Viewpoints: Why we should treat employees more like Springboks than family

I cringe whenever I hear the ‘we’re family’ statement, because it’s sentimental more than realistic. Such a statement may initially make employees feel safe until they’re in a situation where a teammate acts selfishly against the team’s best interests. Everyone’s harmonious feeling of safety singing Kumbaya can quickly turn into a teammate going through a performance review and exiting within eight weeks. Last time I checked, we can’t place our family members on a performance review.

The Springboks did not win the Rugby World Cup because they treated each other as family: they won because they trusted that each player was the best in their position, from coach to water assistant to the starting 15 players. And when a player underperforms, teammates expect the coach to act decisively and ensure the right player replaces him so the team can be at its best.

Company employees are high-performance sports players. And high-performance sports teams expect everyone to act in the team’s best interests, not an individual.

Heck, even the Companies Act of 2008 stated that a director’s fiduciary duty is to ‘act in the best interests of the company’.

The above means that while a company culture prioritising unity and support is essential for morale and job satisfaction, it should not come at the expense of individual accountability and performance. Like a sports team, company employees need to trust that their teammates are competent and capable, but they also need to be able to rely on each other to perform to the best of their abilities.

It’s worth noting that this philosophy around team dynamics does not exclude the possibility of team members forming close friendships or becoming family outside of their workplace. I met my wife during my articles and currently work in a team with a married couple and a mother-and-son duo.

The point is that we need to be mature about a company’s purpose, and included in every company’s purpose is an infinite component where it’s less about winning and more about staying in the game. In his book The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek argues that profits are an essential part of staying in the infinite game, but they shouldn’t be the sole focus of a business. Following Simon, we must be mature in that our role in a company, even if we’re CEO, should ultimately be judged based on our performance and alignment with the company’s culture.

Who knows, if you start treating your teammates more like Springboks than family, you may just win the Company World Cup …

In brief

The “we’re family” statement made by CEOs or founders in reference to their company culture is sentimental more than realistic. While it may initially make employees feel safe, it should not come at the expense of individual accountability and performance. Like a high-performance sports team, company employees need to trust that their teammates are competent and capable, but they also need to be able to rely on each other to perform to the best of their abilities. A company culture prioritising unity and support is essential for morale and job satisfaction, but it should not come at the expense of individual accountability and performance. Ultimately, our role in a company should be judged based on our performance and alignment with the company’s culture.