromanagement and a breakdown in communication.
Ineffective Communication: Miscommunication often creates unnecessary roadblocks, delays, or frustration.
Burnout: Without a focus on well-being, even high performers can struggle under the pressure of scaling.
Think about these reflective questions:
Do your team members feel a sense of ownership over their work and its outcomes?
Are there open channels for honest feedback—both upward and downward?
How do you currently celebrate and recognize team successes?
Actionable Steps to Strengthen Your Team
1. Clarify Purpose and Roles: Take time to ensure each team member understands
how their work aligns with the company’s mission. This can be done through one-on-
one check-ins or regular team meetings. Stop assuming alignment exists!
Ask questions to confirm.
Foster Open Communication: Create regular opportunities for feedback and discussion. Simple tools like anonymous surveys or structured team meetings can help uncover hidden issues. Don’t wing it! Prepare a meeting agenda with activities and open questions to launch some powerful dialogue. Know the basics of psychological safety and put it into practice.
Invest in Development: Provide coaching, training, or stretch assignments to help your team grow their skills. Studies show that professional development increases job satisfaction and retention. The most powerful development is often not extra to a job function but part of it. If people are not learning and growing there is a much higher chance they will go elsewhere to use their talents and seek career progression.
Celebrate Milestones: Recognize achievements frequently. This doesn’t always require grand gestures; a heartfelt thank-you or a shared team lunch can make a big difference. It will not just happen without putting a focus on it; make it a calendar task to find and recognize one achievement every day! Don’t forget that powerful recognition can include interesting and challenging work assignments or activities that aligns with people’s development or career goals.
"A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of themselves and their contribution to praise the skills of others." — Norman Shidle
What’s some Exercises for Team Growth?
DISC Team Insights:
Conduct a DISC behavioral assessment for your leadership team. Debrief your profile and discuss the results collectively to build understanding and improve collaboration. The DISC behavioral assessment enhances team dynamics by fostering self-awareness and understanding of others' communication and work styles. It improves collaboration, reduces conflict, and boosts productivity. Teams gain insights to leverage diverse strengths, adapt strategies, and build stronger relationships, driving efficiency and achieving shared goals more effectively.
Team Retrospectives:
Hold monthly retrospectives to evaluate what’s working and what’s not. Use the "Start, Stop, Continue" framework to guide the conversation. The Start, Stop, Continue framework drives clarity and improvement by fostering focused feedback. It encourages new ideas (Start), eliminates inefficiencies (Stop), and reinforces successful practices (Continue). Simple yet effective, it boosts accountability, aligns goals, and supports continuous learning and growth for individuals, teams, and organizations.
Strengths Mapping:
Map out the unique strengths of each team member. Then, identify opportunities to leverage these strengths in new ways. Focusing on strengths boosts confidence, enhances performance, and fosters engagement. It helps individuals achieve goals efficiently, experience greater job satisfaction, and build resilience. By leveraging natural talents, people can navigate challenges more effectively and unlock their full potential, creating a sense of fulfillment and sustained personal and professional growth.
Your team isn’t just a resource; it’s your greatest asset. Building a high-performance team takes intention and effort, but the payoff is transformational. Start small: Ask your team how you can better support them this week and build from there.
Jerome Dickey
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