Teamwork: An Olympic challenge
By
Dennis Sullivan
Chairman & CEO
Teamwork is a topic often written about, and the clichés can run
rampant. So when I read a recent article about the world’s fastest human
and multi-Olympic gold medalist—Usain Bolt from Jamaica—I was struck by
his view of attaining personal excellence through teamwork. He recently
talked to a graduating business school class in London and attributed
the teamwork between himself and his coach Glen Mills as a key component
of his success.
This reminds me of the record-breaking victories of this year’s US
Olympic alpine ski team (eight medals), another example of individual
achievement being reinforced by, and maybe even as a result of, the team
element. There may not be two sports more individually focused than
track and field and alpine skiing, yet the concept of teamwork and
support teams was never more in the forefront of these athletes' minds.
Despite media interest in trying to create a larger-than-life feud
between two US woman skiers, the more compelling stories were beneath
the surface and revolved around the US women’s snowboarding team and the
Norwegian speed skating team. The “tight” teams seemed to create an
environment for the greatest number of individual feats.
The approach, the concepts, and the basic principles feed right into our
challenge as leaders to help our management team and front-line
employees attain their own personal goals while achieving success for
the organization. Breaking down the silos between customer-facing
departments and back-office operations is critical to realizing
corporate objectives. Cross-functional teams deliver great overall
accomplishments, and individual top performers usually are created in
the process.
The goal is to energize the individual and, to do that, we need to
surround them with high-performing teams. Success in business takes
energy and a lot of input. Teams have demonstrated the ability to raise
the performance of the individual members beyond what they can produce
on their own. Teamwork breaks down walls, has the ability to reach new
performance levels, and provides support to individuals who need help
reaching their potential. Winning is contagious; as the team performance
improves, it will stimulate individual accomplishments not thought
possible when working alone. Start your own Olympic movement within your
organization—at the top, in the middle, or at the front-line level.
Teamwork is a winning strategy!
