Al MacIsaac spent decades in pro hockey learning that the most talented person on a team can be a trap.
Years ago, Al MacIsaac had a player in the ECHL who could score 60 goals a year.
And he never finished a championship season on Al’s team.
“We had a guy who could score 60 goals a year playing for us in the ECHL years ago, but he never ever played at the end of the year on our championship teams because he ran out of what he was good at,” Al told Zack Miller and Tim Ryan on Fervent Four. “So we’d always let them go before the season ended, and we’d bring in more character, more clutch guys.”
That sounds backward. It is also the idea behind everything else Al said in the conversation.
The floor and the ceiling
Al runs Champions Edge Leadership Group, and the idea behind it is short: “Talent gets you to the floor, character gets you to the ceiling.”
“You can have the most talented player, but if he doesn’t have the character, he can’t lead others,” Al said. “He can’t manage to motivate other people to raise their games up.”
He keeps a tool for spotting the problem, which he calls the culture fit matrix. “It’s nine boxes,” he explained. Talent runs up one side and character runs across the bottom. The box with top talent and top character is the champion.
The box with top talent and low character has a different name. “That box up there is the trap. T-R-A-P. That player’s a trap,” Al said. “You want to like them, right, because they’re so talented. But they provide nothing else. That’s the talent trap.”
Words on a wall
Character also has to be visible, and that starts at the top.
Many companies post values on a wall. “People just start walking by that stuff,” Al said. A value only takes hold when the leader lives it. “If he’s only saying it but not living it, then it’s never gonna take hold.”
His hockey version is simple. A coach gives the same speech every day, then runs practice the way he just described. “People start to go, okay, this is part of our DNA,” Al said. “It’s not something on a wall. It’s not something in a book.”
Why it matters
Al saw this at the highest level. He helped lead the Chicago Blackhawks’ front office, an organization that went from 5,000 fans a game to a 10,000-person season ticket waiting list. “We won three cups in six years,” he said. “Nobody would have thought that.”
His takeaway fits in one sentence. “Best players don’t always win, but the best people do.”
The lesson for a business owner is practical. When a brilliant hire is producing but not lifting the people around them, ask which box they are in.
Hear the full conversation, including the story behind the Blackhawks’ “one goal” slogan, on Fervent Four: Watch the full episode
About Al MacIsaac: Al is a financial representative with LifeTime Financial Growth in Virginia Beach. He spent 21 years in professional hockey, starting as general manager of the Norfolk Admirals and later helping lead the Chicago Blackhawks’ front office. He also runs Bench and Boards and Champions Edge Leadership Group.
