What kind of team do you have? If you’re one of the lucky few, you are part of a high-performance team. A group of people who work well together is the biggest predictor of team success, according to Google’s Project Aristotle (named after the philosopher and his famous quote: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”). As well, working with a wide variety of top performers is one of the greatest predictors of your career success. High-performance teams also make work, and life, a whole lot more fun.

I was fortunate to work with a high-performance team at the beginning of my career. I worked for Searle, a relatively small pharmaceutical company. But our team was mighty. People were committed to doing great work. There was a tremendous sense of camaraderie and strong collaboration. As a result, we collectively achieved results on par with much bigger competitors.

Even since this time, I’ve been bench-marking the many teams I’ve been part of, in an effort to rediscover the magic. Of course, no team is the same and comparing one to another can feel nebulous.

What exactly is a high-performance team? What makes them different? What are they doing to help people thrive? I’ve spent years exploring these questions. And it is clear high-performance teams embrace three core tenets:

Purpose: High-performance teams are passionate about achieving an important vision and feel personally connected to the outcome.

People: People on high-performance teams bring out the best in one another with trust, optimism and empowerment.

Process: High-performance teams are committed to robust processes, including delegating, feedback and accountability.

Are you on a high-performance team?

You likely have a general sense of how your team fares relative to others. It is easy to observe interactions and compare results. But it’s harder to have a detailed perspective of your team’s unique strengths and opportunities without an objective tool. There are simply too many contributing factors to leave this to casual observation.

Thankfully, you now have a way to gauge your team’s strengths and opportunities. For a limited time, we are offering complimentary access to our High-Performance Team Quiz. This useful exercise will help determine where your team is thriving and where it can be even more effective.

Contact us at [email protected] for your PDF copy. (Email Warriors that we are, you’ll receive only the quiz and no additional emails). If you would like to discuss your team’s results, we are happy to schedule a complimentary consultation with you.

And if there are certain habits your team embraces, please share in the comments below. What are the behaviours, routines and rituals that allow your team to shine? I am always fascinated to learn and would love to hear about your team.