“Fear of failure holds you back!” declared the current President of Cadillac, Johan de Nysschen, gesturing widely to a crowd made up of the best and brightest of the next generation of entrepreneurs. In his Speaker Series talk, de Nysschen stressed the importance of perfection and the importance of “sweating the small stuff.” In particular, he had some very interesting advice on building and maintaining a high performing team that functions smoothly and makes decisions cost and time effectively. De Nysschen encouraged acceptance of failure, stating that “good is the enemy of great.” Complacency is the enemy for any team seeking to expand and maximize efficiency. He also made sure to add that, even though perfection is the goal, it should not be the lifeblood of the team. A healthy team has an equally healthy work ethic – this means a good work and play balance and a sane and balanced approach to both of these aspects of life.

Conflict is something every team will experience. And de Nysschen obviously has had experience with his own fair share of mediation in his team at Cadillac – any high performing team with talented and passionate members will experience this sort of rift within the group at some point in time. Rather than shy away from conflict, de Nysschen embraces it as a healthy and normal part of creativity and innovation. Innovation can only be sustained when different points of view are accepted and integrated in a smart and effective way. A team devoid of any conflict is likely to be devoid of the groundbreaking innovation that high performing teams like de Nysschen employs.

However, it is important to note that conflict is not the same as “fighting” within a team. When decisions are made, it is vital that the team embraces the change being enacted and should strive to make this decision translate into organic action. De Nysschen stressed the importance of this sort of collaboration. This combination of challenge and teamwork is an essential ratio that any high performing team must learn to craft.

Another thing de Nysschen emphasized was incentivizing and awarding talent and good performance. By attracting top talent and providing them with top notch resources, you open the door to numerous possibilities and untapped potential. And with this, we look to the participants of this year’s International Conference, the top talent of tomorrow. After meeting this year’s participants, it is clear that the future of de Nysschen’s team model will only gain strength. The team building model presented by de Nysschen will definitely carry on into the teams of this year’s IC.