Three models of building successful teams

[ Originally published on LinkedIn here]

If you think of some of the most successful football club teams in the world in the past 50 years, Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Barcelona would likely come on top of your list. Between them, they have won 80+ domestic and 21+ continental & world football honours and the list does not end there.

While, they are known for success, glamour, and position they held in the world football for multiple years, they also represent three unique models for developing successful teams over multiple years and generations.

Manchester United

Success philosophy - Visionary leader, investing in young players with potential and hunger

The most successful period of Manchester United’s history had been under two legendary managers, Sir Matt Busby, and Sir Alex Ferguson. They created multiple generations of successful teams from young, hungry talent. Think Busby Babes and the Class of 94 and more.

Both managers spotted, recruited, invested in and cultivated in potential young talent that had a burning desire to succeed and dominate the world and created a culture of discipline and an environment where talent flourished. They both exactly knew how to balance team goals and individual aspirations. The moment the manager felt someone was being bigger than the club or team, the player was shown door out of the club.

They had a long-term vision of the club success. The club, however, went downhill each time the legendary manager retired or left the club.

Real Madrid FC

Success philosophy - Buy the best talent, have a manager that can keep them together and see them create wonder

Since I started following Football (maybe last 20 odd years ago), I have always known Real Madrid to invest in and buy the best of the talent available in the market and got them working together in the team.

They created a super brand with the ‘Galácticos’ approach. Their president Florentino Pérez spent huge money on buying the best available players from other teams and countries and created a Real Madrid team that was the envy of the world. Every player, in every position, was a world-class and expensive purchase and probably one of the best, if not the best in the world at doing their job.

They went on to win a lot of trophies, simply because they were almost always better than the opponent in quality at every playing department. The job of their manager was mostly spent in managing the big player egos and ensuring that these brilliant bunch of people were always able to play together.

Barcelona FC

Success philosophy - Create a perfect system and follow the system to perfection that leads to the success

When you think of Barcelona, it is very likely that you would likely think of terms like beautiful football, Tiki-taka and passing opponents to death. Indeed, it’s a system that has worked wonders for Barcelona for multiple years.

They have defined system and a predictable way of playing football and is based on intrinsic passing, keeping possession, outrunning opposition and allowing individuals to flourish.

Everyone who joins the team must adapt to the system and learn to play a part. Over multiple years of use, the system has been perfected to help them achieve results, simply by outplaying and outrunning the oppositions. Often, the opposition is not able to keep up with Barcelona and end up losing.

Summary

If you are a football fan, I am sure you would connect with these three teams and their characteristics that I outline above. So, if you want to apply these models in your teams and within your organizations, here is what you should consider.

To build a successful team based on the Manchester United model you should,

• Have a manager/leader with a vision, clarity, and passion to build teams

• Policy, process, and mechanism to recruit the best young talent with potential

• Creating an environment for them to succeed and achieve individual goals and glory

• Do not be afraid to take risks and stretch people to seek higher goals

• Base your system/processes based on talent at disposal to get the best out of what you have

• Leader’s vision matters the most and the leader has the last word

To build a successful team based on Real Madrid model you should,

• Buy (hire) the best people, pay them the most, put them in a team, let them figure out how to win

• Strategize to be a company/division/unit/team or a brand that people aspire to associate with

• Leader’s job is to keep the team working and manage people

• System is based on the team at the disposal

• Vision is to the best brand and best paymasters where best people want to work

To build a successful team based on the Barcelona model you should,

• Build a solid system around sound foundations, Leaders, and teams follow the system absolutely to the last word

• Take a perfectionist approach to implement the process & system

• Allow individual talent to flourish but only as a part of a perfected system, without breaking/challenging the system

• People who radically alter the system are not welcome

• Perfect system is most important, leaders and teams can keep altering

Which model would you be using to build your successful team?