As well as cheering on my fellow Moroccans, I’ve been interested in how they’ve managed to level-up their performance to be able to beat the world’s top teams.
Having done some reading on this, I realise there are many parallels between a successful football team and any other team. I will highlight a few of these in this blog.
Motivation
Word in the souk was that a strategic decision was made to allow the team’s family members to travel on an all-inclusive trip alongside the squad to Qatar.
In hindsight this was a brilliant decision that paid dividends, as well producing timeless pictures of mothers being kissed and embraced. For a lot of people, being successful for your family is of course a significant motivator and they capitalised on this.
One of the things I miss the most about fixed-desk offices were the pictures of families and children you would see. In fact, unintentionally, I keep pictures of my children on my personal desk and it does provide that extra morale boost when needed.
Teamwork
The usual point made by pundits when it comes to likelihood of football success is the number of ‘star players’ in a team. In any team individuals will have a range of performance. As managers, one of our aims is to keep the performance bar rising across all team members. However, what is often overlooked is the collective – how well these individuals are perform together as a team.
It is a good reminder not to ignore the team element, including how well people cover, complement and learn from each other. Perhaps the most important indicator of success in this area is the tendency for individuals to think as a team rather than individuals.
The right leadership and strategy
The coach Walid Regragui managed to bring a team together from across Morocco and Europe (dual-heritage) into a cohesive unit. It takes good leadership to bring the right team together, especially when there were previous disputes.
It was also clear that Morocco’s strategy was centred on their defence, counterattack and being able to rely on a solid goalkeeper. What would an office team strategy look like?
– Matching skills to projects
– Aligning annual leave with less influential periods
– Working flexibly across projects to maintain keep momentum
– Preserving capacity to build the right connections with stakeholders etc.
Performing now and under pressure
“Forget about stars, forget about what you have achieved before. What counts is the game in front of you and they have shown that if you get it right, you are capable of beating anybody.”
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We’ve all experienced having a strong track record but feeling defined by a more recent underperformance. The equivalent in football is only being as good as your last game. In summary, forget about the past and focus on your performance in the present, as that will play a more significant part of people’s current perception.
Moreover, there comes a time when you need to be brave, put yourself forward and accept the pressure. Yes, I’m talking about penalties!
Morocco succeeded in this regard against Spain. In addition to stepping up like they did, we can rely on our preparation to increase our chances of success at work.
The right environment
Is it a coincidence that Morocco have done well in the Qatar World Cup? It shouldn’t be a surprise that an environment that supports, promotes and sponsors you will help you to perform.
So the next time we consider someone under-performing, lets first reflect on whether this individual is operating as a minority in a majority environment and whether the factors mentioned above are being distributed evenly and in their favour…
Maybe all they need is the right support, high-profile project and unwavering belief that their environment wants them to succeed.
I’m happy that the World Cup in Qatar has been a unifying event for people across the world, even amidst the early controversy. I’ve had a lot of people spark conversations with me about Morocco’s performance and tell me how passionately they’ve been supporting them as well!