The Water Carriers

Tim Duncan. Carla Overbeck. Carles Puyol.

If you’re an avid sports fan, then the images that these names bring to your mind are of celebrations and trophies—lots of trophies. Carla Overbeck captained the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team between 1996 and 1999 (“The ’99ers”) and won the World Cup and Olympic gold medal with a record of 84 wins, 6 ties, and only 6 losses. Carles Puyol was the captain of the best Barcelona soccer team in history. Between 2008 and 2013, he and his teammates collected 15 major trophies, including four Spanish La Liga titles and two European Champions League titles (arguably the highest honor in club soccer in the world). Tim Duncan led the San Antonio Spurs (my hometown team) over two decades during which the team won five NBA rings, reached the playoffs 19 straight times, and posted a record 71% winning percentage.

The common thread among these amazing captains, other than the successes that they had in their fields, is that they were all humble and fiercely ambitious leaders. Sportswriter and leadership columnist Sam Walker refers to this type of captain as the “water carrier.” In his hugely entertaining and methodologically thorough book The Captain Class, Walker set out to identify the best teams in the history of all competitions (think “Good to Great” applied to sports).?According to Walker’s strict criteria and detailed calculations, only 17 teams were dominant enough over a long period of time while playing against the world’s top competition to qualify to be in this top tier: the top 0.1% in terms of winning and achievement among thousands of excellent teams. The ’99ers, Barcelona, and the Spurs were three of those elite teams. Other notable names on the list included the New York Yankees of 1949-1953, the Boston Celtics of 1956-1969, and the New England Patriots of 2001-2018. The U.S. women’s soccer team that we opened this chapter looking at would be a strong contender to squeeze into this group in the near future.?

The main finding from Walker’s examination is that the most crucial ingredient in a team that achieves and sustains historic greatness is not the amount of resources available to it, the experience of its coach, or the loyalty of its fans. It is the character of its captain. All 17 top-tier teams had a humble and ambitious captain whose presence coincided with the long winning streak and whose absence or retirement corresponded with the team becoming average once again.

Walker refers to these captains as “water carriers” because, except for Duncan and a few others, they were not especially gifted players. Rather, they were average players who carried the water, so to speak, to their more technically skilled teammates and helped them shine and win. Carla Overbeck, for example, only scored seven goals in her entire soccer career. As soon as she got the ball, her first instinct was to pass it to a teammate who was more skilled and who had had a better chance of scoring and helping the team. While most of the captains were ordinary players in terms of their skill levels, they had a fanatical commitment to winning that was not matched by any other player on the team.

It is interesting to note that the captains of the elite teams displayed very similar characteristics to the Level-5 Leaders described in “Good to Great.” They combined selflessness with determination. They lowered themselves in relation to their teammates in order to earn the moral authority to drive them forward in tough moments. They led by serving others. Tim Duncan, for example, always put himself in the service of the team, sacrificing his individual numbers in order to set up plays that allowed the team to perform better. In 2013, he agreed to cut his pay by half in order to allow the Spurs to have enough financial flexibility under the NBA’s salary cap to attract other players who could benefit the team. In the age of self-centered superstars, Duncan exhibited extreme humility that was unmatched.

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Amer Kaissi is a Professional Speaker, Executive Coach, and Professor at the Department of Healthcare Administration at Trinity University. Check it out his new book “Humbitious: The power of Low-Ego, High-Drive Leadership .” This article is an excerpt from the book.?