The new bottom line: Cultivating relationships for high-performance
The current business landscape is increasingly volatile and unpredictable. To stay ahead of the competition, more emphasis needs to be placed on creating and, importantly, maintaining high-performance environments, argues Geoff Clarke, chief operating officer of Mediabrands.
The current business landscape is increasingly volatile and unpredictable. Leaders, now more than ever, need to be agile, adaptable, and able to pivot in response to an ever-growing list of challenges. To stay ahead of the competition, more emphasis needs to be placed on creating and, importantly, maintaining high-performance environments.
High-performance environment benefits are numerous – elevated employee engagement, innovative output, a culture of continuous improvement, selfless pursuit of success and an environment that celebrates individuality while nurturing the collective equally.
Phil Jackson, who is arguably regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time, head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998, leading them to six NBA championships, said: “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” 
This quote highlights perfectly the interconnectedness and interdependence within a high-performance environment. It emphasises that individual excellence is crucial, but it’s the collective effort and synergy that truly drives success. While that quote provides a clear indication of both the individual and the collective responsibility, it leads us to four very important questions: What does high-performance leadership look like? How are high-performance teams created? How do they behave? And importantly, how are they maintained?
No excuses: leaders own their results
“It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises-but only performance is reality.” – Harold Geneen: 1910 – 1997
Leaders use their words to create and prosecute a vision, explanations are provided as to why a business or team needs to change direction, making promises to provide comfort and certainty. However, high-performance leaders understand their own individual performance every day is what they will be judged on, knowing they need to front up, lean in and deliver excellence in everything they do without fail. This is in itself a significant responsibility, something that should not be taken lightly, if done correctly, exhausting, but always rewarding.
The book Extreme Ownership, written by two ex-Navy Seals, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, discusses the importance of leaders taking full responsibility for their team’s success and, importantly, failures. Through a series of battlefield examples, they emphasise there is no room for any member of the team, leader included, not to take full responsibility for their actions.
While they faced life and death scenarios, the same principle should apply in business – to create and maintain a high-performance culture the same level of individual accountability must be put in place. This means leaders owning their own behaviour, knowing when to lean in to create positive change or stepping away to allow those around them to create their own success.
Additionally, as a high-performance leader, knowing the height of the bar is decided by the entire team, that discipline is not seen as a handcuff, but instead, a strong operating principle that must be universally maintained by everyone, in doing so will lead to greater creativity, and lastly, you must have a win at all cost mentality that is balanced with a selfless pursuit of success for those around you.
Selfless leaders: building teams, not thrones
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu – Born 604 BC, Henan China
Lao Tzu can be forgiven for his overt use of a singular pronoun; he was, after all, born in 604 BC. However, his quote is very insightful as strong leadership is often misdefined as having to stand out in front, saying ‘look at me, follow me’.
This persona is brought to life in movies and quite possibly in the early stages of our career as we try to get our leader’s attention, as promotions are often awarded based on skill proficiency rather than EQ qualities, such as self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and strong social skills.
It is those people who realise it is not about saying ‘look at me’, but rather ‘look at my team’, who go on to be high-performance leaders.
Selfless leadership is defined by the principle of standing behind those who you wish to lead first, helping them to be better in what they do, and placing their goals and aspirations ahead of yours. This again is easier said than done, but if implemented as a leader, you will have a group of highly committed high-performance team members standing behind you.
The power of connection: Building high-performance teams
There is considerable evidence in management and organisational behaviour studies that show a direct link between strong social connections within teams can lead to high performance.
Google’s Project Aristotle
Google conducted a study called Project Aristotle to determine the key factors that make teams successful. The research found that psychological safety where team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable was the most important factor. Social connections and strong interpersonal relationships foster a sense of safety, leading to higher performance.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Outlines how trust, which is a foundation of social connection, is crucial for high performance. Teams that build strong interpersonal relationships are better at managing conflict, committing to decisions, and holding each other accountable.
Social Capital: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Discusses how social capital (the networks and relationships within a group) influences various outcomes, including organisational performance. Strong social ties can enhance collaboration and resource sharing, leading to better performance.
To highlight this point further, ‘Any Given Team’ by Ray McLean shines a light on how, as business leaders, we often focus too heavily on strategies, operating structures and systems, and the ever-green issue of resources and not enough time cultivating a healthy and diverse social connection with our fellow team members.
Ultimately, if we spend the majority of our time on the functional aspects of business and team management, and only a fraction of our time cultivating a strong and healthy social connection, to become a high-performance business whose performance is sustained over the long term, you need to reverse that focus.
A real-life high-performance team
“Every team has a collective heart which is based on love. Put simply, love means you can count on me.” – Bob Ladouceur – Spartan (De La Salle) coach 
For 12 years and 151 games, the De La Salle High School in California did not lose a game of football. To this day, it remains the longest winning streak in US sports history. What’s more remarkable, like businesses, they experienced churn each and every year as boys graduated. Bob Ladouceur (the coach) would need to rebuild his strategy, interview and assess new players and re-construct the team structure, but he spent more time nurturing the culture of the team.
Being a Spartan, a paper written by Bob Ladouceur, calls out several lessons learnt over the 12 years they were undefeated. The over-arching lesson is about commitment – he writes our tradition begins with a commitment. There is a qualitative value we place on that word – commitment. If I had to choose just one lesson a student would learn from participating, it would be learning how to make a commitment.
If they say yes to participating, then they must understand that (having said yes) to entering into a relationship with me and everyone involved with the program.
How often in business do we make a deep heart felt commitment to each other, standing face to face saying I will deliver this today to ensure you are more successful today than you were yesterday. The answer: not nearly enough, but to a high-performance leader and their team, they make this commitment to each other every day.
So, what are some clear takeaways when examining high-performance?
Extreme ownership
As a leader, if you wish your team to deliver excellence, you must be accountable for your own performance. This means taking full responsibility, even those things out of your control.
Selfless leadership
As a leader, you must come to work each day in the pursuit of success for others, finding ways to help those around you to be more successful than they were yesterday.
High performance
Teams with strong social bonds, strong relationships and common personality and behavioural traits will always succeed more than others who do not.
In conclusion, the business landscape demands agility and adaptability, and high-performance environments are the key to thriving in this volatile climate. While strategies, resources, and structures are important, the true power lies in fostering a culture of connection, trust, and shared purpose.
To achieve this, leaders must embrace extreme ownership, taking full responsibility for their actions and the success (or failure) of their team.
This requires a selfless approach, prioritising the growth and aspirations of team members over personal ambition. The evidence is clear: strong social connections are the bedrock of high performance.
Google’s Project Aristotle and the Five Dysfunctions of a Team both highlight the importance of psychological safety and trust in fostering innovation and collaboration.
The De La Salle High School football team, with its 151-game winning streak, exemplifies the power of commitment and shared purpose. Their success wasn’t built on individual talent alone but on a deep-rooted culture of support and mutual dedication.
Ultimately, building a high-performance environment is about shifting the focus from functional aspects of business to cultivating genuine human connections. By prioritising relationships, fostering trust, and embracing a selfless pursuit of collective success, leaders can create a dynamic and enduring force in the ever-changing business world.
Geoff Clarke is the chief operating officer of Mediabrands.
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