I never get tired of hearing stories from leaders about their winning teams in business or in high school athletics.  These stories are usually told by the leader or coach with parental pride about the remarkable success of a group of people that have figured out if they work together and in support of each other, great things can happen. 

More often than not, the leaders or coaches of these teams are quick to dismiss their own role in the success, quickly pointing to the individuals and their work habits, dedication and coordination.  While humility is admirable, the leaders that put together groups that regularly achieve and exceed goals deserve credit for helping create the environment where winning becomes a habit. (See also, The Seven Leadership Levers that Shape the Working Environment.)

From selecting and supporting the right people to caring enough to provide the tools, mentoring and constructive feedback, this leader, whether CEO, Shift Supervisor or High School Tennis Coach, is truly responsible for creating an environment that breeds success. Success as we know, tends to breed more success.  It’s a wonderful, vicious cycle. 

The other day I heard from a shift supervisor whose eyes lit up as she described the great group of pros that had developed on her team and how they had been winning every production award and regularly setting new performance records for the last year.  I was curious about why this had occurred in the last year and not before, and her answer (paraphrased) bears repeating:

"I finally got the right people in place.  We had a couple of bad attitudes on the shift and once we were able to replace them with individuals that cared about the work and the results, the team really came together.  We became obsessed with setting new records for output and quality, and when the shift started, we were a team on a mission.  Our absences dropped almost to zero.  No one wanted to let the team down by missing work.  If someone was struggling, the others pitched in to help with no questions asked.  Our company sponsors simple things for the work…free pizza, our names on a plaque and we decided we liked pizza and we liked walking down the hallway and seeing our names on the wall." 

After talking about the team, she lamented that she had been promoted to run another group that was struggling.  She expressed missing her former teammates but then with a smile said, "We’ll be beating that group in a few months.  I know all of their tricks!"

I love this leader’s attitude and confidence!  It’s contagious.

In another recent example, my wife and I were helping run a high-school tennis tournament and I had a chance to chat with the coach of the team that was currently in first place in the conference.  They were the surprise of the season, picked to be a distant second or more likely third place finisher at best in the pre-season rankings.  When I asked her what she attributed their success to, she said:
"It’s all attitude.  We don’t have the best team of tennis players in terms of talent, but these kids expect to win every time they step on the court.  And every time they win (they were undefeated at this time), it reinforces their original expectations.  They’ve gotten into the habit of winning and the thought of losing doesn’t rent any space in their heads."

I had the chance to listen to her coaching some of the players between matches and sets, and her dialogue focused on their strengths, on what they were doing right and her parting reminder was always (with a tone of confidence and support), "You know you’re going to win."  And they almost always did that day.

The bottom-line for now:

The job of leading is always about getting the right people in place for the mission at the time and then figuring out how to get out of the way and let them do their work.  Leading doesn’t require constant immersion in the tasks of the individuals, but it does require relentless focus on reinforcing winning habits such as accountability, reliability, focus on the goal and developing trust between team members.   These are key factors that help create the winning environment, and no matter how humble the coach is, he or she is always responsible for this on winning and losing teams.