Noticing the Growth of Teams
What I’ve Been Noticing
I was recently speaking with a client about their plans to grow their team in the new year. We talked about the excitement that comes with new team members—but also the adjustments and challenges. That conversation reminded me how teams never stay the same. Even high-performing teams aren’t static; they shift with every new member or transition, requiring leaders to pause, reassess, and guide the next phase of growth.
For many organizations, the start of the fiscal year brings shifting dynamics: new goals, new hires, or new team configurations. These moments of change are opportunities to revisit where a team stands in its growth and what’s needed to guide them forward.
The 5 Stages of Team Growth
Teams move through different stages, and each one brings unique opportunities and challenges. Coaching can help teams and leaders notice these stages, normalize their experiences, and intentionally navigate challenges.
Here’s a zoomed-out overview of the stages:
Stage 1 (Forming): A new beginning. There’s energy and optimism, but also uncertainty. Everyone’s figuring out their place and their role.
Stage 2 (Storming): People are more comfortable with one another. Ideas and disagreements begin to be shared more freely, and members want to start having input into decisions. Tensions surface, and differences become more visible. It can feel hard.
Stage 3 (Norming): Trust starts to grow, and the team begins to find its way of working together. Member roles have become clearer and team members have begun to take on more responsibility.
Stage 4 (Performing): Everything clicks. The team is high-performing and working well, with trust and shared purpose driving results.
When members know that all groups go through predictable stages of development—it normalizes what we’re all experiencing. For example, think about the natural human tendency to place blame when mistakes happen. By recognizing this behavior as part of the process, allows members (including leaders) to respond more intentionally and move forward together. It can also make things feel less personal.
An Invitation to Notice
Where is your team right now?
What You Can Try:
Stage 1: Create clear expectations consider providing direction and clarify expectations. Ask, “What do we need from each other to be successful?” “How do we want to work together?”
Stage 2: Normalize tension. Share that this is a natural part of working together—and shows we trust each other enough to disagree. “Let’s talk through what’s coming up.”
Stage 3: Celebrate growth. What’s something as a team you all have done well recently? Trust your team’s autonomy. As the leader, ask, “What decisions can I step back from and let others take on?”
Stage 4: Continue to consider how members can grow. What skills would you like to develop and what opportunities for growth would you like to pursue?
Start-Stop-Continue
Even if nothing on your team is changing in this new year, a framework I come back to again and again to support team growth is the Start-Stop-Continue Framework. I invite you to try this out with your team, or if you’re on a team, make the suggestion to do it together with the team you’re on. It allows a group to reflect and prioritize actions that will help them continue growing together. It also creates a structured space to share feedback (more on that another time).
How to Use It:
Set the stage: Schedule a reflection session with your team to review your growth journey.
Ask the questions:
Start: What should we begin doing to improve how we work together?
Stop: What’s not adding value or holding us back?
Continue: What’s working well and should remain a focus?
Document the themes and takeaways: Use the insights to inform goals, align priorities, and set a clear direction for 2025.
The intention of the Start-Stop-Continue Framework is to create space for honest reflection, help align priorities, and build trust by being open to collaboration and continuous improvement.
Just like team development, if you’re introducing the framework to your team for the first time (depending on where you are developmentally) it may take a few times to build trust and for members to feel like they can share honest feedback, but this exercise gets better over time.
A consideration: When I was a manager I used this framework on a quarterly and annual basis. You can absolutely facilitate the process. However, bringing a coach in to facilitate lets someone else hold the space, intentionally listen for trends or what’s not being said, and allows you to engage in the reflection process alongside your team.
Who Am I?
I’m an Organizational Consultant and Executive Coach. I launched my business, Mindful People Solutions, in 2021 to support leaders and individuals in creating workplaces that foster well-being and drive results.
This newsletter is a space where I’ll share resources, reflections, and insights to help leaders and individuals who are curious about creating more thoughtful, people-first environments. My hope is to support you in noticing—with kindness, curiosity, and intention.
This Month’s Inspiration
(Re)Reading: Essentialism by Greg McKeown
Still Listening: Hermanos Gutierrez
As we close out the year, I’d love to hear from you. Where is your team right now? What have you noticed about the way you work together?
Send me a note or leave a comment—I’m always curious to hear your perspective!
In Service,
Jess
P.S. If this resonates, please share it with someone who might enjoy it.
I love that "stop" idea. Heard it many times before. Pausing to reflect and chart a path forward can be a catalyst for explosive growth.
One of the best books I've ever read on teams, and group success is The Wisdom of Teams by Smith & Katzenbach. It's a masterclass on building, growing and developing high-performance teams. Worth the read.