At our recent DX Connect event, three seasoned IT leaders—Sami Yalavac, Paul Redfern, and Pedro Carrilho—shared their insights on what it takes to engage, manage, and inspire tech teams to succeed. Here are six key takeaways.
1. Prioritise trust before performance
Sami Yalavac, former Australian CIO of the year, has led many major transformation programs, including as CIO for Bupa. When he joined Bupa, the company had recently acquired several other businesses, and there was a lack of cohesion among the technology team. The NPS score for employees was just 2, compared to an industry average of around 25, while the internal customer NPS was -16.
“We had a very unhappy team at that time. The biggest challenge was a lack of trust – both within the team and the wider business. Turning this around was going to take more than technical fixes,” said Yalavac.
By prioritising people leadership, trust and empathy, Yalavac transformed a struggling IT department into a high-functioning unit. Borrowing from Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he rebuilt the culture by encouraging healthy conflict, fostering accountability, and committing to shared success. This approach led to a dramatic improvement in both employee engagement and internal customer satisfaction from negative scores to strong positives. The key lesson: people leadership must come before delivery metrics, with trust creating the foundation for sustainable performance.
2. Foster inclusivity and constructive discourse
Paul Redfern, COO of health-tech innovator Big Picture Medical, stressed the importance of inclusivity and constructive debate when building high-performing IT teams, ensuring that even in a dynamic culture like a start-up, every voice matters.
“In high-energy startups, constructive disagreement isn’t a problem – it’s a sign of passion. What matters is making sure everyone feels heard,” said Redfern.
Flexibility, empathy, and designing systems around people – not the other way around – are critical for scaling effectively. Accommodating brilliant individuals, even if they deviate from traditional workflows, allows them to make high-impact contributions.
3. Hire for mission, not just skills
Another critical element in building high-impact tech teams is purpose. Pedro Carrilho, Founder and Managing Director of PhoenixDX, said his company hires “missionaries, not mercenaries” – individuals driven by values and impact rather than just paychecks.
“Great people want to solve great challenges alongside others who share their values”, said Carrilho. “For IT leaders, that means building teams around shared purpose, adaptability, and growth mindsets.”
High retention comes not from perks, but from aligning people with a mission. At PhoenixDX, purpose is nurtured intentionally – from multi-step hiring processes to practical rituals like team strength-mapping. The result? The 80-person company boasts retention rates below 5%, driven by common goals and authentic connections.
4. Lead with vulnerability and empathy
Vulnerability is often misunderstood as weakness, but in high-performance teams, it’s a powerful catalyst for trust and connection. Pedro Carrilho said the work of Keith Ferrazzi heavily influenced him, finding his many books, including his latest Never Lead Alone: 10 Shifts from Leadership to Teamship, invaluable.
Ferrazzi asserts that when leaders and team members are open about challenges, uncertainties, or mistakes, it breaks down barriers and creates psychological safety – the foundation of collaboration and innovation. Vulnerability signals authenticity, which encourages others to be honest about risks, share unconventional ideas, or admit when they need help. This transparency reduces hidden problems, accelerates learning, and strengthens resilience in the face of change.
In practice, vulnerability transforms teams from groups of individuals protecting their image into cohesive units where people feel safe to contribute. Sami Yalavac agrees.
“Vulnerability liberates individuals from their ‘armour’ and allows them to bring their best selves to the team,” he said.
5. Engineer human connections
In today’s remote-first world, connection doesn’t happen by chance – it must be intentionally designed. As PhoenixDX’s Pedro Carrilho explained, his teams aren’t just working from home; they’re distributed across the globe. To bridge that distance, PhoenixDX deliberately creates rituals that foster belonging and trust: personal-professional check-ins, regular team meetings, weekly lunch-and-learns, and company-wide all-hands where colleagues share values, celebrate milestones, and learn from one another.
“When dealing with remote teams, IT leaders must create structured opportunities for bonding, vulnerability, and trust. By engineering serendipity, PhoenixDX has achieved an extremely low turnover rate,” said Carrilho.
6. Adapt best practices to context
When building top-performing teams, don’t blindly copy “best practices”. Paul Redfern stressed that what works in a global enterprise will not suit a 60-person startup due to differences in team size, culture, industry, and maturity. Leaders must adapt frameworks, mindsets, and processes to the unique stage and makeup of their organisation. Ultimately, dealing with people requires empathy and a focus on care, rather than just efficiency.
“Don’t force brilliant people into rigid systems. Design systems that let their strengths shine,” said Redfern.
Final thought
High-performance tech teams are the backbone of modern business success. They can adapt quickly to change, anticipate risks, and turn strategy into execution, ensuring that technology drives measurable business outcomes. Ultimately, organisations that invest in building and sustaining high-performance teams gain a lasting competitive edge: faster delivery, happier employees and customers, lower costs, and the capacity to innovate with confidence.
If you missed our DX Connect event, you can listen to the full recording of practical insights from our panellists – Sami Yalavac, Paul Redfern, and Pedro Carrilho.
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