Page 137 - How to Create a Winning Organization

It Takes 10 Hands to Score a Basket
photographer was gone and the ball was in play. However, attain- 119
ing this goal is most difficult for a leader to accomplish.
Managing egos—the over- and underinflated, the forceful and
the fragile—is one of the great challenges facing any leader. It is a
crucial task, however, if a group is going to
”A leader must accomplish
have a fighting chance to succeed, to be-
the difficult task of getting
come a true team rather than a collection of
those on the team to believe
individuals—lone wolves—each looking
that ‘we’ supersedes ‘me.’ ”
out for him- or herself rather than the
“pack.” Leadership must get those individuals thinking in terms of
we rather than me. This is possible only if the leader himself thinks
this way.

FEW WANT TO SHARE THE BALL
Teaching those under your leadership to put the team’s welfare
ahead of their own personal desires is hard because it runs counter
to human nature—the natural instinct to watch out for yourself
first, to take rather than to give, to withhold rather than to share.
In basketball, it is the ball itself that must be shared, quickly and
efficiently, in order for the team to achieve success. A guard who
spots his teammate cutting to the open basket must control his
own urge to score and instead, give up—share—the ball for the
benefit of the team. A player who does that consistently has made
the often-difficult transition from me to we and become a true
team player, the kind of individual who brings great value to the
group.
In business and other organizations, the “ball” that must be
shared is knowledge, experience, information, contacts, new ideas,
and much more. All these things must be freely exchanged with
others throughout the organization if it is going to succeed—
prevail—in these extremely competitive times.