5 Steps to a high-performing team (without working late)

You don’t need more hours

Heyy team happy Tuesday,

If you’ve been on any of my webinars, you’ll have heard me say…

I want to be a well respected leader, but WITHOUT working long hours or kissing ass

We think we have to sacrifice one for the other, but it’s simply just not the case

So if you want long-term, consistent performance, but without sacrificing energy or wellbeing, then I hope today’s newsletter can work as your blueprint.

These are my biggest learnings around building a team that really does operate like a motivated, high-performing team.

But without working late and being overly stresed.

High performance ≠ overwork

Somewhere along the way, we got ambition tangled up with exhaustion.

In the past, I’ve seen my peers and seniors emailing at 9pm, slack messaging on a Sunday.

We learned to applaud the late nights, the weekend emails, calling them the people who “go above and beyond.”

But the only thing I see is broken systems.

Somewhere along the way, the best leaders stopped choosing between performance and wellbeing, and started designing for both.

So let’s walk through these 5 practical shifts that’ll help you lead smarter, protect your team’s energy, and build a culture where people want to stay.

1. Redefine ‘efficiency’

When a team’s overwhelmed, it’s rarely because the work is hard.
It’s because the work is unclear. Priorities keep shifting. Everything feels urgent.

Take Satya Nadella. When he stepped in as Microsoft CEO, he didn’t focus on performance at first, he focused on clarity.

He removed unnecessary layers of decision-making and helped teams zero in on value over volume.

We need to start protecting energy and pushing back on the pointless tasks.

Here’s how to do that with your team:

🔁 Weekly ritual: Ask yourself, “What are the 1–2 most important things this team should focus on this week?”
Then say it out loud. Repetition = clarity. Clarity = kindness.

🛑 Stop trying to do it all. Start naming what matters most and watch your team breathe a little easier (and perform better).

2. Set boundaries intentionally (Not by burnout)

Telling your team to “switch off” or “take breaks” after they’re exhausted isn’t enough.

Boundaries only work when they’re designed into your culture.

📅 Choose one recurring boundary to embed this month:

• A weekly no-meeting afternoon

• A shared norm: “I don’t expect anyone to be sending emails/messages past 6pm”

• Encouraging holidays to be booked in proactively

👀 Model it yourself. Your actions speak louder than any policy.

Boundaries protect performance. They don't hinder it.

3. Autonomy + Accountability = Trust

Micromanaging suffocates progress. But silence creates chaos.

Great leaders strike a balance. By giving autonomy with accountability.

Try this on your next project:

✅ Define what success looks like, then get out of the way
📅 Set a regular meeting rhythm (don’t do ahoc checkins)

Let people run with their ideas while knowing you’ve got their back.

When your team feels both trusted and supported, performance skyrockets.

4. Tackle the time wasters

If your team is drowning in work, we need to fix the leaky pipes.

What pointless work are we doing.

Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo, was known for her ruthless focus on productive meetings.

She knew that wasted time = wasted energy. And wasted energy leads to burnout.

What you can do this week:

🔍 Ask your team:

• “Which meetings could be shorter, merged, or deleted?”

• “What internal process drives you mad?”

🧹 Then take action on one thing. Immediately.
Don’t wait for a quarterly review to fix what’s draining your team today.

(Death by a thousand meeting invites)

5. Praise results and rest

If you only praise the people who stay late or “go above and beyond,” you’re reinforcing a dangerous message:

Burnout is the price of success.

But what if we celebrated the people who hit the target and protected their energy?

When praising success, don’t just celebrate the outcome.

Helebrate how it was achieved.

Try this:
“Great job launching that campaign and doing it proactively, and without having too may meetings or having people up working late”

I know it sounds simple and obvious, but honestly these words are so rarely spoke out loud or heard by our teams.

If you don’t have time, read this:

Here’s what high-performing and healthy teams have in common:

🧭 Clear priorities
🧱 Built-in boundaries
🧠 Autonomy with structure
✂️ Less waste
🛌 Rest that’s respected

Efficiency and wellbeing aren’t opposites I promise.

Peace,

H

P.S. If this resonated with you, you’re going to love my free 45-minute live training:

Your Leadership Level Up Matrix
Book your slot here.

You’ll learn:

• The bulletproof leadership mindset

• How to prioritise like the top 1%

• Tracking KPIs and getting your team to actually hit them

• How to manage difficult employees, situations and conversations