Hoe bouw je een succesvol team: lessen van PSV-trainer Peter Bosz en leiders in HR

Elke HR- en L&D-professional weet: een succesvol team bouw je niet alleen met targets of KPI’s.

In de hybride en veeleisende werkwereld waar we nu mee te maken hebben, zijn het de teams die zich snel aanpassen, conflicten op een constructieve manier oplossen, vertrouwen opbouwen én vasthouden aan een sterke cultuur — ook wanneer de uitdagingen toenemen — die het meeste bereiken.

De vraag blijft dus relevant: hoe bouw je een succesvol team? Om dat helder te krijgen, combineren we inzichten uit de topsport met bewezen strategieën uit HR.

In dit artikel vind je onder andere:

• Inzichten van PSV-trainer Peter Bosz

• Een kader voor de verschillende fases van teamvorming

• Een checklist om je team stap voor stap te laten groeien

• Praktische manieren om vertrouwen, veerkracht en teamcultuur te versterken

Wat onderscheidt een succesvol team?

Succes draait allang niet meer alleen om resultaten. Het zijn de samenwerking en het vertrouwen die de basis vormen voor deze duurzame prestaties. Targets zijn belangrijk, maar de echte vraag is: kan een team blijven presteren wanneer de druk toeneemt, de omstandigheden veranderen of er wrijving ontstaat?

Voor HR- en L&D-professionals betekent dat dat ze verder moeten kijken dan zichtbare output alleen. Veel uitdagingen, zoals lage betrokkenheid, personeelsverloop en burn-out, komen voort uit minder zichtbare factoren zoals gebrekkige samenwerking, laag aanpassingsvermogen en een beperkt gevoel van psychologische veiligheid.

Het zakelijke belang is duidelijk: organisaties met sterk betrokken teams presteren beter. Ze zijn productiever, behouden talent makkelijker en zijn 23% winstgevender.

Kortom: begrijpen hoe je een succesvol team bouwt dat zich blijft ontwikkelen is geen nice-to-have, maar een strategische noodzaak.

De vijf fases om te groeien tot een succesvol team

Een van de meest gebruikte kaders om de groei van een team te begrijpen, is dat van Tuckman. Het beschrijft vijf fases die bepalen hoe vertrouwen, cultuur en resultaten zich ontwikkelen. Voor HR- en L&D-professionals biedt dit kader duidelijke stappen voor het bouwen van succesvolle teams.

1. Forming

‍Wanneer een nieuw team start, draait alles om oriëntatie en het invullen en verduidelijken van de rollen binnen het team. Vertrouwen is nog in ontwikkeling, de cultuur moet zich nog vormen en de resultaten zijn meestal nog beperkt. De rol van de leidinggevende is hier cruciaal: deze moet direct duidelijke verwachtingen scheppen en zorgen voor een eerste gevoel van samenhorigheid.

PSV-trainer Peter Bosz weet hoe belangrijk het is om helderheid te scheppen vanaf dag één:

Als voetbalcoach is snelheid belangrijk. Mijn werk vraagt om directe resultaten. Er is geen tijd om af te wachten. Dat betekent dat ik al vanaf het begin van het seizoen heel helder moet zijn over verwachtingen, doelen en verantwoordelijkheden.

Dit geldt ook voor teams op de werkvloer. Volgens Gallup bepaalt de leidinggevende maar liefst 70 procent van hoe betrokken en gemotiveerd een team is. Zij zijn dus grotendeels verantwoordelijk voor het succes in deze eerste fase van groei.

Storming‍

As team members test boundaries, conflict is inevitable. Left unmanaged, this stage can erode trust and culture. HR and L&D professionals should introduce conflict-management strategies, foster psychological safety and help prevent burnout.

Handling this phase well is essential to building long-term trust and resilience.

Norming‍

Teams begin to establish shared norms, clarify roles and strengthen relationships. Collaboration improves, trust deepens and performance rises as members align on common goals.

Intentional interventions at this stage can transform friction into sustainable collaboration.
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Performing‍

Teams reach peak effectiveness when they operate autonomously and collaboratively. Trust is high, culture is strong and results are consistent.

HR and L&D should focus on enabling innovation, adaptability and resilience so teams can thrive in changing conditions.

Adjourning‍

When projects conclude, teams celebrate results and reflect on lessons learned.

This final stage reinforces team effectiveness, helping HR and L&D professionals continuously to refine their strategies in building high performing teams.

How to build an effective team: practical strategies

Elite coaches often say that talent may win games, but teamwork, trust and resilience win championships.

The same holds true in business. Building a great team requires intentional steps, clear leadership and ongoing organisational support.

Peter Bosz highlights three types of leaders every team needs:

• The social connector

• The on-field captain

• The morale booster, or as he calls it, the “captain of fun”

By recognising and nurturing these informal leaders, he creates teams where every individual feels valued, supported and connected. Watch the "three captains" discussion below.

HR and L&D professionals can apply these lessons with practical actions:

• Set clear goals and define roles so every member knows what success looks like.

• Foster open communication with regular check-ins, feedback loops and transparent decision-making.

• Build trust through rituals and team-building exercises that strengthen cohesion.

• Prepare leaders with a simple checklist: clarify roles, anticipate challenges, promote psychological safety and identify informal leaders.

For example, in a hybrid team with conflicting priorities, identifying a “social connector” to facilitate collaboration, an “on-field captain” to drive execution and a “morale booster” to maintain energy mirrors Bosz’s winning approach on the pitch.

How to build trust in a team

Trust is the foundation of collaboration and performance. It grows in environments where people feel safe to share ideas, admit mistakes and engage in open dialogue.

Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson’s research revealed that teams with higher psychological safety reported more errors. Not because they made more mistakes, but because they felt safe enough to acknowledge them and learn.

This shows that psychological safety is a core driver in how to build trust in a team and long-term resilience. For HR and L&D professionals, the challenge is translating this concept into daily leadership behaviours. Leaders can cultivate psychological safety by practicing five key habits according to Edmondson:

• Setting clear expectations: define roles, goals, and processes to reduce uncertainty.

• Encouraging openness: create space for honest feedback and difficult conversations.

• Promoting growth: support professional development and risk-taking.

• Addressing conflicts promptly: resolve disagreements constructively before they damage culture.

• Practicing integrity: follow through on commitments and model transparency.

This resonates with Bosz’s coaching philosophy:

“I challenge my players to make mistakes and I become angry when they are afraid to make mistakes. In football you have to show courage and not be afraid to lose the ball. Everybody makes mistakes—I make mistakes every day—but it’s about whether you learn from them and avoid making the same mistake over and over again.”

In both sport and business, the message is clear: teams thrive when leaders normalise risk-taking, create safe spaces for learning and build trust.

How to build a strong team culture & resilience

Resilience doesn’t exist without psychological safety. When people feel safe to speak up, admit mistakes and learn openly, they’re simply better equipped to adapt under pressure and recover quickly from setbacks. This connection is at the heart of how to build a successful team: trust fuels resilience, and resilience sustains culture.
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Elite teams like PSV show how rituals strengthen both culture and resilience—celebrating wins together, debriefing openly after losses and ensuring every player feels included.

The same applies in the workplace: organisations that prioritise how to build a strong team culture and invest in team resilience report higher engagement, lower burnout and more sustainable performance.

Here are five practical ways to reinforce team culture and resilience:

1. Define and communicate shared values.

2. Celebrate milestones and achievements.

3. Debrief setbacks constructively to embed learning.

4. Create rituals that build identity and cohesion.

5. Provide ongoing development to strengthen adaptability.

As Peter Drucker put it, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In today’s workplace, resilience is what ensures culture endures even when challenges mount.

Overcoming the four most common team-building pitfalls

Because even the strongest, most efficient and highly resilient teams encounter challenges or roadblocks in their efforts to improve. Here are the four most common pitfalls, and how to tackle them effectively:

Communication and Engagement Barriers in Remote or Hybrid Teams

Remote work can make collaboration feel fragmented and slow. Next to that research found that only 28% of fully remote workers feel connected to their employer's mission or purpose.

Solution: Establish structured touchpoints and shared agreements. For example, a global finance team implemented weekly check-ins and a “ways of working” charter, which improved alignment and reduced miscommunication. Tools like Microsoft Teams can also streamline updates without overwhelming employees.

Dysfunctional Team Dynamics

In the 2023–24 season, Dutch football club Ajax Amsterdam experienced significant internal dysfunction. Due to unclear roles and responsibilities within the management structure and a lack of clear direction. The unclarity was leading to poor performance on the field as well with a historic 5–2 defeat to PSV, placing them at the bottom of the standings for the first time in the club's history.

This example is perfectly highlights how conflicts, unclear roles and lack of psychological safety can stunt team performance.

Solution: Invest in team coaching and clearly define roles and responsibilities. Promote open communication and employee autonomy, which helps resolve conflicts early and strengthens team cohesion.

Burnout and Overload

High-demand workplaces can quickly lead to stress and disengagement. McKinsey reports that burnout symptoms affects one in four employees globally, making it a critical organisational issue.

Solution: Embed resilience practices into daily routines. A healthcare organisation reduced burnout by introducing micro-breaks and resilience training, allowing staff to recharge and maintain focus. Encouraging flexible work hours and mental health days also helps prevent exhaustion.

Lack of Trust and Psychological Safety

Teams cannot perform at their best without trust. According to Google’s Project Aristotle, psychological safety was the top predictor of team effectiveness, more important than individual talent.

A culture of open feedback is central to this—when team members feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and even challenge one another, trust deepens and performance improves.

Something Peter Bosz also relates to:

‍"As a manager, the most important thing is being honest. Good is good, bad is bad. I tell my players straight up, even if people around me say I’m too honest. They know that when I give feedback, I mean it. I’m direct—I let them know when they’ve played well, and I let them know when they haven’t. Clear, honest feedback builds trust and helps the team improve together."

Solution: Leaders should model vulnerability, provide constructive feedback and celebrate team wins. Creating spaces for open dialogue and shared decision-making strengthens trust and encourages collaboration, even under pressure. That’s how to build a successful team.

Checklist: how to build a successful team

So far, we’ve laid out the key building blocks of how to build a strong team culture. From forming and storming to performing and adjourning, each stage of team building in management matters. Use the checklist below to put these principles into practice with your own team.

1. Establish clear foundations

• Define team goals and individual roles from the start.

• Communicate expectations clearly to prevent ambiguity.

• Introduce team norms and early rituals to build cohesion.

• Encourage open discussion about responsibilities and objectives.

2. Navigate conflict and boundaries

• Recognise that conflict is natural in the Storming stage.

• Apply structured conflict resolution strategies.

• Promote psychological safety to allow risk-taking and learning.

• Monitor engagement and prevent burnout during high-pressure periods.

3. Strengthen collaboration and culture

• Encourage shared decision-making and mutual accountability.

• Reinforce team norms and clarify responsibilities as roles evolve.

• Celebrate small wins to foster motivation and belonging.

• Ensure feedback loops are consistent and constructive.

4. Enable high performance

• Empower team members to work autonomously while aligned to goals.

• Support innovation and adaptability under changing circumstances.

• Identify informal leaders: social connectors, task captains, morale boosters.

• Continuously invest in skill and professional development.

5. Reflect and learn

• Conduct debriefs after projects or milestones.

• Capture lessons learned and apply them to future teams.

• Recognise achievements and celebrate successes.

• Encourage continuous improvement of processes and culture.

6. Build trust and psychological safety

• Lead with honesty, transparency, and integrity.

• Encourage openness and constructive feedback.

• Normalise mistakes as learning opportunities.

• Address conflicts promptly and fairly.

• Support personal growth and resilience-building.

7. Reinforce team culture and resilience

• Clearly define and communicate shared team values.

• Establish rituals that reinforce belonging and cohesion.

• Provide structured support for stress management and adaptability.

• Celebrate milestones and learn from setbacks.

 Building teams that last

Building a successful team takes more than individual talent. Teams thrive on trust, resilience, clear roles and a strong culture.

Just as in football, winning teams are built through deliberate stages. Business leaders can apply the same principles: guide teams through conflict, foster collaboration and celebrate milestones. With psychological safety and consistent feedback, teams can recover from setbacks and sustain high performance.

By combining lessons from sport with HR best practices, managers can create high-performing teams that last and adapt—whatever the challenge.