Ganders, Geese and Getting the Team To Care
(The Problem With Individual Contributors)
We’ve established that YOU need to care. Not just about the end result, but about the team being better as a collective whole, and about each individual. To be honest, thats the easy part. Now for the hard part. The part that takes patience and persistence.
In the business of management, or coaching, sometimes the end of the month or a game is crucial for obvious reasons. Budgets to hit, individual bonuses to manage, new clients to connect with to enter into the program or identifying any new strategies that need implementation.
Here’s a couple scenarios of teammates who don’t care:
How about a .375 average hitter walking into the managers office after a tough loss and gloating about his base hits. Or a self-absorbed wide receiver smiling at a press conference in his outlandish suit because he scored 3 touchdowns while the team lost. Or, to reference a recent athlete, a wide receiver getting a lot of press because of his million dollar watch he wore on the field rather than the press discussing the team’s strategies moving forward.
When I hear things like this I can almost see the lights flicker and the roof shake and start to implode. As a result, I’m immediately reminded of the Japanese samurai suicide ritual of seppuku where a samurai plunges his sword into himself. That’s how the coach feels. Like everything they’re working for is for nought.
The Rising Tide Raises All Ships
How do we change this? Well, frankly, we have to get them to care about more than just themselves. We have to get them to see that even though they did well, they will do even better if the team and environment around them is just as good. What we’re saying to this person here is “whats good for your teammate or coworker is also good for you”. Its almost blind faith for that player or colleague if you think about it.
We’re saying that the good of the collective whole is good for the individual who is struggling or succeeding as well. In other words, if what’s good for the goose is good for the gander then certainly what’s good for the gander must be good for the goose, right? The team needs to understand that the rising tide does raise all boats.
This mindset shift starts at the top though. We as coaches and managers need to implement ways for our excelling individual contributors to be willing to help those who struggle. Why would they do this? Well, its about creating that intoxicating and addicting winning atmosphere.
The New Zealand All Blacks possess one of the winningest cultures in sports history. Learn how they win time and time again in the book Legacy
Get Them To Care About Winning and Being The Best
Its our job to get them bought into being apart of something. We need to constantly remind them how important winning as a group is. If you have a few successful players or colleagues, that’s great. Although, if the culture is toxic because the team is losing, believe me, that person will not be there for long and neither will anyone who had potential.
As for a high producer, they may act like they don’t care but believe me, they feel it. By the way, if that high producer is good at what they do it probably means they’re competitive. Competitive people like competition and sometimes we have to fabricate that competition. If everyone else’s performance is subpar, they won’t feel challenged and they’ll feel stagnant.
Picture that winning group: If the team is successful as a group then the culture shifts to a tone of negative failure to one of positive success. This is a culture where everyone is walking a bit taller and feeling the vibe of being on top. They’re feeling the vibe of winning. Its intoxicating whether they want to admit it or not. Even that successful individual contributor is walking a bit taller and enjoying being apart of something. They’ll more than likely stick around longer and be willing to help as a result too.
Celebrating Small Wins
While a group is losing, its hard for them to see that this place of success exists but that is up to us to remove their blindfolds for them. While the end game IS about winning, sometimes we can pull out other metrics to celebrate small wins. Maybe get the team rallied behind base hits, consecutive catches, sales streaks, client retention, whatever. Anything to shift the culture from the negative feeling losing brings to feeling positive about being good somewhere. Stack up enough of those small “W’s” and big “W’s” fall in right behind.
Once all of this begins to flow, what happens is that the struggling individual will get swallowed into the successful whole (hole?). Especially if you’ve built a culture that relies on one another and has an interest in each other’s success.
Is it that easy? Just get them rallied behind being the best and the importance of group wins? Maybe, but getting and keeping buy-in needs water and constant cultivation. Its a philosophy to believe in and in time it will become contagious.
