How to Manage High-Performing Teams Without Causing Employee Burnout
Today, we reach the final destination in our “The I in Team” journey together. Over the past several weeks, we have explored how you, as an individual, can make any team stronger and more successful. We have learned about the Forming Stage where teams come together with excitement, the Storming Stage where conflicts emerge and get resolved, and the Norming Stage where teams find their harmony and rhythm.
Now we arrive at the ultimate goal that every team hopes to achieve: the Performing Stage. This is where all the hard work, patience, and learning from the previous stages comes together to create something truly magnificent.
Think of it like watching a group of musicians who have practiced together for months finally performing a beautiful symphony in perfect harmony. Or imagine a sports team that has trained so well together that they seem to read each other’s minds and play as one unified force. This is what the Performing Stage looks like – teams operating at their highest potential.
Definition
The Performing Stage represents the pinnacle of team development. The team is now highly functional, self-directed, and completely focused on achieving its goals with excellence. It is like watching a master chef’s kitchen during the dinner rush – everyone knows exactly what to do, when to do it, and how their work fits perfectly with everyone else’s efforts.
In performing teams, roles become fluid rather than rigid. People step in to help wherever needed without being asked. Communication flows seamlessly, almost like team members can read each other’s thoughts. Most importantly, members genuinely support each other to deliver exceptional results that often exceed what anyone thought was possible.
Opportunities at This Stage: When teams reach the performing level, incredible things become possible. The team becomes remarkably productive and efficient, often exceeding expectations because they have created a high-performance culture where excellence is the natural standard, not the exception.
The high levels of trust and collaboration create an environment where creativity can truly flourish. Team members feel safe to share bold ideas, take calculated risks, and innovate together because they know their teammates will support them. It is like having a playground for the mind where the best ideas can come to life.
Potential Challenges: However, even performing teams face unique challenges that can threaten their success. The fear of losing their high level of performance can make the team become overly protective and resistant to any changes, including new members joining. They worry that adding someone new might disrupt the delicate balance they have worked so hard to achieve.
If a valued team member unexpectedly leaves, performing teams may actually regress to an earlier developmental stage and find it surprisingly difficult to return to their previous high-performing level. It is like losing a key musician from an orchestra, suddenly the harmony is disrupted and it takes time to rebuild the magic.
Personal Story
When we won our very first retainership contract at 3G Action, I was absolutely thrilled. This was a major milestone for our company, and I knew we needed to deliver exceptional results to build our reputation and secure future opportunities.
I carefully assembled a project team, selecting people with the right skills and attitudes for success. I invested significant time and energy training each team member, helping them understand not just their individual roles but how they fit into our larger mission. I focused on building trust, establishing clear communication channels, and creating systems that would help us work together effectively.
To my delight and amazement, this team transitioned through the forming, storming, and norming stages remarkably quickly. Within just a few months, we had become a truly high-performing team. We were delivering outstanding results for our client, working together seamlessly, and genuinely enjoying the process. It felt like we had discovered a secret formula for success.
As word of our excellent work spread, we began winning other client projects. This was wonderful news for our growing business, but it created a challenge I had not anticipated. Because I knew this particular team was so capable and reliable, I kept pulling resources from them to help with the new projects we were winning.
There was one project manager on the team who was particularly skilled, creative, and dependable. She seemed to handle everything with grace and competence, so I found myself assigning more and more tasks to her. When urgent deadlines appeared, I turned to her. When complex problems needed solving, I asked her to take the lead. When clients had special requests, she was my go-to person.
At first, she handled the increasing workload beautifully. She was proud of being trusted with important responsibilities, and I was grateful to have someone so capable on the team. But I failed to notice the warning signs that were building beneath the surface.
One day, everything came to a sudden halt. She came to my office looking exhausted and overwhelmed, and told me she was burnt out and needed to take time off immediately. She had been pushing herself beyond her limits for months, and her body and mind had finally said “enough.”
She took two weeks off to recover, but those two weeks felt like an eternity for our team and our clients. Suddenly, I realized how dangerously dependent we had become on one person’s exceptional performance. Projects stalled, clients grew concerned, and I found myself scrambling to understand all the different tasks and systems she had been managing single-handedly.
During those difficult weeks, I had to retrace my steps and make some hard but necessary changes. I spent considerable time training other team members to handle responsibilities that had been concentrated in one person’s hands. I built new systems and documentation to make it easier for multiple people to do the work that she had been carrying alone. Most importantly, I established better boundaries and workload distribution to prevent this situation from happening again.
When she returned from her break, I made sure to have honest conversations about sustainable workload and career development. We worked together to spread her knowledge and expertise across the team, and I committed to being more mindful about not overburdening our highest performers.
The lesson I learned from this painful experience was profound, I must resist the temptation to keep assigning more and more work to high-performing teams or team members, no matter how capable and willing they seem. While people often say “the reward for good work is more work,” I learned that I need to ensure that “more work” does not eventually lead to “no work” because of burnout and exhaustion.
High-performing teams and individuals are precious resources that need to be protected and sustained, not exploited until they break.
Why This Matters for Your Teams
Understanding the Performing Stage helps you recognize when teams have reached their highest potential and need different types of support and protection. Instead of just celebrating their success and loading them with more responsibilities, you can help ensure their excellence is sustainable and their well-being is protected.
You can be the voice that advocates for reasonable workloads, proper resource allocation, and systems that prevent over-dependence on star performers. You can also help performing teams remain open to growth and new members rather than becoming isolated in their success.
Action Point
- Take a moment to think about your current work and personal life. Is there a team or team member that you might be “overusing” because they are so reliable and effective? Look for ways to share their knowledge and capabilities with others, and spread the workload more evenly.
Share This Learning
If this exploration of team development has been valuable to you, please consider forwarding this newsletter to someone who might benefit from understanding how teams really function and grow.
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Thank you for completing this incredible journey through “The I in Team” series with me.
Remember that the “I” in team is not about being selfish, it is about how your thoughtful contributions can lift up everyone around you and help create the kind of teams where people thrive and achieve extraordinary things together.
Tom
