Cape Verde is ranked 64th in the world. Spain is ranked 3rd. Cape Verde still walked away with the draw
What if the best leadership training you could give your team this year happened on a football pitch, thousands of miles away, and nobody sent an invite?
I watched this men’s World Cup the way I watch most things, as a coach and a fan. And I couldn’t stop seeing the lessons.
The teams that went furthest weren’t the ones who suppressed emotion. They were the ones who knew what to do with it. That’s the key to Emotional Intelligent Leadership.
Because everything senior leaders wrestle with, quietly, in one-to-ones and strategy offsites, played out in front of millions of people. Building culture fast. Handling adversity. Creating psychological safety. Making space for emotion at work.
Here is what I saw.
Competition Rarely Comes from Where You Expect
Spain arrived ranked 3rd in the world. Cape Verde arrived ranked 64th, with a goalkeeper who is 40 years old, ancient by footballing standards, and a central defender born in Dublin and recruited through LinkedIn.
Spain dominated possession. World-class players, textbook build-up, all the markers of certain victory.
Cape Verde still walked away with the draw.
Sound familiar? The senior leaders I coach often build their strategy around the competitor they can see. The market leader. The obvious threat. Rarely the small, resourceful team nobody’s watching.
Where is your Cape Verde?
Building Culture Fast, With People Who Don’t Share One
Almost a quarter of the players at this World Cup were born outside the nation they represented. Twenty-five of Curacao’s 26-player squad were born elsewhere entirely.
That is not a footnote. That is the job.
A manager has weeks, sometimes days, to take genuinely different cultures, languages and life experiences and turn them into a team that performs under the biggest pressure there is. Australia leaned into it directly, releasing a video celebrating the heritage and immigration stories behind their squad, rather than smoothing them into one flat “team culture.”
Most organisations still try to build culture by asking everyone to become the same kind of person. The World Cup is a reminder that the stronger move is building shared purpose across genuine difference, not in spite of it.
What’s the game your team is hoping to win?
Adversity Doesn’t Cancel Joy, It Sits Beside It
Canada’s ambition, at their last World Cup, was simply to score a goal. This time it was to win a game. At home in Vancouver, they beat Qatar 6-0 in their first-ever World Cup win.
Then Ismael Kone broke his leg in a challenge, mid-match, and the game paused around real human pain. He gave the fans a thumbs up as he left the pitch. His manager, Jesse Marsch, cried on the sideline. The teammate who replaced him held up Kone’s shirt after scoring. The opposing player who’d challenged him apologised, with no bad intention meant.
Canada finished the match 6-0, from 3-0 at the time of the injury.
That is not a story about resilience as gritted teeth. It is a story about a team that let itself feel the moment fully, grief and fight, side by side, and came out stronger for it.
Most workplaces still treat emotion as something to manage down before it “disrupts” performance. This suggests the opposite might be true.
What emotional journey is your team on?
Psychological Safety, Tested in Public
Belgium’s Jeremy Doku left the World Cup, with his team’s blessing, to fly home for the birth of his son. Some commentary condemned him strongly for it.
Think about what it took to even ask. At the pinnacle of his career, in front of the world, he trusted his team enough to say what he needed and expect it to be honoured.
Would your team ask you for what they actually need, or would they quietly manage without?
Rivals on the Pitch, Teammates Everywhere Else
At the end of England’s game against DR Congo, after England came back late to win, I noticed two players leaning into each other, talking, hands on shoulders. Not the quick, obligatory handshake-line contact. They had sought each other out.
It was Anthony Gordon and Yoane Wissa, opponents that night, teammates at Newcastle every other week of the year.
That’s worth sitting with. In most organisations, we call people “teammates” and mean it only loosely, because those same people are often quietly competing for the next promotion, the same budget, the same recognition. Rivalry and loyalty coexist all the time. Pretending they don’t is what makes relationships at work feel more complicated than they need to be.
Loyalty Is Earned, Not Assumed
Scottish fans donated $10,000 to a local children’s cancer charity as thanks for a city’s hospitality. Japanese supporters tidied their section of the stadium after their matches, as they always do, an act of quiet self-respect that I saw at the 2012 London Olympics as well. Iranian players left a handwritten thank you note for their host city, LA “May peace, respect and friendship prevail among all nations. “
Ask yourself honestly. Are your clients that loyal to you? Are your people that proud to be associated with your organisation? Would they clean up after themselves, or go out of their way to say thank you, if nobody was watching?
The Real Lesson
None of this required a bigger budget or a longer strategy document. It required leaders willing to let people be fully human, competitive and kind, disciplined and emotional, all at once.
The teams that went furthest weren’t the ones who suppressed emotion. They were the ones who knew what to do with it.
That’s a leadership skill. It can be learned.
Which of these 6 hit hardest for you?
