To truly improve team performance, a leader has to go deeper than just surface-level fixes. The real work is in building a solid foundation of psychological safety, setting crystal-clear goals, and making open communication the norm. It’s never about finding one magic bullet. Instead, it’s a deliberate process of figuring out what’s holding the team back and then putting actionable strategies in place to build a cohesive, motivated, and highly effective working unit.
Understanding the DNA of a High-Performing Team
Boosting team performance is a journey, not a one-and-done task. It all starts with accepting that elite teams are built, not born. They are the direct result of intentional leadership that moves past theory and into the trenches of practical application. Think of this guide as your blueprint—it will help you build the “why” before you even start thinking about the “what,” ensuring your efforts lead to lasting success.
What separates the best teams from the rest? The core pillars are surprisingly consistent, whether you’re looking at a pro sports team, a fast-moving startup, or any other competitive environment. These elements create the kind of environment where individuals don’t just work together; they thrive.
- Psychological Safety: This is the big one. Team members have to feel safe enough to take risks, voice a different opinion, or even admit a mistake without fearing blame or ridicule. Practical Tip: Start your next team meeting by sharing a small, professional mistake you made recently and what you learned. This normalizes imperfection and encourages others to be open.
- Clear Goals: Everyone on the team, from the top down, needs to understand the mission. More than that, they need to see exactly how their individual work plugs into that bigger picture. Ambiguity is the enemy of progress. Actionable Insight: At your next project kickoff, create a “Mission Brief” slide that explicitly states, “Success for this project looks like…” and connects it to a company-level objective.
- Open Communication: Information has to flow freely and constructively. Feedback becomes a tool for growth, not a weapon for criticism. Tough conversations happen, but they’re handled productively. Practical Tip: Implement a simple “Start, Stop, Continue” format for project retrospectives. It gives everyone a structured, safe way to provide candid feedback.
- Meaningful Measurement: The team knows the score. By tracking progress against key metrics, success becomes visible, tangible, and creates a powerful, shared sense of accountability. After all, what gets measured gets managed. Actionable Insight: Create a simple, shared dashboard (even a basic spreadsheet) that tracks 2-3 core metrics for your team’s top priority. Review it for 5 minutes at the start of every week.
The Power of Aligned Objectives
When people see how their daily grind connects to the company’s big-picture objectives, their engagement skyrockets—they’re up to 3.5 times more likely to be engaged.
Organizations that get this right see massive returns. Systematically aligning goals can lead to a 60% improvement in team performance on key metrics. Even just involving employees in the goal-setting process itself can boost productivity by 12%.
To help organize these concepts, here’s a quick summary of the pillars we’ve discussed.
Key Pillars of Team Performance
| Pillar | Core Principle | Expected Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Psychological Safety | Members feel secure to express ideas and admit errors without fear of negative consequences. | Increased innovation, better problem-solving, and higher engagement. |
| Clear Goals | Every team member understands the collective mission and their specific role in achieving it. | Improved focus, greater motivation, and enhanced accountability. |
| Open Communication | Information and feedback are shared freely, honestly, and constructively among all team members. | Stronger trust, faster conflict resolution, and more efficient collaboration. |
| Meaningful Measurement | Progress is tracked with clear, relevant metrics that are visible to the entire team. | Data-driven decisions, a shared sense of accomplishment, and continuous improvement. |
Nailing these fundamentals is what separates teams that just get by from those that consistently knock it out of the park.
A team isn’t a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other.
This guide will give you a roadmap, first for diagnosing the real reasons for underperformance and then for moving into specific, actionable strategies. Digging into the principles of business psychology can give leaders the tools to build that essential “why” behind every team-building effort.
Ask Better Questions, Get Real Answers
With your data in hand, it’s time to dig in with the right kind of questions—open-ended, non-confrontational, and genuinely curious. You’re on a mission to find the root cause without making anyone feel like they’re on trial.
Your investigation should zero in on four likely culprits. Frame your questions to explore each one.
1. Resources and Tools
Does the team actually have what they need to do their job well? This is often the lowest-hanging fruit.
- “Does our current software actually help you, or does it feel like it creates more work?”
- “If you had a magic wand, what’s one tool that would dramatically speed up your daily tasks?”
2. Skills and Knowledge
Is there a mismatch between the skills the team has and what the job demands today? Teams are often pushed into new territory without a map.
- “What part of this project do you feel the least confident about tackling?”
- “Is there any specific training you think would make a huge difference for you in your role right now?”
3. Processes and Workflows
Are your established ways of working helping or hurting? A clunky process can absolutely crush a team’s momentum and morale.
- “If you could change one thing about how we get things done around here, what would it be?”
- “Where do you consistently see work getting stuck or slowed down?”
4. Expectations and Clarity
Is everyone on the same page about what “done” and “good” look like? Murky expectations are a breeding ground for frustration and wasted effort.
- “Can you walk me through your understanding of the top 3 priorities for this project?”
- “On a scale of 1-10, how clear are you on our main goals for this quarter?”
The goal is not to find a person to blame, but a problem to solve. Shifting the focus from ‘who’ to ‘what’ creates a safe environment for honest answers and collaborative problem-solving.
When you methodically work through these four areas, you trade vague hunches for a concrete diagnosis. This clarity isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the foundation for any real, lasting improvement in your team’s performance.
Lead with Vulnerability to Build Trust
Trust isn’t something you can demand from a position of authority; you earn it through authenticity. As a leader, one of the quickest ways to build psychological safety is to show your own vulnerability. When you openly admit your own missteps, you give your team permission to do the same.
Actionable Tip: It can be as simple as saying, “You know what, I made the wrong call on that feature priority, and it cost us some time. Here’s what I learned, and here’s how I’ll approach it differently.” That doesn’t make you look weak—it makes you look human and trustworthy.
This creates a powerful ripple effect. When the leader sets a tone of honesty and accountability, the team follows suit, creating a positive feedback loop of trust and transparency.
Your Action Plan for Building a Better Team
Improving team performance isn’t a one-and-done deal; it’s a continuous practice, a habit of intentional leadership. What we’ve laid out here is a clear roadmap. It starts with a real, honest look at your performance gaps and then moves to building a foundation of psychological safety. From there, it’s about getting everyone aligned around goals that actually mean something and designing workflows that make working together feel natural, not forced.
Your First Steps This Week
To get the ball rolling immediately, here’s a simple checklist you can put into action right now.
- Schedule a “Process Pain Points” Meeting: Block out 30 minutes. The only thing on the agenda is to ask one question: “What’s one thing in our daily workflow that slows you down?” Then, just listen and take notes.
- Lead with Vulnerability: In your next team huddle, share a small, recent mistake you made and what you learned. It feels weird at first, but this single act is a powerful first step toward building genuine psychological safety.
- Review Team Goals: Pull up your current team objectives. Can every single person on your team draw a straight line from their daily tasks to those big-picture goals? If the answer is no, your first job is to bring clarity.
The goal is to stop managing a group of individuals and start leading a truly high-performing team. It’s a journey of consistent effort, but the payoff is a team that is resilient, motivated, and frankly, unstoppable.
For leaders who want to take this a step further and really dig into their team’s mental skills, exploring structured programs like sports psychology workshops can provide the tools needed to build that winning mindset from the ground up.
If You Could Only Focus on One Thing, What Would It Be?
Hands down, psychological safety. It is the absolute bedrock of any high-performing team. Nothing else works without it.
When people feel safe enough to speak their minds, throw out a wild idea, or even admit they messed up without fearing blame, you unlock everything else.
As a leader, your most important job is to build and fiercely protect this environment. It’s the only way to get the trust you need for honest collaboration and real breakthroughs. A practical first step is to actively solicit dissenting opinions in meetings by asking, “What are we missing here?” or “What’s the argument against this approach?”
What’s the Right Way to Handle an Underperforming Team Member?
Address it, but do it right. The goal is to be direct, private, and supportive—not punitive. This approach shows the rest of the team that you handle problems fairly and are invested in helping people grow, which builds trust instead of fear.
- Have a Private Conversation First: Get a one-on-one on the calendar to figure out what’s really going on. Use open questions like, “I’ve noticed some deadlines have slipped recently. Can you walk me through what’s been happening on your end?” This opens the door to understanding if it’s a skill gap, a role clarity issue, or a personal challenge.
- Build a Plan Together: Don’t just hand down a verdict. Work with them to create a simple, written Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). It needs specific, measurable goals (e.g., “Complete all assigned tasks by the agreed-upon deadline for the next 30 days”) and a clear timeline for when you’ll check in (e.g., “We will have a brief check-in every Friday”).
- Give Them Real Support: This is crucial. A plan without resources is just a wish. Offer them access to training, connect them with a mentor, or schedule more frequent, brief check-ins to provide guidance along the way.
Handling these situations professionally and with empathy sends a powerful message to your entire team: we solve problems here, and we have each other’s backs. That’s how you build a resilient, high-performance culture.
Ready to unlock your team’s full potential? Dr. John F. Murray offers customized workshops and executive consulting to build the mental skills that drive elite performance. Strengthen your team’s focus, resilience, and collaboration by visiting https://www.johnfmurray.com.