The Value, Power and Resilience of TEAM!

Let me paint you a picture.  You've been successful in landing your dream job as a leader, taking on the role of President & CEO of a historically prestigious company.  You've held this job for the past 2 two years.  You've landed this role based on your track record to date and reputation as one of the best "thinkers" in your field.

It's not all been a bed of roses to this point.  Despite the long and venerable history of the company its not been at the top of its sector for over 10 years.  Not only has it been missing on projections but just prior to your arrival the company was in disarray owing to ethical and regulatory violations that resulted in your predecessor resigning under and several of its top talents leaving.  In fact, in your first full year of work you continued to operate under heavy regulatory scrutiny that significantly impeded your ability to attract talent and to effectively compete with your rivals.

Through the effective application of your leadership talent you now enter your third year full of optimism.  What could go wrong?  Let me throw a few curves your way:

• at the end of your second year, your Chief Information Officer and four of his five key people bolted for a Silicon Valley company pursuing bigger opportunities and better pay;
• days before the start of the 2014/15 fiscal year, your highly touted and seemingly indispensable Chief Operating Officer was diagnosed with a debilitating illness and was projected to be off work for the entire year;
• stock market analysts reacted to the news of these key personnel losses by significantly downgrading company projections and share price plummeted;
• it seems that analysts weren't wrong when your company falls stumbles in achieving first quarter targets operating under the helm of your very junior replacement COO.

Despite these amazing set of circumstances you right the ship and the company proceeds to turn things around.  Astoundingly, by the end of the 3rd quarter the company is projected to be on pace for its best year in over a decade.  But at this point fate intercedes again and your junior COO, who has vastly exceeded all expectations, is involved in a car accident that also takes him out of the equation.  Once again the prospects for a successful year appear to be dashed.  Again you are left to dig deeper into your organization, dangerously thin on talent by now, putting in charge your third COO of the year!

How fantastic a fable is this?  How much "fiction" am I expecting you to stomach before you dismiss any leadership lessons I hope to impart to you?  What if I told you that the story noted above is true save for the fact that I have chosen to anonymize (to this point) the real "business" and identities of the key players.  In reality not only did the "company" above survive all of these challenges intact it actually became THE best performing "company" in it's sector as of this past Monday.

This "business fable" is the story of the Ohio State Buckeyes - undisputed national champions of US college football.

The leader of this company is in fact Coach Urban Meyer.  The CIO and his key personnel are running back Carlos Hyde and four graduating senior offensive linemen.  The highly touted COO was potential Heisman trophy candidate and starting quarterback Braxton Miller who had season-ending shoulder surgery before the season started.  The first replacement COO was freshman quarterback J. T. Barret who turned in an amazing run of victories only to break his ankle in Ohio's last regular season game.

Finally, we have the final COO in this year's saga, 3rd string quarterback Cardale Jones, who up until the Big 10 Championship game had not taken a snap of any significance all year long.  With Jones at quarterback, however, Ohio went on to destroy Wisconsin in the Big 10 Championship game, then defeated the number 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl, before overcoming another underdog tag to beat the Oregon Ducks in the championship game to become national champions. 

How does a team overcome such adversity not once but multiple times to reach the pinnacle of its sport?  Even in the championship game the Buckeyes had to overcome a quick start by the octane fueled offense of Oregon who scored on their first possession of the game.  Moreover, the Buckeyes had to deal their own mistakes and 4 turnovers before winning the game in convincing fashion.  It would have been easy at multiple points in the season and during their championship run to simply fold up their tent and go home.

So what accounts for this level of achievement when any "team" that faces this kind of adversity? First, there is no doubting that sheer raw talent is a factor.  The reality is that talent doesn't materialize out of thin air or overnight.  Both a culture and a structure to attract and retain that talent has to be established in order to entice skilled and talented people to join you even if only in anticipation of better future to come.  Many companies don't start at a point where they can merely pick from an unlimited pool of applicants. They may not have yet established a track record that will get people of talent to willingly sign on but they are trying to convey with some conviction and evidence that this will be the place to be next year or the year after.

Talent alone clearly isn't enough to ensure success.  All of the other teams in the US College Football playoffs had talent.  They might also make the argument that they endured adversity throughout the year.  The fact is that the Buckeyes also benefited from the experience of a leader who had been down this championship path before.  At some level Urban Meyer was able to translate his own successful experience into building confidence amongst his staff and his players that despite adversity they were still skilled enough to compete at the highest levels and succeed.

Beyond that experience and "corporate memory" a system was established that recognized that success didn't depend on one or two key leaders.  In the lead up to the national championship run, when the 2nd string quarterback went down to injury and everybody was counting out the Buckeyes again, all messages coming out of Ohio State was that success was not going to come down to one man - the 3rd string quarterback.  Rather, there was an expectation throughout the team that it would take a collective team effort to ensure success.  Collective effort, collective success.

Great team message followed up by a structured team response.  Slogans, motivational speeches and bravado aside, the Ohio State coaching staff had to make adjustments in game plan as each of it's quarterbacks (and other personnel) went down to put the next man up in a position to maximize their strengths and their ability to succeed at a personal level and ultimately to promote team success.

At the end of the day, it was also clear from each coach and player interviewed - and in the championship acceptance speech by Urban Meyer - that the adversity brought this team closer together at every step of the championship journey.  This team ultimately played for each other.  As with soldiers in war, they stood together not prepared to not give of their best for fear of letting down their comrades.  They played as a team and not as a collection of individuals, prepared to truly sacrifice to obtain the ultimate objective.

Finally, it was clear that an environment had also been created that understood that mistakes would be made.  This was evident as the team adjusted from an early season - and potentially devastating loss - to the reaction to and recovery from 4 turnovers by the Buckeyes in the championship game.  You could see that responsibility was taken for such mistakes at an individual level but support offered by the team to overcome.  More importantly, once the mistake was past it was truly forgotten with a focus forward to make the next required effort, to make the next play, and ultimately succeed on the biggest stage possible.

Even for a Canadian like me, raised more on hockey than football (much less college football), I appreciate how amazing a year this has been for the Ohio State Buckeyes.  Moreover, I fully expect this season to go down as one of the most historic TEAM achievements in college football history.

More importantly I hope you can appreciate the lessons in leadership, strength of team, and perseverance through adversity that this team and this year brought to mind.  

____________________________________________________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.