Sunday, February 11, 2024

Basketball: Authenticity

From Thehopefullinstitute.com

10. AUTHENTICITY Legacy uses the analogy of a bridge: secure because it is made of several different planks. You need more than your sport or profession, you need personal skills, family and friends. Harvard Business School Professor Bill George argues the essence of a great leader is about “Being genuine, real and true to who you are.” This approach is reflected by the All Blacks. Honesty and integrity are the cornerstones of authenticity. There is also the understanding of accountability, meaning players commit to doing what they say they will, even if it means not being late for the bus. 

Honesty = Integrity = Authenticity = Resilience = Performance 

I disagree. Authenticity matters when we have David Brooks' "eulogy values." 

"Résumé virtues, he proposes, are those that are valued in the contemporary marketplace: the high test scores achieved by a student, the professional accomplishments pulled off by an adult. They are the skills that are met with bigger paychecks and public approbation. Eulogy virtues, on the other hand, are the aspects of character that others praise when a person isn’t around to hear it: humility, kindness, bravery."

Many well-known public figures are authentic. What good is authenticity if we are authentically selfish, authentically boorish, authentically cruel? A survey of women's college basketball players showed that over half didn't trust their coaches. They compared their situation to 'crabs in a bucket', where everyone tries to crawl out over each other. 

"Character" is not cruelty. Empathy is not envy. Gratitude is not greed. 

Education changes behavior. Coaches educate. We teach life skills. If our authentic teaching doesn't lift players' collaborative and interpersonal skills, we're failing even if our teams have a winning record. 

Calling out players or teams as "useless" or "worthless" or "garbage" isn't coaching, it's verbal abuse. Coaches can reference an action or a play as unhelpful or poorly executed without undermining a player's self-worth. 

Authenticity isn't enough without character, empathy, and gratitude. We can't award ourselves eulogy virtues; they come from others. 

Lagniappe. Most of us experienced the difference between having played for excellent coaches and something less. 

Lagniappe 2. Poor traps are worse than none. I teach, "put them in a glass box." 

Lagniappe 3. More on coaching... 

at