When ‘A’ Players Make ‘B’ Teams
photo by .mw
A few days ago we saw what it means to be the leader of a team and Alberto Contador clearly wasn’t it.
Today provided us another good lesson, compliments of Messr. Contador. He was riding comfortably behind two rival challengers and one of his teammates who also happened to be contending for a podium finish. In the next frame, Contador stands on his pedals and tries to break away. The two rival contenders chased him down, but his teammate did not.
Ultimately, Contador may have knocked his teammate out of a top three result and may have cost his team a chance at sweeping the podium for the first time in 85 years. All for a shot at proving his strength (though he was chased down) or to gain an additional ten seconds, at best, on his rivals over the course of the final of the mile climb (this would have been easily made up downhill).
There was no point.
This is a clear example of when having an ‘A’ player on your team actually makes your team weaker. In a business setting this may be the star who doesn’t communicate, doesn’t allow others the opportunity to shine or throws his teammates under the bus in external situations.
His results may be stellar, but the team’s cumulative results decrease when he’s added to the team.
Don’t get so blinded by the seemingly shooting star that you lose sight of your collective team’s performance. We often start to blame the others for being inferior. In reality, we’re promoting bad behaviors, poor values and deteriorating the morale on our team.
‘Stars’ are great and we should all be so lucky to have them, but if they don’t play well with others then what good are they?
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Note: I believe we oversimplify when we see business people in a caste view. The rankings are fluid. ‘A’ players don’t exist independently of an organization. And who you’d view as a ‘B’ or a ‘C’ player on paper could be enormously valuable and raise a level or two on your team. More on that here.
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ok, since you wrote a blog post about cycling, i'll consider the topic fair game –
can someone please tell lance to stop tweeting public criticisms of his teammates?!? i mean seriously, if you've got beef with one of the people you work with, can you imagine the disastrous effect of telling the whole world without first raising the issue privately?
I'm with you. I don't ever like these things getting aired publicly, especially 5 minutes after crossing the finish line. But I took it as Lance (and Levi too) having completely hit their limit with Alberto. I think Alberto's cowboy act has grown old and that things are actually far worse than any of us realize. He was probably also steaming after seeing a dutiful teammate in Kloden get treated the way he did.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear in tomorrow's announcement that most of the Astana team goes with Lance on the new American squad. Alberto may be great, but he can't do it alone and I wouldn't be shocked if all these veterans just don't want to ride for him.
I'm with you. I don't ever like these things getting aired publicly, especially 5 minutes after crossing the finish line. But I took it as Lance (and Levi too) having completely hit their limit with Alberto. I'm sure Alberto's cowboy act has grown old and that things are actually far worse than any of us realize. He was probably also steaming after seeing a dutiful teammate in Kloden get treated the way he did.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear in tomorrow's announcement that most of the Astana team goes with Lance on the new American squad. Alberto may be great, but he can't do it alone and I wouldn't be shocked if all these veterans just don't want to ride for him.
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