A chain is as strong as its weakest link

I had a hard time understanding what that meant for some time but am glad I can now say I have got it. There is a football club in Britain called Manchester United. It prides itself of being the greatest in the world. Logically that would translate to having the best of the world’s players and a winning strong team, not true but they have very good players but some players can’t hack it. Step onto the stage Ben Foster. He was the 2nd choice keeper at the beginning of the 2009/2010 season at Manchester United when the 1st choice keeper Edwin V. Sar was out injured. Ordinarily in such a case the 2nd choice keeper should jump at the chance. His performance got so littered with mistakes that 8 games into the season he was dropped to become 4th choice. The coach decided that he couldn’t keep him in the team may be because probably due to either; he was letting in easy goals or he was affecting the rest of the team due to his performance since they had to play with the uneasiness that their goalie isn’t solid or both.

When you are a team leader or supervisor or in charge of a group of people handling a project it is demanded of you that your team or subordinates are equipped and to be up to the task. It is difficult to get one heading a team he didn’t take time to choose. They are chosen based on their strengths and despite knowledge of their weaknesses taking them on board believing that they can add to their positives and help them in weeding out the negatives through training, mentoring, and in extreme cases reprimanding.

Apart from Jesus who chose people he knew inside out including Judas, the rest of us mortals in saving ourselves from having the wrong team or followers in terms of their attitude, character, and skill; engaging good recruitment skills is essential. We have to use all that is available to us such as staff files, references from their colleagues although there is a thin line between gossip and the truth, tests so that the tract record can be established and also find out whether one can fit the demand of the project or activity. Those who fail to invest in picking the right team member or employees of an organization they usually incur more costs due to the fact that poor enlistment tools yield poor team or organizational members.

A weak team member in terms of expertise or character will eventually result in the objectives not being met or if they are met then not in the desired way or they will bring about the wrong output from the rest who may want to cover for him or even cause friction between those who consider such an individual as hindering their results or will result in failure for them in terms of not meeting the goals. If it is in a cut throat competition or business world the team members are the ammunition that is available. If one member isn’t delivering or develops a handicap then the weakness can harm the overall effort once it is known by the competitors they will want to exploit it. They will make strategies on how to utilize your weakness to their advantage and thereby diverting some of your attention or resources from the other areas that you are perfect at to try and provide some cover to the area of weakness. A current example is the CMC fiasco where we have seen highly respected businessmen dragged in the mud. It’s clear that in the CMC management there was a rotten potato that in turn corrupted more and more people to keep the scam going. So CMC as a brand is losing on its image, on its revenue, and ultimately on its profitability just because the top brass had a weak link. In the end CMC may just have played into the hands of their rivals and trust me it won’t be long before you hear of fresh investigations into the then controversial purchase of Passat vehicles from CMC.

There are many ways in eliminating the weaknesses are many but there is only one that is productive; Training. I believe if you want to be stronger you have to be honest with yourself and that means knowing what you can or can’t handle. The processes of training involves getting to know what you are lacking so that you chose the right training to deal with that be it in football, at work or even in relationships (oh yes, we are training for marriage through dating). Depending on your attitude you shall either remove the weakness quickly and some due to their pride may see the advice to get training as punishment. They understand it isn’t personal but rather is for their overall good. They therefore go through the training trying to show they aren’t supposed to be there.

Therefore, what is a manager, coach, supervisor, or even an individual supposed to do once you have exhausted your patience, resources and expertise in trying to deal with the weakness and there is still a gaping hole? Going back to the Manchester United and Ben Foster story, his manager decided to ship him off at the end of the league season. Ben Foster later said that there is too much pressure at Manchester United and a setback on any result the whole place feels like the end of the world, “There is more pressure at United, without a doubt. Even if we drew there, it was the end of the world.” This just shows that he didn’t have the mentality that matched the group. We can then fairly conclude that the coach got it right. When Foster was in goal the defenders had to play in a restrained way to protect their goal and this went to affect the whole team because at the back of their minds they knew their goalie wasn’t solid hence the automatic response to a known weakness. The opposition knew this too and thus gave them a hope that they can sneak in a goal. Once the 1st choice keeper came back normal service was resumed and the confidence in the team returned. We all like a fairytale ending to a story, sorry, not for this one. Manchester United went on to finish 1 point behind the winners that season. Could they have won it had the 1st choice been available from the start?

That is what can happen if you have a weakness in your strong armory, you win or fail, kill or be killed, dumped or married, be a success or a footnote. Therefore you can only achieve up to the level your weakness allows you hence it is evident that just like a chain you are as strong as your weakest link.