What Founders Miss About High Performance
Written by Dave Bailey
Written by Dave Bailey, Oct 15, 2026
The way to build a high-performance team as a CEO isn’t more one-to-ones. It’s three gatherings: the team meeting, the offsite and the launch event. This essay explains what each one does for accountability, trust, alignment and urgency, and why the best founders put so much effort into them.
At my recent dinner with some Series A/B CEOs, I asked the table a question:
“What can you do as a CEO to create a high-performance team?”
The first CEO said: “It all comes down to trust. You have to have a team that trusts each other.”
A second said: “You have to create accountability so the team takes ownership.”
Another added: “I think it’s about transparency and helping everyone know what’s going on.”
Finally, it came to my turn. “What do you recommend, Dave?”
Here’s my answer.
Founders who build the highest-performance teams put a lot of effort into bringing people together.
The way to scale your impact as a CEO isn’t to do more one-to-ones. It’s to master one-to-many.
There are three gatherings that are more important in Founder Leadership than most CEOs realise:
- The team meeting
- The offsite
- The launch event
1. The Team Meeting
Most CEOs rate their leadership team meeting somewhere between a 3 and a 5 out of ten.
I can’t think of a more expensive meeting to tolerate mediocrity.
The team meeting has the potential to be the most important meeting in a leader’s calendar. It sets the pace, it drives accountability, and it’s the ultimate forum for teamwork and leadership.
If a leader performs a role, then the team meeting is one of the most important stages to perform on.
The best team meetings provide accountability and focus to the team, and create real teamwork in execution.
2. The Offsite
Many founders think an offsite is an extra, a nice-to-have, a bit of fun.
But when you examine how the top 1% of founder CEOs operate, offsites aren’t an afterthought.
Steve Jobs famously held a Top 100 Meeting with the most important people at Apple. It was meticulously designed to shape a collective consciousness in the company.
Other CEOs like Brian Chesky follow suit.
However, I learned about the importance of offsites by accident.
When a CEO complained about team conflict and misalignment, I’d ask when the last offsite was.
The answer was always the same: “A long time ago.”
Offsites aren’t as important for traditional businesses where the rate of change is slower.
But offsites play a critical role in high-growth startups where the rate of change is high and market conditions are uncertain.
A well-designed offsite builds trust in the team, drives alignment, and grows a sense of ambition.
Team meetings and offsites have a big impact.
But the best founders go one step further.
3. The Launch Event
This event plays a massive role in creating a high-performance company.
That’s why you won’t find an at-scale tech company that hasn’t followed in Apple’s footsteps and held customer-facing launch events.
Meta, Google, Salesforce, Stripe, Notion, Tesla . . . the list doesn’t stop.
Most people mistakenly think launch events are about marketing.
But top founders understand launch events are really about something way more important.
Launch events are about creating full company alignment around a customer-facing deadline.
They also create stakes.
- What if customers don’t care enough to show up?
- What if they don’t like our new updates?
- What if we miss the deadline?
Launch events are stressful and that’s why most founders won’t run them. That’s why running them gives you an edge.
A well-designed launch event creates a sense of urgency, drives commitment, and forces clarity over scope.
The CEO plays a critical role in each of these gatherings, and the net effect can have a massive impact on performance.
- More accountability
- More focus
- More teamwork
- More trust
- More alignment
- More ambition
- More urgency
- More thinking ahead
- More clarity of scope
- More stakes
Not bad for three items in the calendar.
At my CEO coaching practice, Founder Coach, we place a high importance on meeting design and communicating to groups.
This has a noticeable impact on performance and team spirit.
How would you rate your team meeting out of 10? Are you running exceptional offsites and customer-facing events?
Continue Learning About Leading Your Team
- Want a bigger stage than the boardroom? Learn the art of engaging groups.
- Need more urgency in your product team? Read how to create a sense of urgency with regular customer events.
- Ready to upgrade your weekly meeting? See what your team meetings are missing.
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Originally published October 14, 2026.
