1. Agree a mouth-watering goal. Agree a goal that excites the whole team because it will benefit each team member personally. The benefits don't have to be the same for each team member, but it is crucial that everyone needs to achieve this same goal in order to get their individual reward.

2.  Ensure everyone is needed. The goal needs to be something that everyone can contribute to. No spare parts, no passengers, an excellent team requires all team members' input and means everyone is clear on and respects each other's role.

3.  Make the goal concrete. If the goal is tangible and measurable you can make sure every ounce of effort is directed in the same direction. Clear goals are like magnets, pulling your team together and focusing energies through current challenges towards future success.

4.  Agree team ground rules. How do you need to behave in order to get the best out of each other? Be punctual? Empathetic? Give feedback? If everyone agrees to some ground rules it can prevent interpersonal problems from happening in the first place or at least make them much easier to resolve. Monitor and refine the rules regularly so they are relevant and they stick.

5.  Talk, talk and talk some more. Have fun but at the same time appreciate that a peak-performing team needs to have mutual understanding - where are we heading? What's working? What team rules do we need? What are we learning? Team talk is crucial to glue the team together and optimise performance.

6.  Tell it how you see it. The word 'feedback' tends to invoke an involuntary shudder from most of us, 'If you can spot something which might improve our performance, why on earth wouldn't you tell me? Don't waste a minute - tell me now so I can turn things around quickly.'  They took the sting out of feedback by viewing it purely as interesting information - it was up to the receiver to digest it and decide what to do with it.

7.  Beware 'commitment'. When people talk about poor team performers they typically question their commitment. Is the team member clear about what's expected of them? Are they aware about their current behaviours? What training or feedback do they need?

8.  Evaluate Performance.  Evaluate feedback and performance how have we done and what can we do better.

9.  Have strong belief. Strong beliefs breed positive behaviours. Why you are becoming a great team? Why can you achieve your goal? Why is it so important to you all? Share your thoughts regularly as a team, write them down, keep referring to them.

10. Mind your 'p's and 'q's: Time and again research shows that what interests people to perform above and beyond average performance is not money, but what the psychologist Herzberg called motivators - things like recognition, praise, interesting work. Having a goal that benefits everyone is a crucial ingredient, but while you are on the journey towards the goal simple acknowledgements of effort, thank yous and pats on the back are hugely powerful.

Gold medal-winning tips taken from Ben Hunt-Davies and Harriet Beveridge