The Messi-anic Problem: What happens when you ignore the many for the one.

At the final whistle on the night of 22 June, the spotlight shone brightly on one person near the center circle at the conclusion of the Group D game between Argentina and Croatia. Croatia had battered and bossed one of the tournament’s favorites and emerged well-deserved 3-0 winners and in the process, nullified one of the supposed stars of the tournament.

Lionel Messi, so often Argentina’s saviour-elect, the golden child of his country’s footballing prospects and the person regarded by most people as probably one of the greatest footballers to walk God’s earth, stood dejected on the field, washed with a feeling he probably rarely feels in a FC Barcelona shirt. He managed only a paltry 20 touches in the first half, created little and almost never threatened.

While you wouldn’t dare take the credit away from the Croatians, who came in with a game plan and executed it to perfection, one can’t help but think that the defeat (although damaging, isn’t lethal, yet) is as much of Argentina’s making as it was the Croats, a culmination of years of nonchalance and apathy that has led to this, the apex of their misery.

What Argentina has so sensationally failed to do in the last decade was to build a team worthy to support Messi. Although players such as Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo often defy this notion, football is very much a team sport and as good as you are at it, you need your team members to be good as well if you are to achieve anything. And if they are not, it really matters little how good you are. That was a stark realisation for Messi last Friday, that as much as he is ready to take the tournament by the scruff of its neck and ride it home, it’s hard to do it when you are playing with players who have not quite even mastered the art of climbing up a bull effectively, much less ride it successfully.

So what are some lessons we can learn from Argentina’s plight when it comes to building successful teams in our organisation? What happens if you have a messianic character in your team and you’ve been indulging him or her? There will be issues if you continue down that path. Here are some things that may happen:  

Poor bench strength

A manager’s focus, no matter how proficient, is still going to be somewhat limited. As such, they should spend their time on building the quality and performance of the entire team, and not just focusing on the exceptional performers. Because the danger in focusing and relying on just your performers is that you are likely weakening your bench strength as a result. Argentina needed a potential savior to come off the bench to save the game, but there was none. Their savior was already on the field and struggling. Spend time on building the capabilities of your mid-level plodders as well because they could have the potential to be a star one day or when the work is beyond the capabilities and capacity of your performers. 

Ignoring the need for overall improvement

Messi has dug Argentina out of so many fixes in the last decade that it has papered over the large cracks that have been emerging within the squad. His hattrick against Ecuador in October last year helped Argentina qualify for this year’s tournament by the skin of their teeth. The signs of struggles were already there but intervention was put on hold yet again because the La Albiceleste managed to ‘triumph’ yet again. It’s sometimes easy to ignore just how much development your overall team needs when your department has been flourishing off a minority of star performers. If you become complacent about this, you may soon find yourself with overburdened stars and a team that is not capable enough to pick up the slack from them should these stars leave.  

Affecting team engagement

Nobody likes to feel inferior to anyone, even to someone like Messi, who is so obviously brilliant usually. It’s obvious that the other Argentinian players were just as frustrated at themselves because they were not able to reach the performance levels required to make a difference. Being made to feel like you’re just fodder to the main dish is not going to make anyone excited about coming to work and doing their best. What you’re left with over time is a disengaged team that no longer wants to do their best and eventually, this will start affecting the delivery of your performers as well.  

Overburdening the performer(s)

The truth is, as much as Messi has assumed responsibility as the person that will carry the can for his country at major tournaments, it was clear in the match against Croatia that the burden of expectation is starting to weigh down on him. It’s easy to demonise the performers as people who just want to hog the limelight. But in some cases, if left unchecked, they could end up being victims as well. As much as the performers in your team can seem like they are highly engaged about everything they do, never assume that this will remain unchanged. Your performers are human as well, and if you constantly hedge your overall department’s output on just them performing, pretty soon they are going to start feeling less enthused about being at the center of that.

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