Zambia show how to work together for a common goal

As I watched the tournament over the last one month, there were several insights for business success that we can learn from Zambia.

Simply substitute the words “Zambia” for “Your Company”, “Zambia’s Coach” for “The CEO,” and “players “for “employees.”
Hopefully, you will be able to evaluate the status of your team on each of them.

Team Spirit vs Super Stardom: The Zambia coach continually looked to build a self-sustaining programme.

This took precedence over individual goals — even those of the coach. For the professional players from West Africa, who mostly ply their trade in Europe, it was all about them — their record, their fame, their salary, their endorsements and their ego.

To be a truly great leader you must give of yourself. You cannot be selfish.

Big Hairy and Audacious Goals (BHAGS): The Zambia coach created an overall mission (BHAG) for the tournament.

They were going to win the cup for their 18 comrades who died in a plane crash in Gabon in 1993-—The same country in which they were playing the finals. A BHAG must engage the hearts and minds of your team.

It must be highly challenging, but at the same time within the team’s grasp— provided that they maximise their potential.

By creating a BHAG for your team, you give them a meaningful and mutually agreed upon focal point to motivate and rally them throughout the season.

This goal provides meaning, focus, challenge, and excitement to your team. A BHAG appeals to every person’s desire to do something special, to leave a legacy, to be remembered for accomplishing something that tested them to their limits.

What is your team’s BHAG?

Home-grown talent: The Zambia coach built his team predominantly from local players.

They had a better sense of history and perspective on their mission as well as insights on how to improve and gel easily.

In His bestselling book, Good to Great, Jim Collins writes: “Visionary companies develop, promote, and carefully select managerial talent grown from inside the company to a greater degree than the comparison companies.

They do this as a key step in preserving their core. Visionary companies were six times more likely to promote insiders to chief executive than comparison companies.”

Continuous improvement: The Zambia coach favourite saying is “You either get better or you get worse. There is no such thing as staying the same.”

Great sports teams are always looking to get better each and every time they train. They know that everyone is gunning for them so they have to be at the top of their game all of the time.

They take pride in their work ethic and how they practice.

A critical question for your company must be “How can we do better tomorrow than we did today?” Superb execution and performance naturally come to the visionary companies not so much as an end goal, but as the residual result of a never-ending cycle of self-stimulated improvement and investment for the future.

There is no ultimate finish line.

Zambia attained their extraordinary position not so much because of superior insight or special “secrets’ of success, but largely because they were so demanding of themselves.

Over to you captains of industry.

Mr Waswa is management and HR specialist and Managing Director of Outdoors Africa. E-mail: [email protected]