Speaking of Leadership®, Vol. 2, No. 4
Phil Holberton

In last week's Super Bowl, the New England Patriots emerged from the tunnel at the south end of the New Orleans stadium as one unit. The announcers told us that the Patriots had elected to be introduced as a team, rather than individual starters. This colorful example got me thinking about the functionality of teams inside corporations. 

Many of us love sports, perhaps because of the entertainment value or long-ago dreams of playing professionally. Still, we don't always make an automatic connection between sports behavior and the corporate world, although so many lessons learned on athletic fields are the same as those learned in boardrooms.

How often do we establish teams inside companies yet, in reality, they don't function as teams? They are merely a group of individuals with an autocratic leader, fraught with political infighting and invariably unable to achieve goals and objectives. I venture to guess this well intentioned but fruitless team building practice happens more often than not. Perhaps the sports example here would be last year's Red Sox who expended more energy in the locker room than they did on the field.

Strong teams like the Patriots, however, understand that personal achievement is secondary to team accomplishment. Take Drew Bledsoe as an example. Whether you believed he should be the starting quarterback or not, we can learn from his behavior and apply it to our world—the corporate world. From the moment he learned that Tom Brady was going to remain the starting quarterback after filling in for him, the senior quarterback dedicated himself to the interests of the team, not to the self-interests of Drew Bledsoe. Most highly paid athletes, fueled by their enormous egos—much like supercharged executives—would spend their positive energy undermining the decision. They would work ‘overtime' to ensure that the decision was incorrect and submarine the team's ability to achieve the ultimate objective—in this case, the Super Bowl.  

So, what are some of the lessons? Is it that we should park our egos when we least want to do that?  Should we have faith in ‘the system,' blindly believing the correct decision was made and if we are good soldiers, we will be taken care of? When is it appropriate for us to challenge the system? When should we pack our bags and move on to another opportunity?

If we believe that the overarching objectives or vision of the organization are sound and we have ‘bought' into them, we should probably ‘play the game.'  After all, if the team achieves its objectives, good team protocol suggests that team members be recognized.  I'm not naive enough to suggest that this always happens, but a leadership team needs to understand that recognizing a winning team only fuels future success. After all, those corporations deemed best to work for are forever tweaking the employee recognition system, balancing achievement with rewards. Often these are financial awards, but sometimes they can be just two words: Thank you!

How many of us thought the Patriots had a fighting chance? Certainly not I.  Oh, I thought we could beat the spread, but to beat the Rams... that was out of the question. The Patriots, almost to a T, exhibited unified team behavior, each player (Bledsoe was only the most visible example) devoting himself to the almighty team. And, it paid off!

So as leaders within our organizations, we need to study this example and replicate these behaviors to realize the ultimate impact of team success. Whether it is a departmental team, organizational team, or even our family team, we can learn from the 2001 New England Patriots.  After all, we are all interested in winning the Super Bowl—our own individual Super Bowl.

Now ask yourself... Am I a Leader?