An Incredible Team
The Green Bay Packers finished the 2021 season with a 13-4 record. This was tied for the best record in the NFL and earned the team the right for a bye in the first round of the playoffs. The team’s quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, is the league’s presumptive MVP. His wide receiver, Davante Adams, is considered one of the top five players at his position. The defense and running game are high-quality as well.
But there is one part of the team which was significantly deficient this past season.
An Incredible Deficiency
SI.com’s Rick Gosselin recently finished his annual NFL special teams rankings. When ranking 22 different kicking-game categories, the Green Bay Packers were rated last, dead last, 32nd out of 32 teams in the NFL. You can read his full analysis by clicking HERE.
This deficiency eventually showed up at the most inopportune time.
Despite having the best record in the league and the sport’s best player, the Packers lost their divisional play-off game against the San Francisco 49ers by the score of 13-10. While you can never pin a win or loss on one single thing, the special teams were the main culprit.
The following are the reasons why:
- Kicker Mason Crosby’s 39-yard field goal is blocked with no time remaining in the first half costing the team three points.
- The team gave up a 50-year kick-off return to Deebo Samuel which led to the 49ers’s first points.
- With just under five minutes to play and Packers leading 10-3, Corey Bojorquez’s punt is blocked and returned for a touchdown tying the game.
- Finally and most stunning, as the 49ers were lining up to kick the game-winning field goal, the Packers had only 10 players on the field as shown in the picture below.
10 men on defense on the game winning FG 😳
Blocked punt for TD 😳
Blocked XP 😳
BEYOND EMBARRASSING GB pic.twitter.com/fkSSNvHG02
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) January 23, 2022
An Incredible Leadership Lesson
So what’s the lesson for leaders?
There are a lot of components to your organization – Sales, Marketing, Accounting, Customer Service, Fulfillment, R&D, Public Relations, HR, IT, and Recruiting.
Take each one listed above as well as others, and give those areas a score from 1-to-10 with 1 being poor performance and 10 being superior performance, as good as it gets. Now, let’s say nine of those 10 units have a score between 8 and 10. They are performing at a very high level.
But one of your business units has a score of 3. It is not performing well at all. In fact, it is sub-standard and hurting you. You’ve worked on it. You’ve covered it up. You’ve made concessions. You’ve even made excuses and rationalizations.
But sooner of later, that business unit which is performing at a 3-level is going to significantly limit your organization’s potential and performance. You will no longer be able to cover it up and make excuses anymore. Don’t believe me, look at the Green Bay Packers.
The team with the league’s best player and best record lost in the first round of the playoffs because it also had the league’s worst special teams. The Packers’s poor-performing business unit eventually caught up with them.
If you are leading a high-performing organization with a poorly performing business unit, it will eventually catch up with you as well. If you are the leader, it is your responsibility to start fixing it today. This is why you are the leader.
The Top 75 Leadership Quotes From 2021 Part 2 is my latest ebook. For many entering a post-pandemic environment, leadership looks completely different than the pre-pandemic world. People are more broken now. They are more uncertain. Fear and anxiousness are unwelcome constant companions. Cultures are more unhealthy. Relationships are more dysfunctional. Hope seems to be in short supply. Every day seems to bring a new hacking, natural disaster, or unexpected calamity.
Therefore, the fundamentals of leadership are more important than ever. The quotes in this book deal with the basics of leadership. If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click HERE or on the image provided to download this FREE resource. The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.