Creating High-Performance Teams: A Case Study on Conflict Management in Fast-Growth Companies
In a fast-growing company, achieving success isn’t just about finding the best talent; it’s about creating cohesive, collaborative teams. Conflict management is often a significant challenge, especially among high-performing individuals who may not always gel as a team. In this third and final session of our livestream series, executive coaches Yewande Faloyin and Janine Esbrand share a case study on building synergy among fast-growth teams, offering valuable insights into creating a high-performance culture.
Meet the Experts
Yewande Faloyin
Yewande Faloyin is a business adviser, McKinsey alum, and Certified Executive Leadership Coach. As Founder and CEO of OTITO, she focuses on helping business leaders align their energy and their people for measurable business impact. My experience includes leadership roles at McKinsey and Morgan Stanley, where I led high-performing teams and provided strategic guidance to C-suite clients.
Janine Esbrand
Janine Esbrand is a certified executive coach, TEDx speaker, and former corporate lawyer. As the founder of Career Change Makers, she helps individuals and companies make impactful career changes that drive business success. Before launching my company, she worked in corporate law for national firms and served as in-house counsel at international companies and start-ups. Yewande and I collaborate to support fast-growing companies in their leadership and people development strategies.
Case Study: Managing Conflict in High-Performing Teams
We discuss a case study focused on conflict management within a fast-growth company. We’ll call them “TechInnovate.” After a few years of organic growth, TechInnovate’s team grew to include top talent with strong technical skills, each excelling individually. However, as the company prepared to launch a new product, tensions surfaced between two critical subteams with complementary skills but contrasting ways of working.
This division escalated into a team-wide conflict affecting the product’s timeline and innovation potential. The CEO reached out to us to help resolve these conflicts, improve collaboration, and bring the teams together as a cohesive unit. Here’s how we addressed these challenges. You can watch the livestream here.
Our Framework: 4 Focus Areas for Business Growth
Every business has four main focus areas:
- People
- Execution (Ops)
- Strategy
- Cash
For TechInnovate, we centred on People, Execution, and Strategy to build a unified, high-performing team. Our primary focus areas were Talent Development, Teamwork & Communication, and High-Performance Culture.
Key Initiatives for TechInnovate
1. Talent Development: Focusing on Strengths to Build Synergy
To foster unity, we started by recognising and celebrating each individual’s strengths. We introduced a Strengths Exercise that allowed team members to identify their top strengths and acknowledge the strengths they saw in each other. This exercise was transformative—it shifted the energy from conflict to collaboration by reinforcing each person’s value within the team.
Feedback from this initial exercise was overwhelmingly positive, with team members surprised at the respect and admiration others held for their skills. By focusing on strengths first, we established a foundation of respect and collaboration, essential for resolving conflicts.
2. Teamwork & Communication: Enhancing Awareness with DISC Assessment
Next, we conducted a DISC assessment, a tool that highlights personality and communication styles, which allowed team members to gain insight into each other’s communication preferences. A team debrief session helped reveal the sources of past conflicts and provided practical guidance on how to communicate more effectively.
With increased self-awareness and team awareness, individuals could make adjustments in their interactions, leading to improved communication and team cohesion. Each team member set personal goals to improve their communication style, fostering a more collaborative environment.
3. High-Performance Culture: Establishing Unified Goals and Expectations
For TechInnovate, high performance required clarity in roles and expectations. We worked with the team to define what high performance looked like within their unique context and established a shared understanding of the behaviours and attitudes necessary for success in a hybrid work environment.
We used the analogy of a Formula 1 pit stop—where everyone knows their role and contributes to the mission with precision—to illustrate the importance of coordinated teamwork. Additionally, we ran a Lego challenge in mixed teams, encouraging collaboration with colleagues outside their usual circles. This activity helped cultivate camaraderie and a sense of unity across both teams.
Bringing It All Together
For any business, taking a step back to assess areas of conflict and establishing practices that support unity can lead to a smoother operation and a healthier culture. If you recognise similar challenges within your team, we encourage you to evaluate the areas that could most benefit from attention. Reach out to us if you’d like support in identifying the most impactful areas for your company’s growth.
What’s Next?
It’s been a fantastic experience sharing strategies to help companies prioritise people and leadership development. Connect with us on LinkedIn for more live sessions with actionable insights for fast-growth companies.