How Great Teams Make It Hard to Pick Winners

The Good Problem to Have

Every year at B:Side, we gather our entire team for a special moment—the announcement of The B:Side Way Award. This isn’t your average corporate accolade, handed out based on superficial metrics or favoritism. It’s about celebrating the person who exemplifies the essence of what we stand for: courage, integrity, accountability, humility, and an unwavering dedication to going above and beyond.

But here’s the thing: Each year, it becomes increasingly difficult to select a single winner. It’s not because our standards have slipped or because we’ve become less discerning. Quite the opposite. The reason it’s so hard to choose is because excellence has become embedded in our culture. We find ourselves with the wonderful problem of having too many deserving candidates.

This situation is exactly what we aim for as leaders. It means our team is strong, our standards are clear, and our culture is thriving. It means we’re building something special.

Building an Elite Team

There’s a persistent myth in leadership circles that elite teams just happen. They don’t. Elite teams are carefully built, patiently nurtured, and deliberately led. They’re the product of consistent, intentional effort and an unwavering commitment to excellence from the top down.

Elite teams aren’t defined by titles or hierarchy. They’re defined by behavior. Everyone at every level is expected to own their actions fully, both the wins and the losses. In our culture at B:Side, accountability is everything. If someone sees a problem, they don’t wait for instructions—they take ownership, find solutions, and act decisively.

The result is a team where leaders emerge at all levels. Leadership, in our view, isn’t about who has authority or seniority. It’s about who steps up, who leads by example, and who makes everyone around them better. It’s why, year after year, we have multiple candidates deserving of recognition.

Power is Most Effective When Shared

When building an elite culture, many leaders fall into a common trap: hoarding power and control. They think the key to strong teams is strong centralized leadership. In reality, the opposite is true.

Real power and influence grow when shared. By decentralizing decision-making, we create teams of empowered individuals. Each person feels a genuine sense of ownership. They know their contributions matter deeply because they’re directly responsible for outcomes.

At B:Side, we constantly push decisions downward. We trust our team to use good judgment. And yes, sometimes they make mistakes. But the benefit far outweighs the risk. The trust we show empowers them to act with confidence and creativity. This trust builds loyalty, commitment, and deep engagement.

Excellence as a Daily Discipline

Elite teams aren’t elite because they have a good quarter or one great year. Elite teams understand excellence isn’t a goal; it’s a habit.

Excellence at B:Side is about daily discipline. It’s about showing up every single day, ready to put in the work. It’s about making the right decisions consistently—even when no one is watching.

We don’t wait for big moments to act courageously. We create an environment where courage is normalized, where integrity isn’t exceptional, but expected. It’s a culture of small, incremental choices that compound over time into extraordinary results.

Our teams don’t measure themselves against each other—they measure against our shared standards. The goal isn’t merely to outdo a peer, but to continually raise the collective bar. This healthy competition ensures that our growth is continuous and collective.

Ambition Balanced with Humility

Ambition is critical for any high-performing team. We want people who dream big, push boundaries, and refuse to settle. But unchecked ambition can easily spiral into arrogance or toxic rivalry.

The secret to managing elite teams is balancing ambition with humility. It’s celebrating wins openly, but also quickly moving on to the next challenge. It’s reminding ourselves—and each other—that no victory is permanent, and there’s always room to improve.

Humility is our team’s hidden superpower. It keeps us grounded, prevents complacency, and fosters continuous learning. A humble team is curious, open to feedback, and resilient in the face of setbacks. At B:Side, humility isn’t weakness; it’s strength. It gives us perspective, keeps egos in check, and builds unity.

The Power of a Shared Mission

A powerful team requires a powerful mission. Our mission isn’t just words on a poster or a feel-good slogan. It’s a deeply held belief that gives purpose to every task, no matter how small.

Teams bound by a common mission naturally support each other. They don’t undermine each other for personal glory. Instead, they’re willing to sacrifice individual recognition for collective success.

At B:Side, this collective mission is part of why choosing a single award winner is tough. Everyone understands and contributes to our shared goals. When we succeed, we succeed together. When we fail, we regroup together. The unity created by a shared mission is powerful—and makes recognizing individual excellence challenging but rewarding.

Turning Difficulty into Inspiration

The hardest part of leadership in an elite organization is managing recognition fairly. When everyone is great, how do you pick just one?

The answer is: You don’t—at least not in spirit. Yes, you choose a winner because that’s part of recognition. But you also celebrate the difficulty of the decision openly. You communicate that the very challenge of selecting just one winner is proof of how far your team has come.

By doing this, you ensure everyone feels valued, recognized, and appreciated. You make it clear that winning the award is symbolic—representing the collective excellence of the entire team.

Why Hard Choices Are Signs of Success

Choosing a single person for The B:Side Way Award is always tough because it symbolizes our culture at its best. When multiple people rise to that standard, it means we’re achieving our goals.

As leaders, our task is to encourage and amplify this culture. Our difficulty in choosing a single winner should be a point of pride. It means we have built a team where excellence is normal, leadership is widespread, and standards are collectively upheld.

It means we’ve built something extraordinary.

The Ultimate Goal

At B:Side, our ultimate aim isn’t the annual award itself—it’s to continuously raise the bar. We want the difficulty of choosing an award winner to become even greater next year. Because when selecting one standout individual feels almost impossible, we know we’ve succeeded in building not just an elite team, but an elite culture.

And that’s exactly The B:Side Way.