Me to We mindset: How putting the team first is the selfish thing to do
Challenging misconceptions about team success and three ways to achieve synergy
Describing a successful team, outside of wins and losses, has become an elaborate art. Supporters may only get to see the W/L/T columns while not being exposed to the countless idiosyncrasies occurring behind the scenes. The successful teams may each have unique characteristics but over the course of a long season, they all share a few homogenous principles.
Often, players in team sports fail to appreciate the practical merits of adopting a personal philosophy of team over self. Individual players benefit, prosper, and improve due to the team’s rising success. Astute players, no matter how self-absorbed, understand this truth and acknowledge that the performance of the entire team directs the path of their own personal success. In this respect, self-serving individuals are better off, over the course of a season, concentrating their efforts on cooperative, collective achievement.
Because of this concerted realization, members of the team notice that the group’s augmented success increases their individual stock and bargaining power. (Side note: Increased bargaining ability is better exemplified for players outside of a single-entity structure, like Major League Soccer). Due to their accruing rise in value, young talents are hand-picked from successful organizations and purchased for premium prices. Nevertheless, this self-effacing image of interdependency is a resisting force against vain, contemporary thinking.
The modern-day archetype of a professional athlete is often seen as a Herculean, solo warrior conquering all challengers while seeking admiration and esteem through perpetual self-promotion. While this Hollywoodesque representation may be sexy and easy to market, it does a considerable disservice to the humble, stoic qualities of many elite competitors. Instead, this commercially driven perception reveals what we have come to worship in today’s culture: egomaniacal immortality.
But self-preservation and promotion are not characteristics to condemn. They appear when the sport you love turns into the precious thing that puts food on your family’s table…or gives you tons of Twitter followers, depending on your priorities. Professionals continue to operate with a slight degree of selfishness but the outstanding teams harness it and extract the esprit de corps out of their players.
It’s difficult to ask professional competitors to check their ego — that juicy, captivating nugget of amusement for viewers — at the door. (After all, self-pride is an impelling force for most high-level athletes). Some players misinterpret the message and feel as though their originality and personal expression is being threatened. Not surprising. Most professionals grow up learning from parents, coaches and mentors that masterful differentiation translates to “standing out.” The perception of success then becomes distorted, individualistic and egotistic. Standing out from the pack often leads to accolades, which later become the tangible, dangling carrots athletes desire.
Thus, the difficulty lies in persuading the self-absorbed players, despite a lifetime of psychological conditioning, to refocus their egos and not attempt to discard them. One actionable way to achieve this is by dividing an excess of responsibilities throughout the group. Assigning meaningful responsibilities feeds ravenous egos while utilizing individual talents for the welfare of the team. An old proverb states, “A problem shared is a problem halved.” Organizations who apportion demanding responsibilities more and reinvest all credit back into team, will most likely be successful.
This approach permits players to work with autonomous agency while advancing team goals. The complexity resides in directing the player’s unique, creative faculties (differentiating X-factors) towards serving the team. The incentives for buying into a team mentality, at least in soccer, are endless, and yet some clubs are still unable to assimilate and unite.
Is the sum greater than its parts or is this Aristotelian phrase just the empty speech we’ve all come to expect from coaches and players behind a mic? To the standard viewer, individual talent and ingenuity make up a team and as a result, must determine its future destiny. Others, like myself, agree with Aristotle and believe the stream of influence flows in the opposite direction: An integrated team mentality contains more potential in maintaining and achieving individual aims.
The million dollar question remains: how does a team accomplish this synergy? The answers are wide-ranging and organizations address the solutions in diverse fashions.
Contract Structures
Clubs can compel players to support a team-oriented ethos by stipulating bonus structures. An unconventional tactic may be to have individual player bonuses “trigger” only in the event of set upon, short-term team goals being reached. Adding separate team goals into a player’s contract can motivate adherence to a shared direction.
Taking this hypothetical example a step further, players should be authorized to choose, or not, to substitute one or two of their personal bonuses for higher-figure team bonuses. For example, a striker can elect to replace his $10,000/20-goal bonus for a $15,000/per 10 team wins bonus. This either/or strategy engages the player to make a sovereign judgment and either bet on himself as an individual or the team as an entity.
This produces a pseudo stock exchange for each club; financial investment from the players and staff communicates their associated level of commitment. Betting on the team’s success is a win-win for both player and club. The underlying premise: Higher the risk, higher the reward (individually and collectively). The greater the cumulative investment, the greater the returns. This method is just one of many theoretical models available to quantify how much “buy-in” is amongst the players.
In current MLS contracts, stipulations/bonuses can include something like: “If Player (X) starts 50% or more of the matches in the season, then Player (X’s) contract renews for the following year.” This bonus structure encourages egocentric mentalities amongst the players who are then inclined to focus on themselves rather than results.
Winning and losing in soccer hinges on an unpredictable, fluid interchange of 22 separate actors all attempting to control the movements of a single erratic sphere in a confined area. It makes perfect sense that in this type of competition, it is more constructive to move as one unified force of 11 rather than several autonomous bodies all struggling to prevail independently of each other. In this way, the sum is greater than its parts. One united group working together holds a substantial competitive advantage over the 11 single, self-serving philosophies.
With the quality of talent in MLS increasing year-to-year, teams are being forced to differentiate themselves by any means possible. Obscure ideas like solidarity and chemistry are sure to be brushed aside in some locker rooms. Yet, now more than ever, there is an elevated importance to develop a team identity: A club-wide personality which permeates the field, the fans, and the city. For successful teams, this kind of intricate characteristic is necessary to jump from good to great. And great teams require great leaders.
Leadership
Having leaders who, vocally and by example, direct recognition back to the team is a subtle yet profound asset. The anointed stars of the team provide a good implication of the current atmosphere within the locker room through their interview responses. If the leaders consistently revert media attention back to the team, indications are that the collective buy-in and morale in the squad are high.
A common rebuttal to the “we-before-me” view suggests that individuality, creativity and exceptional talents become watered down and stifled by a team-centric mentality. The concern is that movements may become mechanical and the game itself seem robotic. On the contrary, skilled players feel permitted to use their specific gifts to improve the team while having their psychological temperament grounded in the locker room.
Tight-knit locker rooms have a way of self-regulating selfish habits and often, contentious matters get straightened out before players ever step onto the pitch. If behavioral issues emerge on the field, typically it’s traced back to a shortage of camaraderie within the squad. Brotherhoods and sisterhoods by no means imply victories but it’s tough to reject their usefulness over divided parties. Strengthening the bonds inside the locker room is a duty that should not be overlooked .
Team Bonding
Some teams adopt a populist, less orthodox means of achieving symbiosis: the players all get drunk together.
I advocate the infrequent, responsible, and legal use of this exercise. Many players would admit, although perhaps not publicly, they’ve seen this endeavor have positive effects on team chemistry. Without question, being irresponsible delinquents can lead to destructive consequences. That being said, it’s a worthwhile experiment.
Guys let their man buns down and air out their proverbial laundry. Conflicts get handled as brothers, teammates and allies (albeit tipsy ones). Players are ready to come back to training the next week with clear minds and stronger ties between them.
Going out as a team doesn’t guarantee cohesion, and it does not require adult beverages. Nonetheless, it’s important for teammates to interact away from the training ground, where competitive attitudes can cloud genuine communication. Movies, go-karting, paintball, barbecues and dinners are a few useful examples for getting players into conversations outside the workplace. The primary objective of these off-site rendezvous is not to make teammates into best friends, but rather to increase the collective buy-in.
All of these models are mere tools to increasingly strengthen a cohesive arsenal within a club. Team success begets individual success, but first, mindsets must shift from “me” to “we.”
