Building High-Performing Teams. Lessons from... Golf?

Who would have thought that a sport as individual as golf could teach us powerful lessons about building high-performing teams?

Every 2 years, the governing bodies of golf in the US and Europe assemble a team to compete against one another in the Ryder Cup - a series of 28 team and individual matches over the course of 3 days.

Earlier this month, European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald led his team to a victory that demonstrated the power of assembling a group of individuals who are truly greater than the sum of their parts.

Europe had every reason to doubt its chances heading into this competition.

By every measure, they were the less-skilled team. Their players hailed from 9 different countries and were not as familiar with one another. Oh, and they were up against a US powerhouse that just 24 months earlier had set a record for the most lopsided win in Ryder Cup history.

We will never know exactly what was going on in the American team room when they found themselves down 6.5 to 1.5 a mere eight hours into the competition, or when Europe sealed the win 48 hours later, but I would bet that outright shock was among the predominant emotions.

This victory, however, was no accident.

This was the result of an intentional and masterful effort by Luke Donald to assemble a team based on more than just skill.

What can we learn from this?

Here are 3 key aspects of Europe’s team-building strategies that anyone can use - whether you’re leading an entire organization as your full-time job, a small squad as a side-hustle, or anything in between.

1. Go beyond objectives, KPIs, and annual reviews - tie it all back to a purpose

What are we doing here? No really - what are we actually doing? Is this just about hitting your quarterly objectives, or is there a greater purpose that your team is serving?

High-performing groups are oriented around a shared passion for a common purpose.

More than money, status, or achievements - what humans truly crave are moments of connection.

Identifying, articulating, and pursuing a common purpose together gives your team an opportunity to tap into this instinct and serve something greater than themselves.

For example, “Launching our personal finance software in-quarter to accelerate revenues” is a fine enough goal to strive for, but “Providing youth with access to tools that will give them the confidence to manage their finances in troubling times” is a purpose that can really get a teammate jumping out of bed in the morning.

And the teams that can marry a shared purpose with a shared love for the pursuit, as opposed to just the result, are the ones that consistently operate in a flow state and truly stand out among the rest.

Europe’s purpose can be represented in a single quote by Northern Irish team member Rory McIlroy (spoiler: it has nothing to do with hitting golf balls really well or celebrating the glory that comes with winning):

“The legends of the Ryder Cup that have come before us... We’re caretakers of this European jersey right now, and we're hopefully going to pass it on in the future in a better spot than where we found it.”

Their shared purpose wasn’t born out of thin air. In the weeks and months ahead of the competition, Luke Donald spent days with his team showing them inspirational videos and highlights of their childhood European Ryder Cup heroes from the 80s and 90s.

What better way to unite a group of individuals from 9 countries under a common flag?

For your consideration:

What is your team’s purpose?

If you’re having trouble thinking of or articulating it, a helpful trick is to put yourself in the shoes of the human beings that your work is ultimately impacting (hopefully for the better!). What impact is your work having on them?

2. Create a culture that puts team above individual

At first glance, this seems straightforward enough on the surface.

But before you skim past this one.

How team-oriented is your culture?

What about your incentive process?

What opportunities are there to further build a team-above-self environment?

A group of individuals may share a common purpose and goals, but the high-performance potential of the group can often be limited by the reward structure around them.

If team members are incentivized to compete against one another, vie for credit, and be recognized as the one that “saved the day”, the connective tissue across the team can quickly break down.

And this is often a key factor that separates truly high-performing teams from the pack - there is a certain freedom and flow that ensues when a team’s culture, including incentives and evaluations, are genuinely team-first.

I am sure every player on that European team wanted to play in every single session, and I’m sure none of those individuals wanted to be the one to lose a match for their team.

Imagine the glory that would follow a player for the rest of their careers if they were the hero for Europe.

Here’s a challenge:

Try to find a single quote from the European Ryder Cup team that indicates that any of them were concerned about their individual records during the tournament, or about playing in all 5 sessions.

To this day, I cannot find a shred of evidence that supports this.

What I have found, however, is a quote from top player Jon Rahm about the DNA of the European team culture that sends chills down my spine every time I read it:

“It’s the ability to walk through those gates and those doors and forget about who you are outside of this week. What you have done or what you may do afterward, really truly doesn’t matter.”

Can you imagine if your leadership led with THAT on your next project kickoff call?

Juxtapose this against the reports coming out of the US camp of players that were concerned with not being paid for playing in the Ryder Cup, and you can begin to imagine just how large the culture gap was between these two teams.

For your consideration:

Take a look at the elements that make up your team culture. On a scale of 1 (individualistic) to 10 (team-first), where does your culture sit?

Where would you like it to be?

What is one thing in your control that you could do to move in that direction?

3. Establish clear roles and then (do your best to) let go

It’s easy to fall into the trap of conflating “role” and “seniority.” While seniority might very well factor in, relying solely on just this element to determine roles on a team can leave a lot of high-performance potential on the table.

The funny thing about defining roles is that to a leader or an organization, it can feel a bit like filling out a seating chart. What we don’t always recognize is how role definitions impact each human being on the team.

Roles not defined enough? Cue scope overlap and team members unintentionally stepping on each other’s toes. This heightens stress because team members are constantly unsure of where exactly their role begins and ends.

Roles too stringent? This can hamper growth and innovation on the team, especially if team members feel discouraged from leaning into other functions. A mid-level manager needs to feel trusted to step up in a leader role if the situation calls for it.

Surely this one can’t apply to golf, right? Aren’t they all just supposed to do their best to hit the ball well and score? Sure, but this goes way deeper.

Luke Donald built his team with clear roles in mind.

Mentors who had withstood the pressure of previous Ryder Cups were tasked with guiding first-timers who had never before experienced the moment. Streaky, risk-loving golfers who could come up clutch in big moments were paired with more conservative, steady players who were able to maintain their composure no matter how big the moment got. And my favourite one - a Norwegian phenom in his mid-twenties was paired with an up-and-coming 18-year old Swede to form a duo that exemplified Scandinavian pride and performed as well as any pair that weekend.

It’s intentional.

Every. Single. Part.

Building a team isn’t about just filling out a roster.

It’s about taking the time as a leader to deeply understand the human beings on your team - what are their strengths, what do they respond to, what do they care about, and what role can they play to serve your team’s purpose.

The most important, and sometimes trickiest part? Letting go.

Once the roles are defined, trust your people and empower them to fulfill their role. There’s a reason you decided to trust them to play that part.

Letting go can be hard for many leaders, but over-managing is rarely a catalyst for high-performing teams. Trust the process, and know that the best teams are able to continuously innovate and revise roles.

For your consideration:

On a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high), how clear, intentional, and purposeful are the roles on your team?

How would your team members answer that question?

What would need to be true for that score to increase?

What does this mean for us?

Somewhere in the world, as you read this, there is a captain, 5 assistants, and 12 European golfers who are likely still thinking back to the journey they embarked on together this October, and ahead to their next opportunity to walk through those gates together again in 2025.

As someone with a pure love for coaching, high-performance, and golf, this month’s display at the Ryder Cup resonated deeply with me.

Luke Donald’s ability to establish a powerful shared purpose, build a genuinely team-first culture, and set intentional roles for each team member played an incredible part in his team’s ability to achieve their ultimate goal.

And if it wasn’t yet abundantly clear, you don’t need to be the leader of a continent’s golf program to implement these tools to build a truly high-performing team. Each of us is capable of making incremental changes in how we shape and lead our teams.

We owe it to the people we lead.

Tarik Ali is a certified performance coach and a Senior Manager in Accenture’s Innovation practice. He is also a certified Golf Coach for The First Tee Canada - an organization run by Golf Canada that introduces the game and its inherent values to the next generation of youth.?