To grow high-performing teams, organisations need to prioritise relationships, ensure regular debriefs and allow time for recovery, says sports psychologist Dr Pippa Grange.

When sports psychologist, culture coach and author Dr Pippa Grange was recently tasked with helping a tense team navigate a high-stress acquisition discussion, she intervened with a surprising activity.

“I took them trampolining. Everybody said it was ridiculous, but within 10 minutes they were all laughing. It broke the tension and helped them regain perspective,” says Grange, who is a keynote speaker at AHRI’s upcoming National Convention and Exhibition in Melbourne, and is also conducting a masterclass on identifying and leveraging deep wins at work.

“Fun is a form of release. It’s a neurological, chemical and hormonal reset, and an opportunity to rebalance from over-performance and stress.”

Grange has worked as a psychologist with high-level soccer, AFL, rugby league and Olympic teams, with extreme endurance athletes, and with businesses all over the globe. 

One of her career highlights was working with the England soccer team at the 2018 World Cup. 

“They got to the semis after a long period of underperforming and the nation celebrated with them,” says Grange.

No matter her client, she has one core aim: boosting performance while also fostering a healthy, supportive culture.

“HR and sports psychology complement each other. Both are about helping people find their best and perform well. In this way, leaders are like coaches, and vice versa – always seeking the balance between output and wellbeing,” she says.

She believes the key to high-performance cultures is building strong relationships through honest connection, storytelling and genuine feedback, whether on the sports field or in the office. 

“The quality and character of relationships that we have with each other will determine the level of performance that we’re able to output,” says Grange, who, after working in Australia for 20 years and Los Angeles for two, now lives in England’s Peak District.

She was originally attracted to sports psychology because she liked the idea of working with motivated people.

“I thought this would provide opportunities for both one-on-one and systems work. It felt like an opportunity to create real change.”

As she got into the field, she realised that motivated humans are complex. 

“Most of the work I’ve done is about the human being, not their performance. [I’ve helped] people understand who they are, how they operate best, what they want and how they can get there.”

It’s not about her coming in and being a performance “guru”, she adds.

“If you’re not focused on both the person themselves and the system they’re operating in, you won’t find high performance.”

Team bonding for improved performance

On the sports field and in the workplace, performance starts with teamwork, says Grange. But this can’t be imposed from the top; it needs to come from the ground up through mutual understanding and clear communication around goals.

“Start with understanding what actually motivates your teams. It might not be what you think. Motivation builders are communication, purpose and feedback. Discipline builders are clarity, feedback, clear methods and skill building.

“In sport, it’s not all about the end goal, it’s also about what we’re working on this week. And that’s a nice translation into some workplaces too. It’s about a group’s clarity of purpose over a block of time.”

Keeping a team on track requires regular debriefs, she says.

“The ‘hot debrief’ after weekly or daily performance and ‘emotional hangover work’ after big events both speak to strong, cyclical feedback cultures that normalise continuous conversations about performing and succeeding while being human.”

“We used to see resilience in terms of bouncebackability and grit. For me, it’s a lot more to do with adaptability and being allowed to be a whole human.” – Dr Pippa Grange, sports psychologist and author

Busting misconceptions about high-performing teams 

Over her career, Grange has sought to unpack, break down and replace some of the destructive narratives that shape our lives.

Part of that work has manifested in her book Fear Less: How to Win at Life Without Losing Yourself, which is about living with less fear and more freedom.

“Fear is amplified or lessened in cultures and environments as much as in individuals’ minds. There’s a lot you can do in systems and processes, and with symbols, language and power dynamics, to lessen it and build confidence,” she says.

Just as fear can hold us back, so too can a constant pursuit of productivity.

Grange maintains that high-performing teams shouldn’t come at the cost of wellbeing, and having good, caring cultures shouldn’t come at the cost of winning. High-performance and good culture aren’t mutually exclusive. 

“Workplaces are under so much pressure for profit or shareholder values, and this creates a downward flow where people can [feel like] never-ending productivity machines. The level of burnout we’re seeing is not random.”

To rejuvenate their minds and spirits, people need space to both rest and recover, which are two different things, says Grange. 

“Recovery is about finding the space to regenerate our creativity and curiosity, our humour and our energy.

“Creating ‘psychological space’ for people means they don’t have to perform constantly and can regenerate. Compromising on wellbeing is only a short-term gain for a person and an organisation.”

So how can companies help employees find psychological space to recover? It can be as simple as giving permission, setting good boundaries around working hours and allowing the sharing of stories and experiences, she says. 

“When companies start talking about what high-performance looks like, they need to recognise that it’s a triangle of work, rest and recovery. It’s not just a line between work and rest.”

What generates motivation, she says, is people’s ability to be authentic and share their stories with each other.

“Everybody who walks through the door of a workplace is asked to buy into a story, a vision and a purpose. Stories shouldn’t just come from the top, but also from the shop floor and the home offices. They should be an exchange. It’s making everyone feel like they genuinely belong and are part of something.

“You need practices that genuinely build on belonging, not just inclusion.”

Building more resilient teams

While some people may feel that ‘resilience’ has become somewhat of a buzzword that’s tightly linked to output, Grange says its meaning has evolved.

“We used to see resilience in terms of bouncebackability and grit. For me, it’s a lot more to do with adaptability and being allowed to be whole and human while performing, versus living in roles, categories and boxes. It’s about minimising drama [while] being real and honest, allowing emotions to arise, but still processing them.”

How do you help employees and teams foster resilience? 

“It’s principally about quality relationships that provide a social web for all challenges. Cultures that embrace courage, vulnerability, challenge, care and the will to change are resilient,” she says. 

Anticipatory guidance and foresight helps boost resilience, she adds. If something tough has happened, such as a round of redundancies, giving people space to ask questions, air concerns and share perspectives is important. 

“People find it much tougher to maintain resilience when they get ambushed by circumstances, or if they’re kept in the dark. Telling the truth about where things are at and allowing people to participate in being resilient makes a big difference.” 

Culture work is unlike other kind of organisational work, says Grange, and culture leaders often need different timescales, methods and measures to drive real change. 

“Culture, like ethics, should be a verb – a doing word. It’s daily work that lives in interactions and exchanges, as well as in big initiatives,” she says.

“It’s an ongoing effort to create an environment that supports psychological safety, trust and compassion, and it’s also building systems that actually reward and resist what you do and don’t want to see in the culture. Great culture is signified by an organisation that is present, observing, focused and active in considering ‘what ought we to do’ – and then actually doing it.”

A longer version of this article first appeared in the June/July 2024 edition of HRM Magazine.

Dr Pippa Grange will be speaking on  cultivating authenticity and vulnerability in the workplace at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August. Don’t miss the chance to hear from inspiring thought leaders and master practical strategies for now and the future. Secure your spot today.