Teamwork

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

• Becoming a B Corp
• Top trend predictions for Christmas 2021
• Self-sacrifice: The importance of building a leadership legacy centred on others
• Undercover Boss
• Can/should bosses really be close friends with their staff?

I listened to part of a fascinating programme on Radio Five Live earlier this week, whilst I was driving home from a late night in the office, on what goes on in the changing room of sports teams

Presented by Michael Vaughan, ex England Cricket Captain, there were interviews with international football, rugby and cricket players.  In places it was hilarious as Michael Dawson described the England World Cup winning team locker room, where the forwards were head-butting each other, and occasionally requiring stitches before the match, whilst the backs were checking that their hair looked good before they ran out on the pitch.

The serious point though, from this, was to counter the perception that everyone in a sports team are great mates and years after representing their country together they are all round at each other’s houses, and on the phone to each other the whole time.  Nothing could be further from the truth, it appears.  To a man (and they were all men in this case!) the interviewees said that they only had two or three people within the team they were actually friends with at the time, and whose phone numbers they still had.

That set me thinking about the workplace environment.  If the most united of sports teams i.e. World Cup Winners actually aren’t even friends with each other, it gives massive hope for companies developing and growing even where there may be difficult relationships within them.  As with a sports team, as long as there is common purpose, a huge amount can be achieved and everyone concentrates on being excellent in their own particular area.

Work should be a fun place to be as well as a place where people behave professionally and as human beings, but in most circumstances probably isn’t healthy for either you or the company for your best friends to be in the workplace.  But having a friendly atmosphere as well as a desire to want the best for each other is essential for a growing company.  If there are people damaging the atmosphere within the business, they either need to change or leave.  There were two such people within Cotswold Fayre earlier this year.  Interestingly they were the only two people who were unable to congratulate me on my engagement.  Quite unbelievable!  It really doesn’t take much. As it happens both of them resigned later in the year, and we are a better company without them.

Staff – who’d have them, eh?  In the busy run up to Christmas, build your teams the way you want them.  Have a good week.