There’s one I in Losing Team

One of the many asinine word plays that always bothered me is “there’s no I in Team.” OK, that’s true. It’s also true that anybody who makes decisions based on verbal coincidences should be distanced as far as possible from any decision making process.

My equally asinine rebuttal is that the difference between a losing team and a winning team is that the losing team has one I and the winning team has more than one.

We all have egos. Recognize your own ego, as well as those of your teammates, bosses, customers, etc. Massage them, motivate them, direct them, and guide them. Aligns these egos with the company’s interests, and vice versa. When someone says there’s no room for ego here, it means that there’s only room in this town for one ego, mine. There’s no such thing as a team with no egos. A winning team is a team that lets many egos shine.

Yes, the correlation between the verbal coincidence and the point’s truth is purely coincidental. But the point is still true.