30
2008
Allowing Your Team To Fail
Do you make excuses for the team of employees you lead? Do you make it easy for them to underachieve? You are probably saying ‘no’ right now, but let’s take another look at this issue.
I find it interesting that so often in sports, managers and coaches can influence the outcome of a game by making excuses for their players. I came across such an incident recently. In the second tier of English soccer, a game between the top team in that league at the time, Stoke City, had a home game against Blackpool, a much lower team in the standings. Anyone who cared about the game fully expected Stoke City to win. As luck would have it, a major traffic accident caused the Blackpool team and the referee to arrive very close to the start of the game. As a result, the game was delayed for thirty minutes.
The Stoke City manager ranted before and after the game that it wasn’t fair for his team to have to warm up twice. By saying this, he was giving his players an excuse to fail. The Blackpool manager Simon Grayson, on the other hand, told his players that arriving late and not having as much time to prepare was no excuse.
It would be easy for us as leaders to make excuses for our employees, wouldn’t it? We can’t succeed because we have a small budget, we don’t have all the right equipment, or the premises are not state of the art. As valid as these concerns may be, and even though they should be addressed from a proactive perspective, they are what they are and cannot be used as reasons for not achieving individual and organizational goals. We all face competition in our work lives from other teams at work or, more importantly, from the company down the street or the one across the world. But we have to do as well as them or better. It may not be fair but that’s too bad.
On paper, Stoke City had the better players, a huge home crowd to support them, but a manager who gave the team an excuse to fail. They didn’t lose as it turned out. But they didn’t win either. Simon Grayson and his underdog Blackpool team earned a tie against superior opposition.
And that’s what you and I have to do everyday, without excuses.
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