Informal Captains: An Essential Personality Type for High Performing Teams
You’ve been on teams that work and teams that don’t. What is that special “It” factor that successful teams have? The latest science turns traditional ideas about what makes teams great upside down. Talent is not the defining quality. Rather, it’s the right mix of specific personalities that propel teams towards steady achievement. One of the key personalities is the informal captain.
Informal captains may not have a leadership role on paper. Yet, they are role models for their team. They have incredible emotional control, high conscientiousness and do the grunt work. Their doggedness and commitment to the team inspires others around them and gives them leadership clout. No fancy speeches required.
David Ross is what the Cub’s player manager Joe Maddon calls a “force multiplier” who “brings out courage and strength in other people” reports ESPN. Although Ross is an excellent catcher and defensive receiver, his batting average is dismal. Even though he isn’t a household name, he’s consistently played on winning teams — the Cubs mark the seventh in a row for him. He only joined the Cubs because star player Jon Lester, who signed with the Cubs for $155 million, requested that the team bring on his friend Ross as well. Lester played with Ross on the Red Sox and experienced the impact Ross had on team dynamics. “You cannot overstate the chemistry thing and what he does to help your team win,” Lester said. The Cubs agreed and signed Ross too.
Ross’ tactics are simple: get to know people, always play your best and hold yourself and others accountable for their performance. His first personal task was to learn every one of his new team members’ names as fast as possible. Then he earns respect from fellow teammates by always working hard on the field. A classic lead by example method. Players respond in kind by trying to give their all. When they slack, Ross calls them out for it but not in a mean way. Rizzo, one of the team’s star players, was coasting during a game, he wasn’t hitting well. Ross knew it would negatively impact other players, so he told Rizzo, the ESPN reports, that “I don’t think you came ready to play today. I don’t see the intensity in your game. I don’t see the intensity in your at-bats. I don’t think you’re bringing it.” Rizzo listened, because he respects Ross, and upped his game. He wanted to prove to Ross that he could do it.
We call this type of personality the informal captain. They may not have a named leadership position, but they lead in subtle, yet impactful ways. Personality researchers call this type of person a role model. Role models were found to be one of the four personality types in a study of 1.5 million survey responses. Researchers used machine learning algorithms to see how responses clustered based on the Big Five traits: neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, extraversion and conscientiousness. The study was the “largest and most statistically rigorous effort to identify personality types,” reports Scientific American. The other three personality types are average, reserved and self-centered. Lead researcher Luis Amaral says of role models: “These are people who are dependable and open to new ideas…life is easier if you have more dealings with role models.” In terms of the Big Five personality traits, role models “score low in neuroticism and high in all the other traits,” reports Northwestern University.
These role models, or informal captains, are not the flashy star players. They do the grunt work necessary to help the team achieve its goal. In his book The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World’s Greatest Teams, Sam Walker analyzed 25,000 sports teams to figure out why top teams excelled. The teams ranged from 37 categories of sport throughout the world and as far back as the 1880s. Based on his metrics for excellent teams, factors like achieving something no other team had in their respective sport, Walker arrived at 17 freakish, excellent teams. Then he delved into what made those teams special.
At first he thought it would be due to talent, nope — or strategy, still no. Money? No. Coaching? Negative. He found that these top quality, exceptional teams were there because of captains. Their winning “streaks were defined almost precisely in some cases by the presence of that captain,” explains Walker. He also explains that just because the extraordinary captain is present, it doesn’t mean the team will secure a win. Many other factors are important ingredients, but he found that the captain must be present or else the team can’t rise to the top. Captains are a key ingredient.
Walker found a common personality style amongst these captains: “They were role players. They were not charismatic, they stayed in the shadows. They did not care about personal accolades….” We aren’t talking about the Michael Jordans, we are talking about his co-captain Bill Cartwright. Cartwright is not a household name, but coach Phil Jackson named him as co-captain to help implement the aforementioned triangle strategy. While players didn’t want to follow Jordan, they listened to Cartwright who they called “Teach.”
Walker also found that these captains displayed doggedness, a full commitment to helping the team win. This zeal spreads to the other players in a reliable ripple effect. For example, when the Cubs’ momentum waned due to three straight losses to the rival Phillies, Ross stepped up his efforts. Even though he is a terrible hitter, he managed to hit a home run. Although the Cubs still lost, it didn’t matter. Ross showed that he was bringing his best and it shifted the whole team’s momentum. The Cubs won 16 of their next 18 games. Player manager Maddon explained: “because he’s such a leader and so respected, it became a galvanizing moment for the group.”
In line with Almaral’s research on role models, Walker also found that captains are open to new ideas and are independent thinkers. Of the top 17 teams he studied all the captains:
“…didn’t hesitate to let coaches and executives know when they disagreed with them. But their dissent wasn’t personal. They understood that conflict, when focused on supporting a team’s goals, is not destructive. It‘s essential.”
As we know from Bezrukova’s research on faultlines, internal conflict is important for team performance. However, it is only a specific type of conflict that helps — the kind that informal captains partake in. This type of conflict doesn’t deepen divides, rather it brings the team closer together. It is in service of team performance. Fellow team members know that informal captains have their backs, they trust and respect these role models.
Informal captains are steady, consistent workers who lead with their character. They are liked by their fellow teammates but they don’t let this get to their head — or stop them from calling people out for poor work. While these types of personalities are essential for a high performing team, other types of folks also need to be in the mix. Informal captains can’t carry the team alone.
