EP01 | Building High Performing Teams

What does it really take to build a high-performing team when pressure rises and the plan changes mid-race?  In this episode of People & Peloton, host Dorien Leyers talks to Ellen Claes, People Director at SD Worx, and Danny Stam, Sports Director at Team SD Worx-Protime. 

Together, they explore what strong teams need to perform in uncertain circumstances: clear roles, trust, ownership and the ability to adapt fast.  

Starting from a decisive Milan-San Remo moment with Lorena Wiebes and Lotte Kopecky, this episode looks at how teams respond when timing is tight and the stakes are high. From the peloton to the workplace, the same question returns: how do you stay aligned when everything starts moving at once?

People & Peloton

What can business learn from the peloton, and what can elite sport learn from the workplace?  In People & Peloton, we bring those two worlds together.

Hosted by Dorien Leyers, this SD Worx podcast pairs conversations from the boardroom with insights from the road. In each episode, leaders from SD Worx and Team SD Worx-Protime explore a topic that shapes performance today, from teamwork and resilience to leadership, growth, wellbeing and culture.  

Expect practical ideas, honest reflections and stories from high-pressure environments where decisions matter, trust matters, and people make the difference. Because whether you lead a company or ride in a team, success rarely comes down to talent alone. 

It comes down to how you work together when it counts.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Welcome to People and Peloton, the SD Works podcast where cycling and business come together. In every episode, we put two conversations next to each other: one from the boardroom and one from the Peloton. And together we'll discover their similarities and what both can learn from each other. At the end of this episode, you will have discovered what it takes to translate teamwork, ownership, and team dynamics from the world of cycling to that of your own. We'll even give you a push in the right direction. And of course, you'll find out how this heroic Milan San Remo story ends. And today we're joined by two guests who live and breathe this reality every day. Ellen Klass, people director at SD Works, works closely with teams going through transformation and knows how culture, trust, and psychological safety shape performance. And Danny Sum, sport director at Team SD Works Pro Time, who manages the dynamics of elite performance, who takes the lead, who supports and how a team accelerates together at exactly the right moment.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yeah, it was uh the first time I think in 20 years that it was again for us. So nobody knew exactly what to expect from it. But of course, with the team we made a plan on forehand in our team meeting. And um yeah, it was for me trying to survive the climbs and especially uh Cipresa and Potium. And uh yeah, that worked out pretty good. In the team meeting we we said already that um Osolotto was free to follow attacks and do what she wanted uh until the top of the potion, and then we would see if I was still there, and that's that was the case, so naturally she directly responded to to write in front. And um, yeah, I mean that's also the rider that she she is, and um yeah, that shows also our team strength that we know what to do in certain situations to to go for the win. But it was uh uh it was I think a really nice final to watch also. Yeah, I would say we still had like a right corner close to the finish, and Lotte took it so fast that I was like, I don't know if we can hold the corner even. So that's the moment that you also know that the chances big that we go for a sprint. And I was actually looking also to the signs next to the road, how far it still was to the finish line because you this is a sprint that you don't want to start too early. And then I uh felt Marianna, I didn't know at that point what uh which rider it was, but it was at the end Marianna Voss starting a sprint, and I tried to to follow and um to be faster.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. That is quite an introduction, absolutely. Ellen and Danny, thank you so much for being here. Danny, if I may start with you, we just heard the heroic San Remo story. Could you maybe walk us through it? Because you lived it.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yes, the Milan Sanremo was uh actually the first race this year, uh last year in 2025. It was uh the first time we had the Milan Sanremo. So we had uh actually two ladies who want to win this race: Lotte Kopecchi and Lorena Wiebes. So we jumped in a lot of scenarios what could happen during the race, and yeah, our our main goal was uh of course win the race with the team with Team ST Works uh to finish it. And we give Lotta actually the freedom to attack on the on the Pocho on the last climb, and we should look if she was alone or that yeah, when she was not alone, she was not allowed to continue, and then we should go for the for the sprint for Lorena because we have with Lorena one of the fastest sprinters in the in the world. So yeah, we arrive at the Poccio, and I think uh yeah, the speed was that high that there was no chance to to attack. And then we come on the bottom of the Poccio, excuses, and uh yeah, there was an attack from an Italian rider, and on that moment it it was up to our team to make a decision to close it or or to let it go. And uh yeah, then Lotte take the initiative to close the gap and lead out uh Lorena to the victory in uh in this sprint.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

But can you prepare for a moment like that? Because as a spectator, I think we sometimes wonder how many percentage of this is in the moment and how many percentage is confidence because we talked about this exact moment with our coach.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah. Of course. But yeah, you know on the Pocho there will be attacks, and uh, we also know that if we are on the bottom, that it's up to our team to take the lead in this in this job. And uh, I think then you see also the the great experience and and uh the strong mind from from Lotte Kopecchi to close it on that moment and just to say, okay, the most important is that the teams wins and and yeah, I must let go my own chances. But I know we have somebody who can finish this.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

And give them the confidence to be that high-performing team, of course, uh that they need to be.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah, exactly. And yeah, you cannot exactly know where they attack, but I think yeah, also with the experience we have as a team, we know more or less where they go.

SPEAKER_03 6:06

Ellen, talking about high performance teams, where does that begin in an organization? What's your view on that?

SPEAKER_04 6:14

For me, it begins with um who do you want to be as an organization? What's your culture? Um, and creating the right framework where people can really work together as a team and at as it works as a company, uh we really cherish that. Uh we make it happen, we make it all together happen, we make it work actually. So that's for me the first part, and of course, then you start looking for talent who can also uh work in such uh an environment and where we can uh stimulate that uh teamwork by by giving ownership and by uh getting people on board in uh in our story and our growth story.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

I like that one because um that brings us to something that is both in cycling and business very true that is the right person on the in the right place, in the right job, in the right moment. Yeah, that's part of building a high performance team and to discover the qualities of each one and then giving them the confidence that that's where they should focus on. There should be, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:13

They should be and for me that's a little bit based on strengths. Yeah, which uh strengths do you have in in a team and they're different, and how can you bring them all together and and get a nice synergy out of it and and make it work uh in the end?

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Ellen, could you maybe give us a similar moment from your experience? A team maybe in transformation or under high pressure. What went wrong? What did you change? Where can you make a comparison?

SPEAKER_04 7:43

Well, actually, the company we are today, we are a fast-growing company. We are a very uh ambitious uh company as well. So it means sometimes you really get uh stretched goals and you have to deliver in a very short time frame. Um and a few months ago we we got a really big challenge in our talent acquisition team where we had to find niche profiles uh in a very short time frame, uh a big amount. Um and there actually teamwork was crucial to make the difference. In a sense of uh the dedicated team was not able to deliver because they didn't have um all uh enough um tools and and enough processes and so on. So there we put some other teams and uh together. So we started working in a cross uh international team uh to help each other exactly uh to help each other out uh in terms of experience, in terms of tools, processes, and uh and everything was uh which is surrounded. So it's for me also uh being agile and having the agility to act uh upon um changes um which can happen very quickly, and uh to be able to work together as a team on on that side.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Danny, when a team is under high pressure, what's the biggest risk?

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Uh being afraid to fail, maybe the point what we have also a little bit is that every race we have uh mostly six different persons. What do we need uh make working together? And yeah, how bigger the race is, how bigger yeah, the stress to win is, let's say it like that.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

Yeah, and and what is the and they lose sight of the team? Is that a risk?

SPEAKER_01 9:42

No, not not really, because I think everybody knows his strength in the team, and everybody knows what is his job. Uh that's why's all why they are selected in this uh in this in our group. So that's not the most uh yeah, point that we can fail. I mean, you can fail because you yeah, there's a lot of circumstances what can let you fail. I mean, it's the weather, it's the material, it's it's mistakes from persons or from sport director or whatever. I mean everything is possible, but uh it it needs to fit real together to not to fail. And yeah, I think that is always a pretty complicated puzzle. And I think one moment when you not win anymore, you realize how difficult it is to win and yeah, how afraid you are to fail.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

In cycling we heard about sacrifice. I think that's mentioned already as well. And in business, maybe that's also where ego can possibly walk in. Is that something that you can train on to manage ego in a high-performance team?

SPEAKER_04 10:51

Absolutely, and that's for me also culture and mindset. And we have not mentioned it before, but also leadership. How do you steer on that team? Yeah, where do you have on one hand the strength, but also uh which mentality do you create amongst team members? And how do you also give feedback? That sometimes, yeah, you have to put your ego aside um and and uh in in the benefits of the bigger goal. But I think then there's also a nice example of a lead out, for example. Sometimes um you have to, yeah, also the leader can be a lead out and and um and work in the benefit of the bigger goal.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

And that's that's something interesting because uh in my belief, a high performance athlete is very feedback driven. They see it as a very positive thing that they can work with. Whereas in business, we see often that team members are feedback defensive, that they see it as something as a criticism. And so that growth mindset that a lot of that every top athlete just have to have, I think that could be inspiring for the business world.

SPEAKER_04 11:58

That's correct. And in that sense, we also try to to really install an open feedback culture. And feedback is a good thing if you bring it in a very constructive way. Um but we see it's it's difficult, it's not always in our habit, it's not always uh from a society perspective uh uh very feeling at ease. But um it's it's something uh which can really make a difference if you do it in a proper uh uh and empathic uh way.

SPEAKER_03 12:25

Do you agree, Danny, that that top athletes they they are they need feedback because that's the way they can grow.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Yes, and but that is also yeah, uh we have meeting before the race, we have meeting after the race, and every time something goes wrong or we need to do better, yeah, then we can discuss that pretty open. And I I think uh in companies it's more difficult if you have a hundred people and you need to organize uh a meeting. You know, we we finish the race, we have ten people, we put them together in one room and we say what went wrong and what went good. So nobody is afraid to give the feedback what we need.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

That's also the power of immediate feedback. That's where sometimes it gets a little grey when weeks later, suddenly in a in a boardroom, it pops up. It pops up and and people are surprised.

SPEAKER_04 13:16

Wow, I didn't know that that was yeah, and and in that sense it makes um it makes also sense to have uh regular feedback meetings in general, but also regular follow-up in one-to-ones with managers, um, as such, not only on on just work but also on habits, on attitudes, on performance in general. Absolutely. So regular check-ins anyway.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

To make high-performing uh teams.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

But I think it's also more difficult in your brands than yeah, in a cycling peloton. I mean, we are also always on the way together, and the day don't finish when the day is finished. Uh I think in the normal branch you go home and then you're home and you lock the door and you uh close your mind. But in the cycling, yeah, you're a family. You have the the dinner together, and then next morning you have the breakfast together. So it's also easier, let's say, like that, to to get the feedback.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

Maybe easier, but also more intense. Yeah. You have to, because otherwise you can't continue, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 14:22

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

It depends on it. Now, high performance comes with uh pressure. Ellen, um, if we try to stake away from uh, let's say yoga answers, how do we keep a team healthy, literally and figuratively speaking?

SPEAKER_04 14:39

Yeah. First of all, and that's my personal belief, I don't think pressure is always bad. Pressure can also bring people together. It's a healthy pressure can also bring people together, uh, work on a common goal and um and achieve something. Yeah, achieve something, have a success story to share, or maybe also a failure to share, to learn from, and and to get stronger as a team in the in the end. So, in that sense, uh pressure is okay, in my opinion, personal opinion, but of course it should be in balance. In balance in the sense of after a time of pressure, you should have time to relax as well, also relax between brackets, of course, as as a team and and to share those um those successes and uh and to work on that.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Yes, I I believe that that not everybody can handle pressure. Uh I have a lot of examples in my team that were super great riders, but if we tell them they need to win the race, then the pressure is too high and they fail structurally. And if you give them the job what they need to do, they do it uh 120%. So I think uh in the future, probably we have some episodes with leadership. I think it's also important that the leadership knows what is the quality of of the who can handle which kind of pressure exactly and you need to know what who can do what.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

I see it's more like the pressure of the team, and indeed you have the strong shoulders who can carry it, car carry more than than the others. Yeah, that's that's indeed uh absolutely correct.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:18

Do you feel Danny that there's riders who can handle the physical pressure and who are up to the task physically, but who cannot handle that mental pressure?

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yes, yeah, yeah. Yes, you can really see the difference in that kind of uh thing. I think also you have a lot of examples, also not only in our team, but but in different teams that you say uh uh mostly lead-out uh riders for a sprint train. The last leadout person is almost always one of the best sprinters. But if he needs a leadout, then he's 100% working for it, and if he needs to sprint, he fails a lot. And that is yeah, you see that many times.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

What's um one thing or one moment where you noticed Danny that a team started to perform better or maybe worse by something you implemented, something you said, something you did that you started noticing ah, this is something that Yes is always difficult to say, but I I really feel it different if the atmosphere in the team is really good and everybody feels happy because I think uh performing is uh is a lot of uh knowledge that you need to know from outside.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

But I think when the mind is not good, then yeah, you you come you can't recover from that. You can you cannot handle it, and I think that is something what you will also have in the brands. Probably when somebody is not feeling happy or not feeling good, then you will not see performance. And uh we always as team try to have a kind of a familiar atmosphere that everybody feels comfortable, that everybody knows his job and feels respected, and and yeah, I think that is one of the keys from our team. And if somebody don't feel well in the team, they will never perform.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

But Ellen, that is something that needs to come organically. That is not something that you can just top-down implement that warm company culture, as we say.

SPEAKER_04 18:26

I think you can lead by example. Yes, you can set the example, and I'm I'm convinced it all starts with again strategy, it starts with leadership. So it starts at the top. Authenticity authenticity, who do you want to be as a company? Which example do you give? Um, how do you lead on that side? So I I think it's it's it can be top-down in the sense of giving the good example and creating then the culture where people can be themselves, be authentic, um make uh failures uh also possible. So and then you get um a two-way uh direction.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, and that that comes also automatically what what you said that if there is a good ambience, a good feeling, or is it yeah, you need to do this, or you re expect this, or not lead by fear but lead by example. By passion. By passion. I think in our team it's it's leading by passion, and and yeah, if if the leaderships are people are so full from their job, what they're doing, then yeah, you pull the rest up.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

Absolutely. Now let's discover how the story ended.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

It was really special to win that race after so many years of the calendar. And uh yeah, a big race like like this, and also like the whole team worked super hard at the whole race, also the girls who did their work in the beginning, who delivered us uh really good at the bottom of the C Plessen, that was a key point in the race. And then also they were kept on fighting to come back uh the start of the poetry to position us again. So, and that makes it even better that it's uh a real uh team effort and everyone or everyone went all out. That's our really our strength of the team that we make each other better, uh, we work hard for each other, and uh it always comes back.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

Ellen, from your point of view, of course, what does this say about teamwork?

SPEAKER_04 20:37

For me, it says teamwork, and the work says itself, it's about all about the team. And sometimes you need to sacrifice also between brackets yourself due to the bigger goal you want to reach, because it's in the benefit of all, and it uh gives a very nice feeling of uh of commitment and uh working uh together. And of course, the one who um did the extra mile can have an extra reward on that as well, of course.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

Now, what I like is that you agree a lot today, and that is a good thing, but uh so so let's do it this way in the rapid fire, one parallel that you like, Danny.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

I think uh I like the familiar uh calls what we have uh to work together, to look forward. How can we lead a company and how can we lead a team? And I think I think it's nice that it's almost similar with Top Sport and uh just in the brands.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

Okay, same question. For me, it's um the feedback, the immediate feedback, because uh it's uh it's still a challenge uh in our business in general. Um, and I think there we can uh really learn the moment you give feedback, how you give feedback and the benefit of it, the value of immediate.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Feedback. Good one. Question for both of you one red flag that tells you that a team is about to crack. That's a tough one.

SPEAKER_04 22:11

Tough.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

You can start.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

Okay. I will. For me, it's um seeing people getting uh sarcastic. Ooh. And that's for me really a bad signal when uh things are getting wrong. So uh that's um very specific one, but a good one.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Danny speaking behind the back from each other. I recognize that. I recognize that yeah, I think that's one of the of the points, but yeah, also physically we can see if if people getting tired, right? Then yeah, then then we have a difficulty.

SPEAKER_03 22:49

Is it a motivation thing?

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Circumway, yes, but not not always. I mean I think the good thing is we work with uh persons what are always want to get the best out of them. That's why they're working topsport also. And yeah, sometimes you just can see it's too much that we ask too much from the riders, and that we uh race on a race. We expected that they perform well, and one moment then you can see okay, this is actually one or two races too much, and then yeah, you you lose the spirit.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:35

Okay. Danny, one red flag that tells you a team is about to crack.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

It's a physically spot what we have. So if they start looking tired, we're starting to have problems.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Yes. Ellen, same question.

SPEAKER_04 23:49

Actually, it's the same. It's not physical, uh less physical, but sometimes you also see people getting tired, and then it's uh really uh important to um pay enough attention and uh focus. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:04

What's a habit, maybe maybe a daily habit from your role that prevents that crack?

SPEAKER_04 24:11

Something that you notice that when I do that for me is uh regular check-ins, really asking how are you doing? How are you really doing?

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Okay, yeah, that that's uh a little bit uh coming back to our feedback. That's what we do before the race. How how does everybody feel? And uh yeah, then we know also, yeah. Do they feel good or not?

SPEAKER_03 24:39

And maybe finally one question every leader should ask themselves on a daily basis, on a weekly basis.

SPEAKER_04 24:48

What did I do this week to empower my people? Danny?

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Yeah, how how can we become better?

SPEAKER_03 24:59

Okay. Thank you so much, Ellen and Danny. And to sum things up, high performance begins with stimulating ownership. Your company culture is a good place to start. And when it comes to feedback, make sure it's with empathy, consistency, and immediate. Feedback is a gift, after all. We also heard that healthy pressure can make a team stronger, but keep it in balance. A good team cohesion can drive high performance as long as you lead with passion. Thank you so much for listening and watching. Discover the other people and Peloton episodes about cycling and business at sdworks.com or your favorite podcast platform, of course. Until next time, bye bye.