The best leaders are the ones who let their teams challenge them without fear, a leadership expert has advised.

Drew Povey, from the Drew Povey Consultancy, says the best teams aren’t built from quiet compliance but from the confidence to take on the status quo.

Drew, who works with leading organisations including the NHS and blue-chip companies like Mitie, warns that problems often arise when people mistake ‘nodding along’ for agreement.

“I've not come across a leader yet that doesn't want a strong team,” says Drew. “But the problems can arise when they don’t understand what that strong team would look like.

“One thing it’s not is a team which is quiet or compliant.

“Strong teams are made up of people who can challenge each other, challenge the accepted orthodoxy and who demand accountability – and that means things can get messy.

“But if they feel confident in doing that, that’s when you can innovate and grow.

“It’s the tension within teams which allows the trust to develop; where people can see that they can put their hand up and say ‘what about?’ and it won’t end up with them being sidelined.

“It might sound like reverse logic, but in a quiet, compliant team with people who just keep their heads down, where do the new ideas come from?

“Where do the challenges to an idea come from which could save your business from that public relations disaster when you launch or that avoidable glitch in a new product which lands you with negative reviews?

“A lot of leaders I work with will often feel that their team is a bit stuck, disengaged and fragile. Personally I don’t think this is usually a people problem. I think it’s mainly a leadership issue.”

These are Drew’s five tips to help leaders build a truly strong team.

Don’t equate ‘togetherness’ with ‘teamwork’

Just because people sit near each other in an office, don’t think they’re a strong unit. It might look harmonious but you’re equating team building with where someone has put the desks.

That proximity won’t lead to performance; we need to be looking at how they interact.

That doesn’t mean they’ll all be compliant because there needs to be disagreements to work out the best way to do something and ensure everyone’s voice is heard.

Don’t value comfort above courage

If everything feels nice and smooth then the real conversations probably aren't happening: A strong team will confront the brutal facts. We have to be brave enough to do that and to say and to do the difficult things.

Great teams will say the difficult things and they'll do the difficult things. It's not about just smooth sailing all the time.

Don’t reward ‘groupthink’

When you reward compliance, you will get errors. And when you reward compliance, that becomes the culture.

We’ve all been in that meeting when everybody is nodding along and it’s easy to think that everyone is in agreement.

But nodding along and staying quiet doesn’t mean that people are buying into the idea; it could be that they are too afraid to speak out – or that they just want to get out of the meeting.

Watch what happens when the meeting is over. Do people separate into groups? Do people start frantically typing on phones or messaging each other? They might be saying those things they wanted to say in the meeting but did not feel confident enough to voice.

Groupthink is a real performance killer. It results in watered down messaging and missing out on innovative ideas.

Don’t assume you have clarity of message

Don’t assume that just because something’s been said once, everyone understands it - everyone interprets messages slightly differently. A lack of clarity is a teamwork killer which leads to confusion, chaos and a lack of productivity.

Look at some of the most successful campaigns and you’ll find they repeat simple messages often, whether it’s the famous ‘Ronseal’ adverts or a politician who will do interview after interview and say the same thing - sometimes regardless of the question!

Change is a process, not an event. The rule of seven guideline in marketing says that people need to hear a message seven times before they really take it in. If that’s true of a new product then it’s going to be true within your own team.

Demanding high performance without psychological safety

We all want a strong team but quite simply, if nobody feels safe to step outside the boundaries then you won’t achieve it.

A strong team requires an environment where everyone up to and especially a leader, is willing to learn. It is about ensuring people feel safe to contribute, safe to pick up an idea and most importantly, safe to challenge each other.

Pressure without safety doesn’t raise standards, it lowers them. It sets people running for the hills because our brains are naturally wired to protect us.

It’s increasingly important during tough times, when a fear to challenge the status quo could be a bigger risk to the sustainability of an organisation than letting things get a bit messy.

It’s when you really need to have that growth catalyst to ensure survival that psychological safety becomes ever more essential.

But this shouldn’t be confused with comfort. Strong teams are built by leading people in a way where they feel empowered to challenge and to put forward new ideas.