It’s the first round of the NBA Playoffs and the San Antonio Spurs are a title contender. This seems to happen every year. The franchise has become a model of success in the sports entertainment business, as the Spurs have a culture of collaboration, humility, learning, and, most importantly, winning. The team makes for a wonderful case study for all organizations that want to realize their potential. Here are six organizational development lessons from the San Antonio Spurs.
Believe in the plan
The Spurs have a legendary culture. The organization is known for its fundamental culture. From the owner to the general managers and coaches to the players, everyone buys into the system. This means putting the team before the individual and emphasizing collective success over individual accolades. Vancity’s Orientation Immersion Program strives to create the same kind of shared understanding about the co-operative’s vision, values and business model so that employees know how to work together in ways that are different from folks in other organizations. Committing to the Spurs’s system also means having high expectations. The San Antonio Spurs have won almost half of the NBA Championships in the last decade. To thrive in a system that expects greatness one must strive to be great themselves and, as Robin Sharma always says, to leave the cult of average.
Find hidden gems
I’ve been thinking about this article for awhile and the brainstorming started when I read a this great Mashable article about BobanMarjonovic, a Euroleague MVP who is, among other things, a giant human being with unique talents. Despite these talents, nobody noticed him. Pretty much every other NBA team passed on him, just like a lot of teams under-valued Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli, both of whom are multi-championship-winning, all-star-level, award-collecting superstars. Okay, so Parker, Ginobli, and Tim Duncan have stars that are fading because they’re old. But the thing about being an organization known for having an incredible culture and cultivating “diamonds in the rough” like Kawhi Leonard is that free agent superstars like LamarcusAlderidge choose to join San Antonio instead of other clubs in bigger markets. According to ZipRecruiter’s Matt Krumrie, making your company’s culture core in the talent attraction process increases the likelihood of engaging employees who will thrive and stay with your organization longer!”
Know your role
In addition to finding and developing star performers, the Spurs also play a little Moneyball with their approach to smartly using talent. By “Moneyball” I mean that they also leverage statistical data and evaluate basketball intelligence (it’s like emotional intelligence, but in a sport!) in order to find specialist players who do certain things, like rebounding or hitting three point shots from the corner, really well. Sure, your organization needs superstars to deliver on your bold, transformational vision for clients or members. It also needs people to perfectly pull financial reports, facilitate technical training, and sell your product or service every day. Strong role – or character players – are essential for any community’s success.
Embrace well-being
The San Antonio Spurs are pioneers when it comes to resting professional athletes, often to the chagrin of NBA and television executives alike. Approaching the game of basketball with players’ well-being in mind has resulted in guys like Duncan, Parker andGinobli playing well past the traditional expiry date of a modern NBA player. Retaining talent is crucial for any organization to succeed. Ensuring that employees are rested, cared for, and generally supported will yield positive results because people are more productive when we’re happy and healthy.
Lead by letting go
Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker are old by professional sports standards. As their careers have progressed the teammates began to share more and more of their shots, touches, playing time, and spotlight with other players. Humility, trust and delegation are essential elements of the team’s staying power. Here’s what the Harvard Business Review’s Bob Markey has to say about leading by letting go: “…when you set up a system that enables you to let go with confidence — to trust your employees to exercise their own judgment and learn from their experience — employees can become both self-directing and self-correcting. They become inspired, energetic, and enthusiastic.”
Be ego-less
“It’s amazing what you can accomplish when nobody cares about who gets the credit,” my friend Meghan quoted when I asked Facebook for input on this article. I have no idea to whom the line is attributed, but suffice to say that it nicely captures how the Spurs put their collective mission of winning championships before individual accolades. The franchise’s greatest player, Tim Duncan, perfectly embodies the ego-less-ness of the Spurs because of his humility, quiet leadership, and straight-up-awesome basketball skills. True confidence is measured by how genuinely happy you are when a member of your team or another leader receives praise or new responsibilities for a job well done.Big egos often get in the way of leaders making big, positive impacts for their organizations.
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