Setting High Standards
"A culture of high standards is protective of all the 'invisible' but crucial work that goes on in every company. I’m talking about the work that no one sees." – Jeff Bezos
There are good sports teams and there are great sports teams, but on rare occasion a team emerges that transcends their sport to achieve historic greatness. Sam Walker, a sportswriter for the Wall Street Journal, was fascinated by these extremely successful teams, and he set out to answer a simple question that he thought would have a straightforward answer:
What is the crucial element that separates the greatest sports teams of all time – the elite of the elite – from all the other sports dynasties?
The question set Walker off on an 11-year journey that culminated in a fascinating book which transcends sports and gets to what I believe is one of the most critical elements of leadership. The subtitle of the book is “A New Theory of Leadership,” but for reasons that will become obvious later, I’m not going to reveal the title just yet.
Walker’s first challenge was identifying the very best sports teams of all time. To do that, he cast a wide net by looking across all major sports, both women's and men's, and going back in some cases more than a hundred years. Starting from a pool of thousands of championship teams, Walker narrowed the list to include only teams that played against the top competition of their era and dominated for many years.
That brought the list down to 122 teams.
Then he filtered for teams that had a "freakish" record, way outside the norm, even by the standards of championship teams. He was looking for sports dynasties that achieved records that stand alone, far surpassing every other team that played the same genre of sport.
That narrowed the list down to just 17 teams.
These teams are “unambiguously outstanding,” writes Walker. “Together, they represent the apotheosis of sports [team] excellence.”
The list includes some teams I expected to see there. These are teams that always show up on the list of "greatest teams of all time," including: the New York Yankees (1949 - 1953), Boston Celtics (1956 - 1969), New England Patriots (2001-2018), Barcelona professional soccer (2008 - 2013), and the United States women's national soccer (1996-1999).
However, there are also teams that I was not familiar with: Hungary men's national soccer team (1950 - 1955), New Zealand All-Blacks in rugby (1986-1990) and again (2011 - 2015), Cuba women's volleyball (1991 - 2000) and the Collingwood Magpies, an Australian Rules football team (1927 - 1930).
Walker then combed the history of each dynasty to search for a common factor across all 17 teams. He was looking for the element that set these teams apart from all the others. He suspected the common factor would be an inspiring coach, a superstar player, or maybe an innovative new strategy, but that’s not what he found. Eventually, he did find a common trait that all 17 teams shared, but it came as a complete surprise:
"The most crucial ingredient in a team that achieves and sustains historic greatness is the character of the player who leads it."
"The result of this exercise stopped me cold," recalls Walker. The success of each team corresponded with the arrival of a special type of player, and "with an eerie regularity, that person was or eventually would become the captain." The title of Walker’s book is The Captain Class, and it’s about the unique role the captain of each team played in setting standards and leading the team to greatness.
For the New York Yankees that special player was Yogi Berra. For the Boston Celtics it was Bill Russell. For the New England Patriots, it was Tom Brady.
One might assume that all 17 of these captains were, like Brady, among the greatest players to ever play their sport, but that wasn't the case. Brady was the exception. In fact, in most cases the captains weren't even the most talented player on their team. For the Brazil men's soccer team (1958 - 1962), the best player was Pele, but the captain was Hilderaldo Bellini. The captain of the U.S. women's soccer team (1996 - 1999) was not Mia Hamm, who many consider the team’s star, it was defender Carla Overbeck.
So if these captains weren’t the most physically gifted and talented players, what value did they bring to the team? The unique trait these captains possessed was a special blend of leadership and character. The most important role they played was interpersonal:
"The captain is the figure who holds sway over the dressing room, by speaking to teammates as a peer, counseling them on and off the field, motivating them, challenging them, resolving disputes, enforcing standards, inspiring fear when necessary and above all, setting a tone with words and deeds," writes Walker.
After Walker made this incredible discovery, he looked around and noticed a similar philosophy in the writings and quotes of other great coaches and sports figures. Coach Mike Krzyewski, who has won more games than any coach in Division I men's basketball, wrote that while talent and coaching are essential, the secret to success is something else:
"The single most important ingredient, after you get the talent, is internal leadership. It's not the coaches as much as one single person or people on the team who set higher standards than the team would normally set for itself."
Through their work ethic, doggedness, focus and competitive nature, these captains led by example, inspiring a higher level of effort and passion from everyone on the team.
If setting high standards is so critical for team success in sports, might it also be crucial for other team endeavors like business?
In his 2017 letter to Amazon shareholders, Jeff Bezos recognized the power of high standards and the critical role they have played in helping Amazon scale.
"People are drawn to high standards – they help with recruiting and retention. More subtle: a culture of high standards is protective of all the 'invisible' but crucial work that goes on in every company. I’m talking about the work that no one sees. The work that gets done when no one is watching. In a high standards culture, doing that work well is its own reward – it’s part of what it means to be a professional."
The best businesses are led by founders or CEOs who set, what many people believe to be, impossibly high standards. Disney set high standards for animation and storytelling. Bill Gates set high standards for writing code. Warren Buffett set high standards for allocating capital. Steve Jobs set high standards for inspiring products crafted like pieces of art.
One of the most impactful steps you can take as a leader is to write down the standards that matter the most for you and your organization. The standard could relate to the quality of the product, the level of customer service or even how people treat each other on your team. What's important is that you believe in the standard, you set it extremely high, and you're willing to hold yourself and others to that standard.
It won't be easy. Many people will think your standards are unrealistically too high, and that's fine. If you find others are not surprised by your standards, you're probably not setting the standard high enough.