The Secret to Building an Elite Team

Every business wants an elite team. But Pete Wilkinson, strategy execution consultant and speaker, knows that wanting one and actually building one are often two very different realities.

“It’s like saying ‘I’d love to compete in the Olympics,’” he says. “The reality is, you’ve got to be prepared to dedicate every hour of your life to it for about 15 years. It’s the same principle for building elite teams. You’ve got the be prepared to put the work in.”

Pete has spent his career helping ambitious scale-ups transform how they execute strategy, working with businesses ranging from 30-person startups to global enterprises. And he’s seen first-hand why so many leadership teams struggle to move from good to great. They want the high performance, the competitive edge, and the culture of excellence, but they still need to make the polar decision to commit to the work it takes to get there.

We caught up with Pete ahead of his Vistage masterclass on 25th March on building, leading, and developing elite teams to find out what leaders get wrong and what they need to do differently. Sign up for the session here.

The four power habits that matter

What actually separates elite teams from simply good ones? It all comes down to consistency.  “The big thing is that you’re consistent,” Pete says. “I always talk about four power habits that the very best people display: focus, personal organisation, being proactive and self-discipline.”

But beyond individual habits, elite teams have cracked something fundamental: they’ve found a simple way to set and cascade goals, and they’ve created alignment across the entire organisation. “The teams that we would class as elite have found a way to deliver the basics really well. People know exactly what they should be doing and how it’s impacting the business,” Pete explains.

They also develop a certain mindset that Pete calls “the pursuit of excellence.” 

“They’re not just saying, ‘We’re good, and we’re staying here.’ They’ve got that mindset of, ‘We want to be better tomorrow than we are today.’ When that mindset cascades from the leadership team to the management team to the frontline, that’s when real differentiation happens.

Building, leading, and developing: The three pillars

Once you’ve made the commitment, Pete breaks the journey to building an elite team into three key stages. First comes building. “This first step is about establishing your starting point,” Pete explains. “Do you have the right people already? Do you need to bring some new people in? Do they need training?”

Next comes leading. Elite teams don’t wing it. They have systems and processes that ensure consistency, even when motivation dips. “What are the basics in sales? In marketing, operations, HR, or finance? Are you making sure they’re being done day in and day out, whether you want to or not?”

Lastly, ongoing development.  “The third thing is cultivating that ‘pursuit-of-excellence’ mindset. It’s people wanting to be better on Wednesday than they were on Tuesday,” Pete explains. “A lot of that is about building a culture where everyone’s open to having those challenging conversations about how they can improve.”

How to keep teams motivated for the long haul

Building an elite team is a big commitment not to be taken lightly. How do you keep yourself and your teams motivated for the long haul? Pete’s answer is simple but powerful: Focus on celebrating the gap between where you are now and where you were before, rather than scrutinising the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.

“It’s that switch from saying, ‘We’re doing two million, but we want to do 10 million,’ to instead saying, ‘We’re doing two million now, but when we started a year ago, we were doing 100 grand. Look how far we’ve come,’” he explains.

Celebrating progress, not just potential, is what keeps teams energised for the long haul.  Pete also emphasises the power of recognition. “If you want to motivate someone, catch them doing something well and tell them about it straight away. A genuine thank you always works well. It also doesn’t hurt to know your team’s favourite snacks,” he laughs. 

The secret to building an elite team

Wanting an elite team isn’t enough. You have to decide to build one. And then you have to do the work.

“It’s going to be bloody hard,” Pete concludes. “But the performance and outcome that an elite team can deliver is staggering. And if you connect to the outcome rather than the act of building a team, that’ll keep you going.”

Coming up on the 25th March, Pete’s masterclass will walk attendees through a framework for building, leading, and developing elite teams.

Pete Wilkinson Vistage Climb Webinar: Sign up for his session here.

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