One Unhappy Person

When Canada put together its first truly women’s national softball team, it assembled the best players from all over the country.

Actually, this isn’t true. The coach of the national champions persuaded many of his players not to attend the training camp. He told them that Softball Canada would come begging for them before the Pan American Games in Caracas. He was wrong.

The camp was in Newark, New Jersey and one of his players did attend. At that time she was probably considered the best all-round player in Canada. She could do everything – hit, field and pitch.

Partway through our training camp, we played a team that was among the top ten in the USA. Canada won the game, but what was impressive was that this player pitched a one hitter. The other team couldn’t hit her.

When we got back to the residences, she asked to see the coaches. She said she wanted to go home. She was lonely. The conversation lasted about an hour. She phoned home and was encouraged to stay. She still wanted to go home.

It was a tough decision for the coaches, but they made the right one. They told me to get on the phone and get the first flight, which was at 7 am, for her to go home. They wanted her out of the camp before anybody could see her in the morning.

While their decisiveness might sound cruel, they made the right decision. All it takes is one unhappy person to spread problems through a team. It takes the focus off why you are there.

The result is that the team went to the Pan American Games and won the gold medal without the best softball player in Canada. Why? One big factor was that the team was happy.

As a coach, I have experienced the same thing. I had a promising women’s team that performed well in its first year in a women’s league. The next year we added one player. She was poison. We didn’t play up to our potential. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get rid of her. We only had 11 players on the team.

Another year, I had that luxury. When a player was chatting to friends instead of concentrating on the game, I invited her to sit in the stands if she wanted to be a spectator. She left the team. We won the league championship.

Whether you have a team or a business, if you have unhappy people, they will poison you. That doesn’t mean that you start hacking people left and right. You should try to improve and correct situations, but if you are getting nowhere and the person is unhappy, then he can be the problem and you should get rid of the problem. A winning attitude usually means being a good team player. Think of it this way. If people are unhappy, you are only contributing to their happiness by taking them out of a situation they don’t like.

A winning team means directing your mental and physical efforts towards the goal and not letting anything take your eye off the prize. If you can prevent it, don’t allow anybody to rob you of the success you deserve.