753: The Key Norm of a High Performing Team, with Vanessa Druskat
Coaching for Leaders
Dave Stachowiak
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vanessa Druskat is an associate professor at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire. She advises leaders and teams at over a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies and wrote the best-selling Harvard Business Review article (with S. Wolff) on emotionally intelligent teams that has been chosen many times for inclusion in HBR’s most valued articles. She is the author of The Emotionally Intelligent Team: Building Collaborative Groups that Outperform the Rest (Amazon, Bookshop)*.
It’s easy to assume that a good start for a great team is getting the smartest people together. That does help, but it’s not the critical factor in whether a team performs. In this conversation, Vanessa and I discuss why the word belonging makes such a difference.
Key Points
Raw talent of the individual and their own interpersonal skills don’t predict team performance.
Belonging is critical for team performance. Leaders often miss this because they already feel like they belong.
Team members understanding each other is the first and most critical norm.
Beginning meetings with check-ins or gallery walks helps people understand each other, even if it’s not discussed extensively.
Inviting people to bring everyday objects to illustrate a more complex point helps make understanding accessible.
The leader sets the tone, but it’s the interaction between team members that makes the difference.
Resources Mentioned
The Emotionally Intelligent Team: Building Collaborative Groups that Outperform the Rest (Amazon, Bookshop)* by Vanessa Druskat
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
How to Engage Remote Teams, with Tsedal Neeley (episode 537)
Team Collaboration Supports Growth Mindset, with Mary Murphy (episode 695)
How to Help People Connect at Work, with Wes Adams (episode 735)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's easy to assume that a good start for a great team is getting the smartest people together. |
| 0:06.1 | That does help, but it's not the critical factor on whether a team performs. |
| 0:11.7 | In this episode, why the word belonging makes such a difference. |
| 0:17.1 | This is Coaching for Leaders, Episode 753. |
| 0:21.6 | Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential. |
| 0:30.0 | Greetings to you from Orange County, California. This is Coaching for Leaders, and I'm your host, Dave Stahofiak. |
| 0:37.9 | Leaders aren't born. |
| 0:39.4 | They're made. |
| 0:40.4 | And this weekly show helps you discover leadership wisdom through insightful conversations. |
| 0:46.0 | One of the most critical important competencies that leaders need to lead into is the ability to lead a team effectively. We all know the importance of team |
| 0:57.5 | relationships, teamwork inside of our organizations. And yet it is one of the areas of leadership |
| 1:03.9 | that I think constantly challenges all of us. I know it constantly challenges me. Today, I'm so glad |
| 1:10.3 | to be able to look at an aspect of teams and emotional intelligence |
| 1:14.9 | in a way that we don't often think about emotional intelligence and how we can do better |
| 1:18.9 | at leading the teams that do so much in our organizations and industries. |
| 1:23.9 | I'm so pleased to welcome Vanessa Druscat to the show. |
| 1:26.9 | She's an associate professor |
| 1:28.1 | at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire. |
| 1:33.2 | She advises leaders in teams at over a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies |
| 1:38.9 | and wrote the best-selling Harvard Business Review article with S. Wolf on emotionally |
| 1:43.4 | intelligent teams that has been |
| 1:44.8 | chosen many times for inclusion in HBR's most valued articles. She is the author of the emotionally |
... |
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