HOW we work matters more than WHO is on the team
Strategy succeeds or stalls based on how your leaders collaborate
Here is what happened when Jen became the newly appointed CEO of a European bank. In her first month, she hand‑picked some of the brightest talent in the business, promoting rising stars from within and persuading experts to join from outside. Every leader was a proven high performer.
Over the months that followed, everyone worked hard and was tremendously busy, but somehow it didn’t lead to the results they had hoped for. After trying to make it work for a year, she decided to invite us to coach her leadership team.
The off‑site that changed everything
On the first day, I observed. The setup was that each department would present its results of the last quarter to the others.
But when one leader was speaking, the others were disengaged—sometimes even on their phones and laptops. When the CEO challenged the results, team members were quick to blame another department. They were a working group, not a team.
It reminded me of a quote by Patrick Lencioni:
“Some leadership teams are like the United Nations: a place where people come together to lobby for their constituents.”
That evening, the CEO admitted over dinner: “We’ve hired Ferraris, but they’re driving in different directions.” We agreed I would facilitate their second day.
The next morning I asked the group to pause—to zoom out and reflect on how they worked as a collective rather than as solo performers.
I told them they were operating like a Golf team. Golfers play individually, and their scores are totaled to calculate the team’s score. However, they should think more like a football team, where the players are interdependent and actively work together to achieve a common objective.
Using that metaphor, we co‑created a one‑page manifesto. It laid out a shared definition of success, clarified roles and responsibilities, described acceptable behaviors—such as listening, curiosity over judgment, and zero blame—and established how we would hold each other accountable and give and receive feedback. Every leader signed it before leaving the room.
Over the months that followed, the manifesto became their compass. Guided by it, they overcame the real barrier holding the company back: how the leadership team operated.
Becoming a real team is a strategic choice
To achieve big results, you need ‘high-performing’ teams capable of achieving them—and that includes your leadership team. The reality is that many leadership teams operate like golf teams, and that is not enough to achieve radical results. Becoming a real team is a strategic choice, and it requires work to develop one.
But what does a high-performing team look like? When I ask leaders this question, they often respond with words such as “ trust”, “collaboration”, “communication”, and “commitment”. It’s easy to see that without these things, teams can’t work well, but these traits feel somewhat intangible.
When I ask leaders how to achieve ‘high performance,’ many say through “team building”, “giving feedback”, or ”putting the ‘right’ people on the team”. While those things certainly help, they don’t provide the complete picture.
Five dynamics of great teams
So, how do you build the ‘perfect’ team? That’s what Google wanted to learn when they studied 200 teams across their organization.
The study discovered that five dynamics consistently differentiated top-performing teams from those at the bottom. Together, they act as the behavioural operating system that determines whether a bold strategy ever leaves the slide deck. The five dynamics act like rails carrying strategy from the whiteboard to the day-to-day:
Psychological safety: Team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of one another. It allows teams to surface risky assumptions before they explode.
Dependability: Team members consistently deliver high-quality work on time and take their responsibilities seriously.
Structure and clarity: The team has clear roles, goals, and plans—members know what is expected of them, what they are aiming for, and how they will get there. This helps maintain stability amid noise.
Meaning: Team members have a sense of purpose in their work or the team’s output. This fuels the discretionary effort that strategy always underestimates.
Impact: Team members believe their work matters and makes a difference. A felt sense of impact closes the loop, allowing plans to evolve in real-time.
Notice that these have nothing to do with individual brilliance and everything to do with the social fabric of the group.
How to do it
The Unblock book outlines organizational practices that enable you to enhance the five factors. Pick up your copy on Amazon, Managementboek, or listen to it on Audible or Spotify.
Where would you start?
If you had to improve just one of the five dynamics in the next quarter, which would unlock the greatest impact for your team? Simply hit ‘reply’ or comment—I read every message.
