High Performance Teams Don’t Just Work Hard – They Reset

High Performance Teams Don’t Just Work Hard – They Reset

Think about the last big project your team completed. What happened the moment it was done?

My guess is – not much. A brief exhale, perhaps a quick well done in the next team meeting, and then straight into the next thing. Because there’s always a next thing.

In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore one of the most common patterns I see when working with teams: near-constant forward motion, with no real pause until the end of the year. Eleven months of pushing, and a few brief moments of reflection. That’s not a rhythm, it’s survival.

Drawing on a lesson from my first 86-mile ultramarathon, I share why the halfway reset wasn’t just useful, it was essential. And why the same principle applies directly to how you lead your team.

Because without a deliberate mid-stretch pause, there’s just constant effort with no acknowledgement of progress, no chance to learn, and no real reset before the next chapter begins.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why most teams only ever reset once a year, and why that’s not enough
• What an 86-mile ultramarathon taught me about breaking a big challenge into manageable chapters
• Why acknowledging progress matters as much as making it
• Three simple questions that can give your team clarity, energy, and renewed focus
• How to find your team’s next halfway point, and what to do with it

Ben’s Key Takeaway

The best teams I’ve been part of and worked with share one thing in common on this topic. They prioritise these reset and review meetings, and they don’t allow them to be bumped.

A proper team reset doesn’t need to be a full day off-site or a formal retrospective. But it does need to be deliberate.

Three questions are enough:

What have we achieved?

What have we learned that we don’t want to carry forward?

What’s been working well that we can do more of?

Done well, that conversation takes an hour. And what it gives back – in clarity, energy, and connection – is worth every minute invested.

So here’s the question to take away: when is your team’s next halfway point?

Not the end of the financial year. Not the Christmas break.

The next natural pause in the work you’re doing right now.

Find it, put it in the diary, and plan how you’ll use the time.

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Register your interest for the next cohort here.

 

Podcast Transcript

High Performance Teams Don’t Just Work Hard – They Reset

Think about the last big project your team completed.

What happened the moment it was done? 

My guess is – not much.

Maybe a brief exhale. Perhaps a quick well done in a team meeting.

And then… straight into the next thing.

Because there’s always a next thing.

This pattern is one of the most common things I observe when working with teams.

They operate in a near-constant state of forward motion.

Project to project. Quarter to quarter. Crisis to crisis.

And the only time most teams genuinely stop, reflect and reset…is at the end of the year.

It’s eleven months of pushing and a few brief moments of pause.

That’s not so much a rhythm, it’s more like survival.

By the time you’re watching or listening to this, I’ll have just run my first 86-mile ultra-marathon.

And one of the most important decisions I made about that race, wasn’t about training, kit or nutrition.

It was about how I thought about the distance.

I wasn’t running 86 miles.

I was running two separate races — with a deliberate reset in the middle.

At the halfway point, there’s a checkpoint where my drop bag was waiting.

At that point, I planned a full kit change, wash, teeth clean.

A total reset and fresh start.

Because mentally, I knew I had to close one chapter and open another.

That halfway point also happened to be the furthest I’d ever run.

My previous longest race was 32 miles.

So at 43 miles, regardless of what happened in the second half…that moment deserved to be marked.

Not with a celebration that takes the edge off the focus.

But with a quiet acknowledgement.

I’ve achieved something huge. Now — let’s go again.

Now here’s the leadership question.

When does your team get its halfway reset?

Not the year-end review linked to the Christmas party.

The genuine mid-stretch pause – the moment where you properly close what’s just happened before picking up what’s next.

Because without it, there’s just constant struggle, with no acknowledgement of progress or reset.

And these resets don’t need to take a full day off site somewhere, but they do need to be deliberate and intentional.

And I’d suggest starting with just four simple questions.

What have we achieved?

What have we learnt that we don’t want to carry forward?

What have we learnt that we do want to carry forwards and what are we going to do differently going forwards?

That’s it.

And the key is not to think of it as just a cost, but to think about the return that you get on the time invested, because what it gives back in terms of clarity, engagement, connection and energy far outweighs the time you’ve spent on that reset.

The best teams I’ve had the privilege to be a part of or work with all tend to share one thing in common when it comes to these reset meetings, and that is they don’t cancel them when things get busy or when the pressure mounts.

They prioritise them and they make sure they happen.

They take that moment to pause, review, reset, and then they go again.

So here’s a simple action you can take from today’s episode of The Leaders Kitbag.

When is your team’s next halfway point?

Not the end of your financial year or the Christmas break…the next natural pause in the work you’re doing right now.

Find it and put it in the diary and plan how you’ll use the time.

That’s it for this episode.

As always, look after yourself — and look after those you have the privilege and responsibility to lead.

Until next time… lead on.