High-Performance Teams in Schools: Built for Pressure, Not Routine

Teams make the world go round. It might sound like a cliché, but in the school environment it has never been more true. The reality is that we cannot achieve anything of significance without teams, and no matter how strong some of the individuals within a group may be, the team is only as strong as its weakest link.

This is especially relevant in today’s schools. The work is more complex than ever before, the demands are increasing, and the pressures are intense. In international schools, those pressures multiply. Parents expect results. Corporate owners expect growth. Schools are businesses as well as learning communities, competing for enrolment and reputation. The stakes are high, and the environment is unforgiving.

That is why high-performing teams matter. They are not a nice-to-have; they are a necessity. Without them, schools will struggle to navigate the demands of modern education.

Routine versus Pressure

When everything is calm, when routines are in place and systems are running smoothly, it is difficult to tell the difference between a good team and a great one. Both can look organised. Both can appear effective. Systems can create the illusion of high performance. Everyone is in the right place at the right time, the cogs turn as they should, and the machine appears well oiled.

But the truth is that routines hide as much as they reveal. They tell us very little about the true quality of a team.

The real test comes when pressure is applied. Systems crack. Unexpected problems arise. The workload intensifies. People feel the heat. In those moments, the distinction between good teams and high-performance teams becomes stark.

Average teams stumble. They default to dependency, waiting for the leader to step in. They become paralysed by uncertainty. Systems fail, initiative dries up, and problems snowball.

High-performance teams, on the other hand, adapt. They respond quickly, decisively, and strategically. They solve problems in real time, often without needing direct leadership input. They display independence, but never at the expense of the collective. Every action, every decision, still aligns with the team’s purpose and vision.

That ability to adapt under pressure is what separates high performance from simple competence.

The F1 Pit Stop

For me, one of the best illustrations of this principle comes from Formula One. Think of a pit stop during a race. On the surface, it looks like chaos: sparks flying, tyres changing, tools clattering. But what is actually unfolding is an extraordinary display of precision under the highest imaginable pressure, when a drivers life is on the line.

The team has seconds, sometimes milliseconds, to act. The car is red hot. The driver is relying on them. The race is on the line. In those moments, every team member knows exactly what to do. They move independently, but their actions are perfectly coordinated. The tyres are changed, the car is refuelled, adjustments are made, and the driver is back on the track before you can blink.

That is not luck. It is not improvisation. It is the product of systems, training, and shared purpose. But more importantly, it is the product of a team that can adapt and execute under pressure.

High-performance school teams may not change tyres on F1 super cars, but the principle is the same. The daily routines are important, but the real proof of quality comes when those routines are disrupted.

A Tale of Two Teams

I have experienced both sides of this in my leadership journey. In a previous school, I led a team that looked effective on paper. The systems were solid. The routines were clear. But the moment those systems were tested, everything reverted to me. Every decision required my input. Every problem landed on my desk. Staff were paralysed, either because they lacked clarity, lacked confidence, or because my own leadership at the time was too managerial and not empowering enough.

It taught me a hard but valuable lesson: a team that looks strong in routine can still be fragile under pressure if it has not developed independence.

In contrast, my current team shows me what high performance looks like. Over time, our systems have bedded in. People know their roles. But the real difference is in how the team now responds when things get difficult.

September, for example, is one of the most pressurised months for us in PE. There is an enormous amount of groundwork to be done, and everything needs to run smoothly to set the tone for the year ahead. Three years ago, almost every parental complaint came to me. I was the bottleneck. Today, many of those complaints never reach my desk. They are resolved by members of the team before they escalate. Problems are dealt with in real time, by people who know the vision and act strategically to protect it.

That independence is not rogue behaviour. It is not individuals pulling in different directions. Every action is aligned with our shared purpose, and that is the key. A high-performance team is not a collection of mavericks; it is a group of individuals who act independently but never lose sight of the collective goal.

What the Research Tells Us

The importance of pressure as a differentiator is not just anecdotal. Ceri Evans, who worked with the New Zealand All Blacks and other elite organisations, argues that everyone can look competent when comfortable, but pressure is what separates those who plateau from those who achieve breakthroughs. His work shows that leaders can deliberately manage the way pressure is applied by adjusting expectations, scrutiny, and consequences. Get it right, and pressure sharpens performance rather than paralysing it.

This idea resonates deeply with schools. Teachers and staff face constant pressure, whether from inspections, parents, or the demands of the timetable. A leader’s role is not to remove all pressure, that is impossible, but to help their teams harness it, to turn it into a force for growth rather than decline.

Supporting this, a recent study on athletes performing under pressure highlighted the psychological ingredients that enable clutch performance. Task-focused attention, collective confidence, and heightened effort emerged as common themes. What is striking is how collective those factors are. Clutch moments are not just about individual brilliance; they are about groups aligning, focusing, and pushing together under pressure. In other words, the very same qualities that define high-performance school teams.

Purpose, Systems, and Independence

From my own experience, and from the research, three elements stand out as critical for high performance in schools.

First is purpose. Every member of the team must understand and buy into the vision. Without a clear sense of direction, independence quickly becomes chaos. Decisions will be made, but they will pull the team in different directions. Purpose is the anchor that holds everything together.

Second are systems. High-performing teams are not anarchic. They rely on routines and processes that create stability and predictability in everyday work. Systems free up mental space so that when pressure comes, the team can focus on adaptation, not basic organisation.

Third is independence. This is the most important and the hardest to achieve. Independence is what allows a team to respond in real time, without everything defaulting to the leader. It requires trust, training, and a willingness from leaders to step back and let others act. Independence is the hallmark of a team that can withstand pressure.

The Call to Education

This raises a critical question for schools: are we doing enough to build teams like this?

In recent years, I have seen a lot of emphasis on developing individuals. Instructional coaching, mentoring, and one-to-one conversations have become more common. All of this is valuable, but it is not enough. Schools do not run on individuals; they run on teams. And yet we spend very little time teaching people how to build, develop, and lead high-performance teams.

That is a gap we must address. Leadership in education cannot just be about supporting individuals. It has to be about cultivating groups of people who can operate together under pressure, who can adapt and respond strategically when systems are tested.

In sport, this lesson is obvious. Teams are built to win. Players are trained to act independently in the moment, but always in line with the coach’s vision. The best coaches know when to step back and trust their players. In education, we need to adopt the same mindset. Leaders must create clarity of purpose, put robust systems in place, and then empower their people to act independently when pressure comes.

Conclusion

High-performance teams are not defined by how they operate when everything is calm. They are defined by how they perform when the pressure is on. In schools, that pressure is not a possibility; it is a certainty. The question is whether our teams will crumble or adapt.

The answer lies in purpose, systems, and independence. Get those right, and you will have a team that does not just survive pressure, but thrives in it. Get them wrong, and no amount of routine competence will save you when the system comes under strain.

As leaders in education, we need to ask ourselves: are we equipping our teams to withstand pressure, or are we setting them up to depend on us the moment the going gets tough?

Because in the end, the true strength of a school lies not in the brilliance of any single individual, but in the collective ability of its teams to perform, especially when it matters most.

Mike Lowery

Director of Sport - GEMS Metropole