May 30th 2025 Newsletter

Welcome back to my newsletter.

This time, I’m talking about high-performing teams.

📉 The reality of team performance

Research from The Centre for Creative Leadership found that only 17% of senior leadership teams are highly effective across alignment, collaboration, and clarity.

And McKinsey reports that nearly two-thirds of executives believed their own leadership team isn’t functioning optimally, primarily due to unclear roles, poor collaboration, and misalignment.

We often assume that when you gather brilliant individuals, a brilliant team will naturally emerge. But individual excellence doesn’t guarantee collective performance.

👥 And it’s not just senior teams

According to Team Coaching International, only 21% of all teams are high performing.

So why do most teams struggle?

• Low psychological safety: Team members hesitate to speak up, challenge each other, or admit uncertainty, reducing creativity and trust.

• Unclear goals and decision-making processes: Without shared goals or clarity on how decisions are made, teams struggle to execute.

• Avoidance of conflict and circular debates: Hard conversations are dodged, issues fester, and alignment becomes performative.

• Siloed thinking: Leaders focus on representing their function, not contributing to the organisation’s broader success.

• Lack of shared team identity and purpose: Without a clear reason for existing as a team (beyond individual roles), teams drift and underperform.

The cost? Slow decisions. Simmering tension. A strategy that gets diluted or stuck in delivery.

💬 What coaching makes possible

Team coaching treats the team as a living system. A coach observes patterns, names dynamics, and helps the team build real-time awareness and capability.

The goal isn’t to make the team comfortable — it’s to make them conscious.

Coaching supports teams to:

✔ Work through tension instead of avoiding it

✔ Align around shared goals, not just functional priorities

✔ Develop a team identity that goes beyond “turning up and delivering”

🛠️ Something to try:At your next team reflection, ask“What habits are we reinforcing, intentionally or not, in the way we work together?”

Every team, whether in the engine room or the boardroom, is reinforcing something. The question is: is it what you want to be known for?

📣 Want to explore this for your team?If this resonates, I provide experienced team coaching to help unlock performance and potential, whether you’re a senior leadership team or operational delivery team.

🗓️ Curious to hear more? Book some time with me, or check out my latest blog post where I delve into it more deeply.

Shifts in team dynamics don’t generally happen by accident, they happen by design.

Until next time, stay courageous and brilliant.

Warmly,

Vicky Pike

Founder, Ideara