The Hidden Ingredient of High‑Performing Teams

Written By Yeshim Yahya

I’ve worked with teams for over a decade, and I’ve seen first‑hand - across individual contributors, middle management, and senior leadership - the key ingredients that help a team reach that “holy grail” of high‑performance teams.

We all know the standard factors: clear goals and objectives, a shared purpose, and defined roles and responsibilities. These matter. But there’s one area that, if left to chance, can undermine everything else. It’s the part many leaders don’t have the skills, knowledge, or support to address. And it’s often the reason individuals eventually choose to leave a company.

That missing piece? The people dynamics inside the team.

We can talk about goals, roles, and meeting cadences all day. But if the way people show up, how they relate and how they behave isn’t working, the team will struggle. When certain unhelpful behaviors show up in a team, you might get lucky and manage them indirectly through clearer goals and roles. That can make the team “good.” But it will rarely make the team great. If high-performace teams is the aim, then team dynamics deserve equal weight alongside goals and strategy.

Why Team Awareness Matters

In Relationship Systems Intelligence (RSI), this is described as a team having self‑awareness. When teams understand the personality differences in the room, they gain the ability to:

  • Recognize strengths and weaknesses.

  • Resolve communication breakdowns.

  • Address conflict early.

  • Prevent personality dynamics from derailing meetings, progress, and results.

Research from the CIPD 2024 Good Work Index shows that employees who experience conflict are twice as likely to say they’ll leave their job in the next 12 months (33% vs 16%), highlighting how interpersonal issues can impact retention. Additionally, workplace conflict costs UK organisations around £28.5 billion a year, including turnover, sickness absence, and lost productivity, which is roughly £1,000 per employee on average (University of Sheffield / Acas).

Without that awareness, dynamics can quietly erode performance. Employees experiencing conflict report significantly higher exhaustion and pressure - for example, 42% feel exhausted all/most of the time compared with 18% in teams without conflict (University of Sheffield / Acas).

From a neuroscience perspective, toxic or unresolved team friction triggers the brain’s fight‑flight‑freeze responses. Those are not foundations for high‑performance teams - they lead instead to burnout, reduced output, and eventually, turnover.

Even when conflict occurs, only around 36% of employees feel it is fully resolved, which suggests a gap in leadership, culture, and team dynamics. Across the EU, there is growing recognition that structured support - like training in conflict prevention and team management - is needed to address these challenges effectively.

A Practical Starting Point: DiSC

One of my favorite tools for exploring team dynamics is DiSC Insights. It’s a simple, accessible framework that helps individuals understand themselves and others, increasing both personal and team awareness. According to Everything DiSC participants report a 90% accuracy rating, indicating that the DiSC profiles resonate with individuals and accurately reflect their behavioral tendencies. Additionally, organizations using DiSC have reported a 95% satisfaction rate, highlighting the positive reception and perceived value of the tool in improving team dynamics.

Team mates understand the source of their tension and can move forward productively. A manager realises her communication style works for three people but alienates four others and she has steps to adjust. The team sees why decision‑making always stalls and gains strategies to break the deadlock.

Sometimes a single DiSC session can surface and address surface-level tensions. For more complex issues, DiSC provides a springboard - a shared language and awareness that makes deeper coaching possible. It levels the playing field so teams can dig into conflict, problem-solve, and make progress while respecting the diverse personalities in the room.

To Recap

Team dynamics aren’t just a “soft” issue. Left unaddressed, they can cost a team thousands of pounds and lead to burnout, reduced productivity, and staff turnover. But with the right tools and support - including self-awareness exercises and structured interventions - teams can transform these dynamics into a key driver of high performance.

Sources

Yeshim Yahya
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