Follow the leader
I have just spent the weekend in Wales watching their national rugby union team play against the Pacific Islands - what a game, not spectacular but a good game that showed great team work. Whilst watching this I kept sneaking the updates for the England game via my phone and cringed everytime it was announced around the Millenium Stadium that my beloved team were losing to the Argentinians. How much fun did my friends have as they watched the once mighty fall…
Back in Bridgend we watched the replay of the England game and as the game approached the final few minutes I was sitting there very quietly watching a team that was once top of its game fall to a side that a few years ago we would have trounced.
What went wrong? Well we all (that’s one English lass and a bar full of Welsh publicans and some of the Welsh rugby team *sigh* tough life eh?) decided that the problem with the team was:
- No clear leadership in both the backs and forwards
- Too much new blood and lacking in experience
- A side that lay in the shadow of our previous successes (fatigue?)
How was it that the opposition won? Maybe they found strength coming from the bottom and reaching to the top and that they were out to enjoy the game whatever the outcome. When you’re at the top the only way you can go is down if you don’t maintain your edge.
Resting on previous successes doesn’t keep you at the top. Consistently re-energising your team (that’s your colleagues and employees) is a must if you want to ensure continued success. Winning as a team isn’t the result of one person’s efforts - it’s a collective thing and everyone must play to their strengths so that you can apply it and achieve your goals (whatever they may be). If there is trouble at the top then this needs to be resolved before it impacts negatively on the future success of everyone involved. Separate the wheat from the chaff and focus on key personnel who want to help energise the cause.
Never overlook the potential threat of other teams - it’s these guys that make hay whilst the sun shines and fill spaces where others leave gaps; think HP/Compaq vs. Dell and look what Acer, IBM, et al did.
It’s a bit like a herd of buffalo - you are only as fast as your slowest member of the team.
Come on England… we’ve got Australia to play and I don’t want to have to face a certain someone if that goes pear-shaped!