Why creating a collaborating team is more important than collecting the stars

I was 15 years old, played ice hockey in not only a girls team, but a boys team as well as a ladies team: all at the same time. I was also spending my Sundays teaching small children how to skate voluntarily. At the time I was the team captain in the girls team and competed at the top of the list of who scored the most goals/points in the ladies team.

Icehockey was my main passion in life, and I did it as much as I could.

As in many sports there were arrangements of ‘regional’ or ‘district’ selected teams playing against each other. ?Handpicking the ‘top players’ in the area for trial and then setting up a selected team to play together.

There was one yearly tournament where they announced open trials for all players in the region. I went there and experienced the most military trial ever in my ice hockey career. We were tested on EVERYTHING. From technical skills, speed, playing, cardio and they pushed everyone to their very limit. For several evenings. On the ice, in rain, crawling in mud and running in stairs.

I ended up being on the reserve list that year. Meaning; good enough to be a part of a team but sitting on the bench all the time unless someone got hurt.

The other girls were all my age and the though trials had ensured it was only players with good reputation and extremely strong physics out on the ice playing.

As all the players were ‘the stars of their team back home’ coming from a place of competing against each other, not only in the everyday life but also in the trial period the coach was not paying attention to how this affected the atmosphere. He had selected the best soldiers for his war.

When everyone wants to be the scoring star, no one is eager to do the heavy invisible work. And the team didn’t reach the finals that year despite having the best players on paper not only in the region but in the country.

The following year they had a new coach and a different approach. Each team in the region was asked to send 2 players to the trial. I got a second shot and made it this time. This year the trials were more about finding dynamics, see who plays well with who. The competition in the group was not as present but rather focused on finding ways of getting together in this new temporary formation.

This year we won the entire tournament, despite some of last year’s stars not making it to the team due to the change of approach.

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So why am I posting this?

I think organizations sometimes think that employing the best people, talent, stars will automatically mean you win.

It won’t.

To create high performing teams there needs to be attention to the important role each person plays in relation to the overall picture. The person doing the hard but invisible work is equally important as the person scoring the goal/closing the deal.

It is not the weakest link that will matter for your result, but your and the team’s ability to lift up and cover for the weakest links gap in addition to bring out the best of each person on the team.

?Love only,

Jennifer