How to motivate your team to win when the odds are not good

Last year’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament was excellent. There were a lot of exciting games. The championship game went down to the wire — a true thriller. I have already mentioned this in previous posts, and I will say it again. Leaders can learn a lot from sports. Many of these lessons are directly applicable to the real world.

The wrong team won the women’s tournament last year

Notre Dame won the women’s tournament last year. They were not supposed to win it all. Sure — Notre Dame was a #1 seed. They were expected to make the final four, but not win the tournament. The University of Connecticut women’s team was the odds-on favorite. All signs pointed to them winning it all. Just look at their performance going into the finals.

UConn destroyed several opponents going into the final game.

UConn was picture perfect going into the tournament

Notre Dame lost several games during the year. Connecticut did not. They were 32–0 going into the tournament. They have a legendary program and coach. Notre Dame — not so much. How were they able to win when they were expected to lose? This post will…