Why Team Development Outperforms Individual Growth

For decades, leadership development has focused almost exclusively on individuals: the rising star, the top performer, the high-potential future leader. But what if the real key to sustained performance and engagement doesn’t lie in bettering the individual alone, but in transforming the team?

That’s the premise of our latest conversation on The 90th Percentile podcast. I sat down with Paul Leboffe, a seasoned business advisor, team development consultant, and expert Facilitator of Zenger Folkman’s Extraordinary Leader^TMdevelopment experience. With more than 25 years of experience guiding both individuals and organizations through meaningful transformation, Paul brings a uniquely practical, evidence-based lens to leadership and team effectiveness.

The Power of the Team Unit

“Why do we even work in teams?” Paul asked during our conversation. “Because collectively, we are smarter than any one of us alone.”

And yet, most development initiatives still operate at the individual level. Leaders go to workshops, return energized, and then are pulled right back into the gravitational pull of an unchanged team dynamic. According to Paul, this evaporation of learning is all too common when development is siloed.

In contrast, team-level development creates shared language, shared commitments, and—most importantly—a support system that reinforces new behaviors. When an entire team grows together, the impact is deeper and more sustainable.

What Happens When Teams Aren’t Developed

Ignoring team dynamics has a cost. Paul describes a pattern he often sees: individual leaders managing isolated silos. Without attention to how the team functions as a unit, collaboration weakens, trust erodes, and execution suffers.

Even well-intentioned teams can struggle. One of the biggest surprises teams encounter during the Extraordinary Team^TM workshop is how they score on trust and respect.

“People assume they’re trustworthy,” Paul explains. “But their intent doesn’t always match their impact. In cultures where being ‘nice’ is prioritized over being direct, overloaded team members may drop the ball, unknowingly undermining trust.”

The Modern Team is Complex

Today’s teams are more diverse, dispersed, digital, and dynamic than ever before. That’s a strength—but it also makes building trust and clarity harder. Remote work, time-shifted communication, and cultural differences can all increase misunderstandings.

As Paul points out, “diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones, but it takes longer for them to gel. Add digital communication tools with negative bias—like email—and you have a complex environment where things can easily break down.”

Evidence-Based Benchmarking Works

One thing that helps? Benchmarking. Zenger Folkman’s Extraordinary Team assessment doesn’t just offer vague feedback. It measures a team across 15 dimensions and compares results against a global database of top-performing teams.

“Smart people want evidence,” Paul says. “When they see that the data is research-backed, they trust it—and they act on it.”

The assessment also shows that teams don’t need to be great at everything. Focusing on one strong area and addressing a critical weakness is often the most practical—and powerful—approach.

Progress Fuels Motivation

Paul shared one of his favorite insights from the research: The number one motivator for people is progress. When teams focus their energy, see small wins, and track improvement together, momentum builds.

“That’s why this workshop works,” he explains. “It creates a strategic pause for the team to reflect, recalibrate, and move forward together.”

Making Team Development Core to Your Talent Strategy

For organizations looking to integrate team development into their strategy, Paul offers four key steps:

1. Start with the business case. Tie team effectiveness to performance, retention, or engagement goals.
2. Pilot the experience. Test it with a small group to gain buy-in and refine the approach.
3. Empower leaders. Make team development a part of how leaders lead, not just an add-on.
4. Make it sustainable. Create follow-up and reinforcement to keep the progress going.

Final Thought

In a world where change is constant and complexity is growing, teams are becoming our most important unit of performance. Developing them isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s essential.

As Paul put it: “In a high-tech world, we’re rediscovering the need for high touch. Teams aren’t just functional units. They’re our communities.”

If you’re ready to stop developing leaders in isolation and start building extraordinary teams, this may be the shift your organization has been waiting for.

Learn more about Zenger Folkman’s team development tools or to listen to the full podcast episode.

• By BreAnne Okoren