Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/112426
Shining a Light on the Dark Side of Teams Continued JOBS for TEAMS (Never mind all the others whose quieter, though no less critical, contributions are downplayed.) Armstrong was able to perpetrate his deceptions thanks to, as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report states, ���the help of a small army of enablers, including doping doctors, drug smugglers, and others within and outside the sport and on his own team.��� ���We are all aware of conditions when everyone else was willing to go along with a wrong,��� Piasecki points out. ���We recall instances in recent history where the politics of fear enabled the Nazis, and where embezzlement seems the norm.Yet it is harder to see when victory shines so bright. Leaders must be mindful of this very human tendency, in themselves and in others, to look the other way, to give our victors the benefit of the doubt. We must be vigilant and ever alert to wrongdoing. We must be willing to ferret out corruption in the highest echelons, to bench the MVP, even to fire the superstar for the good of the team and the sake of integrity.��� Ceaseless victory is a fantasy. Teams must keep a healthy sense of perspective. Lance Armstrong became a larger-thanlife figure because he kept winning races. (Indeed, he won his race against his most formidable foe, cancer.) He was addicted to victory���felt entitled to it, even���and this is what drove him to drive his team to illicit extremes. In the end it was this addiction (to ceaseless victory, not to drugs) that became his undoing. The lesson is clear: When we don���t learn to tolerate failure, we will do anything to keep the public adulation coming. ���I believe if others had taught Armstrong where the tolerance of losing is mixed with the pleasure of knowing we have tried our best, he would have proven a more dependable competitor,��� Piasecki says.���The great CEOs, the well-compensated doctors, the best in hospital administra- tors, and the legendary leaders of colleges are not people known to expect ceaseless victory. They are great competitors because they come to accept that we cannot always win. (Indeed, only through loss can we grow and improve.) ���Leaders must instill in teams this tolerance of losing,��� Piasecki continues. ���In word and deed we must convey that failure is a part of life and thus a part of business.We must model this truth by allowing our own weaknesses, flaws, and vulnerabilities to show.We must refrain from punishing teams who give it their best shot yet fall short of victory. And after a defeat, we must insist that employees ���get back on the horse��� as team players and ride full-tilt toward the next contest. In this way the pain of loss will naturally dissipate.��� Great teams revel in the pleasure of persistence and the sheer thrill of striving. Presumably, Lance Armstrong and his teams could be satisfied only with an unbroken string of victories. But where else is satisfaction to be found? Piasecki posits that once we���ve accepted that defeat is a part of the journey, there is great fun���yes, fun���in knowing that we will stumble and fall from time to time, yet get up, and try again, with some success. Another way to say it is this: Accepting the reality of our imperfection takes the pressure off. Then, and only then, do we free ourselves to feel the pleasure of persistence and the sheer thrill of striving. Piasecki insists that it���s critical to teach teams to be well prepared for assignments and to keep going in spite of hardship.���In the end, all of our training is about the pleasure of accomplishment in teams,��� he says. ���Life can be a tough slog, and victories are sporadic at best. Maybe we can���t win but we can keep going. This striving brings with it its own unique rewards. It is up to us to learn to appreciate them. In a world full of pain and blind ambition, the | 26 JobsForTeams0113_Feature.indd 3 www.jobsforteams.com 2/4/13 8:46 AM