During my time as Coordinator of Basketball Operations at Marquette University, there was a banner associated with our program that carried a simple message:
THE STAR OF THE TEAM IS THE TEAM.
Tom Crean used the phrase, and I've never forgotten it.
The concept is easy to see in sports. A basketball team may have a leading scorer, but somebody sets the screen that creates the shot. Somebody makes the extra pass. Somebody defends the other team's best player. Somebody prepares film, handles equipment, organizes travel, or does dozens of other things fans will never see.
A racing pit crew is another great example. The driver gets most of the cameras and attention, but a race can be won or lost by a group of people doing highly specialized work in a matter of seconds.
Organizations aren't much different.
We naturally notice visible performance: the salesperson who lands the account, the executive giving the presentation, the leader announcing the result, or the person whose name appears on the finished project.
There's nothing wrong with recognizing individual excellence. People should know when they've done exceptional work.
The danger is forgetting how many other people helped make that work possible.
Teams become weaker when people spend more energy wondering whether they received enough credit than thinking about whether the team accomplished what it was trying to accomplish.
That's also why leaders need to pay attention to contributions that aren't naturally visible. Some of the most important people on a team may rarely be the ones presenting the final result.
One Team leadership requires understanding that roles can be different while the outcome is shared.
Sometimes you're the person leading the meeting. Other times you're preparing the person who's leading it. Sometimes you take the shot, and sometimes you make the pass that creates the shot.
Sometimes your most important contribution is creating the conditions for somebody else to succeed.
That's not lesser leadership. That's what being part of a team looks like.
Years after leaving Marquette, I still think about that banner because the principle travels far beyond basketball. Titles change, roles change, and the people receiving the attention change.
The need for a team doesn't.
If you want a quick read on your culture, listen to how people describe success. Is the language mostly about I, or do you hear we?
Strong organizations can celebrate individual performance without losing sight of the bigger truth I learned years ago at Marquette:
