What Makes a Team Truly Successful at Work?
Team success is more than just hitting targets, it’s about how teams work together to achieve those goals.
A truly successful team not only delivers strong results but does so sustainably, with engaged members and a positive culture.
This blog post explores the key traits that make a team effective, backed by research and real-world examples from modern organisations.
We’ll cover what defines a successful team, the core traits high-performing teams share, insights from studies by Google, Harvard, McKinsey, and Gallup, and how any organisation can build more successful teams.
Contents
What is a Successful Team at Work?
5 Core Traits of Successful Teams at Work
Why These Successful Team Traits Matter at Every Level
How to Build and Improve Team Success
What is a Successful Team at Work?
What do we mean by a successful team in a workplace context?
In simple terms, it’s a team that consistently meets its objectives and works together in a healthy, productive way.
Researchers often define team effectiveness as the collective capacity to sustainably deliver results.
This means the team not only achieves its short-term goals but can maintain performance and adapt over time without burning out or breaking down.
Interestingly, different stakeholders may emphasize different aspects of success.
Google’s Project Aristotle, a major study on team performance, found that executives, team leads, and team members had varying definitions of an “effective team.”
Executives tended to focus on results, team leads emphasised clear vision and goals, and team members highlighted team culture.
In truth, all these elements are important.
A successful team marries strong performance (delivering results, hitting KPIs) with a strong process (good communication, trust, and morale internally).
It’s not just a group of high-performing individuals thrown together, in fact, who is on a team matters less than how the team works together.
At its core, a successful team in the workplace is one that achieves its mission through effective collaboration.
They have clarity in what they’re doing, trust among members, open lines of communication, diverse perspectives, and supportive leadership.
Let’s look at the core traits that high-performing teams consistently exhibit.
5 Core Traits of Successful Teams at Work
Modern research converges on several core traits that make teams successful.
High-performing teams tend to excel in the following 5 areas:
1. Psychological Safety, An Environment of Trust and Openness
The highest-performing teams share one key trait.
Members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable with each other.
Psychological safety means team members know they won’t be punished or ridiculed for admitting mistakes, asking questions, or offering new ideas.
Google’s landmark study, Project Aristotle, revealed that psychological safety was the number one dynamic in effective teams.
When people feel safe, they speak up and share ideas.
This leads to better problem-solving and innovation.
In fact, sales teams at Google with strong psychological safety exceeded their targets by 17%, whereas those with low psychological safety fell short of their targets by up to 19%.
2. Clear Roles, Goals, and Dependability
Successful teams have a crystal-clear understanding of who is doing what and why.
In Google’s research, “structure and clarity” was a vital component of team effectiveness.
This means each person knows their role, the team’s objectives, and the plan to reach them.
Ambiguity is minimised.
High-performing teams set clear goals (often using tools like OKRs – Objectives and Key Results) and establish accountability for delivering on them.
Everyone reliably completes their tasks.
Research shows that clarity in decision-making roles also boosts innovation.
Teams that excel at defining who decides what were 2.8 times more innovative than those with muddled decision processes.
3. Effective Communication
Open, frequent, and honest communication is the lifeblood of a great team.
Miscommunication or lack of collaboration is one of the top reasons teams fail.
According to Pumble, 86% of employees and executives cited poor communication as a leading cause of workplace failures.
On the flip side, teams that communicate well can boost productivity by as much as 25%.
High-performing teams establish clear channels for information sharing (whether through regular meetings, chat tools, or project platforms) and practice active listening.
They also give constructive feedback and discuss problems openly.
McKinsey’s research on team effectiveness found that teams scoring above average on communication (and trust) were far more likely to be efficient and deliver strong results.
In short, communication builds connection.
When team members feel “in the loop” and heard, they stay aligned and engaged, driving better outcomes.
If your workplace want help improving communication among teams, check out our “Art of Workplace Communication” workshop delivered both online and in person.
4. Diversity and Inclusion of Perspectives
The best teams leverage a diversity of skills, backgrounds, and viewpoints.
Diverse teams simply make better decisions because they can consider problems from multiple angles.
Studies have shown that teams with cognitive diversity (different ways of thinking or perspectives) solve complex problems faster than more homogeneous teams.
Diversity also fuels innovation.
For example, studies have found that companies with highly diverse management teams earned 38% more revenue from innovative products and services compared to those with less diverse teams.
Importantly, diversity only yields benefits in an environment of inclusion.
Team members must feel valued and safe to voice their diverse ideas.
Inclusive teams avoid groupthink and encourage healthy debate.
A Gallup analysis noted that increasing the representation of women on sales teams improved performance when those teams also had an inclusive culture of trust and respect.
5. Strong Leadership and Supportive Management
Leadership can make or break a team.
Great teams typically have leaders who set a clear vision, inspire and empower members, and cultivate the positive traits mentioned above.
Research by Gallup finds that 70% of the variance in a team’s engagement is determined solely by the manager.
In other words, good managers who communicate well, coach rather than micromanage, and build trust can dramatically increase a team’s success.
Leaders set the tone, and a manager who demonstrates transparency and empathy will encourage team members to do the same.
Trust is a huge part of this: McKinsey found teams with high trust in leadership were 3.3 times more efficient and 5.1 times more likely to achieve their goals compared to low-trust teams.
A strong leader provides guidance and support, but also steps back enough to let team members shine.
They foster an environment where it’s okay to fail and learn (creating psychological safety) and ensure everyone understands the mission (providing clarity).
If you’d like help creating strong and supportive leaders, check out our leadership workshops.
Why These Successful Team Traits Matter at Every Level
It’s worth noting that these success factors apply to all levels of teams, from executive boards to entry-level project teams.
In fact, many high-level leadership teams have learned that how they work together is crucial for company strategy.
For example, studies of senior executive teams show that those with more diverse viewpoints and open, trusting dialogue solve problems faster and drive more innovation.
Top management teams benefit from psychological safety just as much as frontline teams.
A CEO and their executives need to feel safe to debate ideas or challenge each other’s assumptions without reprisal, or else the company could fall prey to groupthink.
Even at Google, when researchers asked different groups what makes an effective team, executives said “results” while team members said “culture”.
Highlighting that executives may focus on what is achieved, but they increasingly recognise that how it’s achieved (team dynamics) is equally important.
Forward-thinking companies encourage their leadership teams to model these traits.
For instance, at a North American insurance company, the top executive team improved its decision-making clarity by explicitly defining each person’s role in important decisions (who decides, who advises, who executes).
This prevented confusion and ensured the right people were involved, exemplifying clear roles at the executive level.
Modern organisations in tech, finance, marketing, and beyond are actively applying these principles.
Microsoft is one notable example, under CEO Satya Nadella’s leadership, the company underwent a cultural transformation emphasising empathy, collaboration, and learning.
Nadella’s empathetic leadership helped break down silos and promote cross-functional teamwork, a stark change from the previously competitive, insular culture.
This cultural shift at the executive level filtered down through the organisation, contributing to Microsoft’s revitalisation and innovation output.
Google itself implemented insights from Project Aristotle by training managers to foster psychological safety on their teams and using tools like OKRs to ensure clarity of goals.
Other companies, like those in Silicon Valley, are famous for embracing “radical candor” (as seen at Netflix) or two-pizza team rules (Amazon’s practice of keeping teams small for agility), all of which tie back to communication, trust, and clear structure.
The key point is that team success factors are largely universal.
Whether it’s an executive board reviewing a five-year strategy or a small marketing team launching a campaign, psychological safety, clarity, communication, diversity, and good leadership are the ingredients for success.
High-performing executive teams set the example by embodying these traits, and effective office teams mirror the same qualities in their day-to-day work.
How to Build and Improve Team Success
Knowing what makes a team successful is only half the battle, the other half is intentionally cultivating those traits in your own organisation.
Here are some research-backed recommendations for leaders and organisations to build better teams:
1. Foster Psychological Safety
Encourage an atmosphere of trust where team members can speak up.
Leaders can set the tone by showing vulnerability, admitting their own mistakes or uncertainties, and inviting others to contribute.
As Harvard’s Amy Edmondson suggests, frame work as a learning opportunity (not just an execution task) and ask lots of questions.
For example, managers might say, “I may miss something, I need your input,” signalling that honest dialogue is welcome.
Also, respond constructively when someone shares bad news or a wild idea.
Over time, these behaviours build a safe zone for the team to innovate and tackle problems together.
To educate team members on this, check out our “Embracing Empathy” workshop delivered both online or in person.
2. Establish Clear Roles and Goals
Take the time to define team roles, responsibilities, and objectives in writing.
Every project should have a clear owner, and every team member should know “who’s doing what” and what the desired outcome looks like.
Utilising goal-setting frameworks can align individual and team goals and make progress measurable.
For decision-making, consider tools like a RACI matrix or Google’s DARE approach (Deciders, Advisers, Recommenders, Executors) to clarify who has input versus who makes final calls.
This level of clarity prevents overlaps and gaps in work, ensuring the team runs smoothly.
Regularly revisit goals in team meetings to check understanding and adjust as needed.
3. Improve Team Communication
Invest in both the tools and the habits that facilitate open communication.
On the tool side, this could mean adopting collaboration platforms (Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc.) so that information flows freely and transparently.
On the habits side, establish routines like brief daily check-ins or weekly team huddles to share updates and address roadblocks.
Make sure to encourage two-way feedback: managers should give constructive feedback and also solicit feedback from the team on what could be improved.
Creating a norm of continuous feedback helps catch issues early and reinforces that everyone’s voice matters.
Remember, effective communication has a direct payoff.
Studies show well-connected teams can be significantly more productive (up to 25% more) than less communicative ones.
It’s worth the effort to get communication right.
4. Embrace Diversity and Inclusion
Be proactive in composing teams with diverse members.
Create diversity across gender, ethnicity, age, background, and thought.
However, don’t stop at hiring for diversity, put equal effort into building an inclusive culture.
Educate team leaders on unconscious bias and inclusive leadership practices.
In team settings, ensure meetings are structured so that all voices can be heard (e.g., rotate who leads discussions or have a “round robin” segment for idea-sharing).
Encourage healthy debate and respectfully challenge ideas.
This helps avoid groupthink and leverages the full range of perspectives.
Also, celebrate the different strengths each member brings.
Inclusive teams unlock the power of diversity: when people feel included, they are more engaged and willing to contribute unique ideas, driving better team performance and innovation.
A great way to bring teams together is with a “Harnessing Gratitude” workshop, which is a fantastic way to embrace and respect each other.
5. Develop Strong, Trust-Building Leaders
Organisations should train and support their managers in the skills that matter for team success.
This includes communication skills, coaching, emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution.
Great managers learn to personalise their approach to each team member.
As Gallup notes, there’s no one-size-fits-all for management, but the impact of a good manager is huge on engagement.
Encourage managers to set clear expectations, provide recognition for good work, and have regular one-on-one check-ins with their people.
Leaders can also build trust by doing small things consistently, like following through on promises, treating everyone fairly, and advocating for their team’s needs.
If a team lacks trust in its leader, performance will suffer.
Conversely, a manager who empowers the team and has their back will see members go the extra mile.
Consider mentorship programs or leadership coaching to continuously improve management quality.
Ultimately, when you make your managers and team leads successful, they in turn make their teams successful.
Check out our blog on “What Actually Makes a Good Team Leader?”
Building a successful team is not an overnight task.
It’s an ongoing effort that blends strategy and culture.
The research and examples discussed here show that teams excel when they have psychological safety, clear structure, open communication, diverse composition (with inclusion), and effective leadership.
At Loving Life, we help teams come together to improve how they work together and how they improve their performance.
Whether it’s through our leadership or wellbeing workshops, we work with companies that truly care about supporting their people and creating successful teams at work.
Author
Tyler Lowe
