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Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Basketball Coaches Train Leaders*

*Adapted from my volleyball blog

Coaches train leaders. Find areas of agreement and controversy. 

1. "Leaders make leaders." Don't confuse loud voices with leadership. Examine character and decision making. Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote Leadership in Turbulent Times, sharing her study of the Roosevelts, Lincoln, and Lyndon Johnson. Lincoln famously distributed leadership, discussed in Goodwin's Team of Rivals. 

Navy Seal Jocko Willink authored Extreme Ownership. Leaders are accountable to the mission and to their teams. 

Leaders forge culture. In Legacy, James Kerr shares how the New Zealand All-Blacks rugby squad embraces team culture and Maori culture. "Sweep the sheds" has both literal and figurative self-management. Having a 'blue head' means to be cool under pressure. Players are taught to "leave the jersey in a better place." Teammates understand the Greek proverb that "old men plant trees in whose shade they will never sit." 

Team leaders transfer core values which appear as performance through standards which are behaviors. 

2. Consider the role of probability in decision making. Weather forecasters learned their forecasts improved when they reported them in probabilities. "There's an 80% chance of rain on Thursday" gives us useful and nuanced opinion. 

If you want to read further, consider reading Thinking in Bets. 

3. When making judgements, apply "mental models" and cognitive biases to think better. Share examples. You see a player have an exceptionally good or poor performance. Sample size limits our judgment as one day may not represent their 'weighted average'. 

Evaluating an issue or problem. Expand our "circle of competence." 


4. Leaders model excellence. They prioritize decision-making for the good of their team over what's good for them. They inform the value of truth - living the truth, telling the truth, and taking the truth. 

5. Study analogies and variety of disciplines. Consider keeping lists of stories and analogies as references. 


6. Leaders become better listeners. Nelson Mandela attended meetings where his father always spoke last. Having listened to the discussion, the senior Mandela made more insightful comments addressing others' concerns. 

"An army of asses led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by an ass." 

Lagniappe. Strong abs help with balance and injury prevention.  

Lagniappe 2. What's our "basketball number" of poor shots, turnovers, and missed assignments?  

Lagniappe 3. Do you want moody or self-absorbed guys?  

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