Individual And the Crowd. 0:2.
The amount of attention that the topic of leadership receives is a clear indication of its importance. However, it is frequently approached from the perspective of the leader and his or her place in this relationship. Two recent sport events show that a great leader cannot beat a great team. This implies that the concept of teamsmanship is more powerful than the concept of leadership.
Sport is the world where the boundaries are set. People do not know the limit of how fast they can run, how high they can jump, or how strong they can push until they force themselves to compete against one another. Sport eradicates the irrelevant factors such as mood, attitude, even luck, to expose the pure physical capabilities of human body.
Team sports are further complicated by a set of organizational factors: for capabilities can now be amplified by team synergy. For this reason, in team sports leadership is just as important as it is in organizations. If one accepts this statement, there is no reason why he or she should forgo the valuable insight that the sport world has to offer.
On the 13th of July in 2014, Germany and Argentina clashed at the final of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The Wall Street Journal had an article published before the game claiming it to be the battle of the best team and the best player. One does not need to be an expert to realize that the label of the best team was attached to Germany, and that of the best player to the Argentinian genius Leo Messi. Of course, Germany had a number of great names; and Argentina was not represented only by Messi. Yet, it was clear that under the tensions of the competitive sport, a winner would be determined by either successful actions of the great individual or the synergy of the great team.
More recently, on the 16th of June in 2015, Cleveland Cavaliers met with Golden State Warriors at home in the 6th game of the NBA Finals.The set up was quite similar to the soccer game: the team against the individual. One of the USA Today articles was titled, "Warriors were best team all season...". Cavaliers, in turn, were led by LeBron James, who is a true NBA playing legend. Again, Warriors had some great players on their team, including the regular season MVP. Cavaliers, in turn, were not only represented by James. At the same time, it was clear that the determining role will either be played by a great leader or the synergy of a great team.
The individual lost both times. Indeed, one cannot base any theories or draw any conclusions on just two examples. A dedicated skeptic can, perhaps, find examples proving the opposite. Nonetheless, the theme of individual's failure to outperform, or, rather "outpower", a group of people is not new at all. Tolstoy (whose first name is also Leo) developed this theme on the pages of his "War and Peace". He shows there that it is the crowd that creates history - only instead of Leo Messi or LeBron James , there is Napoleion; and instead of Germany or Warriors, there is Russia.
The point of this discussion is not to depreciate the importance of good leadership. People should admire great leaders and learn from them. The real purpose is to kindle the discussion on the concept of teamsmanship. There are people who do not stand out as leaders. Yet, they are the ones who create the synergy which brings success to the team. So the real question is, "Is the one who leads the team a better leader than the one who creates it?"