Why Showing Initiative is Not Enough in Teams: A Heat Map Analysis of Soccer Players’ Initiative and Team Coordination

Abstract

High-performing teams often benefit from members who take initiative—self-starting, future-focused behavior aimed at overcoming barriers to goal achievement. Yet, our research across multiple soccer teams in high-stakes competitions shows that initiative alone does not guarantee team success. Instead, initiative benefits performance only when team members coordinate effectively. Moreover, when initiative runs too high, it can actually harm performance by overwhelming a team’s capacity to orchestrate those efforts. These findings emphasize a key takeaway for managers: aim for a healthy balance between proactive behaviors and coordination structures. Encouraging employees to step up and help is valuable, but organizations must also provide clear roles, solid communication channels, and shared processes so that all these proactive efforts translate into concrete results.