Happy St. Patrick’s Day! May your day be filled with shamrocks, leprechauns, rainbows—and plenty of luck.
Luck is an interesting phenomenon because it forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: not everything is controllable, yet our choices still matter.
I’m often surprised by how much people discount the role luck plays in team success. Many view success as the direct result of talent, effort, and execution. While those factors certainly matter, they aren’t the only elements that influence outcomes.
Take sports, for instance. Your team could have the biggest, strongest, fastest, and most talented roster—but what if your top players get injured or sick before a big game?
What if your team bus breaks down on the way to the stadium, causing the team to arrive late, rushed, and with less time to warm up than your opponent?
What if your team has to play a rival in bad weather that negates your size or speed advantage, while that same rival faces another opponent under ideal conditions?
These scenarios are always possible and completely beyond anyone’s control. Avoiding them is simply a matter of luck.
This phenomenon certainly isn’t limited to sports. Sales teams encounter similar circumstances outside their control that can influence their success. Natural disasters, pandemics, and wars can all affect the broader economy and the markets in which sales teams operate.
Psychologists identify a number of biases that make luck easy to overlook, like the Fundamental Attribution Error, which explains our tendency to attribute outcomes to personal qualities rather than situational factors. When someone succeeds, observers assume they are more skilled, disciplined, or intelligent.
Maybe. But maybe they’re also just lucky.
Being born in a particular place, crossing paths with the right mentor, or simply having the stars align on a particular day can irrefutably impact success.
Yet teams would still be wise not to neglect the elements they can control, because in competitive systems, the tiny advantages gained from our choices compound.
Think about the old success maxim: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
So what can you work on to position your team to succeed should it be blessed with luck—something that is always beyond your control? Easy: work on being a good teammate.
Good teammates have a funny way of attracting luck because they put their teams in positions where good breaks tend to happen. In other words, luck tends to favor teammates who are prepared, supportive, engaged, and proactive—defining characteristics of good teammates.
The best teams don’t discount the role luck plays in team success, nor do they discount the role good teammates play in it. The real lesson to remember this St. Patrick’s Day is that luck will always play a role in success, but good teammates make sure their teams are ready when it does.
As always…Good teammates care. Good teammates share. Good teammates listen. Go be a good teammate.
