The return of Premier League meant one thing for the Passle team... Fantasy football. 

Just 3 days in, I find myself rock bottom and a farcical 58 points behind the front runner! Needless to say, not going to well for 'Top of the Klopps' (see full table below). 

This got me thinking about the characteristics of successful teams. In particular, the dynamic and structure that brings them together to play as a team and not a group of individuals. 

Similar to a successful football team, if you are trying to assemble a team of content creators the following characters are essential for long-term success:

YOUR FIRST DRAFT - The Leader 

Without a doubt the most important member to get onboard and have their buy-in from the early stages. They need to understand the business benefits of creating content and how it is going to enable their team to nurture clients and drive business growth. 

Queue: Vincent Kompany

YOUR SECOND DRAFT - The Experts

The brains. These are your footballing technicians. With the right guidance they will open opportunities and become the trusted advisors for your clients. If you can regularly get their knowledge to market in a timely and authentic fashion, it will act as a value-led differentiator to your competitors. The key for them is feedback. They want their efforts quantified and valued by the business.

Queue: David Silva & Kevin De Bruyne

YOUR THIRD DRAFT - The Rainmakers 

Whilst this group might not have technical subject-matter expertise, they do hold important relationships. Deliver them the service and they will get you where you need to be. Content, armed effectively, can be a great tool to nurture and influence. This group is essential for ensuring the people who matter to your business are receiving your expert insights.

Queue: Sergio Agüero & Raheem Sterling

YOUR FINAL DRAFT - The Go-Getters

This final group is formed by the more junior members of your team - hungry to build a network and establish their professional profile. They might not feature in your team on a weekly basis, but with the right guidance will grow to become your future leaders. Including them in the content process at an early stage will foster the habit of bringing expertise to market. 

Queue: Phil Foden & Brahim Diaz

YOUR ROLE - The Manager 

The role of marketing and BD is bringing this together and importantly establishing a process. Aligning each of these groups, demonstrating the value, and ingraining the behaviours will take your individuals and transform them into a group of content all stars.

Queue: Pep Guardiola 

Failing to identify the right people to take part in the initiative will be largely detrimental to the output and impact. Our recommendation if you are just starting out, would be to find a pilot group who have a connected business interest - i.e. service-line team or business-unit. Moreover, don't rush into launching until you have the team members onboard otherwise you might end up like my fantasy team...