We’ve worked with and assessed executive and operational teams around the world for more than 15 years now. Across industries, cultures and leadership teams.

Recently, we paused to look back at the data.

More than 400 team assessments involving over 3,300 leaders from mining, financial services, retail, logistics, technology, education, manufacturing, energy, public sector organisations, family businesses and large corporates.

And one question:

Understanding that difference really matters to us.

It’s why we’ve dedicated ourselves to understanding what governs team performance – and to building practical tools and experiences that help teams move from simply functioning to genuinely thriving.

The findings were fascinating.

First, most teams are not broken.

In fact, many teams are reasonably aligned. They are filled with smart, capable people who care about the business. They work hard. Most are good at commitment and execution. They know what needs to get done.

But that’s not what holds them back.

One of the clearest recurring patterns across the assessments was this:

• Teams often struggled with peer accountability.

More specifically, with addressing one another directly and courageously when behaviour was getting in the way of performance.

Again and again, across industries and seniority levels, one behaviour consistently appeared among the weakest scoring areas:

• “Team members point out one another’s behaviours that hold the team back.”

That was the pattern.

But, behavioural courage.

It’s here where performance quietly stalls.

A related pattern emerged repeatedly … the teams that appeared most cohesive and high-performing were also the team’s most willing to engage in healthy debate* and challenge one another directly.

*We call these P.U.D.L’s: Passionate Unfiltered Debates combined with Listening.

The difference between an average team and a truly cohesive one is not whether people are nice to one another. It’s whether they’re willing to talk about the things that really matter.

The best teams:

But they do this with respect and humanity.

This is the defining characteristic of an exceptional team.

There is an obvious tension here.

How can you show care yet also be rigorous around performance and delivery?

Yet it’s in mastering this tension that team excellence is established. It’s also what creates the conditions for people to grow and mature.

The two need each other.

Teams that learn to harness this tension are truly rare. Yet when you have worked in one, the experience stays with you forever.

We made another interesting discovery. Many teams improve alignment far faster than they improve accountability.

Alignment is the hardware of team performance:

Most teams can improve this relatively quickly.

Accountability is the software … and it brings us back to the tension.

It reveals itself when commitments slip, standards drop, or behaviour starts hurting the team. Accountability is about how people respond in those moments.

Whether they speak up. Whether they challenge directly. Whether they hold one another to the standards the team agreed to. And how they go about doing this.

That’s where the behavioural courage is required.

That’s the real breakthrough work.

• The courage to challenge one another with honesty and respect.
• The discipline to hold high standards.
• And the willingness to have the P.U.D.L’s that matter.

That’s what unlocks a team’s true potential.

It’s also what transforms the people within it too.

Have you ever worked in a team that harnessed this tension – or failed to do so?
I’d love to know.