How to Building A Winning Team Culture: The Team Culture Arrow (2023)

Building a winning team culture can be a challenging task, even for the most motivated of leaders.

Have you ever said any of the folloiwng to yourself as a coach, business, or team leader?

Why can’t I get “insert employee or athlete name here” to show up to work/practice on time?

Nobody seems excited to come to work/practice anymore?

How do I get them motivated to take pride in what they are doing?

Building a winning culture can have many positive benefits. These can include (HEART) Humility, Enthusiasm, Ambition, Respect, and Trust. These team traits oftentimes inspire a contagious, positive, team first attitude.

On the other end of the spectrum, a toxic team culture may experience low levels of pride, effort, commitment, and motivation. A lack of discipline and complete disregard for coaches/superiors may also rear its ugly head.

Reflecting Back

Think for a moment of any team, group, or organization you have been a part of. It could be a high school or college sports team. It could be an academy or military recruit class. It could be your current or past work environments.

Was/Is it a winning culture or toxic culture?

Was there an emphasis on building a winning team culture?

How to build a winning team culture in sports may require slightly different tactics than those used to build a winning team culture in business. Though the overarching goal of positive, team-driven success may be the same, the approach may be slightly different.

I had the honor of learning the arrow metaphor from a good friend of mine who ran a $5 Billion dollar company in the early 2000's. Through his leadership and inspiration, the company’s growth was astronomical.

He taught that in its most rudimentary form, any team environment can be represented by an arrow. Or more specifically, The Team Culture Arrow.

The Tip

5–15% of the arrow is the tip.

These are the leaders, the captains, the hardest workers, the go-getters, etc. This group is self-motivated with high levels of discipline and effort. Coaches, bosses, teammates and co-workers have full trust in them.

They will run through walls if you ask them.

The tip of the arrow-ers are accountable. They do not complain, blame, or make excuses. They bring a positive can-do attitude to the environment. There is no a sense of entitlement -rather, a sense of gratitude — they view success as something that is earned.

The Back of the Arrow

5–15% is the back of the arrow.

This group is at the opposite end of the spectrum of the tip of the arrow. These are the blamers, complainers, cheaters, excuse makers, etc. These individuals bring a toxic, negative, me-first attitude to the team environment.

There is a lack of discipline and work-ethic/effort. They may have a strong sense of entitlement. It usually seems to be somebody else’s fault when things don’t go as planned. They may lash out in times of high stress and duress.

The Middle of the Arrow

What direction does the team culture go?

70–90% is the middle of the arrow.

This is where team culture exists.

With a very strong tip of the arrow group and weak back of the arrow group, the middle will become a feeder/model for the tip. They will strive to follow the lead of those at the tip.

They gain the trust of their peers, teammates, coaches, and bosses through hard work, discipline, and a team first attitude. In essence they work toward becoming tip of the arrow-ers. This can lead to a successful winning team culture.

On the other end of the spectrum, a loud, contagious, back of the arrow group, especially when leadership positions are involved, can pull the middle of the arrow in the wrong direction.

If complaining, blaming, excuses making, and a me-first entitled attitude is allowed to run rampant, the culture can become toxic, and the arrow goes backward.

In Other Words

Where Do You Want To Be?

Building a winning culture often begins when the tough questions are asked and addressed.

Now comes your moment of truth. Think back for a moment of any team or group you are or have been a part of. Sports, work, recreational, etc.

Where do you think you were/are on the arrow?

Where do you think your teammates feel/felt you are on the arrow?

Where do you want to be on the arrow?

When we teach this to sports teams, programs, business environments, and academies, it allows those in attendance to personalize. That’s the beauty of the arrow.

There is no finger pointing — YOU are a blamer. YOU are a complainer. YOU are an excuse-maker. YOU bring a toxic, negative attitude.

Rather, it allows each of us to personalize where we are on the arrow.

Quick Tip: Try this social experiment. Count the number of complaints you hear in a week. The following week, count the number of gratitudes you hear in a week. Then compare.

If we are open-minded and recognize we bring back-of-the-arrow traits to the table, we can work on making the change. We can take advantage of neuroscience, or more specifically, neuroplasticity. Here we can start rewiring our brain with tip of the arrow traits, while minimizing back of the arrow behaviors.

Don’t go fishing for sharks

To use the great line from Dr Robert Schuller’s excellent book The Wisdom of Robert Schuller:

“If you wanted to go fishing for tuna, what would you use for bait?
If you wanted to go fishing for sharks, what would you use for bait (2)?”

Well, when it comes to your head and approach to life, shark bait is blaming, complaining, making excuses, chronic negativity, entitlement etc.

When you hear the term rewiring your brain (or neuroplasticity) exactly what does that mean?

In his excellent book The Neuroscience of Mindfulness, author Stan Rodski draws parallels between neuroplasticity and cutting new pathways into an overgrown grass field.

He expresses “neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change itself by learning and creating new pathways. To imagine how these neuronal pathways are ‘worn’ into the brain, look at the image on the next page (a grass field with a path cut into it). When we learn something new, the brain ‘cuts’ a neuronal pathway between the pieces of information it receives (like a new path to your house). To maintain the path, we need to keep repeating the task (keep walking on or mowing the same path). Such pathways are at work when we automatically respond to things without stopping to think. If we do something new or in a different way, we start to change the pathways; this is neuroplasticity.

Just like our brain needs energy to use explicit memory, it requires energy to change. MRI studies, SPECT scan studies and EEG studies confirm that mindfulness is an excellent way to trigger positive neuroplastic changes. These studies show improvements in ability to control thoughts and emotions, mood, wellbeing, self-esteem, concentration, sleep, health, memory and much more (1).”

Time to key up the Herb Brooks speech in the movie Miracle, “This is your time!….Now go out and take it!”

For more Building a Winning Team Culture articles be sure to check out our blog (here) or pick up your copy of Building a Winning Culture in High School Sports….and Beyond today.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next post in this series: Blind Spots.

References

1. Rodski S. The Neuroscience of Mindfulness. Harper Collins. 2019.
2. Schuller R. The Wisdom of Robert Schuller. Random House Publishing. New York, NY. 1981.