42 Degrees - Business from a different angle

Have you ever sat at home and watched with mounting irritation as some international sporting hero turns in a performance your grandmother would be ashamed of? There they are with their fantastic physical endowment, years of hard training and the prospect of fame and fortune beyond your wildest dreams. Yet they are rubbish. Why?

It's rarely down to lack of effort or desire to win. More often than not it's because the context in which they are competing – their team, is somehow malfunctioning. It's exactly the same in business where the difference between success and failure is often not to do with underlying endowment such as quality of product, but attitude and psychology.

As long as you have the 'hygiene factors' in place, what separates the consistently top performers in business and sport from the merely good are preparation and attention to detail.

The key is to understand your goals and how you win. Now that may sound banal. You could say, for instance, that the way you win in rugby is by scoring more points.

But the way you become world class is by unpicking and understanding all the processes that go into scoring more points, understanding your individual role in those processes and then replicating them over and over. If you don't do that, it all becomes a bit hit and miss. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't and you will never know why.

It's true that luck always plays an important role in business and sport. The fickle hand of chance interferes surprisingly often and can have decisive effects. The point about thorough preparation is not that it does away with luck but that it tilts the odds in your favour – you make your own luck.

The role of the leader in all this is to work out the strengths and weaknesses of individuals in the team and then play to those strengths. It's less important to focus on weaknesses as they tend to be remedied in the long run anyway. If you concentrate on strengths, you not only get the best out of people, you will find that your team becomes self-coaching. That is to say, individuals start sharing what they know they are good at with others in the team. An important rider to this is that, of course, you need to be thoroughly aware and honest about your own strengths and weaknesses.

When I started playing for England, I was always amazed that the team would assemble at a hotel, the captain would exchange a few pleasantries with me and then drift off. He had no understanding or interest in my life at all. But the phrase being a 'leader of men' is a telling one. It means leading the person, not just the employee or the player. In order to lead people well, you have to care about them and understand them as individuals.

An important part of that is taking care of them and defending them from external critics. I don't mean that you should create an adversarial 'us and them' mentality as some football managers do. But you have to let your team know that you are on their side and you are rooting for them. If you don't take pride in your team, no one else will, and that includes your team.

But, no matter how perfect your team, at some point you will have to deal with defeat. The key thing is not to apportion blame, but to learn from it. The best teams learn with the same intensity from losses as victories.

Nine points for peak team performance

1. Thorough preparation is vital but don't kill your spontaneity with it.
2. Preparation and attention to detail are what separate the good from the consistently excellent.
3. Ensure you really understand your goals and the processes that lead to victory.
4. Accept that luck will play a role and make sure your approach tilts the odds in your favour.
5. As a leader you should understand the strengths and weaknesses of the team but always play to the strengths.
6. Be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses.
7. Lead the whole person not just the player or the employee.
8. Make sure your team members know you take pride in them.
9. Defeat is for learning from, not for apportioning blame.