Turning High Performers Into High-Performing Teams

Sometimes the words teamwork and collaboration are used synonymously, but teamwork is a broader umbrella concept. Collaboration, on the other hand, is more specifically defined as a cooperative process in which two or more people work together toward a shared goal, leveraging their collective expertise, resources and effort. It isn’t simply working in the same proximity or group. It encompasses an interdependence to achieve high-level outcomes that could not be accomplished individually. Collaboration takes focus, intentionality and effort.

People sometimes believe that if you take a group of high-performers, collaboration will happen naturally. In reality, this is not the case. Research from HBR shows that without a focus on collaboration, complex teams are less likely to share knowledge freely, learn from one another, flexibly shift workloads, help one another or share resources.

One of the most interesting studies that drives this point home is the super chicken experiment. Conducted by biologist William Muir, this study looked at the difference between a coop of all high-producing chickens (called “super chickens”) and an average coop of poultry. Surprisingly, the average chickens ended up producing more eggs than the super chickens. It was found that the super chicken coop had excessive competition and aggression among the hens and, therefore, produced fewer eggs. What do chickens have to do with people? This study highlights that just putting high-performers together is not enough to create extraordinary teams and organizations.

In executive teams, the same dynamic can play out. When everyone’s trying to win individually, the group loses collectively. Your job as CEO is to build a system that rewards collaboration over competition. If you’re wondering where your team sits on this journey, ask: Are we a group of high-performers or a high-performing team?

Collaboration is essential for bringing people together in a meaningful way and solving complex problems. In today’s fast-paced and variable environment, deliberately prioritizing collaboration is essential. Teams and organizations are faced with even more complexity given increasing economic pressure, hybrid work environments and ever-changing technology. Effective collaboration is key for achieving organizational goals, but teams often struggle with working together, holding each other accountable or maintaining high performance. A meta-analysis in healthcare that included 31 studies composed of 1,390 teams showed the importance of collaboration in team performance. The teams with strong collaboration, regardless of size, were nearly three times more likely to achieve better outcomes than those without it.

Collaboration is equally important at the broader organizational level. Too often, departments are siloed in organizations without leveraging one another to achieve results for the company. A Forbes article explains that cross-department collaboration is “the practice of different departments within an organization working together toward a common goal.” This article highlights that cross-department collaboration fosters greater innovation, shared knowledge, continuous learning, increased agility and more effective achievement of complex business goals. To ensure companies benefit from the positive outcomes of collaboration, they must concentrate on three key areas: team support, accountability and excellence. Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

Team Support

Team support refers to the willingness and consistency of people to go beyond their roles to aid their colleagues. Extensive research highlights the pivotal role of team support in enhancing team effectiveness and performance outcomes. Team support includes several concepts like information sharing, social support and task support. It is simply asking: Do we help one another succeed?

People are wired to work together and help each other. We have a tribal instinct that is deeply ingrained, and when it is leveraged productively, it helps to create supportive, inclusive environments where we all can thrive. When teams are highly supportive, everyone is more likely to meet both individual and team goals. The potential for each employee to become much greater than they would have been alone is exponential.

One of the most meaningful steps to creating a culture of team support is understanding one another’s strengths. It is hard to lean on someone else when you are not clear on how you can do so. Taking the steps to understand each other’s strengths and ways of thinking can be a great way to understand the best ways to support each other. One of the greatest barriers to team support is the misperception that asking for someone’s help is a burden or shows weakness.

Team support also applies more broadly at the organizational level. When cross-functional teams support one another, share information and resources, and help each other succeed, the ultimate outcome is increased customer experiences. We can all recall instances in our lives where this hasn’t happened. Think of a time when you were bounced around from one help desk to another, with everyone insisting it wasn’t their department. This reflects the consequences of teams within organizations failing to support one another effectively. We can do better, and it is essential that we strive for improvement. Fostering team support throughout the organization is one essential ingredient in how we get there.

Accountability

Accountability measures the commitment to holding individuals and groups within the organization responsible for their performance in a fair and consistent manner. Similarly, accountability research underscores its critical impact on various aspects of team and organizational performance, including team trust, commitment, efficacy, task performance and team identification. I cannot count how many times I have heard leaders say that they need more accountability from their team and organization. At its core, accountability is about taking ownership of our actions, decisions and behaviors and holding others accountable for the same. When we are accountable, we are committed to our goals and follow through on our commitments.

If accountability is so critical, why do we struggle with it? For example, why do 80 percent of people give up on their New Year’s resolutions one month into the year after they have made the commitment? Interestingly, research shows that accountability is significantly higher when it involves interpersonal interactions, such as partnerships or group settings, rather than relying solely on individual efforts. A study by the Association for Talent Development found that individuals who commit to someone else about their goals have a 65 percent chance of achieving them, and the probability increases to 95 percent when they engage in regular check-ins with an accountability partner.

Accountability can also be confused with blame, but they’re fundamentally different. Accountability is forward-looking; it’s about ownership, learning and taking responsibility to improve outcomes. Blame, on the other hand, is backward-facing. It focuses on fault, often driven by fear or frustration, and tends to shut down learning. Blame discourages; true accountability empowers.

Excellence

Excellence refers to the drive toward high performance, the rejection of mediocrity and the desire to learn from mistakes. Moreover, striving for excellence within teams is essential as it cultivates a culture of continuous improvement, fosters innovation and ultimately contributes to overall organizational performance. As CEO, it’s your job to define what excellence looks like, model it consistently and create the conditions for others to rise to that standard, but it’s critical to remember that striving for excellence is not the same as chasing perfection.

Studies have shown that when people strive for excellence instead of perfection, they achieve greater results. Teams that celebrate wins and learn from failures are 25 times as likely to be successful in the long long term. Unfortunately, many of us are perfectionists (or recovering ones) who are scared to death of any type of failure. Striving for perfection versus excellence creates a fear-based culture, where mistakes aren’t allowed and the culture lacks psychological safety, which impedes innovation. This applies at both the team and organizational level.

There is an ancient Japanese philosophy called wabi-sabi, a concept that asks us to search for the beauty in imperfection. Kintsugi, in which broken objects are repaired with liquid gold, giving them “golden scars,” is a traditional art form that comes from wabi-sabi. The practice celebrates the cracks. Why? Cracks build resilience, and that’s what makes us beautiful. Instead of hiding the imperfections, they are celebrated. This reflects a wabi-sabi mindset—one that values imperfection as a natural part of being human, encourages us to recognize and appreciate our “cracks,” understanding that connection isn’t built on perfection, but on our shared humanity.

Collaboration is essential for high-performing teams and thriving organizational cultures. It is the factor that brings diverse individuals together into a cohesive team capable of achieving exceptional results. Through team support, people are strengthened and help each other grow. Accountability helps teams cultivate a culture of ownership, uphold their commitments and drive collective progress. Finally, the pursuit of excellence versus perfection helps teams and organizations maintain high standards and cultivate a learning culture capable of agility, innovation and growth. By nurturing collaboration and its subfactors, you unlock the full potential of people, creating not just a culture of performance but one of shared success.

This is an adapted excerpt from Connected Culture: The New Science For Thriving Teams and Cultures by Dr. Jamie Shapiro.