When reading through this week’s module, my initial thought was led back to the French National Soccer Team who won the World Cup championship in 2018. Being a French American citizen, having both my parents being from France, my family and I followed the World Cup extensively throughout. Team is defined as individuals having a single mission or goal, and without the team members interacting with each other this task cannot be accomplished. The team members are dependent on one another (Lesson commentary 9). The French National Soccer team demonstrates this concept a great amount. In order to have a successful world cup and make it as far as they did, they needed to communicate and work together throughout the tournament. The concept of team was proven by their accomplishment at the end of the tournament which ended in a National Championship.
A specific part of the Team Leadership Theory that fits into the example of the French National Team is Hackman and Walton (1986) three effective points of being a team. These three bullet points are a clear, engaging direction, an enabling performance situation, and adequate material resources. Firstly, a clear, elevating goal was set. The clear goal was to win the world cup tournament. Secondly, the French National Soccer team had a result driven structure. One specific aspect of this category is individuals on the team needed to know when to do certain task. In this example, these specific tasks could have been different plays they learn in order to be successful on the field. Next, competent team members is very useful for the French National Team. They need to have the right number of players on the field as well as on their team. In addition, the members of the team must all have the necessary skills to play on a National Soccer team. A specific example of a competent team member is Kylian Mbappe who was 19 at the time of the World Cup. He played in his first World cup and demonstrated abilities that are considered some of the best in the world (Ogden, 2018). One of these abilities is he is one of the first teenagers to score a goal in the world cup final. This team also demonstrated a unified commitment to each other. The members of the team are involved in all aspects of the process, where the coach Didier Deschamps allows the players to lead in their own format. The French National Team also demonstrates collaborative climate because in order to have a successful game they must trust and work collaboratively together. Soccer is a team sport and in order to win a game the individuals must work together and rely on one another. In addition, standards of excellence are also extremely important and beneficial to the world cup. The captain Hugo Lloris held his teammates accountable to performing to their best of their ability. Northouse (2019) states that it is important that the organizational construct sets up a standard of excellence in order for team mates to feel pressure to perform. Lastly, the French National Team had lots of external support and recognition from all French citizens and more. While other countries may not have been rooting for this team, individuals were still in recognition on how well the French team was playing and contributing with one another. Overall, Hackman and Walton (1986) analysis of how a team can be effective fits in extremely well with the French National Team. These components were extremely beneficial for this team and they demonstrated how important working in a team could be.
In conclusion, team leadership is a significant concept that allows for success. In the example I described above we can understand how concepts of team leadership were able to play a role in the successful outcome of the French National Team winning the 2018 World Cup.
Downing, J. (2021, January 22). Success of French football team masks underlying tensions over race and class. Retrieved March 18, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/success-of-french-football-team-masks-underlying-tensions-over-race-and-class-99781
Lesson Commentary 9, Team Leadership
Northouse, P.G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Ogden, M. (2018, July 15). France world Cup win proves Kylian mbappe is the sport’s future king. Retrieved March 18, 2021, from https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/4/blog/post/3566256/france-world-cup-win-proves-kylian-mbappe-is-the-sport-future-king
Hi! I love that you used the French National Team winning the 2018 World Cup as your example for team leadership because I grew up playing soccer and have always loved watching it. It is almost impossible for a team to be successful without great leadership because there is so much more to sports and teams than just going out on the field and playing the game. It takes a leader to get the group to come together and pursue their own shared goal, mission, or dream because this one dream can unite people in a way that is so powerful. Since soccer is consisted of a fairly large sized roster including players, coaches, trainers, etc. it is important to have shared leadership and certain roles for different people within the program in order to make sure everything is running smooth and for everyone to feel included and feel like they are part of the team. Do you think that egos within players might be a challenge since this team is consisted of the best soccer players in their country? And along with that question, do you think it is hard to have good team leadership as a whole when dealing with so many players that are all so talented? I think this might cause problems but it also appears that this team did not face those problems or overcame those problems because they ended up accomplishing their goal together and winning the 2018 World Cup.