I stopped watching live football about a year ago to save my heart the trauma of weekly heartbreaks. The team that I was supporting and still support passionately weren’t doing well. Even when they won matches, it was labored and heart wrenching.

Following the change of coaching staff a couple of weeks ago, I was encouraged to watch the second half of their match against Chelsea on Boxing Day 2019. Though they lost the match due to errors from the usual suspects, I saw signs of progress and evidence that the painful days were coming to an end. The performance against Chelsea encouraged me to watch the teams next match against the red devils and I was not disappointed that they dealt the ‘devils’ the kind of fatal blow expected from God’s army. It would have been unheard of for the army of God to fall to defeat in the hands of the devil.

The signs the team showed in the matches played against London’s blue Club and the Manchester devils encouraged me to watch the FA cup third round match against Leeds FC, even though I new the team would not be fielding a full squad of first team players. I wanted to measure the consistency of the team and see how motivated they will be against assumed lesser opponents. The first forty-five minutes were harrowing… a reminder of the very recent past. It was as if the team forgot the factors  that  made their superiority over the devils obvious. Like they say in football, when it’s your day all the elements work in your favor. Leeds FC did everything so well except the most important thing… getting the ball into the net. In the second half, it was a different game. Same players but a different attitude. Whereas in the first half it was a team of individual fighting for individual interests, the second half produced a team in which one man was fighting for the other. Whereas in the first half they played like team already assured of victory and only waiting for presentation of medals, they played in the second half like hungry wolves hunting for games. The team that seemed jaded before the break, resumed with greater focus and greater sense of purpose.

What changed? Why were the seemingly overfed players transformed after the break? What strategy did the coach use to  get his fumbling players to man up? Out of all that have been written about the half match pep talk, only one phrase stood out… ‘run life a wolf’. Did it work? How did Arsenal’s young coach inspire tired men to run like wolves? He must have without doubt touched a nerve that roused them from slumber.  Perhaps he made them feel like wolves with his words and they only had to act through to the nature of wolves.

Leading teams either at work places or the political environment can be arduous because it is always very difficult to get people with different motivations to work seamlessly in a team. For this reason one of the greatest tasks faced by leaders is the fusion of individual team members into a functional team. It may literally require the leader to create the semblance of joints and nuts to conjoin members of his/her team into one indivisible unit. So why don’t political leaders see the need for team building? Why do they always leave their team to function in self defeating small units rather than one wholesome unit that functions for the whole?  Perhaps they don’t appreciate the leverage good teams bring to governance. Or may be leaders themselves ‘no sabi’. ‘After all na wetin person chop he go fit vomit’.

Are you a leader leading teams or aspiring to lead teams? Can you convince your team members to lose personal identities in pursuit of a common goal? Are you able to rouse weary ones to float like butterflies and sting like bees? If you are able to do that seamlessly, praise your luck. And if you are unable to… despair not. Only few are born with that capability. Only very few!

The capability to build, nurture and sustain functional teams can be acquired through careful learning, submission to mentoring and endless reading of great books. Even leaders who think they are naturally imbued with the best leadership traits never rely wholly on assumed attributes because just like humans are dynamic, the factors that motivate teams can change without notice. So what is stopping you from learning the trade? Are you too proud to acquire leadership skills that you are not naturally imbued with? Any leader who is interested in having a sustainable leadership legacy would know that it would take a village to sustain a legacy. And that village would be made up of well nurtured functional teams. Not brick and mortar.

For those of you who are aspiring to lead, the time to learn is now. Not tomorrow when you have too many Lilliputians around to discourage you from learning new knowledge or thinking of residing teams. So go out, learn and keep in mind that the key to sustained success is continuous and never-ending improvement(Tony Robbins).

My last word for all of us irrespective of whether we are leaders or followers is that it’s a new year. I am certain that we are all desirous of pursuing  our 2020 goals. It’s very early in the day not to be hungry. So I leave you with the words of Mike Arteta…step out today and run like wolves!