Know What You Care About And Do It

It’s fascinating to read the thoughts of head coaches who’ve been labelled a ‘dictator’. Unsurprisingly, they often disagree with the title.

Pat Summit HC of Tennessee University Women’s Basketball team suggested that her title as The Great Dictator was a misinterpretation of her work ethic more than her thirst for power.

Sir Alex Ferguson, too, quite possibly the greatest manager ever, believed he was showing the prerequisites of a leader more than a tyrant, writing: “A leader who seeks control is very different from one who craves power.”

Bob Knight, the legendary Indiana University Basketball coach is another who wasn’t fond of the tyrant caricature.

In his book, The Power of Negative Thinking, he wrote, “I was always seen as a coaching dictator: If there was a decision to be made, I made it. I can’t imagine how that got started, because it wasn’t true.”

The Gone With The Wind Gable Approach

On of the best known lines from the movie Gone with the Wind is “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” and that’s how Knight chose what decisions he’d make, versus which decisions he’d defer to others. Whether that be staff or even, his players.

“I always let my players vote on everything I didn’t care about—where we would eat on a road trip, whether we would practice at three or five o’clock—everything that didn’t make any difference towards winning, I let them vote on, so they felt they had a voice,” Knight wrote.

On the flipside, Knight was adamant the he make decisions about the things that he believed could make a difference to winning games, either now or in the future.

“We never elected a captain. I picked the captain. MVP? At the end of the season, I always picked that, too,” he outlined.

The margins between being called a dictator and laissez-faire are razor thin, and dependent on who we’re entrusting to dish out the labels (same as being called a genius or an idiot—that’ll often differ between a starter and a role player). But ultimately, you’re hired to make decisions, and the bigger trapping is to get in a cycle of not making decisions because you’re afraid of hurting feelings, or you’re unclear about what it is you actually care about. Sport and business are not friendly places, especially at the top. So must remember that the buck stops with you and your team or staff ultimately don’t appreciate that, one wrong call, means you lose your job. They still have one at the end of the day. There’s a great summary of this mentality from the movie MoneyBall. Decisions can’t be emotional, they must be clear, precise and can’t be personal.

Coaches Notes:

• ^{Leaders Can’t Do Everything:}
  _{It’s a huge red flag for a head coach to say they care about everything. You have to prioritize, either because of resources, time constraints, or beliefs about team-building.}

• ^{You Choose What You Care About:}

  _{It’s your prerogative to choose what it is you care about. I differed from Bob Knight — I cared enormously about standards on basic processes.}

• ^{Test What Prioritise Often, Because They Can Change:}

  _{You can test what you care about by pitting it against something else. If you only had time for one: physical recovery at the swimming pool vs. emotional connection over dinner. Or, more simply, training at three o’clock vs. training at five o’clock.}

• ^{Don’t Be A Hero… Or A MicroManager:}
  _{Effective delegation of what you don’t give a damn about is equally as important as identifying what you don’t give a damn about. For instance, it might not be advisable to delegate a decision to a staff member by saying, “I want you to do this because I don’t give a damn about it.” But at the same time, if you are delegating a task, don’t then hover over the staff member who’s doing it. Trust you have assigned the right person and allow them space.}

  ^{Instinctive Team Support:}

• _{Pair the knowledge of what you care about with the knowledge of what your players care about. As this can be contextual or momentary, it’s a good use of time to make it part of regular meetings with your leadership group.}

  The best aren’t getting better on their own, they’re getting better because they are being coached.

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