Beyond Talent & Trust
The Overlooked Drivers of High-Performance Teams
Ask any leadership book or team-building expert how to build a high-performing team, and you’ll get a familiar list
- Clear goals
- The right mix of skills
- Open communication
- Strong leadership
- Psychological safety
- Continuous development
It’s a solid formula — but also a bit incomplete. Because if we look closely at the daily realities of how teams function, there’s a layer of invisible friction that rarely gets discussed in these models — and yet has a profound impact on performance.
Let’s explore what some of those hidden performance drivers might be.
Mental, Physical & Financial Wellbeing
Wellbeing often gets framed as a “perk” or a “retention tool,” but the science tells a different story: it’s directly linked to team output, creativity, and resilience.
Here’s what the research shows:
- Mental health: Depression and anxiety lead to a significant drop in productivity. According to the World Health Organisation, investing in mental health yields a 4x return in productivity gains.
- Financial stress: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates that it costs businesses 12.5 lost productivity days per employee per year. PwC found that 57% of employees say money worries distract them at work.
- Physical health: Harvard Business Review reports that wellness programs can reduce absenteeism by 25% and improve performance.
These aren’t secondary issues — they’re foundational. You can have the smartest, most skilled team in the world, but if they’re mentally fatigued, financially distracted, or constantly unwell, they won’t consistently perform at their best.
Operational Clarity and Cognitive Load
Another often-ignored performance killer? Context switching and manual admin overhead. Research from McKinsey & Company shows that high-performing teams thrive on clarity, autonomy, and frictionless systems. When people spend their day bouncing between tools, searching for policies, or re-entering data, it doesn’t just waste time — it reduces cognitive capacity for meaningful work. This kind of invisible drag doesn’t show up on the balance sheet, but it accumulates — especially in small and growing teams.
Psychological Safety Is More Than Just “Being Nice”
Google’s Project Aristotle famously found that psychological safety was the single most important factor in high-performing teams. But what’s often missed is that psychological safety isn’t just about open dialogue or trust — it also includes how supported and empowered people feel in their environment.
This includes:
- Having clear, accessible policies and processes
- Transparent, consistent HR practices
- Autonomy in managing their own work experience
- Feeling confident that systems are fair and transparent
- Being able to manage basic work needs without stress or confusion
The Hidden Cost of Emotional Labour
In teams without formal HR or culture roles, the responsibility for team wellbeing often falls informally on a few individuals — usually women and underrepresented employees. This includes checking in on others, welcoming new hires, managing tensions, and holding the team emotionally together. It’s critical work, but it’s rarely recognised, compensated, or supported. Over time, this invisible labour can lead to burnout and disengagement — quietly undermining team performance while going unnoticed.
Rethinking the High-Performance Formula
If we want to build teams that truly thrive, maybe the model needs to look more like this:
- Smart hiring
- Clear goals
- Strong leadership
- Culture of trust
- Continuous development
- Operational clarity
- Systemic support for wellbeing
- Reduced admin friction
- Attention to invisible labour
Because performance isn’t just about how hard or smart people work — it’s also about how well the system around them supports, protects, and enables that work.
Final Thought
High performance is often treated as a leadership challenge. But sometimes, it’s a design challenge. Design a system that reduces friction, respects people’s energy, and supports their whole selves — and performance will follow. If you’re seeing this in your own team, or trying to reimagine how your organisation defines performance, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Let’s widen the conversation.
