As I was crying into my beer on the devastating loss my favorite football (American) team, San Francisco 49ers suffered this past Sunday, I came across this article “Excess of Talent Has Spoiled San Francisco 49ers Offense”. For those of you non-football fans, here’s some context:
- 49ers are considered to be one of the elite football teams in the National Football League. In the past 3 years, they were among the top 4 teams in the league (out of 32).
- Last Sunday (Nov 2, 2014) they suffered a humiliating loss against a low-ranked team St. Louis Rams. In the last year, I’d say this is probably the second most disappointing loss. (First being the NFC championship loss this past January).
- This season, they are off to a so-so start. As of this writing, they are at 4 wins and 4 losses this season. Pathetic. Some teams (read: Oakland Raiders) may be wondering What’s wrong with 4-4?. But, 49er fans *ahem* have higher standards you know.
As I was reading this article, it got me thinking “Is there such a thing as too much talent?”. What if this applies to organizations? What if this applies to MY organization? Is too much talent detrimental to winning games or winning in the business?
I have come to conclude, too much talent in an organization is a good problem to have. You can have all the right people, right talent (or too much of it) on your team. However as a coach/manager you have to figure out two things.
1. Solid Strategy. As a manager, you need a game plan on how to leverage the best talent you have on your team. A plan around what their strengths are and how that aligns with the project/business goals you have in mind. Putting your talented people on the right role or leveraging them to solve the right problem or project is more important than having them in the first place.
2. Hunger. You can have all the best people on your team. But above all, if they are not inherently hungry to succeed, it does not matter what talent they have. Put yourself in their shoes and find out what motivates that person. Winning is very personal. Some are motivated by titles. Some are motivated by money. Some carry a chip on their shoulders. It varies. As a manager it is important to find out first what is he hungry for.
In summary, be it the game of football or the game of business, the principles around winning and human motivation are one and the same.
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