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Leadership, Talent And Personality: Three Lessons From The World Cup Final

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The world of competitive sports has always provided a good ecosystem to test our assumptions on leadership, talent and personality. As we enter the phase of post-World Cup depression - especially if you are not German - it is thus useful to consider some of the big lessons from yesterday's final:

1. Leadership is the ability to build a winning team: Neither Sabella nor Löw are emblematic of the popular stereotype of a leader. They are both low key and uncharismatic, and much more focused on their team than getting media attention. But this is what good leaders are like. Indeed, the defining quality of great leaders is their ability to build a winning team. Löw may have beaten Sabella, but they were both far more competent than other managers when it came to creating a team - this is why they both reached the final. The only difference between the two sides, as evidenced in yesterday's game, boiled down to a few deciding moments in the game, but that is far from surprising...

2. When teams are levelled, talent makes a difference: Yesterday's final was chess-like. But the critical incidents were all marked by predictable differences in talent. Higuain and Palacio could have killed the game way before Germany scored, yet they lacked the technique and class of Göetze, who needed only half a chance to win the game. For the same reason, one would have expected Germany to beat Argentina in the penalty shoot-out, where Neuer would have truly shown that he is the best keeper in the world - as things actually turned out, he was lucky to stay in the game after his criminal foul on Higuain.

3. Talent is worth nothing without a personality: Despite FIFA's decision to award the MVP to Messi, he was not the best player in the tournament. In fact, he was not even the best player in Argentina, who was Mascherano. If Messi had 10% of Mascherano's personality, Argentina would be world champions now. Yet, despite his extraordinary ability (even past his peak) his performance during the big games confirmed what half of Argentina already knew: Messi needs a personality transplant. To his hardcore fans, this may be hard to digest, not least because his overall World Cup performance was good, despite perhaps suffering from fatigue or burnout. Yet Messi's big failure was to be largely absent from yesterday's game, as well as missing a chance that he would rarely have missed in lower stake settings. Thus, despite virtually picking the line-up and formation, and finally feeling the love and support from his own nation, Messi lacked what most captains don't: leadership. And the reason for that is that despite his unquestionable talent, Messi does not have the personality of a leader. The pressure has been getting to him for some time now - there is no other explanation for his recurrent vomiting - and the centre stage we always thought he craved was just too much for him. In sports, like in business, nice guys often finish last. For all of Maradonna's self-destructiveness, his dark side tendencies only made him stronger during the big battles.

In brief, whether in sports, politics or business, major achievements are always the result of team rather than individual efforts. And teams can never emerge without the vision, guidance, and management of a leader. Good leaders may seem bigger than their teams, but only when they are attention-seeking narcissists. Although we tend to attribute collective team achievements to specific individuals, individual talent only shines in the right context. That is, you can be the most talented person in the world but on your own you will achieve nothing. Finally, although we tend to regard talent and personality as two unrelated things, there is a close connection between them. Talent without personality is less likely to succeed than personality without talent. And the bigger the stakes, the more success depends on personality. Well done Germany.

Stadion Maracanã w Rio de Janeiro (strona lewa) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)