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Clyde Dildine
Editort.
The 2004 Tour de France, cycling's most
grueling and competitive challenge has begun. Lance Armstrong
and "Big Blue", the United States Postal Service team,
have dominated the Tour over the past five years. This year Armstrong
seeks to be the first person in history to win six Tours. An amazing
feat for anyone, let alone one who was given little chance of
surviving testicular and brain cancer a few short years ago. Armstrong
tells the story of his battle with cancer, his rehabilitation
and his first Tour victory in his bestseller, It's Not About
the Bike. His latest book, Every Second Counts,
continues the saga of a man dedicated to finding a cure for cancer
and excelling at his chosen sport. In chapter six – Blue
Train (the name given the USPS team by the French press), Lance
shares his gems of wisdom on teamwork. He strongly believes that
his survival and competitive success was achieved through the
combined efforts of dedicated teams of people. The keys to his
success are applicable whether you are competing in sports, in
business or for your life.
"It takes eight fellow U.S. Postal
Service riders to get me to the finish line in one piece, let
alone in first place. Cycling is far more a team sport than
spectators realize, and it's an embarrassment worth cringing
over that I've stood on the podium of the Tour De France
alone, as if I got there by myself. I don't just show
up there after almost three thousand miles, and say, "Look
what I did." When I wear the yellow jersey, I figure I
only deserve the zipper. The rest of it each sleeve, the front,
the back, belongs to the guys."
Armstrong is very careful not to set himself apart from the rest
of the team. It is a tradition in the Tour that the previous year's
winner wear the coveted yellow jersey at the beginning of the
current competition. In 2002 Lance broke tradition, wearing the
blue jersey of his fellow teammates.
"I wanted to set the tone for
the whole race…I didn't want to single myself out."
"The Tour de France poses an interesting
question about the nature of teamwork: why should eight riders
sweat and suffer for three weeks when only one man, me, will
get the trophy? This is asking for an extreme degree of self-sacrifice,
perhaps even an unnatural amount. But the smart athlete, and
person, knows that if self-sacrifice is hard, self-interest
is worse. It dooms a team; you wind up a bunch of singletons
that just happen to wear the same shirts. Various factors went
into selecting the nine team members who would take the start
line in the Tour de France but what mattered most was how much
they were willing to sacrifice. If you weren't thinking
"team," you got left home."
To be a true team a group must have a common reason for being,
a shared purpose and an interdependent need to work together to
accomplish that purpose. If there is no need to work collaboratively
there is no need for teamwork.
"Pro athletes talk all the time
about "my game." But your game doesn't belong to you
when you're on a team - there's no such thing as "my"
game; there is only the game. Your effort belongs to
your teammates and theirs belongs to you, and they're inextricable.
The same is true of any gathering of people in one place, for
any purpose." To me, the definition of a team is a group
of people who share the same aim, experience, and values."
Lone Rangers is a term we use to describe team members who set
themselves apart from the rest of the team. They focus on their
individual responsibilities, function or organizational silo and
do not concern themselves with the bigger picture and the overarching
objectives of the team.
"Why engage in a collective effort
rather than an individual one, even when you wonder, "What's
in it for me?" Self-interest is isolating. When you work
in collaboration, you're responsible to each other, and
therefore much less likely to shirk your responsibilities or
cheat your partner. Teamwork is not only performance-enhancing,
it's comforting. You are never alone, and whether you
have a six-mile climb up an alp and a cadre of attackers behind
you or a round of chemo in front of you, that's extremely
reassuring. Who would want to be a singleton, when you have
all that? Anyone who imagines they can work alone winds up surrounded
by nothing but rivals, without companions. The fact is, no one
ascends alone."
In high performing teams leadership responsibilities are shared.
It is not the exclusive responsibility of those whose position
on the organization chart identifies them as supervisor, manager,
team leader or CEO. Anyone on the team can lead a given task or
project if they have the skills and interest to do so. The rest
of the team willingly follows their lead, including the formal
team leader. In Lance Armstrong's case he rides on behalf
of his other team members in several races a year. He spends a
portion of each spring working as a support rider and trying to
help his teammates win races.
"The 2002 U.S. Postal Service
team was one of the best cycling teams that ever rode a road.
What made the personalities of nine different men on bike meld
into a single agreeableentity? Reciprocity is the answer.
I act as a domestique, shield them from the wind, protect them
in the pack, and carry their water bottles – and it's
one of my favorite parts of the season."
Competitive cycling is not considered a road to riches for most
racers. Most do it for the love of the sport and eek out a living
as best they can. Lance Armstrong's success has made him
a wealthy man. Offers for product endorsements and public appearances
pour into his mailbox. The Tour itself has a $400,000 winner's
prize. But Lance recognizes that the whole team must win if he
is to win. It is tradition that the winner of the Tour de France
gives the prize money to his team – a noble gesture. At
the celebration party after the 2002 Tour, Lance handed each of
his teammates a sealed envelope. The team assumed that this was
their share of the prize money. But when they later opened the
envelopes they discovered that Lance had doubled the amount normally
given. The whole team won, not just the leader.
It is often easy to overlook the contributions that everyone makes
to a team's success. Sometimes we forget who the team really
is. High performing teams recognize and value the contribution
of everyone on the team. Big Blue is only part of a larger team
that brought home the victory.
"The team wasn't just the
riders. It was the mechanics, masseurs, chefs, soigneurs, and
doctors. The most important man on the team may have been our
chiropractor." No matter where someone lines up on the
organization chart they are a valuable and vital part of the
team. Whether you pedal three thousand miles or fix flats
and grease chains you deserve the respect of the entire team."
The teamwork values Lance Armstrong embraces
were key to the success of Big Blue. They help set the truly great
teams apart from the herd. They can help any team reach its full
potential.
"Big Blue rode into Paris, and
I crossed the finish line with an official time of 82 hours,
5 minutes, and 12 seconds and a winning margin of 7:17. I was
inexpressibly proud. We hadn't made the slightest tactical
error. Not one. We'd grown stronger as the race went on,
more secure in our craft, more patient. I felt a sense of achievement
I hadn't felt in any of my previous three Tour victories,
because of the sheer beauty of that team performance."
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