Creating High-Trust, High-Performance Teams: Insights from Research and Practice

What makes a team truly effective? For decades, leaders have sought the formula for high performance, investing in training, tools, and structures designed to maximize productivity. However, extensive research on team dynamics has revealed that the secret to high-performing teams isn’t just talent, technology, or even leadership charisma. Instead, it’s the balance between psychological safety and high-performance standards that creates an environment where individuals and teams thrive.

The Two Pillars of Effective Teams

The findings align closely with the extensive research of Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, who has studied team dynamics for over two decades. Her work underscores that teams must operate on two separate but equally critical dimensions: psychological safety and performance standards.

Psychological Safety: The Foundation of Trust

Psychological safety refers to an environment where team members feel safe to express ideas, take risks, and make mistakes without fear of ridicule or retribution. In her book The Fearless Organization, Edmondson defines psychological safety as “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”

Research confirms that teams with high psychological safety are more innovative, engaged, and resilient. These teams have open discussions, admit mistakes, and collaborate more effectively because they aren’t afraid of being penalized for speaking up. Psychological safety fosters trust, a critical component for problem-solving and continuous learning.

Example: A technology company working on an innovative product faced an unexpected failure during testing. In a high-psychological-safety environment, engineers openly discussed what went wrong, leading to rapid improvements and a successful product launch. In contrast, a fear-based culture would have led to blame, cover-ups, and a stalled project.

Performance Standards: The Engine of Excellence

While psychological safety creates trust, high-performance standards ensure results. Teams that lack accountability may feel comfortable, but they risk slipping into complacency. High expectations drive excellence, and leaders must set clear goals, provide constructive feedback, and encourage a culture of continuous improvement.

Studies have shown that high-performing teams have clearly defined goals, roles, and accountability structures. When team members understand what is expected and believe in the value of their work, they are more motivated and committed to success.

Example: A sales team with clear quarterly targets and a culture of continuous improvement consistently outperforms its competitors. When a team member struggles to meet goals, a high-performance culture provides coaching and feedback rather than punitive measures, allowing for both growth and accountability.

Leading with Empathy: The Key to Sustaining High-Trust, High-Performance Teams

While balancing psychological safety and performance standards is critical, leading with empathy is the glue that holds these elements together. Empathy enables leaders to understand team members’ perspectives, foster deeper connections, and create an inclusive culture where individuals feel valued and motivated.

Empathetic leadership does not mean lowering standards or avoiding difficult conversations. Instead, it means delivering feedback with understanding, recognizing personal challenges, and supporting growth while maintaining accountability.

Example: A project manager noticed a high-performing team member struggling with personal challenges that were affecting their work. Instead of reprimanding them, the manager initiated a private conversation, offering support while reinforcing expectations. This approach not only helped the employee regain focus but also strengthened trust within the team.

Empathy also plays a crucial role in conflict resolution. When disagreements arise, an empathetic leader listens actively, acknowledges concerns, and facilitates open discussions to find constructive solutions.

Example: In a product development team, two engineers had conflicting ideas about the best approach. The team leader encouraged both to voice their perspectives, validated their concerns, and guided them toward a collaborative compromise. As a result, the final solution incorporated the best aspects of both ideas, leading to a successful product launch.

The Danger of Prioritizing One Without the Other

A crucial insight from research is that psychological safety and performance standards must coexist, and empathy is essential in maintaining this balance. Favoring one while neglecting the other leads to suboptimal outcomes:

• High Psychological Safety, Low Performance Standards: Teams may feel comfortable, but without accountability, productivity and innovation suffer. Work can become directionless, and mediocrity can set in.
• High Performance Standards, Low Psychological Safety: This creates a fear-based culture where employees avoid risks, withhold ideas, and focus on self-preservation rather than innovation. Mistakes are hidden rather than learned from, and team members may experience burnout.
• High Psychological Safety, High Performance Standards, and Empathy: This is the ideal balance—where teams feel safe to experiment and challenge ideas while striving for excellence. Empathetic leadership ensures that accountability is framed as support rather than punishment, leading to engaged, high-performing teams.

Example: A global retail company implemented a feedback-rich culture where employees were encouraged to challenge ideas while being held to high performance expectations. Empathetic leadership ensured that employees felt heard and valued, resulting in improved innovation, retention, and customer satisfaction.

How to Build High-Trust, High-Performance Teams

Leaders must deliberately cultivate an environment where both dimensions thrive. Here’s how:

1. Encourage Open Dialogue: Create an environment where team members feel safe to voice concerns, share ideas, and admit mistakes. Model vulnerability by acknowledging your own missteps and learning moments.
2. Set Clear Expectations: Define success metrics, individual roles, and team objectives. Transparency in expectations reduces ambiguity and ensures alignment.
3. Foster a Growth Mindset: Emphasize learning and improvement over perfection. When mistakes happen, focus on lessons learned rather than assigning blame.
4. Hold People Accountable with Empathy: Performance feedback should be direct but constructive. Challenge team members to grow while demonstrating support.
5. Celebrate Wins and Learn from Failures: Recognize achievements and reinforce positive behaviors. At the same time, encourage discussions around failures as opportunities for learning rather than personal setbacks.
6. Lead with Empathy: Demonstrate care and understanding while maintaining accountability. Acknowledge individual struggles, support professional growth, and foster inclusivity.

Final Thoughts

The best teams don’t just perform well—they create environments where individuals feel safe, valued, and motivated to achieve excellence. The balance between psychological safety, high-performance standards, and leading with empathy isn’t an either-or choice; it’s a dynamic interplay that leaders must consciously nurture.

Organizations that embrace these principles will foster innovation, engagement, and sustainable success. As extensive research shows, teams that trust deeply, strive relentlessly, and are led with empathy are the ones that truly excel.

References:

1. Edmondson, A. (2019). The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Wiley.
2. Duhigg, C. (2016). What Makes Teams Work? The New York Times.
3. Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383.