The Ugly Truth About Building High Performing Teams

There’s an ugly truth about building high-performing teams that few leaders are willing to face:

It’s not about culture perks.
It’s not about compensation packages.
It’s not even about talent, at least, not at first.

It’s about leadership.

Everything, and I mean everything, rises and falls on leadership.

I’ve worked with dozens of organizations and hundreds of leaders across twelve industries, and the pattern is always the same: when the team is disengaged, productivity drops, and performance suffers, the problem rarely starts with the team.

It starts with the leader.

Leadership sets the tone. Leadership builds the belief. Leadership determines whether people show up with energy, alignment, and ownership or just go through the motions.

If that sounds harsh, good. Because growth begins when we stop sugarcoating the truth.

Leadership Is Influence. Nothing More, Nothing Less.

My mentor John Maxwell said it best: “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.”

Influence isn’t about a job title, authority, or the org chart. It’s about trust, credibility, and connection. And those three things can’t be faked.

Every day, your words, your tone, your energy, and your consistency are either depositing or withdrawing from the trust account of your team.

The leader who earns buy-in doesn’t command it; they cultivate it.

One of my other mentors, Dr. Robert Cialdini, the world’s leading expert on the psychology of persuasion, identified seven principles that shape how people say “yes.”
In team environments, three matter most:

• Liking: People say yes to those who understand them, listen to them, and appreciate them.

• Authority: People follow leaders who demonstrate both competence and character.

• Consistency: People commit when they see alignment between what a leader says and what they do.

If you want influence, you need to communicate in a way that builds all three.

That’s why I train leaders to use behavioral tools like DISC, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and Working Genius. They give you insight into how people think, feel, and work best.

• DISC helps you understand communication styles.

• EQ helps you manage emotional triggers; yours and theirs.

• Working Genius helps you place people in the roles that give them joy and energy.

Leadership isn’t about treating everyone the same; it’s about treating everyone right.

Reflection Questions for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Do I understand what drives and drains each person on my team?

2. Where am I currently leading from assumption rather than understanding?

3. How consistently do my words and actions match?

Action Steps for Growth-Minded Leaders

• Conduct a short behavioral assessment (DISC or Working Genius) for yourself and your team.

• Adjust one upcoming conversation to match the other person’s style: direct with D’s, supportive with S’s, data-driven with C’s, relational with I’s.

• Ask your team: “What’s one thing I can do differently to communicate better with you?” Then do it.

Attitude Reflects Leadership

When morale drops, it’s easy to blame the team, but the mirror tells the real story.

A team’s attitude is a reflection of its leader’s mindset.

If you’re frustrated, they’ll feel it.
If you’re hopeful, they’ll reflect it.
If you’re disengaged, they’ll mirror it.

Energy flows from the leader, not to the leader.

In neuroscience, there’s a concept called emotional contagion: the idea that people subconsciously mimic the emotional states of those around them. Your emotional tone literally sets the emotional temperature of the team.

This is why Emotional Intelligence isn’t optional anymore. It’s essential.
The emotionally intelligent leader doesn’t suppress emotion; they regulate it.
They model calm under pressure, optimism under challenge, and confidence under uncertainty.

Reflection Questions for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. What emotions am I transmitting to my team, intentionally or unintentionally?

2. How do I respond under stress, and what does that teach my team about pressure?

3. Do my actions reflect the kind of culture I want to create?

Action Steps for Growth-Minded Leaders

• Begin each week with a brief self-check: “What tone do I want to set this week?”

• Acknowledge your stress out loud without spreading it: “I’m under pressure today, but we’ll figure this out together.”

• Recognize effort publicly (and privately) what you reward, you reinforce.

The Right People, Right Roles, Right Responsibilities

Jim Collins said, “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”
But I’d add a layer: great people in the wrong roles create chaos.

High-performing teams happen when talent, task, and temperament align.

That means:

• The right people — those who share your values and growth mindset.

• In the right roles — aligned with their natural genius and energy.

• With the right responsibilities — clear expectations that match their capacity and skill.

When you misplace one, you compromise all three.

Sometimes leaders keep the wrong person too long hoping things will “work out.”
But one unmotivated, misaligned, or toxic person can drag down a high-performing team faster than any external challenge.

As the saying goes, “One bad apple spoils the bunch.”

I've always said, we have two responsibilities as a leader:

1. Help them get better. Give feedback, training, and support.

2. Help them decide to go away. When someone can’t or won’t change, free them to find a better fit elsewhere.

Avoiding that decision might feel compassionate, but it’s actually cruel to the team, to the individual, and to the mission.

Reflection Questions for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Do I have the right people in the right seats?

2. Where am I tolerating misalignment out of fear, comfort, or loyalty?

3. What conversations have I been avoiding that my team needs me to have?

Action Steps for Growth-Minded Leaders

• Audit your team using the “GWC” method (from Traction): Does each person Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity to do it?

• Schedule one clarity conversation this week to redefine roles or expectations.

• If someone isn’t a fit, act with integrity and speed. Compassion isn’t avoidance.

Vision Creates Buy-In

People don’t give their best to a paycheck; they give it to a purpose.

When people understand the why, they’ll push through any how.

But vision without clarity is just noise.
And vision without a common enemy becomes conflict turned inward.

If you don’t identify the challenge you’re fighting together, your team will eventually make you the enemy.

The best leaders know how to unite people around something bigger than themselves: a cause, a goal, a mission worth striving for.

The Four Certainties of Buy-In

For true buy-in, your team needs certainty in four areas:

1. The Leader: “Do I trust you?”

2. The Vision: “Do I believe in where we’re going?”

3. The Product or Service: “Do I believe in what we’re building?”

4. The Company: “Do I believe in who we are becoming?”

When those four align, belief becomes momentum.

Reflection Questions for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Does my team clearly understand our vision and what success looks like?

2. Have I defined a clear “common enemy:” the challenge, problem, or industry gap we’re fighting to solve?

3. How consistently do I connect daily tasks back to the larger purpose?

Action Steps for Growth-Minded Leaders

• Share your vision in vivid, story-based language. Paint pictures, not bullet points.

• Define your “common enemy.” It could be inefficiency, mediocrity, customer frustration, or industry stagnation.

• Celebrate progress toward the vision not just outcomes, but momentum.

Engagement Drives Energy

Engagement is the emotional connection between people and purpose.
It’s what turns compliance into commitment.

Most leaders think engagement is about motivation; it’s not.
It’s about direction, communication, and meaning.

When people know where they’re going, understand why it matters, and feel connected to the journey, they engage.

The Leadership Communication Loop

Engagement grows through communication that is:

• Clear: Everyone knows what’s expected.

• Consistent: The message doesn’t change week to week.

• Two-Way: Leaders listen as much as they speak.

The Gallup organization found that the #1 reason employees leave isn’t pay. It’s the relationship with their direct leader.

Leaders who ask questions, invite feedback, and connect work to purpose build emotional equity that fuels engagement.

Reflection Questions for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. How often am I communicating the “why” behind the work?

2. Do I know what intrinsically motivates each person on my team?

3. How often do I listen more than I speak?

Action Steps for Growth-Minded Leaders

• Hold monthly one-on-ones focused not on performance metrics, but personal growth.

• Recognize team members for behaviors that align with values.

• Ask this question weekly: “What’s one thing we could do better as a team?” Then act on one suggestion.

Performance and Productivity Require Ownership

High performance isn’t about harder work it’s about deeper ownership.

Ownership is the bridge between engagement and execution.

When people feel trusted, empowered, and accountable, they don’t just complete tasks they take responsibility for results.

The Ownership Triangle

Ownership is built on three pillars:

1. Skill – Do they know how to win?

2. Talent – Are they naturally equipped to excel?

3. Accountability – Do they take personal responsibility for outcomes?

When skill and talent exist without accountability, you get potential without performance.
When accountability exists without skill, you get pressure without progress.
The balance creates sustainable excellence.

Reflection Questions for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Do my people know what “winning” looks like for their role?

2. Am I empowering or enabling? (Empowering gives responsibility; enabling removes it.)

3. What behaviors am I rewarding: effort, excuses, or results?

Action Steps for Growth-Minded Leaders

• Define clear success metrics for every role.

• Encourage autonomy: let people own both problems and solutions.

• Review wins weekly, and link them back to behaviors, not luck.

The Ultimate Leadership Equation

When you put it all together, building high-performing teams follows a simple but demanding equation:

Buy-In → Engagement → Ownership → Performance.

Each layer builds on the one before it.
Miss the first; buy-in and the rest collapse.

Buy-in begins with leadership.
Engagement grows through communication.
Ownership develops through empowerment.
Performance is the natural result.

The Real Ugly Truth

Most leaders try to fix performance problems by tightening control, adding meetings, or changing processes.

But performance is never the first domino. It’s the last.

Fix the leadership, and the team rises.
Ignore the leadership, and the system rots from within.

Everything: every result, every culture, every outcome rises and falls on leadership.

Reflection and Activation for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Where is your team currently on the Buy-In → Engagement → Ownership → Performance chain?

2. What’s one leadership behavior you can shift this week to strengthen that chain?

3. Who on your team most needs clarity, encouragement, or accountability right now?

Action Plan for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Audit Yourself:
   Complete a 360-degree reflection on how your leadership influences team dynamics.

2. Assess Your Team:
   Use DISC or Working Genius profiles to identify gaps in energy and role alignment.

3. Clarify the Vision:
   Re-articulate your “why” in a single sentence that connects every role to purpose.

4. Reinforce the Right Behaviors:
   Publicly recognize alignment and ownership behaviors.

5. Remove Friction:
   Address misalignment quickly/ whether in process, attitude, or personnel.

Leadership isn’t a position you hold. It’s a posture you take.

You can’t demand high performance; you have to develop it.
You can’t manipulate engagement; you have to model it.
And you can’t buy buy-in; you have to build it.

That’s the ugly truth about high-performing teams and the beautiful part about leadership.

Because when you grow as a leader, your people rise with you.

If you’re ready to strengthen your leadership influence and build a team that performs at a higher level, one rooted in clarity, communication, and alignment, we can help.

Through behavioral insights coaching and leadership development, we help growth-minded leaders grow themselves, grow their teams, and grow their businesses.