Every 4 years the soccer world turns its focus to the world cup.  32 countries and their respective players practice and train for years simply for the chance to compete in this prestigious event.  While there are certainly favorites and teams that are expected to win, it seems nonetheless that every year there are upsets and the teams we expect to win don’t always oblige.

For example, in this year’s contest, the French team headed to South Africa with high hopes and was e
xpected to fare well.  They had plenty of talent on the roster and many of the players had been there before and had the experience and skills to wager a successful campaign.  But as the first round comes to a close, France has been eliminated and will be heading home.  So what went wrong?

The team dynamics and overall attitude of the team played a major role in their failure.  They didn’t work well together, allowed  the egos of the players to get the best of them, and they did not put the team’s interests first.  The negative attitude of certain players and members of the staff poisoned the group as a whole and rendered them ineffective.  In the end, all the experience and skill in the world couldn’t fix the egos and bad team dynamics.

In business too, building the right team dynamic is extremely critical.  Do the members of your staff respect each other and work well together?  The most talented or skilled employees are not necessarily a good fit if they bring down team productivity and morale.  When evaluating a candidate for a position it is so critical to think about how they will interact and work with other members of your team.  Finding that perfect fit is far more important than finding the most talented person and taking this approach when building your company or team will prove to be invaluable and almost certainly translate to success.