Creating Better Team Habits (ATD Talent Development Leader Podcast)

And how belonging & well-being help drive team performance

Editor’s Note: We goofed. We originally published this post with the podcast template, which sends it to our PF podcast feed. That’s not what we intended.

So we’ve republished this with the correct link to ATD’s Talent Development Leader podcast. Same content, just in a different format.

We’d appreciate, though, if you’d visit ATD/TDL and check out some of the other great content on their podcast feed.

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Teams serve as the cornerstone of any successful organization. Yet all too often, the relational and emotional aspects of teamwork end up sidelined in favor of performance metrics alone, which ironically doesn’t always improve team performance.

Recently, I was invited to share insights on this on the ATD Talent Development Leader podcast where I discussed the team habits approach to the nexus of performance and belonging.

This was a conversation about what really matters to and on a team: why trust, belonging, and well-being aren’t just nice-to-haves but are the essentials we need to be productive and impactful.

If you’re looking to build a culture grounded in trust and purpose, I hope you’ll find this episode helpful. Let’s continue the ongoing work of reinstating the human side of teamwork at the center of team performance.

Topics We Explored

• Why work is fundamentally about relationships, not just outputs

• The evidence for high-performing teams being characterized by strong interpersonal bonds

• How belonging and trust are essential for maintaining healthy team relationships and driving performance

• Ways emotional and social components can be integrated into team decision-making, rather than just rational/strategic factors

• Why large-scale change initiatives often fail due to top-down approaches that lack buy-in — and democratic, bottom-up change is more effective

• How building an environment of trust and articulating a clear vision are critical leadership responsibilities

• The reasons many individual contributors end up feeling disempowered and disconnected from improving team dynamics

• Practical strategies for enhancing specific team habits that can lead to significant performance improvements

Episode Timestamps

[00:00] Introduction to the ATD podcast.

[01:24] Exploring the fundamental importance of relationships, not just outputs, in high-performing teams. Belonging and trust as essential glue for healthy team dynamics and performance.

[06:02] Why there’s a need to integrate emotional and social components, not just rational/strategic factors, into team decision-making. Avoiding the mistake of trying to extract these more human elements.

[10:07] We discuss the high failure rates of top-down, under-resourced change initiatives, and I explain why a democratic, bottom-up change management that addresses team pain points and creates a sense of urgency works better.

[16:43] Employee disengagement is a major challenge, which can best be addressed by making work more personal, relational, and empowering team members to improve their own circumstances.

[19:32] Overview of the 8 key team habits (belonging, decision-making, goal-setting, planning, communication, collaboration, meetings, core habits) as a scorecard for high-performance teams.

[28:13] Specific examples of enhancing team habits around meetings, such as reducing unnecessary updates and clarifying commitments for information-sharing.

[34:54] Recognition that many individual contributors feel disempowered and disconnected from improving team dynamics.

[35:47] Insights from Rutger Bregman's Humankind debunking myths about human nature, and how it relates to the need to emphasize relational elements in team habits.

[41:44] Upcoming project focused on the importance of trust and vision in leadership, as key questions teams are always asking.