Your team is 4 – 0 down at half-time

You may think that coming back from four-nil after half-time is a rather ambitious target, and you could be right; however, let’s consider a few scenarios in which this could be possible.

Let’s say that in the first half, the players assumed before they even took to the field that they couldn’t win. They knew that the other team was so good that that there was no point in trying. Each of them wished that they could crawl into the stands by stealth and cheer for the other side.

What do you think the score would have been?

I’m sure you’re thinking that that’s just too obvious – that of course they’d lose with that sort of attitude.

So let’s think about another scenario.

Suppose that instead of admitting defeat at the beginning, they decided to at least try to score. They didn’t know how many goals they could get, though they figured that a couple would enable them to save face. They still were pretty sure that they didn’t have a chance, being the underdog, but it wouldn’t have been fair to the fans, never mind the coach, if they didn’t at least put in some effort. It wasn’t half-hearted or all-out. It was somewhere in the middle.

You’re probably thinking that that approach wouldn’t work either. Nothing less than full-on would be effective, especially against a superior team.

Here’s a third scenario. See if you like this one any better.

Let’s say that in the second half the players all played like stars. They did all they could to be the best individual players on the pitch. The defenders guarded their end better than any defenders you’ve ever seen. The mid-fielders were all well-placed to intercept the ball as the opposing team attempted to drive it down field, and, of course, the strikers were always where they were supposed to be so that when the ball came their way, they could score a goal.

If your team played like that, how do you think they would have fared? Do you think that they would have been able to score five goals, while keeping the away team scoreless?

Here’s a different question.

How could the home team fail to win if each of them played like that?

The answer is that if they don’t play as a team, then they’ll lose as one. They have to work together if they are to win.  A team is no place for individuals; not even stars. Stars are chosen for their individual ability. And that’s why teams made up of just them often don’t do very well. Each of them is trying to outperform the other rather than standing back and letting someone else get the glory in exchange for a better team result.

The way for any team to come back from so far behind is to play so effectively as a team that they wrong-foot their opponents; that they shock the other team by their sudden cooperation, skill and effort. Such surprises can take an opposing team off-guard, especially for the first couple of goals. After that, they start to notice; but if the routine for scoring a goal is mixed up enough, several goals can be scored before the visiting team can figure out what has happened. And that’s how a team can come back from four-nil down, and still win.

There are lessons here for organizations.

The first is that in a team, there are no stars. That may sound counterintuitive, but one of the most important things about teamwork is that everyone is willing to take a backseat to the others. It’s a race to humility, rather than to superiority.

The second lesson is that teams work with the efficiency of a machine. That’s not to say that people are robots or are even treated like them. Instead, it means that each one understands his or her role, and how it affects everyone else. Too often, employees focus on their own jobs to the detriment of others. Work has to be redone because one person did his or her work in such a way that it created work for someone else. This should never happen, and it can’t if everyone has some knowledge of what everyone else is doing.

The third lesson is that teams have to be accountable as such. There is no way that anyone is going to take the blame for everyone else. On the other side of the coin, teams will fragment if one person gets the recognition for what they all have had a hand in doing; and that recognition has to be genuine. It can’t be an insincere, “I’d like to thank my team” like you see on the Academy Awards. All team members need to feel equally appreciated.

If you want your teams to win every time, then you have to do whatever is necessary to enable them to function like one.

A team is more than a collection of people with complementary skills sitting together in a real or virtual room. Both you and your organization must see them as nothing else.

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