The 11 Traits Of Ultra High Performing Teams

Here's the understatement of the year: Sometimes our groups are a lot less healthy than they appear to be on the outside.

This summer, we've been talking about unhealthy police departments. Last year we were talking about unhealthy HR departments (or really, the powerful men they protected). Tomorrow we'll be talking about some other type of group that's been festering with problems for too long.

For those of us who are fortunate enough to run things ourselves in some sphere or another, continually assessing how healthy—or unhealthy—our teams are before things come to a head is essential. I'd dare say it's one of the responsibilities of the kinds of leaders we need in our future.

One of the reasons it's hard to spot institutional problems is the signs of a less-healthy group are actually things that are missing. Things like a lack of trust in each other's intentions, a lack of healthy conflict, a lack of psychological safety, and a lack of disparate thinking—when these lurk behind a PR-friendly façade, it's like a person who seems put together but whose organs are about to fail.

Over the past several years, as I've studied the hidden behaviors of teams that break down versus teams that make breakthroughs together, I've often come back to this analogy. It's not a perfect one, of course, but I am convinced that just as we've learned an enormous amount about the underlying things that can make a person secretly unhealthy—or spectacularly resilient—we have a very clear picture of which underlying traits and behaviors do the same for a team, a company, or a government agency.

So how functional (or not) is your team? I recently broke down six of the most popular teamwork frameworks used in management into six charts and summarized the 11 traits that they indicate make for the most ultra-functional teams. Based on those, I then made a team health assessment based on them, so that you can gauge for yourself. See the six frameworks and the resulting teamwork traits below:

Framework 1: The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team

Created and popularized by Patrick Lencioni.

Framework 2: Dream Teams

Based on Dream Teams: Working Together Without Falling Apart.

Framework 3: Teamwork at the Top

Created and popularized by McKinsey.

Framework 4: Scrum

The popular lean collaboration framework.

Framework 5: The Art of Teams

Created and popularized by Microsoft Teams.

Framework 6: Team of Teams

Based on the book Team of Teams.

What do all these management frameworks tell us about what makes the difference between a Dysfunctional, Functional, and Super-Functional team?

Taken together, the above frameworks give us an excellent picture of what makes the difference between dysfunctional and super-functional) teams. Here are the elements broken down:

Dysfunctional teams:

1. Lack Trust
2. Lack Alignment

Functional teams have:

1. Trust
2. Alignment
3. Healthy Boundaries
4. Social Awareness
5. Empathy
6. Information Transparency

Super-functional teams have:

1. All of the Functional team attributes, plus
2. Purpose
3. Psychological Safety
4. Diversity of Thought
5. Productive Conflict
6. Intellectual Humility

So how well is your team doing on these key attributes?

Based on the above frameworks, I put together this Team Health & Potential Assessment to help you diagnose those less visible things that may be holding your own teams back.

Perhaps now, during this period of upheaval, is the perfect time to make some changes—to not just get healthier, but build the metaphorical musculature that can help you get through the current social, economic, and health crises—and whatever challenges come after.