Forming a breakthrough team extends beyond hiring skilled individuals. You need to create a winning culture of engaged people. Three elements are essential to create a breakthrough team. The often-overlooked but pivotal element is the act of cheering each other to victory.

Having a “wow” or a BHAG, a goal you can’t achieve alone, that scares you, that creates pressure, is the second one. “No surprises” through open communication and meaningful relationships is the third element.

3 simple words, but easier said then done.

In this blog post, I delve into the often-misunderstood concept of cheering for success and its crucial role in team dynamics.

Misconceptions

Contrary to popular belief, cheering is not merely about offering compliments when someone “wins”. Winning is in most cases a team effort, so you would have to celebrate the win together.

Celebrating with the team is important, but lots of cheering comes first. Every top performer knows that after every win the next hurdle, with even more pressure, is coming.

Cheering each other to victory is personal. Preferably one to one. Coming from your trusted team mates acknowledging and supporting efforts and personal growth, especially during the struggle to excel.

Recognizing the journey

Cheering is not about superficial praise but about recognizing the journey toward excellence. In sports, for example, acknowledging a player’s effort, even after a mistake, fosters a positive environment that encourages improvement.

It’s about cheering when someone is struggeling before the victory, before achieving excellence. When you know the person is doing everything he can to overcome obstacles. With small steps that may even seem trivial to you, but not to the person. In fact, maybe the person know they are trivial to you, and even looks up to you for it, which makes the compliment coming from your mouth even stronger.

While we naturally cheer for our children’s efforts, this practice often diminishes as we grow older. True leadership, however, involves standing beside someone during their struggles, understanding that they are aware of their shortcomings. Rather than pushing them down, offer support, and encouragement to help them grow.

The math

For every success, you will have 9 fails and for every negative I believe you need 9 positives(Harvard says you need 6).

So if you achieve only one win a month, you will experience 9 fails and you’ll need 81 cheers from your inner circle. If you aim for one win a day, that would mean about 1600 cheers a month. If it’s one a week you’ll need about 300.

15% of the people you know will like you, 15% hate you, 70% are indifferent. The only cheers that matter are from the core people within the first 15%. So let’s say 5%.

How many cheers can you give on one day to your team mates? Three? That’s 60 a month.

That would mean you need between 2(60 cheers per person) and 81 people(one cheer per person) to cheer you on, to achieve one goal a month. You can do the math for more than one obstacle per month, which I hope you are aiming for!

The math underscores the significant need of cheering in your organisation to achieve your WOW goal.

Fake cheers

Most people in the professional context don’t get any further then “well done” or “good for you”. Giving a compliment only when the person asks for it is a common pitfall. Adding yourself in the achievement is counterproductive.

How would you react if you receive such a fake cheer?

The excuse is often: “Why should I give compliments? I find what the person did not remarkable and I don’t need compliments myself. I have high self-confidence.” Or even worse: “If I compliment the person I lift him up, risking he will jump over me.”

I find that lame, lazy, wrong in so many ways.

The art of a good cheer

On time, genuine, specific, personal. We also forget we can compliment other things than accomplishements too.

Here’s a great list of 100 possible cheers. I’ve made a shortned list:

• Complimenting Positivity – These compliments focus on the joy, fun, and positive outlook the person brings.
  • Your smile is contagious.
  • You have a great sense of humor.
  • You bring out the best in other people.
  • I bet you sweat glitter.
  • You always know how to find that silver lining.
• Complimenting Personal Traits – These compliments acknowledge different qualities the person exhibits.
  • I like your style.
  • You are brave.
  • You were cool way before hipsters were cool.
  • You’re inspiring.
  • When you make up your mind, nothing stands in your way.
• Complimenting Intelligence, Creativity, and Resourcefulness – These compliments show that you appreciate the person’s abilities.
  • Your perspective is refreshing.
  • When you say, “I meant to do that,” I totally believe you.
  • You’re always learning new things and trying to better yourself. That’s awesome.
  • You have a good head on your shoulders.
  • Everyone gets knocked down sometimes; only people like you get back up again and keep going.
• Complimenting Accomplishments – compliment a specific action or achievement.
  • I am so proud of you, and I hope you are too!
  • You are making a difference.
  • You deserve a hug right now.
  • You’re a great example to others.
  • Actions speak louder than words, and yours tell an incredible story.
• Complimenting Personal Relationships – Try to focus on how the person relates to others.
  • You’re more helpful than you realize.
  • You should be thanked more often. Thank you.
  • Our community is better because you’re in it.
  • The people you love are lucky to have you in their lives.
  • Any team would be lucky to have you on it.
• Complimenting Appearance – These compliments can be problematic as they can come across as flirting. Complimenting one’s appearance (body, shape, or weight) can also be harmful, especially to someone who is struggling with an body image issue.
  • You are glowing.
  • You’ve got all the right moves.
  • You are an incredible human.
  • You’re one of a kind.
  • You’re really something special.

Cheering yourself to victory?

We become what we tell ourselves. So yes, positive self-talk does help, but from my experience, self-confidence is for mediocre behavior. If you really put yourself under pressure to realize a scary goal, self-confidence is the Olympic minimum. Big goals should feel existential and you need relationships, a breakthrough team and cheers to make those goals happen. “You got this” won’t cut it. I even believe that not receiving cheers from others, will make you lonely, which is not how you will become succesfull.

Cheering in the metaverse

Will AI take over the cheering part? AI can certainly help you to give compliments to others. AI can track your work progress and can sense your emotions constantly, so AI will know when your team mates need a cheer the most. AI can produce rich personal cheers in your tone of voice. AI will also have no excuse not to give one, or even produce as many as you want.

However, I believe you still have to give the compliment yourself. When AI would give it, you will always know it’s AI. It’s not genuine, it’s not a real conversation.

Real conversations and loneliness

There’s an interesting read from Mattias Desmet about “Digital Depression and Lonely Masses” on his substack.

“The gradual replacement of real social situations by artificial ones in recent centuries and decades – through the industrialization and mechanization of labor, through the introduction of radio, television, telephone and internet – has taken an insidious toll. It is responsible for the most destructive psychosocial phenomenon of the Enlightenment: it “atomizes” the human being, disconnecting us from our social and natural environment and plunging us into solitude.“

Every (real) conversation satisfies the first and foremost primal need of man – resonance with the Other. In a digital conversation, this resonance is compromised, due to the limitations of technology: small delays in the signal transmission, restrictions on the freedom of perspective, seeing the other person only partially, and so on. Precisely because of this, long-term digital communication often leaves us with a dull and exhausted feeling. Our bodies exhaust themselves in fruitless and constant attempts to connect with the body of the other person – a phenomenon that some refer to digital depression. “It remains to be seen whether replacing a real psychologist with an AI version will provide an effective therapy for that kind of digital depression.”

ChatGPT concludes

Building a breakthrough team involves mastering the art of cheering—supporting others not just in their victories but, more importantly, during their struggles. It’s about creating an environment where growth is celebrated, failures are shared, and individuals are genuinely uplifted. In the end, the power of a well-timed, well-formulated cheer can be the catalyst for achieving ambitious goals and fostering a team that excels together.

In case you need some help to create breakthrough teams, contact Herculean Alliance.