In the resources sector—where projects are high-stakes, timelines are tight, and teams often form temporarily for shutdowns, outages, or capital projects—leadership plays an outsized role in shaping outcomes. At the heart of every successful operation lies a team that not only executes with precision but does so with a shared sense of purpose, safety, and accountability.

And that begins with leadership. From Day One.

 

Why Culture Must Be Engineered, Not Left to Chance

Culture is not just about posters on the wall or slogans in a toolbox meeting—it’s about what gets done, how it gets done, and what gets tolerated. When teams are brought together for a short window, there’s no luxury of time to “let culture evolve.” It must be deliberately set from the outset.

Leaders in these moments aren’t just managing—they’re shaping culture in real time. Their tone, behaviour, and communication become the blueprint for how the team will interact, resolve conflicts, prioritise safety, and pursue performance.

In short-duration, high-pressure deployments—like a 14-day refinery shutdown or a 60-day mine dewatering project—the tone set by leaders within the first few hours often determines whether the operation will run smoothly or spiral into inefficiency and rework.

 

Pulling a Team Together Quickly: What High-Performance Leaders Do Differently

Here are five actions leaders can take to forge a high-performing, achievement-oriented team—even with strangers and tight timeframes.

  1. Set the ‘Why’ Before the ‘What’

People work harder and safer when they understand the purpose behind their task. Leaders who contextualise the work—“This shutdown is mission-critical to keep the plant online through peak season”—help people connect their actions to a broader goal.

  1. Model the Behaviour You Want

Your team watches everything. If you cut corners on PPE or dismiss a quality concern, they’ll do the same. If you show up prepared, communicate clearly, and own your decisions, they will too. Respect is earned in the early minutes of leadership.

  1. Establish Ground Rules for Communication

On short-term jobs, communication is often reactive. But high-performing teams get proactive. Set the cadence for toolbox talks, escalation paths, and how bad news should be handled. “Early is always better than polished.” Culture thrives when people feel safe to speak up.

  1. Reinforce Performance AND Psychological Safety

Don’t pit safety against production. Instead, show how they reinforce each other. Share stories of past mistakes, near-misses, and the lessons they drove. Celebrate not just the wins, but the courage to report hazards or ask tough questions.

  1. Close the Loop

Leadership isn’t a set-and-forget exercise. Check in, adjust, and reflect. Encourage feedback, make visible improvements, and show appreciation. In short windows, momentum builds fast—but so can fatigue. Leaders must actively tune the team every day.

 

Why This Matters More in Short-Term Deployments

In longer-term teams, culture and trust can evolve gradually. But in short-term deployments:

  • There’s no buffer for dysfunction.
  • People often haven’t worked together before.
  • The complexity of the task (and often fatigue and risk) is high.
  • There’s a hard stop.

In this context, the leader is the culture. What they accept becomes the standard. What they prioritise becomes the focus.

The most effective shutdowns and high-intensity projects I’ve seen weren’t just technical triumphs—they were human ones. People left tired but proud. No one got hurt. No corners were cut. And the client’s trust was reinforced.

That starts with leadership. It starts with culture. And it starts on Day One.

“One of the major risks we identified in the Pilbara during my time as the Divisional Manager at Goodline, was the capability of our supervisors and Management team to step up into a true leadership role to enable them to build teams and teamwork quickly. 

As a company that engaged a large number of contract FIFO for short periods of time, our ability to get the team up to speed was essential to successful delivery.  With Peter and CLT’s help, we were able to develop our supervisor group that has resulted in the company’s highest number of productive hours combined with the lowest safety incidents the branch had ever achieved in a month.  Our supervisors learned skills and techniques to develop and lead their teams more effectively. 

One thing that really stood out from the work that Peter and his team did was the immediate engagement and buy-in from the leadership team.  It was not ‘just another ‘coaching session’ management are forcing us to participate in’. Peter’s ability to assess each supervisor/leader quickly, provide personalised feedback on their strengths and opportunities, and then to offer each of them focused and directed hints to assist, was really impressive.  It was a great experience with a great result.”

Richard F.  Goodline Port Hedland: