This wasn’t just any collapse. This was a whirling vortex, downward spiral, free-fall-at-a-thousand-miles-an-hour kind of collapse. The kind that makes the record books — the ones you never want to open if you’re a Boston Red Sox fan.
Yes, baseball is only a game and the Red Sox are just an overpaid, underperforming group of players who ceaselessly inflict pain on New England sports fans year after year (2004 and 2007 notwithstanding). After this rollercoaster season, we deserved a much better outcome than witnessing their unceremonious demise in the final inning of their last game.
Notice, please, that I did not refer to the 2011 Red Sox as a team. They were a collection of individuals who each seemed to speak a different language, play by his own set of rules and work toward his own goals. There was no apparent chemistry, cohesion or collaboration that are the hallmarks of truly great teams.
In trying to salvage something positive about my home team’s shocking demise, I wanted to get a better grip on how and why a talented, skilled team can suddenly stumble into oblivion. Here’s a checklist of contributing factors, drawn from my client experiences as well as a little web searching. For those of you who lead geographically dispersed teams, the underlying reasons for underperformance may be much harder to ferret out, and the interventions more tricky to apply. The key is to act as soon as the first red flag goes up, rather than hoping the problems will just go away on their own.
- Creating a team culture. When new players join the team, they need help becoming immersed in the “local culture.” For example, each team has its own principles and norms about socializing, practicing, public behavior, surfacing issues, and resolving conflicts. Team leaders need to make sure that new players become assimilated as quickly as possible into the prevailing team culture, which might mean assigning a “buddy” or two to shepherd them along in the early days. “Ultimately, you don’t need a team that wants to go out to dinner together, but you need to have a team that wants to protect each other on the field and be fiercely loyal to each other,” said now-former Sox manager Terry Francona. “That’s what ultimately is really important.”
- Seeking superficial harmony instead of facing conflict head-on. Some managers try to bolster spirits in the clubhouse by giving players positive strokes. Confronting underlying issues directly and encouraging players to speak plainly about their own performance as well as the team’s, allows players to hash out their differences and shift destructive behaviors. While avoiding conflict and tip-toeing around tough issues may feel like the “safe” thing to do, it’s actually one of the surest ways to accelerate a team’s demise, once it’s started going in that direction.
- People are not operating from their real strengths. Like a sports team where some excel at defense or offense or speed vs. strength, each team member brings certain gifts, experience, talents and expertise. Add to that, some players devote more time to honing their skills than others. Leaders need to provide an environment where people can move out of their comfort zones, stretch themselves and excel in brand new areas, rather than performing merely competently by executing the same level of performance as they have done for years. Even if you have a team member who is capable of greatness, if that person does not exploit their potential, their contributions will be no greater, and perhaps even less, than some of your inexperienced staffers.
- Avoiding accountability. When team members aren’t accountable for their own actions, they hurt their own performance. But when they duck responsibility for calling out other team members for their behavior, the performance of the whole team suffers. For example, if a right fielder knocks over the center fielder when both try to catch a fly ball, they both need to quickly agree on a ground rule to prevent catastrophe the next time. Similarly, if you have a team norm that says people who don’t do prework must get caught up on their own time, everyone needs to call out the transgression when someone interrupts to ask a question that was covered in the prework. A close-knit team knows how to hold each other accountable without rancor.
- Egos getting in the way. We may cheer when our team outbids a competitor for a sought-after superstar. But when the celebration’s over, we know that stardom often brings with it big egos — the kind that can divide a team and breed resentment. When a team has multiple stars, whether it’s the deified athlete, a social marketing whiz kid, or the fair-haired child of the CEO, big egos can lead to problems that can escalate quickly. Regardless of the quality and depth of stardom a team may possess, leaders need to be scrupulous about requiring that everyone be treated fairly, playing by the same rules and working toward the same goals, regardless of stature or salary. Otherwise, power struggles can quickly deplete energy and derail a team.
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