What Brazil’s World Cup loss teaches us about leadership
Effective leadership, in its purest sense, means clearing the path and not dictating the path for your people.
It was very devastating to see Brazil, a country strongly branded as a “football nation,” get butchered by Germany with a heart wrenching tally of 7-1 (of which Germany scored a record-breaking first 5 points in just under 20 minutes!).
If there’s anything obvious about this loss, coaches and managers can easily pinpoint one thing: the absence of leadership.
Unlike football fans who can name every single player of a team, most mainstream viewers (people like me, who recently got hooked thanks to my football-crazy Malaysian colleagues) are only familiar with the celebrated ones — football deities like Neymar, Cristiano or Messi who have been donning million-dollar branded kits (a new term I also learned, which refers to football uniforms and accessories).
It is also interesting to note that these are the same players that have been “steering” the wheel for their teams. They were the team captains or the star players who seemed to be carrying the national burden of winning the World Cup all by themselves.
In football, the team captain (and many times the star player, too), sets up the team’s defense, organizes the calculation of the goalkeeper’s next shot, or delivers the shots themselves (and scores!).
Indeed, whether it may be in the corporate or sporting world, someone calls the final shot — he leads the pack, makes critical decisions, and has the final say. He is the team captain, the commander, the CEO, the president.
So here’s the catch: Brazil, which was expected to win this year’s World Cup, lost its two star players right before the semifinals. Silva, the team captain known for his remarkable defense (and also dubbed as the world’s most expensive defender to date) was suspended, while Neymar transformed into a national martyr after breaking his vertebra.
This was probably the best news for Germany (known for their offensive play) as they realized that Brazil has finally collapsed. Leadership was crippled. Defense was down. The star player to which the team had been relying on for too many goals is in the hospital.
By the time Germany scored 2-0, the magic of momentum scattered all over the stadium. Germany’s confidence skyrocketed and took advantage of a weak defense (I’m sorry to be mean about this, but “weak” is actually a weak adjective to use as Brazil was seriously all over the place!).
Have you ever experienced that feeling when one type of success begets another success? When money begets more money? When a score magically rushes you to make another score after another score? Germany was on that same cloud. When the tally progressed to 4-0 in favor of Germany, Brazil’s fans had totally given up and lost any hope of catching up.
They had lost the World Cup hosted in their own country.
Beware of the one-man show
Brazil’s loss teaches us that relying too much on one or two star players to make a team win is not sustainable, and is never enough to win the World Cup. The team captain or the star player may be the best performer in the team, but they alone cannot carry an entire team to greatness.
Similarly, no company will succeed if it is being run like a one-man show. As a company grows and becomes more complex, power naturally disintegrates and gets divided to more and more leaders. Resisting this by continuing to monopolize decision-making will only lead to a power vacuum.
Henceforth, I’ll say it cold and straight: I hate companies that feature a one-man show.
These are organizations that perform extremely well only because the leader dominates the power to strategize and execute everything. These are companies where managers are scared to vocalize their own concerns, or suggest their own brilliant ideas out of fear that the CEO will shut them down, or because the CEO “will have the last say anyway.” These are companies that feature a small group of star players that drive 80% of the companies’ sales but instantly crumble to bankruptcy the moment the star players leave.
One-man-show companies don’t know what to do next the moment their leader steps down or gets killed — beware of them.
Effective leadership, in its purest sense, means clearing the path and not dictating the path for your people.
It entails delegation and empowerment of power to managers who are capable of calling the shots especially when the leader is out (and why would the leader be out? Because he’s probably out there in the vast ocean looking for new sources of growth while his team digs into current sources of growth). Effective leadership means trusting your team to deliver the same quality of craftsmanship you would uphold for yourself.
Neymar is a good player (just imagine what he can do in the next World Cup as he’s only 22!) but he cannot win for Brazil alone. He needs teammates that can be as equally reliable and strong as he is. The same can be said for Silva who will probably have less sleep this week as he takes accountability for Brazil’s loss when I personally think that other team members should have stepped up in these times of “national distress."
In contrast, Germany’s players have been slaying teams in this World Cup because their players are generally reliable. Every player aside from the team captain (Lahm) and its star players (Muller, Neuer), possesses the mentality of stepping up and owning the responsibility to organize defense, demand the ball, and drive a score — with or without the star players’ initiatives.
Everyone is empowered and encouraged to make a score.
This is the same characteristic of successful A-teams in companies where everyone, not just the star players, is given the equal chance to shine. Everyone believes that she in her own right can be a star. This talent strategy also makes sense because applying overreliance and favoritism to star players only breeds the underperformers to stagnate at their level — either shy or scared to disrupt the status quo, wondering when it is their turn to shine as they silently sulk and complain with a “how about me?” tainted-jealousy. Heard of greasy politics at work? Well, here is a good example of it.
When a leader falls, who’s going to replace him?
You’d have to applaud Brazil’s team manager for devising an expected Plan B immediately after the team captain’s exit. David Luz (with Dante and Cesar “stepping up” to assist) was ordained to lead the team albeit he miserably failed to organize a strong defense and missed a lot of goals as well. Was he not prepared to step up? Surely, Brazil’s National Football Team is a very established institution which fully understands that when star players exit, a fresh batch of players must be ripe and ready to immediately assume leadership roles.
Unfortunately, we didn’t see that happen in yesterday’s match.
Successful leaders don’t just continue leading to achieve more success. They also think about succession planning. They are always on the prowl, and are always on the hunt to look for those diamond-in-the-rough talents who can continue their legacy the moment they step down. They are secure of their positions, and are willing to transfer their knowledge and skills to a new breed of leaders.
They are unselfish. They always “wear a corporate hat” and think of the organization’s interests even after their exit, and even if they have nothing to do with the company anymore (because that’s just what good leaders do).
Unfortunately and far too often, a successful leader gets blinded and complacent, thinking of “possible failures” such that the agenda of searching for the “next big talent” gets shelved. We’ve seen this happen painfully too many times. We’ve seen countries collapse when their uncorrupted president gets replaced by a rotten one. We’ve seen companies’ stock market shares fall down the moment its CEO dies and get replaced by an irrelevant one.
At the end of the day, leadership succession breeds success.
Brazil’s loss in the 2014 World Cup will be one for the books and will never be forgotten. I will also probably be forever changed as I do rave about football now (ok, I’m a Pinoy so I still think reaching up to 100 points or more for a game) is still more exciting and dynamic.
But if there’s one valuable lesson I will tell my grandchildren should they also get hooked to this sport, I will talk to them the value of leadership — and that in leadership whether in football or in class or at work, there is no such thing as carrying your team all by yourself to greatness.
*****
Credits: As I am a football newbie with a lot of catching up to do, a truckload of heartfelt thanks go to Andrea Loh (my "Apprentice Asia" runner-up) and football addict slash mentor-in-life Carl Ng for helping me craft the football analysis for this article (Carl a.k.a. @forcehighfive on Twitter eats footballs for breakfast and keeps a football blog, nutmegsandoverlaps.wordpress.com).
Need motivation at work? Read more insights from Jonathan:
Jonathan Yabut is the season one winner of the hit business reality TV show, "The Apprentice Asia." He currently serves as the Chief of Staff reporting directly to Malaysian business mogul and Group CEO of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes. Jonathan actively engages in motivational and leadership talks within Southeast Asia and is soon to launch a book about leadership and “making it big.” Visit Jonathan’s website, www.JonathanYabut.com for more updates or follow him via AAJonathanYabut (Facebook) and @jonathanyabut (Twitter).
