Teamwork

There is an interesting development in the German Bundesliga, which is first soccer league in Germany.

This year new teams are in the lead. Many of the traditional top clubs are struggling, some even struggling to stay in the league.

A famous German weekly magazine ‘Spiegel’ tried to analyze the reasons. This is what they came up with, and I think the findings are quiet useful for the business environment as well.

Star cult is out. Buying some superstars with the highest skill level and adding them to the team did not proof to be successful.

Of course skills are important and you can’t do without, however in today’s winning teams the managers check out the character of new players.

- Do they fit into the team - Do they have the spirit and run their heart out in order to back up their team mates in case these make a mistake

- Do they have the mind set of being ‘one team’? All players are of equal importance, not one star to be served by the others.

Nice to see that the good old teamwork concept seems to yield better results than just buying star performers.