Excuse me for wanting to stretch Wisconsin’s glorious victory over Kentucky in the NCAA Basketball Final Four into another day. But I can’t resist. There are business leadership lessons for us to learn.
Kentucky is mostly a one-and-done school when it comes to basketball. Coach Calipari recruits young men ready for the pros to spend their requisite waiting-year in college. According to the coach’s website, “Since the 2008 draft, 24 of Coach Cal’s players have been taken in the NBA Draft, including 17 first-rounders.” For seven straight drafts, he’s produced a top-10 pick, something no other school has accomplished.
Bo Ryan, the coach of the Wisconsin Badgers, has had some future pro players but for the most part grooms the less talented in whom he sees terrific potential and a willingness to play Badger basketball. As a freshman, Frank Kaminsky looked nothing like the Big Ten and AP player-of the year he is today. By focusing on getting the little things right, in basketball and life, Ryan leads players to realize potential they did not know they had.
Two methods. Two terrific teams. Kentucky, some argued, more so this year as they entered their repeat match-up against Wisconsin with a truly rare 38-0 record. They also had five returning starters (an oddity for them).
Watching the game, it was clear the Badgers were the stronger team. They held large leads and regained any they lost. Why? I can’t dissect the game strategy, but I can explore this question as a strategic leadership coach who helps CEOs build winning businesses.
Confidence in your strategy and teammates ignites individual resolution. Who loses his confidence first when a ball keeps falling short of the basket? A player who is part of a team whose methods have been proven, with teammates who have had each others’ backs for years, each one able to rebuild momentum when needed? Or a player on a team built from and largely focused on individual talents?
Yes, individual talent matters. But a system’s success depends most on the alignment of parts not the talents of the separate parts. Give me a sales team that understands and executes a business’ strategy any day over a team of the “best” salespeople.
Agility is an valuable competency. Ryan trains his players to play in different positions. Cross training provided the flexibility his team needed to knock off giants en route to the Final Four. In business, a winning business model strategy is necessary but not sufficient. You also need agility in how to execute as market terrains change unexpectedly. And the more leaders understand each other’s roles, the more collaborative the team.
Culture matters. The Badgers have fun. It’s only a game after all (according to Sam Decker) and their looseness enhances their flexibility on court. Yes, they’re driven to be a national champion, but they want to win with teamwork, not individual talents. It’s why Kaminsky is such a generous player and why he returned for his senior year.
In business, your culture is how your employees experience their work. When it is uncivil, political, uninventive, and all about work with no play or profits at the expense of people, you get the lost opportunities you deserve.
Being presumptuous sets you up for failure. Individual confidence is an empowering force. It encourages you to take shots and to believe, when you lose the lead as Wisconsin did 6 minutes out, that you will regain it. But a few short steps removed from confidence lies presumptuousness.
Presumptuousness fuels arrogance, creating a mindset that makes you blind to your weaknesses. And it would not be hard to apply the adjective to the Kentucky team based on post-game observations of the team and the student body. (But perhaps we should excuse Kentucky freshmen starters whose memory of losing went back to high school.) Without accepting your weaknesses and closing strategic gaps, others can easily disrupt you. Which is what Kentucky defense did to teams all year and what Wisconsin’s offense did to Kentucky – found and exploited the weaknesses in the opponent’s game. For example, Kentucky switches guards. Badgers scored during the switches.
Enron, Tyco, Kodak, Blockbuster, Lehman Brothers, Citibank. These were presumptuous companies. Their leaders (and sadly employees) paid the price. Walker, Christie, Cruz, and Clinton are presumptuous leaders whom I suspect will experience their Kentucky moment.
What leadership lessons did you extract from (at least for Badger fans) such a joyous outcome? What can we learn tonight from Duke versus Wisconsin?
© Plantes Company, 2015
Leave a Reply