Courtesy of U.S. Soccer

What U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team Coach Bruce Arena can teach us about personal and business growth

Curt Mercadante
Jul 27, 2017 · 4 min read

In the summer of 2014, the United States (many of us, anyway) united around a team in a sport that many have long considered to be third- or fourth-tier in this country: Soccer.

The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team made (sort of) a run in the World Cup, losing to Belgium in a bid to make the Cup’s quarterfinal round.

As the excitement from that run wore off, however, so did the luster of head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. In subsequent years, the team underperformed.

This included a loss to lowly Jamaica in the semifinals of the 2015 Gold Cup (their first to a Caribbean team on home soil since 1969) and a number of other key losses. Some World Cup qualifying losses even cast doubt on the team’s ability to make the 2018 World Cup.

Klinsmann was fired. Bruce Arena — a former U.S. Men’s National Team head coach and the coach of the L.A. Galaxy— was brought on to resuscitate the team.

Under Arena, (as of the publication of this post) the team has a 14-game unbeaten streak and last night won a thrilling game against Jamaica to become the 2017 Gold Cup Champions.

So, Klinsmann won, Arena lost. Great.

What big lesson can we learn from the differences in approach between Klinsmann and Arena?

Simple: Arena allows the team to play to its strengths.

I’m a big fan of U.S. Soccer, but the U.S. men’s team simply doesn’t have the best ball handlers in the world, or the most skilled position players. What they do have is grit, speed, and physical ability.

Under Klinsmann, it was many times painful to watch the team make big runs in spurts, only to be reined in to a slow, possession game.

Klinsmann had a vision for how he wanted the team to play, no matter the skills or strengths of the actual team he had on the field. He played players out of their normal position. He clamped down on players who were used to being aggressive.

It caused a lack of cohesion and, as we’ve learned, much unhappiness and unrest on the team.

Arena, however, is realistic about the team he has on the field. He knows their strengths. As ESPN’s David Hirshey writes:

Arena’s instinct to value fundamental American soccer qualities like perseverance and resolve over complex tactical schemes and sophisticated positional interchanging is nothing more than a realistic assessment of his team’s limitations.

The results have been pretty clear. While the team hasn’t been perfect under Arena, it’s a striking (no pun intended) difference to see the team using brute strength and speed to overpower their opponents (like their recent 6–0 victory over Honduras).

Is it the beauty and sometimes numbingly-slow pace of Italian soccer? No.

Is it the robotic, mistake-free game played by the Germans? Nope.

But it let’s the Americans be Americans and play to their strengths.

The bestselling author and business coach John Maxwell writes in his book, No Limits:

“The only way I could help the people I was leading to do much better in their lives was to help them focus on their strengths more than their weaknesses. And—drumroll, please—the only way I could reach my capacity as a person and a leader was to practice and develop my strengths.”

The first step, writes Maxwell, was having the awareness of what his strengths are — and then maximizing those strengths, rather than focusing on the weaknesses.

Arena clearly has that awareness. Klinsmann did not.

In the venerable book, StrengthsFinder 2.0, author Tom Rath focuses on the importance of discovering your strengths, and working to maximize them.

Rath writes of the inherent falacy in the age old maxim, “you can be whatever you want to be, if you just try hard enough.”

By focusing on our strengths, however, Rath writes:

“You cannot be anything you want to be — but you can be a lot more of who you already are.”

The current U.S. Men’s National Soccer team is never going to be an Italy or a Germany or the kind of team Klinsmann wanted them to be.

Under Arena, however, they’re on their way to being the best American team they can be.

Do you have awareness of your strengths? Need to do a better job of maximizing those strengths, instead of focusing on your weaknesses?

Start the process by taking your StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment here.

The journal to awareness is the journal to growth and success.

Curt Mercadante

Written by

I help people define big, audacious objectives — and then crush them 🔥 I also host The Freedom Club Podcast.

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