What the World Cup Can Teach You About Team This month marks the start of the World Cup, the world’s most popular sporting event.

BuildHeld every four years, the finals of this global tournament kicks off later this week, with host nation Brazil taking on Croatia. While many, many workers are sure to come down with a variety of maladies and ailments that keep them at home throughout this month-long competition, the World Cup teaches employees (and their businesses) more than just creative ways to exit the office early.

The World Cup affects our working lives in a different way – it teaches us the importance of building a quality team to achieve success in an ever-transforming workplace. After all, on the field, players need to quickly adapt to schemes, referees, fans, and other surrounding forces – all while ensuring they communicate well with their own team. It requires the ability to change course in an instant, and generate plenty of outside-the-box thinking. Sound a bit like your job?

So what are some lessons employees and businesses can take away from this year’s World Cup teams?

LESSONS FROM THE THREE LIONS

Like the Olympics, athletes in the World Cup represent their home countries as part of a national team. Each team at the World Cup has been four years in the making, with coaches weighing strengths, weaknesses, and overall team chemistry to narrow a pool of hundreds of players down to a final roster of 23. It’s meticulous process, but one that aims to create maximum value.

Fabio Capello, former coach of England’s national team (now leading Russia in the World Cup) had told AskMen.com that the basic building block on his World Cup teams is respect. He expects his players to work hard for one another – a critical element for his high-tempo approach to the game, where his team presses tirelessly to win back possession of the ball in dangerous areas of the field. But he stresses that the last thing he wants is a team full of robots that are just following orders. Instead, he encourages imagination and flexibility – two qualities that are just as important to winning in the workplace as they are on the soccer pitch. Looking for team members who have these traits can build a dynamic team that generates ideas from many, rather than just running ideas from the top down.

Capello says he tailors his motivational speeches to match the mood of his team. He relies on eye contact to tell him whether it’s time for a blistering reminder of recent mistakes, mild chiding made more palatable with humor, or flat-out praise for work well done. Employers would be wise to follow his method and know when gentle encouragement will produce better results than berating someone. Of course, this is a skill that comes with time. Also keep in mind the importance of public vs. private coaching – there are some situations when it’s appropriate to call out the team for not performing up to par, but individualized criticism, by and large, should be done on a one-on-one basis.

Capello also encourages his players to enjoy life outside of soccer. He stresses the importance of family and hobbies when it comes to balancing the immense stress that comes from an ultra-focused campaign like the World Cup. It goes to show that work-life balance is important to team happiness, even for elite athletes. If you see team members showing signs of burning out, you may need to be the one to ensure they slow down and take a break – like elite athletes, many quality workers have trouble taking themselves out of the game, even for a little while.

THE DONOVAN DEBACLE

Finally, for a lesson on what not to do, consider the case of Landon Donovan. Donovan, ostensibly the best U.S. player ever, and hero of the 2010 World Cup team, was snubbed from this year’s squad, sending fans into an uproar.

Though stats reveal that the 32-year-old veteran player seemed on the decline, and his motivation had been called into question due to a recent self-imposed sabbatical, the coach’s decision to cast him aside in favor of young, unproven talent didn’t go over well. Many speculated that the snub had less to do with Donovan’s play and more to do with the fact that he and the coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, didn’t get along. For his part, Klinsmann was very secretive about the decision, with reports coming out of camp that he consulted nobody during the process, and even surprised the higher-ups at U.S. Soccer when the decision was made.

Social media lit up in protest, and the whole episode seemed like a big, needless distraction. It remains to be seen how the fallout will affect team morale during the World Cup.

The Donovan Debacle is a good lesson for any team manager: If you’re going to get rid of a popular team member, there’s a right way and a wrong way. Consider consulting advisors before making the decision, and being fully transparent about your decision-making process. Also, while it is important to remain assertive as a leader, handling a volatile situation like that should be done with a touch more delicacy. And you’d better be sure there’s a good reason to cut a quality team member beyond petty squabbles.

After all, a truly good coach or boss makes decisions with the good of the whole in mind. They don’t cut productive people loose lightly. So next time you find yourself at a managerial decision crossroads, you may find it useful to think of your staff as a team on the field of play. What do you need to do to ensure they work together successfully, and with the resiliency to adapt to their ever-changing surroundings?ing