The Leadership Void
Every year in the off-season I have conversations with different coaches about the leadership on their team. Inevitably, the coaches who have had a bad year, bring up the fact that there team didn’t have great leadership. While this may be a defensive reflex for coaches (“it wasn’t me, it was them"), my response is usually to ask a question - if your team didn’t have great leadership, what were you doing?
Poor leadership is often used as a reason for failure. Leadership is pretty abstract and contextual, so it can just be a convenient excuse. It’s hard to pin down what bad leadership really is, we just know that the results weren’t good. But ultimately the head coach is responsible for the leadership on their team. If the players aren’t providing great leadership, then it had better come from you.
If leadership is so important to winning and losing, what are you doing about it? Are you recruiting it, or are you teaching it? Because if it impacts your results, you better find a way to improve the leadership on your team.
As I’ve grown as a coach and studied leadership more, I’ve felt there is a leadership void. Not just on basketball teams, but in a lot of organizations. There are countless people in leadership positions who don’t seem to understand leadership - so they can’t necessarily teach it or improve it. I think we end up with poor leadership because we don’t really get what great leadership is - and therefore who should be in leadership positions.
The best trial lawyer at a law firm isn’t necessarily skilled enough to be the chairman of the firm. The best sales person in a business may not have the right skill to run the company. The best player on a basketball team might not have the right mentality to lead the team. Great accomplishments and achievements don’t mean you are ready to run the company.
Define leadership for yourself and understand the context of your situation - what does your team need at this moment from a leadership stand point. You may have a couple of guys who aren’t key players but have great leadership qualities. You may not have anyone who is really comfortable as a leaders - and that means you have to take on that role.
Think about what leadership means to you, what your organization needs, and then determine who has the skill and approach to provide the right leadership. It may not be the best player or highest performer. There is a leadership void because we don’t put the right people in leadership positions.