Leadership Excellence From The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team

Set the team’s foundation to be steady as a rock

Leadership excellence is critical in our global economy. The coach of one of the most successful teams ever – the United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) – was Anson Dorrance. Businesses can learn and apply his teamwork tactics to become a “powerhouse,” from the eyes of the player who has played in more games than any other, Kristine Lilly.
 
Coach Anson Dorrance is the father of women’s soccer in the United States. Kristine remembers the feeling of being on his teams, saying, “Once you stepped on that field, you knew you were playing for more than just your country, you were playing for each other. Coach Dorrance always told us we were the best, and we believed it and showed it when we stepped out on the field.” His coaching style was motivational, supportive, and challenging. He coached the USWNT from 1986 to 1994, setting the team’s foundation from the moment he started working.
 

Let’s consider the extreme pressure on coaches. They experience a wide range of emotions: personal highs when the team wins, self-doubt and feelings of under-achieving when the team loses. These pressures are especially evident at the collegiate and national levels, where field performance—how many games you win—is the prime interest of sports teams.
 
Coaches are held responsible for their teams’, successes and failures; wins and losses. This is especially so in professional sports, where your win/loss record affects each team’s financial revenues. Winning teams usually have more revenue than weaker teams. If your team is not winning, then you’ll have a lower ranking, which indirectly affects revenue by reduced ticket sales, merchandising, and sponsorships.
 
If the coach does not produce winning teams, the team replaces the coach. As the amount of revenue has increased in sports, including soccer, the pressure and turnover of coaches have increased, too. Teams hoping to improve field performance and team’s ranking are quicker to replace a coach. So, while a coach has tremendous pressure to win their games or they can possibly lose their job, he/she also has to win on the field by motivating every member on the team.
 
Coach Dorrance set his teams’ foundation by always striving to inspire, setting expectations, and developing their talent. As a result, he was able to lead his players to twenty-one NCAA national collegiate championships at The University of North Carolina, where he was named coach of the year seven times. As the USWNT coach for eight years, he won over 70 percent of his games, including the first ever Women’s World Cup in 1991 in China.
 
In the business world, a coach or manager aligns team efforts so that they can accomplish company goals. The manager provides an internal and external point of view to the team that helps the team assess processes, address existing or potential issues, and assist with team dynamics. These managers are forward-looking, with a results-oriented perspective that focuses on goals. They help the team debrief and understand the team’s successes and failures. Like the coaches on the field, these business coaches are there to lead their teams to a “win” by collaborating and maximizing synergies.
 
When a leader effectively sets a foundation, they must build on solid ground: rock instead of sand. To build a solid, rock-firm base for their team, a leader should effectively inspire the team, set clear expectations, and develop talent. Without these actions, the foundation is more like sand and the team’s performance will be unstable.
 
An example of a situation where the leader did not set the team foundation was when a global hotel chain sold their physical assets to a private equity (PE) firm and kept the employees on a management service contract. Yet, the new leader was not invested in operations, and the employees saw his disengagement. Everyone followed their own personal goals, as the team interests were not aligned and no one was on the same page. Employees showed up as zombies and took two-hour lunches. They sabotaged each other’s work. Not surprising, the PE firm did not reach their projected profit margins. The result was a train wreck, predictably caused by a leader who did not inspire others, set expectations, or develop the team.
 
Contrast that with a CEO who did set the team foundation by focusing on product quality. One day, he was walking through the assembly plant and saw that one of the finished products had a slight imperfection. To make a point about the expectations he had about product quality, he went over to the end of the assembly line and destroyed that product. This action was extreme, yet the story went viral throughout the company. By doing this, he set a team foundation: quality was essential, and any imperfection was not acceptable. He inspired his team to strive for quality. This shows how a decisive action can set expectations for the team. This leader’s behavior was much more impactful than a “value” being posted on the wall.
 
Leaders of highly effective teams, like USWNT’s Coach Anson Dorrance, build the powerhouse by setting the team foundation to be steady as a rock. They do this through inspiring, setting expectations, and developing talent. 

John Gillis, Jr. facilitates executive leadership development using a dynamic business simulation for LeadershipX. He has worked for numerous companies globally as a management consultant. He did his doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education and Wharton Business School. Connect John Gillis, Jr.

Lynette Gillis earned her Ph.D. at the University of Texas in Corporate Strategy and Organizational Behavior, completing a dissertation on networks and teams. As a professor at Concordia University, she taught strategy, leadership, management, and ethics. She also served as Dean of the College of Business. Currently, she serves as the Associate Provost leading academics across diverse disciplines and colleges. Connect Lynette Gillis   They are the co-authors, alongside Kristine Lilly, of the book Powerhouse: 13 Teamwork Tactics that Build Excellence and Unrivaled Success (May 7; Greenleaf Book Group).