Explore an Uncommon
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Create The Space For Ownership
From my book "Entitled To Nothing...
Create the Space for Ownership
One afternoon, about a week later, I was cleaning my new office when Kevin Payette came in. KP would be the only senior on my first team and our captain. Not only did I benefit from having a very good team—looking back, I think we were the best team in the league my first year—but we also had only one senior, and he was a terrific leader. The combination of talent and leadership made things much easier on a first year head coach.
KP was sitting in the office and talking to me about our pre-season pickup games. I had gone recruiting the day before, so I hadn’t seen the guys when I normally would as they came over to play. I asked KP how the games went.
“Ah, not very good. They were kind of bullshit. Guys weren’t playing hard, guys were complaining. It wasn’t good at all.”
I figured I’d put it on him and see how he responded. “Really? What are we going to do about it?” I wasn’t really expecting an answer, but I figured we could start a conversation about how to fix the issue.
His answer surprised me. “We already took care of it. We got up at 7 AM this morning and ran as a team. Everybody came in and ran. The guys know we can’t have that.”
I tried not to let him see my surprise. I asked the question pretty confident that I wasn’t going to get a good answer other than, “I don’t know, coach. If guys don’t play hard, I’m not really sure what we can do.” But he had taken ownership along with the rest of the team for some garbage pickup games in the pre-season. This wasn’t something I had stressed to them. This was something they had done on their own. They had standards for how they should compete, even in the pre-season, and they held themselves accountable to those standards. That said a lot about the team I was now coaching.
How many teams are getting up before class and running to punish themselves for bad pickup games? I was impressed. It showed me for certain that these kids cared. They wanted to be good, and they took it seriously. It also showed me that they would take responsibility and ownership, which is important in any successful organization. So often as leaders we want to correct mistakes and tell people what to do. In reality, high performing teams are driven from the inside out. I got my first glimpse of that lesson in the office with KP that day. Our job as the leader is not to tell them what to do, but to give them the tools to figure it out themselves. I wanted my team to be full of leaders, not followers. They had the space to take ownership when their coach left right before school. I’d learn over time to continue to give them that space.
There is a big difference between a team being told what to do and doing it on their own. Compliant teams will do what they are told, and with talent they can be good. Teams that take ownership do it for each other, and those teams have a chance to be special. When they own it, they’ll fight a little harder for it. When your team starts to drive your culture, elite success is more attainable.
Nick Nurse - Six Bullets
Nick Nurse outlines part of his approach when he first became an NBA head coach:
I told myself when I first got the job that I would have six bullets to fire during the season, just six times that I would allow myself- in the midst of a lackluster practice, after a particularly sloppy game, or during a losing streak- to really rip into the team.
There's a cliche' about a coach "losing" his team- or "losing the locker room," as it's sometimes said. It's a real thing. It can happen if you just chew on their asses from day one and never let up. At a certain point, players will feel like they've heard enough and just stop listening.
I don't know for sure that's what happened to me when I was coaching at Grand View, when I was still in my early twenties, but it's always in the back of my mind. Those poor kids had to put up with a coach who yelled too much- who had no concept of the tempo and rhythms required and the uses of silence.
I didn't keep close track of my six bullets (I certainly remember one during the playoffs, which I'll get into later) but I'm fairly sure I never used them all. There was one other determination I made before the season about how I was going to handle my role. I decided I was not going to run any of the sessions where we looked at game tape.
I put an assistant coach in charge of the offense, another in charge of the defense, and a third in charge of special teams- meaning out-of-bounds plays, late-game plays, any other special situations. I rotated them every eight games to keep them objective. I didn't want the offensive guy to be lobbying for someone who couldn't guard anybody to get minutes, or the other way around.
The players had heard my voice a lot over the last five seasons, because I ran a lot of these meetings. I would eventually step forward and do the critiques- but not until the playoffs.
Listen More, Say Less
Effective leadership is about listening more than talking. From my book, Entitled To Nothing...
Listen More, Say Less
After the press conference, I met with the team in a classroom in the Murray Center. That meeting is always a challenge, especially when it’s your first time in charge. The kids wanted to know who I was and what I was all about. And I was dying to tell them. But I wanted to listen more than talk. I resisted the temptation to talk about myself and made it a point to listen to them. I think seeing KP before the press conference when he handed me that schedule altered my approach. I needed to learn about the program, the players, and the culture. I needed to understand the personalities of the individ‐uals and the team. Your first day as a leader feels like it is supposed to be about you, but it’s really about the team in front of you.
It might be the biggest challenge you face when taking over a new organization – you want to make an impact and instill your culture right away. You can see what the program is going to look like, and you can’t wait to get it there. But it requires patience and mental discipline. You have to listen to your players and learn about them before you can get them to buy-in to your beliefs. Effective leadership is about listening more than talking, especially early on as you establish relationships.
A culture is built over time through daily action and approach. It’s a brick by brick scenario. And haven’t we always been taught that a great leader is the guy in the front of the room, telling everyone what the plan is? Well, I learned on my very first day that listening is one of the most powerful weapons in leadership. And the knowledge you need to build your organization the right way comes from the people you are trying to lead. Your connection with them is more important than your ideas about how to build your program.
That day, I started to understand a truth I would come to believe in strongly as a head coach. I learn the most about my team—and we are at our best—when I am listening to my players. The standard model of coaching—with the leader in the front of the room telling everyone what to do—isn’t the most effective model. It isn’t the best way to get the most out of your team. Talk to your people. Ask them questions. They may not always tell you what you want to hear, but they will tell you what you need to know.
Don't Coach Them Into A Corner
There is a lot of research on how our mind works and the different levels of bias inherent in what we perceive. I've always been fascinated by the way our mind operates and how it influences the way we coach. Human behavior studies show a perceptual bias, where our personal motivations have an influence on what we see, and a response bias, when we report seeing what we wish to see.
There's also significant data on confirmation bias which is the tendency to seek out, interpret, and favor information in a way that confirms our own beliefs. We actually ignore the information that contradicts the way we feel, and we process ambiguous information in a way that supports our beliefs. The bottom line is we see what we want to see.
I think about confirmation bias a lot when I coach and recruit. It's a huge factor in evaluation. If you really want to like a kid when you go watch him play (or worse, you really need a player at that position), you are going to find ways to like him. If you have a bad impression of him from the beginning, you'll find ways not to like him. Understanding the way your mind works will make you a better evaluator.
It also can have a big impact on how we coach. I'm always trying to avoid putting players into a box. You get an impression of who a player is (he's too soft, doesn't have good feel, etc.) and you continue to see the things that confirm your impression. The soft kid is never going to shake that label. You always evaluate him through the "soft" lens and any play that he makes confirms what you think.
It's really easy to coach your players into a corner. Especially when it comes time to make tough decisions on playing time. When you are trying to figure out who to start and how to establish your rotation, you need reasons. You need a rationale as to why some guys are playing and some guys are not. The kid who isn't tough enough, doesn't defend, or turns the ball over too much stays in that place and allows you to put the guys you want in the lineup. Many head coaches are looking for a comfort level, and they find it by confirming the the prevalent thoughts that are already in their mind.
It's not easy as a coach because it's literally the way the mind works. It's not a conscious bias, so you don't realize it's happening. You really have to be self aware and evaluate how fairly you see things. A lot of players don't get an opportunity to change their situation because of the way the are perceived, and our mind can play tricks on us.
Don't coach a player to be the player you think he is to make you more comfortable. Give him a chance to get out of the corner.
Confidence, Confusion and Communication
We all want our players to talk more. We all are constantly telling our players to talk more. We can't really understand why these guys who can't seem to shut up off the court can't be more vocal on the court.
One thing I know we are missing - and I've talked about this before - is not coaching our guys on what to say. It isn't enough to just tell them to talk. Tell them what you want them to say. If they are on defense, are they just letting the guy guarding the ball know where they are? Are they telling him they are in help? What are they supposed to say in transition? Start by asking them questions about what they saw, and if they can tell you what they saw, ask them what they think they should have said. If you want your guys to talk more, they have to know what to say.
Another big issue with communication is the difference between confidence and confusion. Confident players are able to talk more. They know what to expect and exactly what they are supposed to be doing. When they are comfortable with that, they can give to their teammates. And communication is an unselfish act, something you do for your team and your teammates. What do people do when they aren't feeling very confident? They keep to themselves. Make sure your guys are confident in what you do and what their job is to get them to talk.
Players who are confused aren't going to talk. It's that simple. If you can't get your guys to talk enough, they may not know what to say because they are confused. Think about the messages you are giving them on either side of the ball and whether or not it is clear to them. If you are a packline defensive team and you want your guys in the gaps, you can't also ask them to deny passes or get up on the hip of a shooter. Getting up on a shooter to ride him out is going to take them out of their gap. They can't do both. But we often send mixed messages. We want that guy in help position, but if he's guarding a shooter we want him to stay close to his man. The result is confusion, or at the very least a little bit of hesitancy. And if your players are confused, you can't expect them to talk. They aren't sure what to do, so what are they going to say?
Confident players will talk more. Heck, confident people talk more in all walks of life. Confused players are trying to figure it out, trying to survive. They are thinking too much about their job to talk. They can't be loud when they are uncertain.
Nobody talks when they are thinking. If your team isn't talking enough, make sure you aren't forcing them to think on the court. Are you being clear, concise and definitive? Do they now exactly what is expected of them? Give them the confidence that comes with knowing and take the thinking out of it. You will hear their communication level increase.
Greg Carvel - UMass Hockey
Very interesting presentation on this podcast from Greg Carvel, the hockey coach at UMass, who took over one of the worst teams in the country and won a national championship 5 years later. Great insight into his culture and how he built it.
Some concepts that I really liked...
Command Respect
When he first took over the program, they came up with a purpose for the team, They knew they weren't very good (they won 5 games his first year) but their purpose was to "command respect." That is what drove them. Regardless of the result, they wanted to command the respect of their opponent based on how hard they played. A great purpose or mission for a rebuilding program.
Get Them To Say Our Standard
Hard. Fast. Prepared. That was the standard for UMass Hockey. They always wanted to play hard, fast and prepared. Carvel insisted to his team that they wanted to pursue those standards in such a way that their opponent actually said them out loud. He wanted to hear the opposing coach or players, in the press after the game, talk about how hard and fast they played, and how prepared they were. And he got his wish. Whenever he heard an opponent talking about their own standards at UMass, they knew they had the culture right.
"Good"
Carvel has an interesting approach to dealing with tough circumstances. Any time they face adversity, the response is always "Good." When a couple of starters went down with Covid right before the national semifinal, the response was "Good." The approach is positive - this is an opportunity for us to get better and for others to step up and play a bigger role. The response to adversity is always "Good."
Uniquely Seen
I really like this phrase. Carvel wants to make sure everyone of his players is "uniquely seen." They are all different and he wants to make sure he and his coaching staff gets to know who they are through and through so as to be able to coach in the best way. Every player is different, and he wants to know and understand those differences. He says he felt "uniquely seen" by his coach in college and he's always wanted his players to feel the same way.
Give It In The Gut
The phrase UMass Hockey uses to talk about being direct and honest is "give it in the gut, not in the back." They speak the truth to one another. They tell it straight and they are unfailingly honest all the time. In their program their is no other way. They are truth-tellers who never dance around an issue.
From Scratch
Taking over a new program and trying to build an elite culture from scratch is challenging in a lot of ways. It's really hard to slow things down. The amount of work that needs to be done can be overwhelming and it's hard to remain patient. You know what you want things to look like and you want it to happen as soon as possible. Your desire to establish a new approach right away can actually get in the way of your ability to do so.
I've taken over two programs (Rhode Island College, University of Maine) that had no history of basketball success. I'm sure in both situations I was a little to eager to get things established. To get your culture right, you really have to think long term. I've always been more of a big picture thinker, but I still had trouble with this. It's hard to see something happen that is dysfunctional and say "Well, that's understandable, we haven't had a chance to implement our culture." You want it to change, and you want it to change now. Which is okay. But your first thought with any decisions about your culture should be about the long term impact. If you cut corners with your approach to feel like you are making an immediate impact, establishing your culture only gets tougher.
Trust is the most important core element of any successful organization. Everything you do should come from the mindset of earning the trust of your players. Show vulnerability and humility, and have genuine conversations with them. Don't just get to know them off the court, let them get to know you off the court. Make sure your actions back up everything you say. If for a second they feel like you aren't being authentic with them, you'll start to lose them and your culture will never be strong enough to sustain elite success.
We all think of leadership as making declarative statements. I think it's more about asking questions. One of the most important things you need to do when you take over is learn about your players and your organization. Telling people how you are going to do things is not how to go about it. It's a somewhat lazy approach to leadership, one that makes you feel good when you go home at night, but not one that connects with your team. You feel like you are establishing how you are going to operate, and your players are asking "Do I really want this guy telling me what to do? Whoever asks the most questions wins.
Place a majority of your focus and time off the court or away from the office. The basketball will take time, but it will be shaped by your approach. As your team is learning to trust you, the way you communicate with them will have a huge impact. Your preparation and your message is more important than your offense or defense. I'm not saying the basketball isn't important, of course it is. But as your team is still getting to know you, who you are is more important than what you know. They may love the offense, but if they don't really believe in you that won't matter. People buy in to who you are more than what you do.
Leadership from day one is a challenge. You have a natural urge to get as much done as quickly as possible. I'm pretty confident you'll look back at more than a few things that you tried to move too quickly with. Take some time to slow down and figure out the best way to implement your approach with the long game in mind. The goals is not to change things today, but to be successful over the long haul.
Can You Teach It?
I've learned over the years as a coach that there are some things that are easier to recruit than to teach. Certain parts of the game just come to players naturally. That's not to say you can't make them better in these areas. You can always work on improving skill. But there are certain elements of the game that seem to come naturally or guys just have trouble picking them up.
Finishing at the rim
I've found it's very hard to make someone a good finisher. Guys who can put the ball in the basket are naturals. They have the ability to get the ball from their hands to the bottom of the net quickly and easily. I've coached some great finishers - Ryan Gomes, Herbert Hill at Providence College - and they just had this instinctive ability. It wasn't something we trained them to do.
On the other side, guys who struggle to finish have a hard time getting better at it. Making a lay-up with a little bit of pressure always seems to be a struggle. These guys constantly frustrate you as a coach, no matter how much you work on it with them. There are drills that you can do and you'd like to think they'll show some improvement. But in my experience that improvement is marginal. Guys that struggle to finish always seem to do so - almost like it's part of their DNA.
Feeding the post
Maybe we all just need to work on passing skills more than we do, but it seems like feeding the post is hard for a lot of guards. It requires timing, touch and feel, plus a willingness to take a risk. It's usually not a dime that you are going to get an assist for, it's just making sure you can get it to the post player without turning it over. Nothing seems to frustrate guards more than trying to throw it inside and having the defender fight around the big and steal the ball.
A big part of being a good passer in general is just feel for the game and the timing of when to deliver the ball. Throw in the physical nature of post play, with two guys banging around back and forth, and it's easy for the passer to become a little more tentative. But guards who are natural passers have no issues feeding the post. They know how to ball fake, and they understand the balance and movement of the big - which direction he is heading, and where to get him the ball. I'm not sure those are things you can teach that effectively.
Obviously passing the ball and feeding the post are skills you can work on. I'm just not sure you can really improve somebody's ability to feed the post.
Rebounding out of your area
Rebounding is a lot about emphasis, toughness and technique, and you can certainly teach people to be better rebounders. But guys who chase the ball down, who rebound out of their area, are pretty special.
You can hold your players accountable for blocking out and reward the guys who are the best rebounders, and you can teach it and work on it every day. But there are some guys with a knack for the ball who are naturally greedy when the ball goes up and have a great feel for where a rebound is coming off. They combine that with great effort and toughness to become big time rebounders.
When you find a ball seeker, someone who can just go get it, that is pretty special. You can teach the technique and emphasize the importance of it, but certain guys just have an ability to go find the ball.
The Elephant In The Room
From Nick Nurse's book "Rapture."
In my Raptors office, I have an elephant on my desk. My assistant, Geni Melville, picked it up on the street in Toronto. It's made of some kind of bronze and is the so-called elephant in the room - a visual reminder of the need to have hard conversations and face things head on.
Say I have a player in my office who wants more minutes, but he doesn't shoot a high enough percentage to help us when he's out there. He takes too many difficult shots, stops the offense because he doesn't move the ball, doesn't pass it.
Well, say hi to the elephant. I have to say to him: You want to get on the floor? You want to get paid? This is what you have to do.
I'm not doing the team or this guy any good if I sugarcoat it just to make him feel better. If I do that, he goes back out there and does the same dumb stuff, we probably lose a game, and he ends up back on the bench.
I've been around coaches who do not want to have the hard conversations. What happens is the problem mushrooms. If you get an injury or two and need the player and he screws up again - which he will definitely do if you don't try to change him - you end up with a bunch of other guys pissed of that you didn't coach him properly. You started off with one problem and now you have ten.
The important thing is when I have my elephant-in-the-room moments, I don't want it to be a one-way conversation. That's a big thing I learned from my upbringing. I don't want to be the only one in the room talking.
When the other person has his say, there's a good chance I'll learns something. Maybe I'm giving him the wrong prompts. I'm telling him one thing but he's hearing something else.
There's no way that I could coach in the modern NBA with my father's my-way-or-the-highway approach, nor would I want to. I am not my players' boss in a traditional sense. For one thing, even some end-of-the-bench guys make more money than I do (and I'm very well paid by an normal standard) and a couple of the stars literally make ten times my salary.
But even if I was their boss, I'd want to hear their views - and probably especially when they disagree with me. The NBA has moved in that direction. The world has.
You Are Looking For A Response
What is the response you are looking for? That is the question you should ask yourself when you are talking to your team.
If you think about it, you aren't talking to your team just so they listen to you. You are trying to get a response out of them. If they are receiving your message, it should translate into behavior. When you draw up a play in a huddle you are trying to get them to execute. When you deliver the scouting report before the game, you are trying to get them to take a certain approach to winning that game. When you talk to them about academics, you want them to put great effort into their work.
Thinking about the response you want to get from your team should shape the way you talk to them. When your team comes out flat in a game and you have to get after them in a huddle, you are trying to wake them up. You want their energy (and behavior) to change. That's a different tone then when you are setting up a play to run in a tie game with 30 seconds to go. The response you are hoping to get impacts not only your message, but they way you deliver it.
This approach is really important when you are trying to get the most out of your guys in practice. Too often the way we talk to our players - especially in a closed gym during practice - is about our own emotion. If we are upset, we deliver the message that way. If we are coming off a bad performance, we have a long talk before practice to get everything off of our chest. But what response are we looking for? If you hammer a kid in practice every time he turns the ball over, what response do you expect to get? To think he's going to improve his performance after getting hammered doesn't make a lot of sense.
The conversation before practice is always one to think about. You may have a lot of different points you want to make and all might be valid and important. However, talking to your team right before practice - especially for any extended period of time - likely isn't going to get the desired response. If you want your players energized and ready to go right away, an extended conversation likely isn't going to make that happen. There is a time and a place to deliver an important message about things that need to change. Right before practice probably isn't the best time to do it.
Organizing your message and figuring out when and how to deliver it is important. But it's more than simply making sure they hear the message. The ultimate goal is to get them to respond the right way, and to change behavior to produce a desired outcome. Before you start talking to your team, think about more than delivering the right message. Think about the response you are looking for.
What Factors Predict NBA Success?
A good thought-provoking piece from a few years back.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/what-predicts-nba-success/
Okay
"Look around you and look inside you. How many people do you think are settling? I will tell you: a hell of a lot of people. People are settling every day into okay relationships and okay jobs and an okay life. And do you know why? Because okay is comfortable. Okay pays the bills and gives a warm bed at night and allows one to go out with co-workers on a Friday evening to enjoy happy hour. But do you know what okay is not? Okay isn't thrilling, it isn't passion, it isn't the reason you get up every day; it isn't life-changing or unforgettable. Okay is not the reason you go to bed late and wake up early. Okay is not the reason you risk absolutely everything you've got just for the smallest chance that something absolutely amazing could happen." - Lauren Goodger
10 Characteristics of High Performing Teams
Clarity of Purpose - One defined mission
Deep Trust - Allows for vulnerability
Psychological Safety - Fosters competitive excellence
Uncommon Leadership - Everyone is a leader
Take Ownership - The culture is theirs
Direct Communication - Truth-tellers, always
Win Anyway - No excuses
Process - Constant performance improvement
Perspective - Emotional balance
Intrinsically Motivated - Autonomy, mastery, and purpose
Reliable
Perhaps the simplest, most important attribute you can have a player is to be reliable. It sounds pretty basic, but it's true. As a coach I want to know what I'm going to get. Regardless of what level player you are - whether you are a starter and a star or a practice player who hardly gets the horn - I just want to know what I'm going to get. That allows me a comfort level in preparing and coaching the team.
I'm always talking to my teams about being able to "count on you." Can we count on you? If we can't count on you to show up on time, to give a great effort every day - to be reliable - we certainly aren't going to count on you to win tough games on the road. One of the most important things you can do as a teammate is to prove you can be counted on.
The best way to show you are reliable starts with being honest with yourself. Evaluate what you are really good at. Not what you want to be good at or what you are working on. What are you really good at right now that can help your team? Make an honest assessment of yourself. After that it's simple. Take the things you are good at, and do them a lot. If you are a quick guard and a great on the ball defender, hawk the ball for 94 feet and impact the game that way. If you are a strong physical rebounder, go to the glass on both ends every time the ball goes up. If you are a big time shooter, find open space and be ready to catch and shoot.
There are a lot of players out there who lose value (and minutes) by trying to prove they can do things they aren't good at. They shoot quick 3s in transition when they aren't great shooters. They handle the ball in transition when they aren't a great handler. Once you start to do things you aren't good at, you become unreliable. You are doing things that won't help your team.
If you come off the bench as a great defender and rebounder, who provides energy and a spark to the team, do that every day in practice. It's okay to average 6 points and 4 rebounds a game, and you can still be very valuable to your team. But as a coach, I want to know I'm going to get that energy, that level of defense and those 6 points and 4 rebounds every day.
Once you become reliable and I know I can count on you, I know I can win with you.
Alex Caruso
“A big reason guys get stuck in the G League... they don’t realize the position they’re trying out for. It’s like going to a job interview thinking you’re going to be the CFO, and they’re looking for someone to clean the bathrooms.”
Why Did You Take Me Out?
I took you out because it was time to put someone else in. It's really that simple. Making these decisions is a big part of my job, and the goal is to put our team in the best position to win. We have a lot of players who can help us, and it's always a challenge to find the right combinations while keeping everybody fresh.
It doesn't necessarily mean you did something wrong - although if you jogged back on defense, I'm sure you know why you are coming out. It's not that I don't like you, or that I like him better than you. It's not personal, it really never is. I haven't decided that you aren't good enough to play anymore or that you belong on the bench. It was just time to give someone else a chance, and to give you a rest.
Everyone on this team competes at a high level. It's what we do. All of your teammates come to practice every day and lay it on the line, just like you do. They all have the chance to earn the right to play, just like you. Rewarding the guys who compete, produce and are great teammates with playing time is part of what makes our practices so good. And those practices are what give our team a chance to be great.
The thing is, I don't really have time for an individual meeting right now. I don't have time to speak to your parents, or explain to your AAU coach why I just took you out. We are really trying to win this game. I still love you, whether you're playing great or not at your best. But I need to focus on the next play in this game right now. I need to coach our team.
I'm sure this isn't the last time you'll fee this way, so keep this in mind. It's okay to print this out and keep it posted in your locker as a reminder. Everybody wants to play more. Everyone on this team. I want everyone to want to play more. But it's how you handle wanting to play more that tells me what type of teammate you are, and ultimately will define how successful you can be.
Hustle to the bench. Grab a drink. Catch your breath. Cheer on your teammates. Think about what you can do better to help this team when you go back in. Stay fully engaged in the game. That's the best way to get back on the floor, sooner rather than later.
I won't always make the right decision. And I have to make a lot of them. I promise you - every decision I make is with the best interests of our TEAM in mind.
Craig Counsell - New York Times
Is Craig Counsell the Best Manager in Baseball?
His Brewers could win 100 games and his players can’t believe he’s never won the Manager of the Year Award. That he’s doing it at home in Milwaukee is icing on the cake.
By James Wagner
- Sept. 15, 2021, 6:45 a.m. ET
MILWAUKEE — The last time the Milwaukee Brewers reached a World Series, Craig Counsell was 12. His father worked for the team, so Counsell would often tag along, including during that 1982 playoff run.
Usually, Counsell sat in the stands at County Stadium, the Brewers’ former home, to watch his favorite team and favorite player, the Hall of Famer Robin Yount. But when tension built during a game, Counsell would walk to a special place that had proven successful in his mind: the spot where he watched Cecil Cooper drive in the go-ahead runs to win the American League pennant for Milwaukee.
“My lucky spot was at the end of the stadium,” Counsell said recently, pointing to where it would be at American Family Field, the team’s home since 2001. “They had a ramp that sat down the right field line. It was a walkway to get to the upper deck and I would watch the game from my spot. You got to find a lucky spot.”
His vantage point is much different these days. After playing 16 seasons in the majors, Counsell — a Milwaukeean through and through — has been watching his favorite team from the dugout since 2015. All the while, he has established himself as one baseball’s best managers. This season, he has guided the Brewers to multiple milestones the team had not reached since 1982, when Counsell was there to watch them fall to the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the World Series.
Through Tuesday, the Brewers, who play in the smallest market in Major League Baseball, were on pace to win a franchise record 99 games. They sat 13 and a half games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals for first place in the National League Central, holding the largest division lead in M.L.B. With a record of 89-56, the Brewers were 33 games over .500 — topping the franchise’s high-water mark from 1982. And should the Brewers reach the playoffs as expected, they will have done so in four consecutive seasons, extending a franchise record for a club that played its first season in 1969.
A common thread on a team that has seen changes to its front office and roster: Counsell.
“The players have to play the game, but it starts from the top down and players feed off the manager,” said Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, who won the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2018.
“I don’t think he gets enough credit,” Yelich continued later. “I really don’t. It’s almost a crime that he hasn’t won Manager of the Year the last few years. He’s definitely deserved it and he’s a huge reason for all of our success here.”
Counsell, 51, took over the Brewers after Milwaukee got off to a 7-18 start under Ron Roenicke in 2015. Before that, his coaching was limited to youth leagues with his children. But his experiences as a player prepared him to guide a team, to relate to its players and to earn their respect.
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He went from a walk-on at Notre Dame to becoming the team’s captain. An 11th round draft pick, he was a slender infielder known more for his glove (and quirky batting stance) than his bat. In 1997, when he was 26, he overcame a history of injuries in the minors to earn a regular spot in the majors. He was designated for assignment, released and traded during his career. He won World Series rings with the Florida Marlins in 1997 (scoring the winning run in Game 7 against Cleveland) and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001 (when he was the M.V.P. of the league championship series and part of the team’s winning rally in Game 7 of the World Series against the Yankees).
“He has a really good feel for the ball club,” said Brent Suter, a Brewers left-handed reliever. “When we come home from road trips, he cuts down on work. Or he adds work when its necessary. He has a really good pulse energy wise, like when he needs to talk — speeches to the team — or when he needs to let the club be. That’s somewhat instinctual, but it also comes from playing for 15 whatever years in the big leagues.”
Although Counsell said he wasn’t thinking about it much while playing, the former Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin said others often viewed Counsell as a potential manager because of his experience, personality and intelligence.
“You can put all of that down on a list, but the one thing that stood out is the respect that he had of all his teammates,” Melvin said. “Whenever I talked to people in the game, he was always one of the most well respected teammates who would not accept anything less than trying to win every day.”
The thought of managing crossed Counsell’s mind more in 2011, his final season on the field, when he was 41, hitting .178 for the Brewers and, in his estimation, was “a really bad player.” He remained on Milwaukee’s roster partly because Melvin valued Counsell’s impact in the clubhouse.Sign up for the Sports Newsletter Get our most ambitious projects, stories and analysis delivered to your inbox every week. Get it sent to your inbox.
Counsell didn’t know how long it would take for him to become a manager or if it would happen. His goal was to serve in a leadership position for an organization, but his loyalties were with his hometown team.
“I felt that it would be my part to help baseball in Milwaukee moving forward after I was done playing,” he said. “I didn’t know that it was going to be this necessarily. I feel really fortunate it is. I’ve always felt a responsibility for it and enjoy that responsibility.”
Counsell grew up in Whitefish Bay, a community 15 minutes north of the Brewers’ stadium, and still lives there. He is a proud graduate of Whitefish Bay High, where he met his future wife and all four of their children will end up attending. His high school’s field, and the Little League park where he once played, both bear his name. His No. 19 jersey number was retired.
He played for the Brewers for six seasons. After retiring, he returned in 2012 as a special assistant to Melvin in the front office. Three years later, Melvin hired Counsell as manager.
“He knows how important the Brewers are to Milwaukee,” said Jeff Margolis, who grew up with Counsell and was the best man at his wedding. He added later, “For as much as it would mean for anybody to be the manager of the Brewers, it means more to Craig.”
Calling Counsell “a Midwest kid,” Margolis said Counsell still trims his lawn with a riding mower given to him by the Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman, a former teammate. A few years ago, Counsell stopped by his 30th high school reunion after a day game in Milwaukee.
On the field, Counsell has earned praise for both his tactical and his interpersonal skills, the latter of which is more important nowadays as front offices have an increasingly larger role in how games are played. Underscoring the turnover of the demanding position, Counsell is the longest tenured manager in the N.L.
Josh Hader, one of the Brewers’ star relievers, said Counsell “doesn’t try to over-manage.” Corbin Burnes, one of the Brewers’ ace starters and a leading candidate to claim the N.L. Cy Young Award, said he appreciates Counsell’s direct and open manner of communication. Suter said Counsell has great situational awareness and foresight in how to deploy relievers and pinch-hitters throughout a game.
Without his time working in the front office, in which he said Melvin exposed him to every facet, Counsell said he wouldn’t understand the perspectives of David Stearns, the team’s current president of baseball of operations, or Matt Arnold, the team’s general manager.
“One of the reasons I’ve enjoyed working with Craig so much is that he has the ability to question everything that he does and that we do as an organization,” Stearns said. “And through active questioning and discussion, he has naturally grown and altered his opinions on certain aspects of how he goes about it. But the general tenets of what he believes and strives to do is put players in the best position to succeed. That has been constant since day one.”
Case in point: The Brewers of 2021 are dominated by a fairly traditional starting rotation, a sharp contrast from 2018 when the team, carried by a dominant bullpen and Yelich, fell one win short of reaching the World Series.
“In 2018, we had a team and particularly a pitching staff that required very active management pretty much from pitch one, and Craig understood that and tailored his style to that,” Stearns said. “The team we have right now is built more around elite starting pitchers, and Craig has been able to tailor his management style to that and continue to put the pieces on our roster in the right spots.”
Counsell, who has twice been the runner-up for the N.L. Manager of the Year Award and faces stiff competition for it this year from Gabe Kapler of the San Francisco Giants, said he loved managing because it gave him a unique perspective on watching players like Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff, Burnes and Hader reach the major leagues and develop into stars.
Woodruff, Burnes and Hader were key figures on the 2018 team that was so close to a pennant. Counsell said that squad is remembered fondly in Milwaukee because of the journey it took fans on — something he said baseball excels at in October. That team also provided new memories to a fan base that, from 1983 until Stearns took over in 2015, had seen their favorite team make the playoffs only twice, in 2008 and 2011.
Counsell lamented that the Brewers, one of six franchises never to win a championship, have not returned to the World Series since 1982. He still thinks about that team, too. But one day, he hopes to gives Brewers fans newer memories to hold onto for life.
“The fact that you’ve seen those moments and been a small part of them as a fan,” he said, “it frankly makes you want to provide those moments for other fans because they don’t go away.”
Playing For Each Other
In my third year as a head coach at Rhode Island College we had a young, inexperienced but very talented team. We had just come off a 27-4, Elite 8 run season with a group of six seniors who had all moved on. That RIC team in 2007-08 - the year after the Elite 8 run - was talented enough to win a lot of games, but not nearly as mentally tough as the team had been the year before.
We had made it to the LEC championship game and I remember talking to a couple of former players in the stands as the guys were warming up, and I said "the difference between this year's team and you guys, is these guys want to win today, because if we do they get to keep playing. They love to play. You guys wanted to win because you just refused to let each other down. You wanted to keep playing - together."
We were talented enough to win that game and get back to the NCAA Tournament, where we won our first game before getting beat in the second round. But I always remembered that conversation and the feeling we had with our 2007 Elite 8 team. They refused to let each other down. They were playing for each other.
Since I coached those teams I've always felt like the elite teams do that - they play for one another. The question is, how do you get there?
Off The Court Experiences
Shared experiences off the court create a deeper level of understanding and trust. They also create psychological safety - where you know no matter what you do or say, the guys you are with have your back. This leaves to competitive excellence on the court, where everyone is willing to lay it on the line for one another.
The challenge is these shared experiences often take a lot of time to make a difference, and they are most impactful if they happen naturally. I was fortunate in this area, in that I took over a talented team that had been through a lot with each other. I was their third coach in three years. They had to stick together over the years, not knowing who their coach was going to be, even as they came back to school. They were forced to deal with a lot together, and it showed in the way they refused to let one another down.
You can do your best to try and create shared experiences off the court. Getting your group together outside of the gym is important, and giving them time and space to get to know and trust each other is important. But it's more than just going bowling one night or watching Monday Night Football together. It's how you handle the challenging situations that come your way - on and off the court.
Direct Communication
It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg thing. Direct communication really helps build trust, but genuine trust really allows for direct communication. But the fact is that elite teams, teams that play for each other, have no problem communicating directly. They don't get caught up in ego and they don't take it personally. They understand that the tone or the message might be a little harsh. That's okay. It's all part of the commitment made to one another.
Establish the fact that you are always going to communicate honestly and directly from the first day. I tell the story in my book, Entitled to Nothing, about my first team meeting each year. The first thing I said to the team was "Today is the day I'm recruiting over you." It might have been a little harsh and unsettling, but it was true. My job was to get better players, and I was going to do that. Their job was to make sure they didn't lose their job to a new player I recruited.
It helped set the tone that I was always going to be honest and direct, and I expected the same from them. To be a great team, we didn't have time to bead around the bush on important topics. We needed to get comfortable with issues being out in the open and discussed directly. Open, honest communication helps teams play for one another.
Strong Character
The make-up of your group has a big impact on their ability to play for one another. You can create an elite environment as a coach, but without the right people in the building, the culture won't work. You need guys who can handle the level of commitment and discipline that it takes on a daily basis. It's not for everyone.
Our Elite 8 team had a core ethos that fit our approach. They were good kids, hungry to be a part of something, fed up with what they had dealt with in the prior years. There was a determination to be great and a perspective and awareness of what was important. Their character allowed them to play for one another as much as anything else.
Set Ego Aside
Bill Russell famously said he had a huge ego, but it was a "Team ego." It was always about what was best for the team. It's okay to have an ego - we all have them. It's okay to strive for personal success - playing time, individual awards - I have no problem with that. But it's important to establish that your team and your teammates matter more than anything you do as an individual.
Our guys had been through so much together, they had pretty much exhausted their individual egos. All they were concerned about was having the best experience they could together and giving everything they had for each other. Our Elite 8 team had 6 seniors on it and only two of them started, although all 6 were good enough to be in the rotation. It didn't matter to them. They wanted what was best for the team, and they were willing to sacrifice for it.
Deep Trust
Our Elite 8 team had a different level of trust, a trust so deep you could actually see it on the floor. The way they communicated to one another, they way they helped each other, and the way they picked each other up. No one ever questioned the effort or motivation of one of their teammates. They knew each other too well for that.
It's hard to get any team to the point where they trust each other unconditionally. It is earned through shared experiences and a willingness to give incredible effort at all times. It involves the ability to immediately own mistakes and handle them. Guys would almost fight over taking the responsibility for a mistake.
Giving full measure at all times leads to a deep level of trust that you don't see on a lot of teams. By the time the second semester comes around there is a trust you can actually see in their actions on the court.
Commitment to an Elite, Uncommon Approach
Plenty of the stuff that we did with that team was seen as a little nuts. The way we practiced, the amount of running we did, the level of accountability we always had to our standards - it was different. A lot of guys weren't used to it. But they were willing to commit to it, without any guarantee of a reward.
Teams that play for one another commit to an uncommon approach. It's in the competitive edge you see in the gym every day. It's understanding that everything they do off the court is just as important. It's taking ownership of the approach and culture, not waiting for someone else to take responsibility or tell them what to do. Playing for one another at a high level is uncommon, as is the commitment it takes every day.