Managing a sales team with diverse backgrounds for several years and closely collaborating with other team members to achieve team success, I’ve been thinking of various aspects of team management and leadership. Recently, my focus has shifted to understanding how to drive growth through team success, emphasizing the significant role of emotional intelligence (EQ) for leaders.
One of my managers, who supported me greatly during my transition from a local role to a regional one where I began my leadership journey, recently shared a book with me and sent a copy to my address. While I was already grateful for her support, I was quite excited about having such a guidebook in my hands. To be honest, even though I’ve read a lot on this topic, I haven’t yet come across or read this particular book. Maybe it’s because I’m more of a fan of football than rugby. However, what the All Blacks do is a typical requirement for the teams we are a part of today.
The most attractive part of the book for me was a simple sentence that most leaders are already aware of but may not be sure how to implement for their team:
‘The question is usually not how well each person performs, but how well they work together.’
When managing a team, it’s quite normal to have both low and high performers. As long as they support each other and work towards their mutual goals as a team, this can result in average results for overall team success. The key here is to cultivate a culture within the team that fosters collaboration, allowing them to work well together.
In my experience, I’ve had excellent, low, and average performers. While we mostly achieved our goals, there were months when we fell behind targets, prompting us to think about how we could improve overall team success. While high performers were content, average performers were striving to elevate their performance, and low performers were demotivated. As leaders, we pondered how we could support each team member and help them reach their goals.
Despite having all the necessary training and tools, after a few discussions and reviews, we concluded that implementing a buddy and mentorship system could be beneficial. Through this method, we paired team members based on their skills and requirements. They could approach each other, especially in times of need, for support, and the more experienced or better-performing individual would serve as a mentor. This approach not only enhanced the culture of collaboration but also helped everyone improve their results, ultimately leading to team success.
This case led me to another conclusion, inspired by a quote from John Wooden:
‘A player who makes the team great is better than a great player.’
As I mentioned an African proverb in one of my previous articles: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ For team success, we must undoubtedly go together to achieve sustainable growth. This can only happen with team players who contribute to the team’s success rather than solely focusing on their individual goals.
Another insight from the book highlights the importance of the team over individual performers or results. While results are crucial, it’s not always necessary to exclusively focus on them. There have been periods in my life when I concentrated solely on results, perhaps influenced by my cultural background. In my culture, we have a saying, ‘All’s well that ends well,’ implying not to fixate on details as long as the end result is favourable.
If you are managing a team and fixating on results, you might overlook important factors and potentially harm collaboration and team spirit. However, by focusing on the team—evaluating their feelings, ensuring their well-being, promoting collaboration, and providing what they need to perform well as a team—you address critical aspects. Do they feel exactly what they need to feel as part of the organization or part of the team? These are the questions we must answer every day to foster a high-performing team. If we answer these questions well enough, the results will naturally align with expectations. In the book, this is emphasized as prioritizing the team over obsessing about the results.
In essence, this book predominantly underscores the significance of fostering a team-oriented mindset, acting as a cohesive member of the team, and embracing the values of the organization. This is precisely how the All Blacks established a culture of enduring success that persists to this day. Unlike many modern clubs that might invest millions in individual heroes, the All Blacks understand that it’s not an individual performer but every team member, from players to cleaning staff, working collectively toward team success.
The success culture witnessed in teams like the All Blacks can only be cultivated with authentic leadership. Real leaders set the right tone, nurture team spirit, and keep it going over time by creating a positive environment for the team. They strategically place the right people in the right roles at the right time, fostering team growth and eliminating elements that hinder progress.
