Winning, As a Team

Woman and girl playing lacrosse, Pixabay, Apr 20, 2006 
https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-and-girl-playing-lacrosse-207714/ CC0 

Winning, As a Team 

We’ve all chased the feeling of a big win. Whether it was a promotion, a personal goal, or a touchdown there’s nothing quite like the feeling of reaching the peak. The big win feels like proof. Proof of our worth, proof the hard work was worth it. It drives us forward on the hardest days and keeps us reaching for higher peaks. But what is the difference between the team who reaches the peak and claims victory and the one who climbs endlessly but never attains the accolades? Some say there’s a heavy dose of luck involved, but if we tried to quantify that luck what would it look like? 
 
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” - Seneca 

In every moment of success, it’s very likely we can trace a hundred moments of preparation that came before it. We have to arrive to our moment ready. There are ways we can set ourselves up for “luck.” 

Accountability 

I’d been playing lacrosse for 3 years. We’d seen some success already but our competition that year was the most intense it had ever been. We didn’t want to win because the peak was easy to reach. We wanted to prove we were truly the best, playing against the toughest competition. As Captain, I knew it was my role to lead my team, but I also knew that focusing on myself alone would be a mistake. The difference between a group of players and a team is the amount of accountability each person takes for their part in attaining the shared goal. Each player had to give their full effort, share their ideas, and be accountable for their improvement to themselves and the team. 

Clear Roles 

We decided to add extra clarity in our roles, pulling on the talents and skills within our group. Katy knew strategy better than anyone i’d ever met and began creating new plays. Michelle ran our conditioning practices because she had the grit to push everyone to the max. Lydia taught everyone better form and ran our lifting sessions. Erica came up with hilarious team building nights that connected us as friends. Each person lead the team using their unique insight and talent. 

Development 

As a leader it was hard to let go of control at first. But I watched as the team flourished and I was able to focus more time on each member. I had the mental bandwidth to make corrections on minor issues with individual players and follow up to make sure corrections stuck. You could call it luck. We had a team full of dedicated, tremendous players. You could say we were in the right place at the right time. But as we played that state championship game against the toughest, most incredible team we had ever faced, I knew it was more than that. We hadn’t come to the peak as a lucky group of individuals, we had come prepared as a team. 

This project was created by Group ONE. Our mission is to use our differences to our advantage to learn more about organizational behavior. Each of us has a different perspective and skill set that will help us achieve our goal of an "A" grade for everyone in this group. 
  • Kate M. supplied the text in this blogpost. 
  • Proofreading and writing input by Victor and Heidi. 
  • Design by Kate S. and Blake.

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