In my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many professional athletes–football, basketball, baseball, even auto racing. I’ve liked working with most of them, but the ones I’ve admired were the ones who maintain the fire. They don’t allow themselves to be burdened by the politics or economics of a sport they love. They just get the job done and they enjoy the journey.
March Madness showcases that fire. In front of a national audience.
We, as “customers,” love the fire. March Madness is the time of year when basketball lovers and those who aren’t sure how many points a three-pointer is worth, bond over teams they may have never seen play when they were attending their respective universities. Office brackets played by both people who agonize over every stat prior to putting pencil to paper and folks who pick the teams based on the color of their jerseys.
Certainly, the individual players are born with talent, but it’s the leadership that makes the team. How else can we explain the recurring records of coaches like Wooden, Krzyzewski or Calhoun. They may have changed the players along the way, but the leadership stayed the same.
They ignited that fire. The fire that creates future leaders. The fire that makes it easier to recruit. The fire that inspires the fans.
Transformational leadership creates that fire by appealing to shared values, then focusing those values on a single, shared vision.
Sounds simple, right? So how come only a select few have designed sustainable Final Four legacies?
Teamwork
Yes, I know…this is the connection you expected to see in a March Madness blog about leadership. Here’s the difference: Good coaches talk about a shared vision. Great coaches do more than talk about it. They lead by example, honesty, trust and vulnerability. By opening themselves to their team, they create a shared sense of importance for their players. Not their vision, the team’s vision.
Entrepreneurial Employees
Every team has a couple of exceptional players. However, on the teams with great coaches, those elite players do more than defy gravity and all odds. They actually challenge themselves by elevating their teammates. By motivating others. Sharing the responsibility. Sharing the accolades.
They’re the on-court leaders. The team’s performance is more important than the individuals. Those so-called Cinderella stories of the NCAA tourney are these teams. They play as a whole, not as an individual. Their respected players are more than contributors, they’re leaders.
Creativity
A coach isn’t on the court with hands the size of golf umbrellas in his face. The players have to be adaptable in the face of challenges, when they’re forced to deviate from the set course. They must make instant decisions based on their own intuition and creativity. Sometimes they are the right decisions, sometimes the decision is wrong. But great coaches trust the right decisions will outweigh the wrong ones if they have done their job: sharing a common vision.
Attitude
The fire. This is what a coach seeks in players year after year; players who treat challenges as opportunities to excel, rather than obstacles. This can’t be taught, but it burns brightly when stoked within the right culture, on the right team. By the right leader.
Unlike the physical talent of their players, coaches aren’t necessarily born with transformational leadership skills. They learn them. Just like you can.
We’ve all read the characteristics of transformational leadership. As many coaches have through the years. But reading isn’t executing. Execution creates long-term learning. It’s one of the reasons, we don’t do one-day leadership trainings. Our programs follow the model the coaches follow. Learn/do/adapt.
Because, history has proven that March field is not dominated by the lucky. It’s dominated by those who believe Seneca, the Roman philosopher who said: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Helicx generates the transformational momentum in organizations through leadership training, employee training, and hiring processes that creates a unique experience for today’s multi-channel, multi-cultural customers and differentiates companies from their competition in a way that cannot be duplicated.
