Your Best Player Won’t Save You—But Your Team Will

March Madness, Workplace Magic: A 4-part series (Article 2 of 4)

No team wins a championship on the back of one star player. Not Michael Jordan. Not Stephen Curry. Not even Caitlin Clark. The best teams—on the court and in the workplace—win because they play together.

March Madness proves it year after year. The teams that pull the upsets and make it to Final Four weekend aren’t just talented; they’re cohesive. They trust each other. They communicate seamlessly. They know when to take the shot and when to pass the ball.

If you’re a CEO leading a fast-moving organization, ask yourself: Is your team playing as one—or are they just a group of individuals on the same payroll?

Cohesion: The Secret to Scalable Success

A well-oiled team isn’t just a feel-good concept—it’s a business imperative. Research shows that highly collaborative teams:

• Deliver projects faster: Streamlined teamwork with clear processes and goals prevents bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

• Innovate more effectively: Trust breeds creative risk-taking and smarter problem-solving.

• Retain top talent: People stay where they feel valued and connected.

The best leaders—whether in sports or business—don’t just expect cohesion, they build it deliberately.

How Do You Measure—and Build—Cohesion?

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. So, how do you track something as intangible as team cohesion? Most companies rely on Employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS), engagement surveys, and collaboration metrics to gauge team effectiveness. But here’s the problem—those are measuring the outputs and outcomes rather than finding the root cause.

A high eNPS might tell you employees feel good (or bad) about their workplace. Engagement surveys might show enthusiasm after a really great quarter or skepticism after their best work friend got let go. Cross-team collaboration metrics might highlight project success or a communication breakdown between sales and marketing.

But none of these actually measure cohesion.

Cohesion isn’t about how happy or engaged your employees seem—it’s about how well they work together under pressure, how seamlessly they communicate, and how instinctively they trust one another.

Forget engagement scores—measure what truly drives cohesion: shared mission, aligned values, and seamless teamwork. Here’s how winning teams do it:

• Alignment: Ensure that everyone embodies the core values and uses them to guide their work, especially when facing challenging situations that require resolution.

• Trust: All players move as one toward the company’s mission, putting aside personal agendas to achieve collective goals.

• Communication: Winning teams maintain clear and timely conversations, ensuring that the right information is shared and nothing gets lost.

• Accountability: Everyone takes ownership of their tasks and responsibilities, working collaboratively rather than in silos.

Once you have the framework, the next step is reinforcing cohesion daily—just like a championship team drills fundamentals at every practice.

• Values-based recognition: Go beyond “great work” and recognize specific behaviors and achievements that demonstrate core values

• Daily huddles: A quick 10-minute sync keeps everyone aligned and in rhythm while creating space for honest feedback and alignment across teams

• Post-project debriefs: Celebrate collective wins and acknowledge challenges without blaming, use the outcome to refine future actions and strategies together.

If cohesion isn’t an intentional part of your leadership playbook, don’t be surprised if your team struggles in high-pressure moments. The best teams—on and off the court—train for trust, build habits around teamwork, and measure what matters.

This March, take a timeout. Assess your workplace cohesion. The best leaders don’t just expect teamwork—they create it. But even the most cohesive team can’t win without clarity. Next week, we’ll break down how to eliminate confusion and ensure everyone knows the game plan.