Opponents are Great Team-builders January 5, 2011
Posted by lrubin39 in : Leadership Tips , trackbackHere’s a great leadership tip if you’re looking to build a stronger team.
Throughout my athletic career, I’ve had teammates that were very different from me. We came from different worlds, had different interests, and approached life from very different perspectives. If we met on the street, there would be no apparent reason for us to get along.
How do you take motley crews and get them to work together as a team? When you can’t find similarities among them, you identify a common opponent working against them.
As Penn State football players, each of us had a common desire – to defeat our opponent. Whether it was Notre Dame, or USC, or Michigan, the mutual desire to defeat our common opponent forced us to work together as a team.
As it turns out, it was our opponent that created the bond.
You’ve seen it before. When a threat challenges the welfare of those that normally are divided, that same common threat can be the catalyst that actually draws people closer.
Identify and leverage your common opponent to help build a great team.
“We must all hang together or most assuredly we shall hang separately.” - Benjamin Franklin
Comments»
Lee – You offer an interesting perspective. As a business owner and former athlete I think I will use the perspective of the opponent as the common thread in my next team building session. Your insight and comments are always interesting and well thought out. Good job. Keep it up!!!
Lee, very interesting insight that encompasses both natural and spiritual worlds. Thanks for putting wisdom in a way that even a child can understand and use in their personal development.
Amen!!!
Happy New Year Lee – Glad to see that you’re still inspiring others each day.
I have observed what you shared in your blog over and over again. There are few things as galvanizing to an “us” as having a “them.” So many businesses woefully under-leverage the power of competition and grossly under-educate their workforces about how they’re positioned relative to competitors. Can you imagine playing against a team without ever studying film on them?
Healthy people and organizations are usually externally-focused…on customers, competition, suppliers, partners and key external developments. Unhealthy people and organizations are internally-focused (and self-absorbed in their own conflicts). Organizations and teams that achieve success too often become dismissive front-runners. They drift into arrogance and lose their external focus…right as they become “them” for more hungry competitors. I saw this at Compaq, when IBM was “them.” When Compaq became #1 in PC’s, we became “them” for Dell…who actually EXECUTED what we KNEW was necessary to keep winning.
It’s a rare feat to repeat as champions, and few winners in the first wave of of any technology remain pre-eminent in the next wave. Think AOL….the 800 lb. gorilla of the dial-up universe. Arrogance didn’t carry them to victory (or relevance) in the broadband world.
Years ago, a group of us benchmarked the heavy equipment manufacturer Komatsu to understand why they were out-competing Caterpillar and taking market share. Their shop floor employees all wore shirts that (when translated) read “Grind Caterpillar into dust.”
Keep on modeling the power of “us” and reminding those with who you work about the real identity of “them.”
Warmest Wishes for 2011,
JDK
Lee -
How true!
The entry of Geico into New Jersey galvanized the transformation efforts at Travelers of New Jersey when I was there. We loved to hate that little Gecko!
Happy New Year
Debi Carter