The Leadership Cost of Only Celebrating Wins

Three weekends ago, Maryland men’s soccer lost in the NCAA quarterfinals. As a longtime fan, the loss stung. But what struck me wasn’t the final score. It was how familiar the dynamic felt from inside organizations.

When a team builds a reputation for excellence, whether on a field or inside a company, expectations rise quickly. The goal becomes clear, championship or bust. And when that happens, something subtle and undermining begins to happen inside the culture:

Teams start measuring success only by the ultimate outcome.
Managers stop naming the progress that actually drives performance.
And people begin to believe that anything short of perfection is failure.

That’s how high-achieving organizations burn out their talent.

Maryland went undefeated in the regular season. They were ranked No. 1 in the country. They rebuilt a standard that reshaped their entire program. But in the moment of loss, all of that disappeared behind a single result.

I see the same thing in companies more often than I should. A team makes enormous progress, but because they missed the final milestone, leaders unintentionally erase everything that got them there.

The problem isn’t ambition. High standards matter. The problem is the capability gap that many managers have never been taught to close: How to anchor their teams to progress, not just outcomes.

After the quarterfinal game, Coach Sasho Cirovski said something that more leaders need to practice:

That’s the leadership skill most organizations undervalue. It means being able to hold the disappointment of missing the goal alongside the pride in how far the team came.

When managers don’t have that skill, what happens? High standards without perspective turn into burnout. Ambition without recognition turns into disengagement. Cultures that only celebrate the finish line lose momentum long before they get there.

If you want a team that sustains excellence, here’s the shift that makes an impact:

• Train your managers to make progress visible.

• Teach them how to celebrate reaching the moon, not just the stars.

• Help them recognize effort, identity, and trajectory, not only the win.

Teams don't need you to lower the bar. They need you to acknowledge the climb.

Because championships are rare. But cultures that consistently perform at a high level? Those are built by leaders who know how to honor progress while still pushing for more.