{"id":32864,"date":"2025-12-22T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=32864"},"modified":"2025-12-17T17:43:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T17:43:42","slug":"people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018People Often Mistake \u201cGood\u201d for \u201cHigh Performing\u201d\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 22 Dec 2025 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

\u2018People Often Mistake \u201cGood\u201d for \u201cHigh Performing\u201d\u2019<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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John Bull of Management Futures says it as he sees it, but stresses that all teams can improve their teamwork.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

\n

By John Portch<\/h6>\n
John Bull began the final Leaders Virtual Roundtable of 2025 with a provocation.<\/h6>\n

\u201cOne of the things I see, certainly in the corporate world, is that people mistake \u2018good\u2019 for high performing,\u201d said the Head of High Performance at Management Futures. \u201cIn my experience, genuine high-performing teamwork is much rarer than people would admit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what it feels like when a team is dysfunctional and something\u2019s not working, but when a team is harmonious and there are fairly good relationships, people mistake that for being a high-performing team.\u201d<\/p>\n

He presented this distinction between dysfunction and high performing as different ends of a continuum:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to get to the right-hand side of this continuum, high-performing teamwork requires people to lean into behaviours that don\u2019t come naturally,\u201d added Bull.<\/p>\n

He then explained that there is also a risk in over-collaborating. \u201cThis is about quality not quantity. Our efforts to get more out of teamwork can sometimes slow down performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is also a distinction between working within a \u2018stable team\u2019 (e.g. a department within a high performance team) and teamwork across boundaries, between people who rarely work together or don\u2019t see themselves as one team (e.g. business and performance functions).<\/p>\n

The aviation industry, Bull said, excels at cross-boundary teamwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about when you have a critical incident while flying, you\u2019ve often got people in the crew who don\u2019t know each other. The crew must collaborate with air traffic control on the ground, and they won\u2019t know them,\u201d he continued. He explained that the industry has long valued listening and speaking up.<\/p>\n

It has also placed an emphasis on \u2018diamond thinking\u2019, which looks like this:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIn aviation, when you have to solve an issue, as a rule of thumb, you should spend 50 percent of the time opening the diamond up,\u201d he said. \u201cYou get a lot of input but you\u2019re then clear on who\u2019s going to make the final call. Some of us in the coaching space struggle with the balance between democracy and a leader making a decision. Diamond thinking allows for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bull then led the table into a discussion on his four building blocks of team performance:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He explained each in turn and their different elements.<\/p>\n

1. Unifying focus<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have clarity you can\u2019t create any of the other conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Goals that energise:<\/strong> \u201cYou can have clarity but if people don\u2019t care about that clarity, it has no purpose.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Strategy: <\/strong>\u201cHow good are we at saying no to stuff and letting go of the nice-to-haves in order to keep focused on the things that are going to make a bigger difference?\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Energy: <\/strong>\u201cYour unifying focus is working when you have team meetings and there\u2019s a buzz in the room and palpable engagement, energy and a collective desire to do something.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    2. Quality of interaction<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u201cTrust enables us to lean into more uncomfortable conversations and have the real performance conversations in a way that doesn\u2019t put those relationships at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Belonging:<\/strong> \u201cThe extent to which people feel valued has a huge impact on how much of their talent they bring.\u201d<\/li>\n
    • High trust:<\/strong> \u201cTrust enables us to lean into more uncomfortable conversations and have the real performance conversations in a way that doesn\u2019t put relationships at risk.\u201d<\/li>\n
    • Open dialogue:<\/strong> \u201cA key thing that gets in the way of open, candid dialogue is defensiveness.\u201d<\/li>\n
    • Good use of time:<\/strong> \u201cWhen we get together, are we focusing on the right things and do we use time well? Do we have really good open discussions and close those discussions down with clarity around what we\u2019re going to do?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      3. Quality of action<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \u201cHigh-performing teamwork emerges when people go for the gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Disagree and commit:<\/strong> \u201cThis is the notion that once you\u2019ve had an open discussion and everyone\u2019s aired their view, you have a cultural principle that once we make a decision, everyone commits 100 percent to that decision.\u201d<\/li>\n
      • Empowered to act:<\/strong> \u201cOne of the symptoms of over-collaboration is where people start to think they can\u2019t do anything without checking with colleagues.\u201d<\/li>\n
      • Coordinated action:<\/strong> \u201cSometimes we see our focus for building high-performing teamwork within really formal structures, but when you get it really working that happens organically.\u201d<\/li>\n
      • Honest reviews:<\/strong> \u201cThese have two purposes. One is about accountability for action, but the even greater purpose is about driving learning. What\u2019s our cadence and speed of learning from action?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        4. Shared responsibility<\/strong><\/p>\n

        \u201cIt\u2019s getting people to recognise that when the team\u2019s not performing they should feel empowered to step in and say something about it and not just rely on the team leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

          \n
        • Clearly defined behaviours:<\/strong> \u201cPut energy into defining the norms of behaviour we want to build the culture around. The fewer, the better.\u201d<\/li>\n
        • Collective ownership:<\/strong> \u201cWhen really good teams have a meeting and the session\u2019s been going on too long or there\u2019s a lack of clarity, that can be called out by anyone in the team.\u201d<\/li>\n
        • Peer feedback:<\/strong> \u201cUnequal contribution is an issue\u2026 invite feedback.\u201d<\/li>\n
        • \u2018We over I\u2019:<\/strong> \u201cTo what extent is the collective purpose of the team operating in people\u2019s minds as opposed to their own function or own needs?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          As a follow on, Bull highlights six human factors that can serve to inhibit team performance:<\/strong><\/p>\n

          <\/p>\n

          Again, he shared his thoughts on each:<\/p>\n

          Unequal contribution: <\/strong>\u201cWe know from research that if you have a group or a team of eight people 70 percent of the contribution will come from two or three\u2026 Status and personality has more of an impact on who speaks than who knows stuff, and that should scare you as a team leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

          Groupthink: <\/strong>\u201cIt\u2019s a hardwired principle of how our brains work that we will conform to the thinking of the group if we don\u2019t have a strong view\u2026 One of the best ways to combat groupthink is to get people to think individually before a group discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

          Low psychological safety: <\/strong>\u201cProbably the biggest thing that kills team performance is a lack of psychological safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

          Fixed position: <\/strong>\u201cOne of the things that hurts psychological safety the most is defensiveness, where people are in a fixed position. The way you deal with the fixed position that I\u2019ve seen work best is to deal with it one-to-one.\u201d<\/p>\n

          Tribal or siloed behaviour: <\/strong>\u201cWe\u2019re wired as humans to be tribal and there are two types of tribal behaviour. One is where you are deliberately trying to beat the other. What is much more common is you\u2019re not competing but you just don\u2019t think about the other \u2018tribe\u2019 as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

          Poor use of time: <\/strong>\u201cHumans tend to be pretty bad at how we use time together in groups. A quick win is to get the team thinking about when we had our best team meeting, what was it about that, what\u2019s getting in the way of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

          Bull then returned to the themes of psychological safety and fixed positions when sharing and describing the three types of \u201cthinking environments\u201d in groups and teams as revealed by Management Futures\u2019 research:<\/strong><\/p>\n

          <\/p>\n

          \u201cThe bottom two points are ineffective,\u201d said Bull. \u201cThe definition of open dialogue is where people are saying what they think, but as soon as they\u2019ve put their view out they\u2019re inviting disagreement. It\u2019s not about trying to win the argument, it\u2019s about trying to get to a collective insight of what we know as a group. It\u2019s very different to trying to influence colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

          With time running out, Bull shared a final slide highlighting four key skills to encourage collaboration, with a series of questions for members to ponder:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

          \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":32865,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[2],"pathway":[295],"topic":[309,298,296,299],"sport":[],"class_list":["post-32864","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premium","pathway-leadership-development","topic-collaboration","topic-communication","topic-culture","topic-team-building"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018People Often Mistake \u201cGood\u201d for \u201cHigh Performing\u201d\u2019 - Performance Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018People Often Mistake \u201cGood\u201d for \u201cHigh Performing\u201d\u2019 - Performance Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Performance Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2251918283-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018People Often Mistake \u201cGood\u201d for \u201cHigh Performing\u201d\u2019 - Performance Institute\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2251918283-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-22T08:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/people-often-mistake-good-for-high-performing\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2251918283-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2251918283-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"TOLUCA, MEXICO - DECEMBER 14: General view inside the stadium prior to the Torneo Apertura 2025 Liga MX final second leg match between Toluca and Tigres UANL at Nemesio Diez Stadium on December 14, 2025 in Toluca, Mexico. 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