The Truth About Team Success: Why Team Culture Beats Talent
What separates good teams from great ones? It’s a question that has puzzled leaders for decades. For Vanessa Druskat, an expert in organizational behavior, the answer isn’t found in a team’s impressive list of credentials or technical skills. It lies in something far more powerful and often overlooked: a team’s emotional intelligence. Her insights from the book, The Emotionally Intelligent Team, reveal why team culture beats talent every time. She shows that it’s not just about the individuals you hire but about the collective environment and shared behaviors that allow a team to thrive.
Why Team Culture Beats Talent
Druskat’s research challenges the conventional belief that team success is determined by a few brilliant individuals. “A mediocre group of employees—who still have the skills required for the task—can outperform a group of genius-level skilled employees when the mediocre team has an effective set of norms and routines in place,” she explains. The real magic happens in how team members interact. High-performing teams continuously share ideas, integrate perspectives, and stimulate new thinking through mutual learning. These interactions require strong social norms to regulate them, ultimately creating what she calls a “superior collective brain.”
Rather than focusing solely on hiring top talent, Druskat urges leaders to invest in the team environment. “We need to teach leaders to hire the best team members they can, and then turn their focus and energy on building a team environment—a container of sorts—that enables the development of a superior collective brain.”
The Most Common Leadership Mistake
When building teams, Druskat sees a recurring and costly error: leaders assume that hiring emotionally intelligent individuals will automatically lead to better team dynamics. However, emotional intelligence doesn’t get used if the team’s norms and processes don’t support it. “Far more important than hiring for emotional intelligence is building a team environment that uses the skills in the room,” she says. Uneven participation and poor listening are common culprits that prevent even the most talented people from contributing their full potential.
Building Norms That Matter
Druskat’s work highlights the power of intentionally setting team norms. She recalls working with a group of “misfit but talented engineers” who struggled with cohesion. To address this, they developed a team norm to “demonstrate caring.” This small intervention created a shared expectation that people would show concern for one another. Over time, the team’s emotional climate improved, and so did their performance. It wasn’t about changing personalities; it was about creating a shared culture that enabled them to succeed.
The Big Picture: Why Team Culture Beats Talent
Vanessa Druskat’s work offers a compelling roadmap for leaders seeking to build resilient and high-performing teams. By cultivating norms of empathy, constructive conflict, and self-reflection, teams can unlock a deeper level of collaboration. Why team culture beats talent is simple: it creates the conditions for individual skills to be used effectively, fostering trust, improving outcomes, and building a powerful collective brain where everyone thrives. For leaders willing to invest in emotional dynamics, the payoff is clear: stronger teams, better results, and a culture that supports long-term success.
Credit: Forbes.com
