When Ego overtakes team's cause

My boss of almost 5 years now, Joel Sumner introduced me, a few months ago, to the idea of looking for leadership and team building lessons from the area of sports. I've, since then, been sensitive for any lessons we can learn from Cricket (the only sport I follow). 

I found one yesterday in the 3rd Test match between West Indies and Pakistan. The series was tied at 1-1 and West Indies were fighting to save the 3rd test with a draw, so that the honours would be even at the end of 3-match series. With just 7 more balls to survive, and with all the 9 fielders around the bat, ego took over ST Gabriel. Instead of defending just one ball and leaving the strike for next 6 balls to RL Chase who was batting with a century and had gotten WI so near for a fighting draw, Gabriel thought he'd go for the glory and hit a maximum (you can hear the commentator screaming in disbelief "why did he do that!!!!". He did got an inside edge, got bowled and Pakistan won the test match and the series. Classic case of ego taking over the needs of the team.

It also brings me to the false meaning that some people tend to attribute for "aggression". Often times the aggressive behaviour is coming from the ego and might not be helping the team's cause. Rahul Dravid, Bangalore's own legend, talks about how aggression is not about chest thumping or over the top celebrations, but is about being completely focused on the task at hand, taking pride in the output day-in and day-out, and about being intense, in this article. Notice that he also talks about how when ego takes over, people would lose the big picture and tend to do the opposite of what team wants, in search of personal glory. "I measure aggression by how people perform" says Dravid and I could not agree more. 

Next time when you think you are acting aggressive step back and reflect whether it is the ego and whether or not it is helping the team. When a colleague or team member is acting from ego, gently suggest them to calm down and think from whats important for the team.

Want to conquer ego or atleast want to keep it in check? Then I strongly recommend reading this book titled Ego Is The Enemy.

What lessons have you learnt from watching sports?