Leadership reveals itself most clearly under pressure. Not when everything is going according to plan, but when decisions go against us, frustration rises, and the outcome we worked towards begins to slip away.
The Football World Cup final between Spain and Argentina offered a powerful illustration of this. It showed what collective leadership can achieve, but also how a lack of accountability and emotional control can turn a difficult situation into defeat.
This was not simply a lesson about football. It was a lesson for every leader and organisation navigating pressure, uncertainty and change.
The collective is greater than the individual
Spain’s success was built on a principle repeatedly reinforced by its coach, Luis de la Fuente: the team is more powerful than the sum of its individual talent.
Spain had exceptional players, but its strength did not depend on one person. Individual brilliance was placed in service of the team, not above it. The players understood the system, trusted one another and remained committed to a shared purpose.
De la Fuente described Spain as “the most united team,” highlighting the solidarity and values of the people within it. This points to one of leadership’s most important responsibilities: bringing together not only highly capable people, but good people capable of succeeding together.
It connects with Warren Buffett’s reflection: “We’ve never succeeded in making a good deal with a bad person.” Competence matters, but character determines how that competence is used, particularly when circumstances become difficult.
The final also reminded us that even the greatest talent is not above accountability. Messi was criticised for actions perceived as attempts to gain an unfair advantage or destabilise the opposition, behaviour that risks casting a shadow over his extraordinary legacy. As Argentina’s leader and the person his teammates look up to, his conduct also helped set the team’s emotional and behavioural tone. Leadership is not only what we say; it is what our behaviour gives others permission to do.
Talent may make someone a legend, but integrity helps determine the legacy they leave. A collection of outstanding individuals does not automatically create an outstanding team: skills and reputation matter, but character determines whether influence elevates the collective or pulls it in the wrong direction.
Emotions should move us forward
The final was also a lesson in emotional leadership. Emotions are not the problem. Passion, ambition, disappointment and even anger can be powerful sources of energy. They tell us that something matters and can motivate us to respond, improve and keep moving forward.
The problem begins when emotions stop propelling us forward and start pulling us backwards. Spain faced pressure, provocation and decisions that could have distracted the team from its objective. Yet the players did not allow frustration to take control of their performance. They remained centred and returned their attention to what they could influence: their own game, decisions and behaviour.
Argentina showed the opposite dynamic. As the match became more difficult, frustration increasingly shaped the team’s response. Energy that could have been directed towards changing the game was instead absorbed by confrontation, disruption and aggression.
Emotional intelligence is not the absence of emotion or the suppression of passion. It is the ability to recognise what we feel and channel that energy towards a constructive response. Leaders cannot always control circumstances, other people’s behaviour or decisions they consider unfair. But they remain responsible for what they do next.
Accountability begins when the plan fails
The final showed us not only how to win, but how not to lose. There is a difference between being defeated and losing ourselves in defeat. A result may no longer be within our control, but our behaviour always is.
Accountability means resisting the temptation to blame the opponent, the referee, the circumstances or the pressure. It requires us to ask more difficult questions: What did we contribute to this outcome? What could we have done differently? What must we learn?
Without this reflection, disappointment turns into resentment, excuses replace learning, and damaging patterns repeat themselves. Accountability is not about punishment or finding someone to blame. It is about recovering our ability to act. The moment we place all responsibility outside ourselves, we also surrender our power to change the outcome next time.
Nor is accountability dependent on hierarchy or job title. Anyone can demonstrate it by taking ownership of their actions, acknowledging their contribution to an outcome and focusing on what they can do next. This is a key ingredient of leadership, even without formal authority. Leadership begins the moment we stop waiting for somebody else to take responsibility and choose to influence the situation constructively ourselves.
This becomes even more important as AI increasingly influences how organisations operate and make decisions. AI can process information, identify patterns and support better choices, but it cannot replace human ethics or accountability. Whatever our position, we remain responsible for how we use technology and for the consequences of the decisions it helps us make. We cannot outsource our judgement, or our values, to an algorithm.
Leadership does not end when the plan fails, and responsibility does not end where technology begins. These are precisely the moments when leadership becomes most visible: in how we respond, how we treat others and whether we have the humility to examine our own contribution to an outcome.
Character is part of performance
We often separate results from behaviour, as though winning were the objective and character merely an optional addition. But character is part of performance. It shapes decision-making, collaboration and resilience, and therefore affects results.
When a team devotes its energy to destabilising others, it risks losing connection with its own purpose. When tricks, blame, provocation or violence take over, attention moves away from creating value. When ego dominates, collective intelligence disappears.
Spain won the final, but the deeper victory was in how it competed: as a united team that trusted its system and remained faithful to its shared objective.
The most important leadership lesson is not that successful teams never experience adversity or strong emotions. It is that they do not surrender their identity to them. Winning requires talent, preparation and execution. Sustainable success requires something more: humility, discipline, trust, character and accountability.
These qualities are equally essential across our Solar+ sectors. The energy transition is a collective challenge that no individual, company or technology can deliver alone. It requires good people working together, remaining centred through complexity and taking responsibility when plans do not unfold as expected.
Our sectors need technological intelligence, but also the human intelligence to use it responsibly. We cannot control every decision, disruption or setback, but we can always decide how we respond. Our emotions can move us forward or hold us back—and our ability to channel them constructively will help determine whether we merely deploy more technology or build the collaborative, resilient and accountable leadership needed to deliver the energy transition successfully.
Interested in helping shape the leadership conversation with Women in Solar+ Europe (WiSEu) or Solar+ Leaders? Visit www.wiseu.network or www.solarplusleaders.com.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
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