Why Teams aren't as Healthy as We Think

The Real Challenge When leaders assess their team’s effectiveness, they often rely on gut feelings, energy in the room, general impressions, or a few vocal perspectives. The problem is that these impressions rarely tell the full story. 

McKinsey’s research found that leaders consistently rate team health higher than their team members do (McKinsey, Go, Teams, 2024). 

This gap creates blind spots that widen over time. Teams believe they are communicating well, making solid decisions, and resolving conflict effectively while their colleagues quietly experience the opposite.

The Consequence Blind spots are costly. They create repeated misunderstandings, unspoken frustration, and inconsistent expectations. Teams focus on the wrong improvement areas, fix what isn’t broken, and avoid addressing the behaviours that matter most. Even more concerning, when teams believe they are healthier than they are, they stop seeking feedback. The culture drifts toward avoidance, and the psychological safety required for honest dialogue erodes. Poor team insight feeds this leadership gap.

A New Way to See It Team effectiveness isn’t about feelings, it’s about patterns. The most successful teams use data and reflection to understand not just what is happening, but how and why. McKinsey’s research highlights leaders' tendency to overestimate the state of workplace culture, but leaders who have the courage to seek out their teams perspectives on aspects of culture like, collaboration, communication, decision making, innovation, workflows and processes etc. with curiosity rather than defensiveness have the ability to evolve what they see. When leaders and teams see themselves clearly, they can improve intentionally.

A Practical First Step Introduce a simple monthly pulse: 

“What is one behaviour helping us work well together, and one behaviour getting in our way?” 

Collect responses anonymously. Look for patterns rather than isolated opinions. Share these trends with your team, and ask for insight in both interpretation as well as solutions. This practice builds psychological safety, surfaces blind spots, and gives the team a shared language to understand itself more honestly.