High-performing teams rarely achieve exceptional results by simply working longer or adding more meetings. They succeed because they are deliberate about how they use time, how they hold one another accountable and how they create the conditions for continuous improvement.
In his book Superteams: The Science and Secrets of High-Performing Teams, psychologist Ron Friedman explores the behaviours that distinguish exceptional teams from average ones. His findings highlight an important lesson for any ambitious business: high growth is not created by constant activity. It comes from focus, trust, experimentation and a shared commitment to better performance.
1. Superteams protect people from burnout
The average working week can disappear surprisingly quickly. Meetings consume hours. Messages demand constant attention. What remains for meaningful, focused work is often squeezed into early mornings, late evenings and weekends.
That approach may deliver results for a short period, but it is not a sustainable growth strategy.
Superteams treat attention as a valuable business resource. Meetings are used when necessary rather than as the default response to every issue. Focus time is deliberately protected, giving people space to think, create and solve important problems without constant interruption.
Some high-performing teams introduce dedicated days for uninterrupted work. Rather than presenting these as simply “meeting-free”, they frame them around the outcome: days designed to get meaningful work done.
For leaders, the principle is simple: minimise distractions and maximise focus. A business coach will often help a leadership team recognise that improving performance is not always about adding more activity. Sometimes the greatest gains come from removing the noise that prevents good people from doing their best work.
2. Superteams challenge the meeting culture
Meetings do not only cost the time spent sitting in them. They can affect productivity before and after they take place.
When people know a meeting is approaching, they can become reluctant to begin demanding work that might be interrupted. Their attention may also drift towards what they need to prepare or say. After the meeting, part of their thinking can remain attached to the previous discussion, reducing focus on the next task.
High-performing teams put clear boundaries around meetings.
One useful rule is: no decision, no meeting. Updates can be shared in writing or by video. Questions may be handled through a quick call or message. Another effective guideline is “no spectators”: when someone has no active role in the discussion, their time may be better spent elsewhere.
Some teams also use 15-minute meetings as the standard, requiring a clear reason to extend them.
These practices are not about making communication difficult. They are about ensuring that collaboration supports progress instead of consuming the time needed to achieve it.
3. Teammates create stronger motivation than managers
The best teams do more than work well together. They raise one another’s standards.
When excellence becomes normal, people are more likely to match the effort and commitment of those around them. According to the research highlighted in Superteams, 94% of people in high-performing teams said their teammates motivated them to do their best work.
Accountability also becomes more powerful. People are often driven not only by what their manager expects, but by a genuine desire not to let their colleagues down.
This creates an important shift. Performance stops being something imposed from above and becomes a shared responsibility.
Strong teams also increase confidence. When people know their colleagues will support them, they are more willing to take on bigger challenges, offer bold ideas and make intelligent decisions involving risk.
For a business pursuing high growth, this matters enormously. Sustainable performance cannot depend on one leader constantly pushing everyone forward. The team itself must become a source of energy, challenge and encouragement.
4. Superteams keep reinventing themselves
High performance is never permanent. What works today may not create tomorrow’s growth.
Exceptional teams understand this, which is why they build improvement into the way they operate.
First, they create a strong feedback culture. Feedback does not only travel from leader to employee. Team members actively seek input from one another, helping learning become continuous rather than occasional.
Second, they experiment more. Research referenced by Friedman suggests that superteams run 50% more experiments than average teams. These might involve testing a new landing page, changing a process or exploring an entirely new product line. The scale varies, but the purpose is consistent: generate learning.
Third, they reward innovation.
A powerful example is 3M’s “Thirty Percent Rule”, which links performance incentives to revenue generated by products launched within the previous four years. The principle prevents teams from relying solely on yesterday’s success and keeps attention firmly on what comes next.
Businesses seeking high growth need the same discipline. Improvement cannot remain an aspiration discussed at strategy meetings. It must become part of everyday behaviour.
5. The best leaders make intelligent failure safe
Experimentation is impossible when people are terrified of making mistakes.
Trying something new involves uncertainty. Some ideas will work and others will not. When every failure is punished, people quickly learn to avoid risk, protect themselves and repeat what has worked before.
Strong leaders create a different environment.
They talk openly about mistakes they have made. They admit when they do not know the answer. They make it clear that learning requires people to move beyond complete certainty.
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman reportedly encouraged a level of failure because he believed avoiding mistakes entirely could be a sign that a team was not moving quickly enough. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings expressed a similar concern when too many projects succeeded, seeing this as a possible indication that insufficient risk was being taken.
The leadership lesson is not to celebrate careless mistakes. It is to distinguish between avoidable failure and intelligent experimentation.
Perfection may feel safe, but it can also become the enemy of progress. High-performing teams create enough trust for people to test, learn, adapt and improve — because that is where the next level of performance often begins.