Why success is not an individual sport
By: Dr. David Geier
Tags: Support, Success, Sports, Leadership, Teamwork

Why Success Is Not an Individual Sport

Everything you do indirectly teaches and guides the people around you. Will you focus completely on your own success, or will you lead and help everyone succeed, raising the performance of your team?

Success isn’t all about you.

Sure, you control your destiny — how much you focus on your goals and dreams and eliminate distractions, how hard you work, how you persevere despite inevitable setbacks. But it’s just as important to help the people around you succeed.

In sports, it’s impossible to win by yourself, even in an individual sport like golf, tennis or swimming. There is a myriad of little things others do to help you succeed. In a team sport, an elite player certainly increases your chances of victory, but the role players can make valuable contributions too. How the coach or star player helps the supporting cast goes a long way in determining the team’s long-term potential.

This perspective is critical in business too. Whether you’re a company executive, department manager, or the lead member of the sales team, you can’t focus on yourself and your goals and ignore everyone else. Technically, the employees might work for you, but it’s not a one-way relationship.

You have a key role to play in their development. Plus, by working together, you can reach heights impossible to attain on your own.

Don’t tell people what to do. Show them.

“My proudest times as a coach are those when I recognize that a group of players has become a team, a whole that is truly greater than the sum of its parts.” – Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University basketball coach and winner of five NCAA national championships and three Olympic gold medals

Jerry Rice was undoubtedly the greatest wide receiver in the history of football. In addition to winning three Super Bowl titles, he holds the NFL records for career receiving yards and touchdowns. But Rice was not a naturally skilled receiver. He reached the top of the sport through relentless hard work.

At every level of the game, Jerry observed that some of his teammates didn’t put in the effort he believed they should. On the field, some players did just enough to get by –running at half speed during passing drills, not pushing themselves hard in the weight room. Off the field, they might be late for team meetings or return to the team hotel after curfew the night before a big game.

Rice wanted his teammates to work harder so the team could improve. He could have yelled at his slacking teammates — and often he did. But they probably would have tuned him out, content with their minimal effort.

His teammates didn’t ignore him, though. Because Jerry Rice led by example.

Jerry was always the first player on the field before every practice. On every passing drill, he sprinted to the end zone after every catch. He spent hours in the weight room and ran hundreds of hill sprints after practice and throughout the off-season. He arrived early for meetings, and he was on the bus long before the team would depart for each road game.

Before long, his teammates were putting in the same work, the same effort as Jerry Rice — and the team achieved remarkable success.

Leaders in sports and business lead by example.

“Make sure the team members know they’re working with you, not for you.” – John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach and winner of 10 NCAA national championships in 12 years

A coach of the team, or a leader in the company, can lead the group by example as well.

Maybe you’re the company CEO or a division manager. Yes, in a sense, the employees work for you. But simply ordering them to do certain jobs might not produce the results you want.

As with a star athlete on a sports team, a leader in business must lead by example.

Former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden believed in setting a good example for his players. Whenever he walked into the locker room, whether the Bruins were at home or on the road, if he saw a piece of trash on the floor, he picked it up and threw it away. If he found a towel lying on the floor, he picked it up and put it in the laundry bin.

Quickly Wooden’s players started following his example. If they saw Wooden picking up a towel off the floor, one of them would jump up, saying, “I’ve got it, Coach.” They would put the trash or towel where it was supposed to go.

Wooden could have demanded his players keep the locker room clean, but they might have only done it grudgingly. Instead, the UCLA players didn’t keep the locker room tidy to keep Coach from yelling at them. They did it naturally because they saw their leader doing it.

Wooden often commented that he received letters from janitors at the schools UCLA played on the road. They would thank Wooden and UCLA for leaving the locker room so clean.

That attention to detail and everyone pitching in to help the team paid off on the court. UCLA won 10 national championships in a 12-year period.

What you do is more important than what you say.

“Success in most endeavors is the product of a partnership, not the result of acting in isolation. And the beauty of such cooperation is that you get to share your success with those who have aided you.” – Bob Bowman, coach of swimmer Michael Phelps, winner of 23 Olympic gold medals

In your business, you might be responsible for training new employees and helping them develop into productive members of the organization. If you’re not, you might mistakenly think that time spent mentoring them only detracts from your work and your goals.

It’s important to remember that everything you do indirectly teaches and guides the people around you.

The Green Bay Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers in 2005, despite having Super Bowl-winning quarterback Brett Favre on the roster. Clearly, Rodgers would be Favre’s successor in the coming years.

Shortly after the draft, a reporter asked Brett about his role with the team’s new quarterback. Favre insisted that it was not his job to teach Rodgers. He wouldn’t go out of his way to help the rookie. After all, he was paid to lead the team on the field, not coach a young guy who would sit on the bench.

Jerry Rice heard these comments and strongly disagreed. He correctly argued that everything Favre did at practice, during games, on the sidelines, in the locker room, and with the media set an example for Aaron Rodgers. He was a role model, whether he wanted to be or not.

Regardless of your role in the organization, you affect how others act. If you work hard all day, come in early, and participate constructively in meetings, others will too. But if you spend time gossiping and sending sophomoric emails to coworkers, expect many of them to slack off as well.

Likewise, if you’re the boss, and you give your employees a huge number of tasks to work on while you’re out playing golf, don’t expect your team to have a great attitude. Instead, show them that their work is valuable by offering to help. Offer praise and constructive feedback. Get dirty and help them with some of the tasks.

People watch what you do just as much, if not more, than they hear what you say.

Our teammates can support us, but it’s just as important that we support them.

“The greatest responsibility each of us has is to raise the life condition of everyone we touch.” – Lou Holtz, national championship-winning head coach at Notre Dame, college football TV analyst, and the only coach to lead six schools to bowl games

Derek Jeter was one of the greatest players to ever wear a New York Yankees uniform. He holds team records for career hits, stolen bases, at bats, and games played from his 20 seasons in the Bronx. While he was named team captain in 2003, eight seasons after joining the major-league club, he was nicknamed The Captain because he was a true leader.

Jeter knew how to support his teammates and bring out the best in them.

While playing for the Greensboro Hornets, the Yankees single-A affiliate, Derek watched out for his colleagues. Mariano Rivera was a starting pitcher for the Hornets. Since he was coming off elbow surgery, Jeter kept track of Mariano’s pitch count as he returned to the mound. The 19-year-old shortstop gently reminded the pitcher to preserve his arm. Rivera went on to become the greatest closer in the history of baseball.

Jeter personally struggled in the field in the minors, making over 50 errors one season. Not all of the errors were his fault, though. Because of the poor lighting at Greensboro’s War Memorial Stadium, first baseman Nick Delvecchio often lost Jeter’s throws in the lights. Nick likely caused a large number of the errors given to Jeter.

Jeter never yelled at Delvecchio or gave him the silent treatment. He simply put his arm around the first baseman and consoled him, “Don’t worry about it.”

Are you so focused on your own success that you ignore others? Or do you stop and offer kind words to a coworker dealing with family issues outside of work? Do you offer to teach one of your employees some tricks you’ve learned over the years so he or she doesn’t struggle learning by trial and error?

Yes, our teammates can support us, but it’s just as important that we support them.

We are all leaders, no matter our title or role on the team.

“Belief. I contend that this is one of the greatest gifts you can share with others: the belief that they can succeed.” – Bob Bowman

Late in her career, the most prolific scorer in the history of women’s soccer, Abby Wambach, sat on the bench for the U.S. Women’s National Team in the semifinal of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup against Germany. Next to her on the bench was Kelley O’Hara, who was struggling with her confidence.

Abby told O’Hara that she had to believe in herself. Kelley had to ignore criticism from the American coach. She had to be ready in case she was substituted into the game. Wambach insisted that O’Hara would get her chance and that she would make the most of it.

Sure enough, O’Hara entered the game in 75thminute and scored the winning goal eight minutes later to defeat the top ranked team in the world.

After the game, Kelley thanked the forward for believing in her. She told Abby that she never would have survived the tournament without that support.

Wambach simply responded, “No, that was all you. Don’t forget you were the one who played. You’re the one who put yourself in a position to score.”

We are all leaders, no matter what our title is or our role on the team is. Everything we do, everything we say, leads those around us.

We can stay in our own bubble and focus on ourselves. We can worry about our own problems and focus on our own work. While that might seem like the best approach in the moment, it won’t help us get far in the long run.

Or we can bring others with us on the journey. We can take time to teach people what we’ve learned. We can act as a positive role model and lead them by example. We can offer kind words in tough times. We can believe in them and help them grow.

Success, whether it’s on the field or court, or in the boardroom or sales department, is best achieved with others. Help your team members, your coworkers any way you can.

Only then can we truly become champions.

Hire Dr. Geier to speak to your organization.

Dr. David Geier is a popular leadership and burnout keynote speaker for corporate and medical audiences. Click here to learn more about how he can educate and inspire your audience.

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