What could managers learn from soccer?

Karl Stark _ co-founders and director of strategic advisory firm focused on growing companies_ have made a very true statement. You don’t learn only about soccer when you watch more and more games but you learn about business as well! Why?

What is the difference between the England’s team and the Brazil’s one? Or we can ask: Which one do you prefer watching? Many of you _except English people of course_ will probably answer “Brazil”. England can be very successful in its achievement by doing the minimum: marking a goal and then defend. But it’s quite boring to watch!

On the other side, you have the Brazil’s team. They want to do the show and not only winning the game. Their style is much more acrobatic than any other team and people love watching them. This difference is called by Stark: “Win _ Win beautifully”. He says that “Winning is not good enough; aim to win beautifully!”

These two team illustrate two different management models. The first one is a team with many good individual players but not playing in team while the second one has maybe not better players on the field but they know how to play together. The team is better that the sum of all the individuals.

How achieving this pragmatically speaking? Stark told us some tips to achieve it:

          - Trust and mutual respect are key to achieving it

          - Find pairs to work together. It also means that it’s maybe better to hire someone with less qualification but who will enjoy working with his team

          - Recognize and reward the team first and not individuals

These ideas are not new and many companies theoretically share these thoughts. Who would disagree? But don’t you remember this game between North Korea and Brazil during the 2010’s World Cup. It was so insane! North Korea marked the first goal and then had perfectly defended against Brazil. It was very difficult for the Brazilians even if at the end of the game they won  2-1 during the last few minutes. It’s another example of how a team can be stronger than individuals even if at the end they lose. Nowadays, we remember how North Korea defended and how it was hard for the Brazilians to win. It means that your management model is not good in itself. To be better at one moment than the others doesn't mean you are better forever. Companies should keep an eye on what do other companies and re-think their model before it's too late.

Watching soccer can be interesting to re-think a management model. Of course there is no perfect model but you can find the model that can match for your organization. Of course, if you prefer rugby or basketball, it also works.

You can follow Karl Stark on twitter : @karlstark