As the England Footballers return home what possible positive lessons can we draw from their disappointing World Cup performances? The half-time and post-match studio analyses frequently had commentators drawing comparisons with the performances of the players in these World Cup games to their performances week in and week out in the premier league.

So why does this difference exist? If we assume that as professional footballers they all want to win and that they all have the capability to play like “World Class” players then their lacklustre performance must surely be attributable to one of two things:

1.    They don’t believe that they can do it ie Their values and beliefs are not aligned with each other and with their management so they are not performing as winning team with a common sense of purpose, mutual respect, interdependency and high standards both on and off the field.

2.    Their environment is having a negative effect their behaviour in a way that isn’t true at club level and this in turn may affect their belief in what they can achieve in this different setting.

 In any team situation the first responsibility of a team leader (Coach, manager etc) is to ensure that he or she has the people with the capabilities to succeed at whatever level they are “Playing”. Technical skill is the entry level qualification but “World class” requires the “Winning edge”; the tenacity, consistency, resilience and self belief that separate the great from the good. Even then, pulling great “players” together into a group and calling them a team doesn’t actually cause them to behave like a “Team”. And in English football this is further complicated by selecting the team to perform actually on the day of the performance; a factor which surely compromises the concept of a winning team having clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

So the additional responsibilities of the leader take him or her far beyond the technical skill of selection and into the complex realms of standard setting and of creating and maintaining an environment in which the great individuals function as a mutually dependent, mutually respecting, self motivating team capable of exceeding the goals of its individuals and even of the team itself. An environment in which individual flair is expected, respected and fostered for the benefit of the team and where winning becomes the raison d’etre. 

Only synergy can produce the type of achievement that these teams desire and synergy is what was missing in England’s world cup.