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Watching the FIFA Women’s World Cup is fascinating. The standard and pace of the game has improved and I find myself being more interested, and feeling, more positive in this contest than the male version. It seems to be honest (no flopping) and the intention to play good football is there, for all to watch, I hope that does not change.

Well done England for beating Norway, last Thursday, and what a goal from Lucy Bronze. Only the USA to beat on Tuesday and we are in a World Cup Final, how exciting.

Sporting events, in my mind, have a habit of lifting moods and you can sense the emotion from people when they watch their chosen sport. It can create solidarity and bring ‘strangers’ together to support teams.

I wonder what it would be like to be a part of that team now. The energy is positive, the teamwork seems to be fantastic, with the whole team being involved in goal celebrations. I like the idea of being around that type of energy and excitement in a work setting.

The reality, though, is there is a lot of hard work and effort, off pitch, to create this team. There is time spent, when there are no competitions to work towards, and team members are playing in different teams, working hard to be selected for their Country.

It’s a bit like getting a team of people from across the business to work together on a new project. The manager / leader has to select people with the relevant skills and attitudes that add value to the overall team. Phil Neville has to manage big egos, motivate and inspire a range of personalities and get them to perform NOW.

The only difference here, as opposed to a business example is, these ladies do not have to do their ‘day job’ at the same time. The environment is set to remove all other distractions and maximise performance in this competition at this time, it’s a secondment!

If you work in a team, what is the energy like? Which ‘players’ really add to the team dynamics and boost performance of the people around them? Are you maximising the skills of the team in the right areas? If someone isn’t performing at their best, how are you managing them to build them back up?

If you did watch the England game against Cameroon, you would have seen a high performing team, crumble under pressure. Emotions got out of hand and players acted in an unacceptable way – their leader did not manage that situation well either.

Being a leader is a difficult job, but, ultimately the buck stops there. Win or lose, Phil Neville is responsible for the result. Team selection, substitute changes and timings are all the decisions he makes. I wish him well….

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