Sore Losers ....

Photo by jkhewett via Flickr

This past week I found myself in the middle of a non-profit drama.  You know the scenario -- individual comes up with a great "idea", after seemingly dropping the "idea", someone else picks up on the "idea".  They begin to play with it and share the "idea" with their teammates on the committee.  Eventually after many long hours of practice and play it's time for the big game.  They win!  Now that the volunteer team is running the victory lap, the original player is angry with the players, the coaches and the fans because he didn't feel the game was played fairly.

Now what?  In this particular case the player went to every media outlet that would publish his story about how the team cheated him out of victory.  He spoke of the coaches and how poorly they had treated him.  He spoke of the volunteer team and how they stole his "idea" as they did not have one of their own.  He spoke to the fans warning that the victory would be short lived because it was based on poor tactics and planning.  He told everyone that he was now going to take his "idea" and play elsewhere.

Your coaches are upset as they felt this player nor longer wanted to play the game.  Your volunteer team is upset because they did not know this individual even played the game nor did they know who originally owned the "idea".  Your fans are now questioning whether you can be successful long term. 

As the team owner what do you do???

At this point it is important to communicate with everyone how to successfully move forward as there will always be sore losers in the game.

For your coaches - remind them of the importance of follow through.  Never assume that a player doesn't want to play.  After they miss a few practices, find out the real reason.  It may not be why you thought.  Good communication will all team volunteers is critical element for success.

For your players - remind them that credit belongs to the team and those that actively contribute.  You can never win a game by watching from the sidelines.  While the "idea" is an important element in the game, it is how the "idea" is played that matters. 

For you fans - remind them that a winning team is one based on good coaching and committed players. 

For the sore loser ... all you can do is hope that eventually he can find a team he can play with and be happy.

How do you deal with sore losers on your volunteer team?

Comments

[Daniel James]

I read this through and the one question that kept popping into mind is this. If the person who created the "idea" that he/she "seemingly dropped", why was the individual not asked if they were still working on the idea or not? It seems it was poor planning on your part that you picked up and run with this without consulting or including the person on the idea. You could have headed off the backlash of this in the planning stages just by asking. The fact that the team didn't even know the player was playing is even more of an indicator that you never gave credit where it was do. Also the circle of trust has been violated between the individual who entrusted you with the "idea". If the "idea" was a physical object and not an intangible asset this would be considered nothing more then pure theft. A team succeeds when it executes a plan but does it without lieing, cheating or stealing. Losers are only sore when the games was played fairly and not rigged.

[jkhewett]

Actually they were contacted, several times both both email and phone and did not respond. Even though they stopped attending the weekly meetings, we had created list servs and other means of communication to keep everyone on the same page. The committee did not cut this person out of the loop.

Time passed and new people got involved which is why they were unaware of the origins of the project.

Only after the success of the project was written up in a local newspaper, did the individual come back to life!