# High Performance Teams Don't Just Work Hard - They Reset Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-leader-s-kitbag-1282405/high-performance-teams-don-t-just-work-hard-they-reset Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-leader-s-kitbag-1282405/high-performance-teams-don-t-just-work-hard-they-reset.md Podcast: [The Leader's Kitbag](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-leader-s-kitbag-1282405) Published: 2026-07-01T05:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.ben-morton.com Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/2cb22579-dcb1-4b35-9ad2-835430c0ba9f.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-leader-s-kitbag-1282405/episodes/high-performance-teams-don-t-just-work-hard-they-reset Duration seconds: 337 ## Resource High Performance Teams Don't Just Work Hard - They Reset Think about the last big project your team completed. What happened the moment it was done? My guess is - not much. A brief exhale, perhaps a quick well done in the next team meeting, and then straight into the next thing. Because there’s always a next thing. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore one of the most common patterns I see when working with teams: near-constant forward motion, with no real pause until the end of the year. Eleven months of pushing, and a few brief moments of reflection. That’s not a rhythm, it’s survival. Drawing on a lesson from my first 86-mile ultramarathon, I share why the halfway reset wasn’t just useful, it was essential. And why the same principle applies directly to how you lead your team. Because without a deliberate mid-stretch pause, there’s just constant effort with no acknowledgement of progress, no chance to learn, and no real reset before the next chapter begins. In this episode, you will learn: Why most teams only ever reset once a year, and why that’s not enough What an 86-mile ultramarathon taught me about breaking a big challenge into manageable chapters Why acknowledging progress matters as much as making it Three simple questions that can give your team clarity, energy, and renewed focus How to find your team’s next halfway point, and what to do with it Ben’s Key Takeaway The best teams I’ve been part of and worked with share one thing in common on this topic. They prioritise these reset and review meetings, and they don’t allow them to be bumped. A proper team reset doesn’t need to be a full day off-site or a formal retrospective. But it does need to be deliberate. Three questions are enough: What have we achieved? What have we learned that we don’t want… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-leader-s-kitbag-1282405/episodes/high-performance-teams-don-t-just-work-hard-they-reset/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-leader-s-kitbag-1282405/high-performance-teams-don-t-just-work-hard-they-reset.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.