Building a high-performance team is one of the most rewarding, and challenging, responsibilities of leadership. It requires deliberate actions, clear intent, and a deep understanding of how people come together, align, and excel. At INSYNC Management Solutions, we’ve helped leaders across industries create teams that deliver exceptional results, and one constant emerges: high performance starts at the top.
A leader sets the tone, pace, and culture of the team. They shape how the team functions, how conflict is handled, how trust is built, and ultimately how quickly the team moves through the stages of development to achieve its full potential.
This article explores the leader’s responsibilities in team development, how to accelerate through Bruce Tuckman’s stages of forming, storming, norming, and performing, what happens when new people join, and why even top performers experience temporary dips in a new organisation. Drawing on research and best practice, it also offers 10 practical actions any leader can take to build and sustain a truly high-performing team.
Culture
Leaders are not merely managers of tasks; they are the primary influence on how a team behaves and performs. Research consistently shows that a leader’s actions and example are the strongest predictors of team culture. According to Katzenbach & Smith’s Wisdom of Teams, the leader’s responsibility is to “set clear expectations, model the desired behaviours, and create an environment in which excellence is expected and achievable.”
Leaders must:
- Lead by example: Consistency, integrity, and a willingness to model the standards expected of others build credibility.
- Set the tone: Whether a team feels energised, risk-averse, collaborative, or competitive often depends on what the leader signals — both explicitly and implicitly.
- Set the pace: How fast the team moves, how it prioritises, and how it responds to pressure comes from the leader’s sense of urgency and focus.
- Shape the culture: Leaders cultivate an environment of accountability, trust, and mutual respect, or they don’t.
Failing to actively lead these dimensions leaves the team to default behaviours, which are rarely optimal.
Accelerating Through Tuckman’s Stages
Tuckman’s model of group development — forming, storming, norming, and performing — remains one of the most enduring and useful frameworks for understanding how teams evolve.
- Forming: The team is polite and cautious. Members look to the leader for direction.
- Storming: Conflicts and competition emerge as individuals assert themselves.
- Norming: The team starts to find rhythm, establish norms, and work more cohesively.
- Performing: The team operates at high efficiency, with strong trust and mutual accountability.
High-performing teams don’t skip stages, but good leadership can accelerate progress. To move quickly to performing:
- Clarify the mission and goals early.
- Define clear roles and responsibilities.
- Discuss and agree on team norms and ways of working.
- Facilitate healthy conflict — don’t avoid it.
- Coach individuals through the storming phase, keeping them focused on shared outcomes.
Psychological safety, according to Amy Edmondson’s research, is key: people must feel safe to speak up, admit mistakes, and offer new ideas without fear of ridicule. Leaders create this through openness and support, which speeds up the team’s journey through storming into norming and performing.
When New People Join: Disruption as a Double-Edged Sword
Adding new members to an established team introduces inevitable disruption. On the positive side, new perspectives, skills, and energy can reinvigorate the team and spark innovation. However, disruption can also upset norms, destabilise trust, and temporarily lower performance.
To leverage the good and mitigate the bad, leaders should:
- Clearly communicate why the new member was brought in and what value they bring.
- Help the newcomer integrate by assigning a mentor or buddy.
- Revisit and reaffirm team norms and expectations to re-align everyone.
- Encourage open dialogue about concerns and suggestions.
Research shows that even well-integrated teams regress slightly when membership changes — it’s normal and manageable with proactive leadership.
The Regression Curve of High Performers
An often-overlooked dynamic in team development is what happens when you hire an external high performer. Studies (e.g., Harvard Business Review, 2017) have shown that elite performers often experience a temporary drop in effectiveness — sometimes called the “valley of integration” — as they adapt to the new organisation’s processes, culture, and expectations.
This regression is not a sign of failure but a predictable adjustment. Leaders should:
- Set realistic expectations for ramp-up time.
- Provide structured onboarding and feedback.
- Avoid overloading the individual too soon.
- Encourage them to observe and understand before making major changes.
Supporting new high performers through this learning curve is critical to unlocking their full potential quickly.
10 Practical Actions to Build and Grow a High-Performance Team
Here are 10 evidence-based actions leaders can take right now to foster exceptional team performance:
1. Model the behaviour you expect
Leaders set the standard for what is acceptable within a team. If you want a culture of punctuality, preparation, respect, and openness, you must demonstrate those behaviours yourself, consistently. Research on social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) shows that people learn not just from formal instruction but by observing role models in their environment. When leaders act with integrity, employees are more likely to do the same (Brown & Treviño, 2006). Conversely, inconsistency or hypocrisy erodes credibility and damages trust.
Best practice: Be visible in your actions, admit your mistakes, and demonstrate the same accountability you expect from your team.
2. Define a compelling vision and purpose
A clear, meaningful purpose motivates teams beyond day-to-day tasks. Teams that understand why their work matters are more engaged and resilient (Kouzes & Posner, 2017). A shared vision aligns the team around common goals and provides direction during uncertainty.
Best practice: Communicate the “big picture” regularly and connect individual roles to the broader mission. Stories and examples help make the vision tangible.
3. Set clear goals and metrics
Ambiguity creates frustration and indecision. Locke & Latham’s goal-setting theory (2002) established that specific, challenging, yet achievable goals improve performance by 10–25% compared to vague or easy goals. Teams perform best when they know exactly what is expected and how success will be measured.
Best practice: Define SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) and establish regular check-ins to track progress.
4. Facilitate trust and psychological safety
Amy Edmondson’s research on psychological safety (Harvard Business Review, 2014) demonstrates that teams where members feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and admit mistakes without fear of humiliation are more innovative and effective. Trust is the foundation of teamwork.
Best practice: Encourage openness, listen actively, and respond constructively. Never punish honest mistakes or ridicule contributions.
5. Encourage constructive conflict
Conflict is inevitable, and even desirable, when it focuses on ideas rather than personalities (Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, 2002). Avoiding conflict stifles innovation and allows bad ideas to persist unchallenged. The key is managing conflict so it is respectful and productive.
Best practice: Facilitate debates where everyone is heard, reinforce that disagreement is healthy, and redirect when it becomes personal.
6. Build team rituals and shared identity
Shared rituals (weekly meetings, team-building events, recognition ceremonies) and symbols (team names, mottos) foster belonging and cohesion (Dutton et al., 2010). People are more committed when they feel part of something larger than themselves.
Best practice: Establish routines that bring the team together and acknowledge shared values and achievements.
7. Provide timely feedback and coaching
Frequent, specific feedback helps individuals adjust and improve. Waiting until annual reviews to give feedback allows bad habits to entrench. Research from Gallup shows that employees who receive regular feedback are nearly three times more engaged than those who don’t.
Best practice: Give immediate feedback for both achievements and missteps, and frame it as an opportunity for growth rather than punishment
8. Develop individual capabilities
Team performance depends on individual growth. Investing in employees’ learning and development improves engagement, reduces turnover, and enhances organisational capabilities (Noe et al., 2014).
Best practice: Identify development needs through coaching conversations, offer training opportunities, and support career progression plans.
9. Monitor and adjust team norms
Team norms, the unwritten rules of behaviour, can drift over time. What worked six months ago may no longer serve the team. Periodically reviewing and resetting expectations keeps the team aligned and responsive to changes.
Best practice: Use team retrospectives to reflect on what’s working, what’s not, and agree on improvements.
10. Celebrate milestones and success
Recognition builds morale and reinforces desired behaviours. Celebrating progress, not just end results, keeps the team motivated and engaged. Research by Bersin & Associates found companies with recognition-rich cultures have 31% lower turnover.
Best practice: Recognise both individual and team achievements publicly and sincerely, and tailor recognition to the preferences of the recipient.
Final Thoughts
High-performance teams don’t happen by accident. They are the product of intentional leadership. A leader who sets the example, defines the culture, and guides the team through its natural development stages. Change is inevitable: new members, shifting priorities, and evolving challenges will test even the best teams. But with clarity, consistency, and care, leaders can accelerate their team to high performance, and keep them there.
At INSYNC Management Solutions, we help leaders at all levels build the capability and confidence to develop teams that deliver. If you’d like to discuss how we can support your leadership journey and help you get your team performing at its best, reach out today.
