A team achieves what it believes it can achieve together – and success feeds that belief.
Confidence here does not mean good spirits or optimism. It means a shared conviction, tied to a specific task: We can do this. A team that believes it can do something sets higher goals, works harder and holds out longer after setbacks. That raises the likelihood that it will succeed.
The team principle in detail
Four steps through the principle: understand, check, connect, apply. Open any topic to read more.
The explanationThe second part of the sentence describes a feedback loop.
- The second part of the sentence describes a feedback loop.
- What succeeds strengthens belief, and strengthened belief makes the next success more likely.
- This creates a spiral.
- It runs in both directions: failure and waning belief reinforce each other, too.
Read closelyWhat the principle says – and what it doesn’t
Confidence raises the likelihood of success; it guarantees nothing. The first half of the statement is deliberately overstated; confidence replaces neither skill nor resources.
- Strictly speaking
- This is about shared confidence, not the self-confidence of individuals. It matters most where members depend heavily on one another.
- More confidence is not always better. If it comes too early or is too strong, a team debates its approach less and becomes complacent.
- The spiral does not automatically go upward. The same logic explains why teams collapse after setbacks.
The signs3 signs that the principle is at work · 3 that it is missing
- The team sets itself ambitious goals.
- After a setback, it asks what it will change, not whether the thing can be done at all.
- Successes are named and attributed to the team’s joint effort.
- Goals are kept small as a precaution.
- Remarks like “that never works here anyway” go unchallenged.
- A single mistake sets off a chain of further mistakes.
The research6 sources: 2 theories, 2 meta-analyses, 2 primary studies · 1995–2010 · with research limitations
- low
- moderate
- high
High (for the relationship and the feedback loop); moderate for the causal direction “confidence → performance” – the relationship is well established in meta-analyses, but part of it arises because past performance shapes both.
- 1995Dana H. Lindsley, Daniel J. Brass & James B. Thomas
Efficacy and performance reinforce each other in upward and downward spirals. Supports the second half of the statement.
- 2000Albert Bandura
Collective efficacy is a group’s shared belief that it can achieve results together. It strengthens effort, persistence in the face of setbacks, and performance.
- 2000Roger D. Goddard, Wayne K. Hoy & Anita Woolfolk Hoy
In urban elementary schools in a large district, collective teacher efficacy explains differences between schools in reading and mathematics.
- 2010Jack A. Goncalo, Evan Polman & Christina Maslach
Two longitudinal studies: high collective efficacy at the start of a project goes hand in hand with less process conflict and can thereby depress later performance.
- As a universal claim, “achieves what it believes it can achieve” is not supported: the correlations are around r = .35 to .45.
- Part of this arises because past performance shapes both confidence and later performance.
- Where people merely work side by side, individuals’ confidence in themselves matters more.
Read more: what the research shows
The technical term is collective efficacy. Albert Bandura describes it as a group’s shared belief that it can achieve results together; it strengthens effort, persistence and performance, and it becomes more important the more people depend on one another. Two meta-analyses – by Stanley M. Gully and colleagues and by Alexander D. Stajkovic, Dongseop Lee and Anthony J. Nyberg – find a moderate relationship with group performance, stronger where interdependence is high. Roger D. Goddard, Wayne K. Hoy and Anita Woolfolk Hoy found it among school faculties. Dana H. Lindsley, Daniel J. Brass and James B. Thomas describe the spirals of efficacy and performance, both upward and downward. Jack A. Goncalo, Evan Polman and Christina Maslach show the flip side: high confidence at the start of a project went hand in hand with less useful debate about the approach.
The originJohn C. Maxwell · “The Law of High Morale”
- 2001OriginJohn C. Maxwell
The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork
- The Law of High MoraleHigh morale magnifies everything good and makes the hard things seem easy
- todaySharpened
Here it is narrowed from mood to shared, task-related confidence, with the feedback loop between success and confidence added.
The related team principles19 Scoreboard · 20 Leadership · 14 Conflict · 15 Dissent
The principle is linked to “Scoreboard”, because feedback on successes feeds confidence, and is supported by “Leadership”: leadership can build confidence.
The action steps5 steps: Create early, achievable successes.
- Create early, achievable successes. Confidence grows out of what the team actually accomplishes.
- Make successes visible and say what made them possible. Feedback on what went well is the most important source of confidence.
- Express confidence in concrete terms: not “we’re good,” but “we can handle this task because we’re prepared.”
- Make sure your team argues about the approach at the start. A confident team in particular needs to debate the way forward in the early phase.
- Break downward spirals early: after a setback, set the next goal so that it is within reach.
The questions for your team3 questions for your team conversation: Which task do we trust ourselves to handle together – and which one do we doubt without saying so?
- Which task do we trust ourselves to handle together – and which one do we doubt without saying so?
- Which success of the past few months strengthened our confidence, and did we claim it as ours?
- Where are we so sure of ourselves that we no longer argue about the approach?
Take time for one question at your next team meeting. Talk about it openly and note down what you take away from it.
The picture to rememberThe dots stand at the foot of a staircase. A small jump succeeds; they glow brighter and take the next, higher step – a spiral upward.
- The dots stand at the foot of a staircase.
- A small jump succeeds.
- They glow brighter and take the next, higher step – a spiral upward.
What the Team Principle of Confidence looks like in practice
5.000 zu 1
In the spring of 2015, after 29 games, Leicester City sat in last place in the Premier League – and then avoided relegation with seven wins from its last nine games. The following season, new manager Claudio Ranieri reportedly named only survival as the goal at first and promised the players pizza for the first game without conceding a goal – on May 2, 2016, the club had clinched the title.
What a Faculty Believes It Can Do
In 2000, Roger D. Goddard, Wayne K. Hoy and Anita Woolfolk Hoy presented a questionnaire that asks teachers what they believe their faculty is capable of. Schools whose faculties believed they could achieve more had better results in reading and math.
Four Goals in Six Minutes
In the World Cup semifinal on July 8, 2014, host nation Brazil plays under enormous pressure of expectation, without the injured Neymar and the suspended captain Thiago Silva. Between the 23rd and the 29th minute, Germany scores four goals, and Brazil ends up losing 7–1.
