If I’m going to use this analogy for a short piece on business management, I first need to explain to friends like Dan who don’t do football that ‘tracking back’ is the unglamorous, defensive part of the game that involves a lot of effort but goes largely unnoticed.
From time to time, experts on the game comment on the immense value to the team of this kind of contribution. But the market speaks: the headline-grabbing transfer fees are reserved for the players who score the goals, who practise celebration knee-slides more than they practise sliding tackles.
Don Revie was early to the scene as a crossover football/ management guru. He was clear about how you should treat the star in the team. Way back in the 1970s, how would new big -money signing Peter Lorimer fit into a high-performing Leeds team? The Don’s message was understood by all concerned: when it came to the new man’s first game the manager instructed him to pour the tea for everyone in the team at Half Time.
But does that approach always work?
If you haven’t worked in a City law firm, you might be surprised to learn that, often, the partner charging all that per hour for dispensing legal advice is also expected to bring in new instructions, to fill in timesheets on a daily basis and to send out and chase-up payment of bills. There’s similar boring admin going on in banks. It calls for time and effort. Corporate tracking-back. Without it, the business couldn’t survive.
Should everyone have to bear a part of this burden, stars and squad players alike? It depends what you’re trying to achieve. Don Revie’s clear objective was to build a team. Telling the superstar on day one that he’d have his turn pouring the tea, just like everyone else, was a neat way of giving a message to the star and his less starry teammates.
Maybe you feel it makes sense to treat your star differently. To relieve them of some of the drudgery and save them for what they do best.
But if you make that choice, keep a weather-eye on how the rest of the team feel about it. And remember your star’s only a star while they keep on scoring the goals.