Teamwork is a winning formula
Posted on 1st March 2024 at 09:17
As I write this, much of the nation is gripped by the Euros 2020. You may or may not be a football fan but either way you can’t help but be impressed when a team packed full of international superstars gets beaten by minnows.
Switzerland haven’t won a knockout tie at a major football tournament since the 1938 World Cup. But with a team whose most famous player is Granit Xhaka (who?), they managed to beat a France team packed full of superstars like Mbappe, Griezemann and Pogba (if you’re not a football fan, they are international footballing superstars). But how did this this happen and what’s it got to do with your business?
Well, the clue’s in the title of course, ‘teamwork’.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could grow our businesses without needing to employ staff? Anyone who has run a business knows just how much hard work is involved in managing staff. Of course, the reality is that despite the difficulties, it’s nearly always a team of people working together that leads to success. Conversely, the cause of business failure is often an inability to get a group of people pulling together towards the same goals, the French football team are simply the latest example of this.
So how do you take a group of free thinking, talented human beings with their own ideas and dreams and turn them into a group whose combined value is greater than the sum of the individual parts?
It all starts with having a common purpose. So often I talk to CEOs who have a clear vision for the business and believe that their staff understand and share that vision only to find that this isn’t the case at all. A clearly defined vision, mission and purpose statement will not only help your team understand and engage with the business but also appeal to your customers and potential customers. Get this wrong though and you’ll make things far worse….
We’ve helped businesses of all sizes create goals that bring people together and align their interests and we’ve seen that, when done right, the process itself can be the catalyst for turning disparate groups into powerful teams. When people feel respected, valued and have a clear understanding of their role in a business it’s incredible what can be achieved.
Whichever country wins Euro 2020 will be the one with the team that works best together, and has mutual understanding and respect. And we can be sure that companies with high performing teams, just as in football, have a much greater chance of success.
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