In a previous post, I wrote about my reflections on my son Jeremy's recently concluded basketball career. This post will expand upon one of the concepts I put forth in that post - how Jeremy didn't focus on the scoreboard which enabled him to bring the best scoreboard results Carleton College Men's Basketball has ever achieved and enabled him to be named an All-American.
We measure success completely wrong
Individuals, teams, organizations and societies are focused on achieving or reaching various goals or metrics/KPIs. We've determined that the attainment of these measures defines success. Sometimes, those measures don't even address what's truly important. In youth sports, having a good win-loss record has superceded what's truly important - the holistic development of children to be happy, healthy, contributing members of our community through the vehicle of sport.
Sometimes, the focus on such measures brings forth decisions that run contrary to more important components such as fulfillment of one's mission, vision and purpose. For example, Wells Fargo employees and management (which I reference in this post) were so caught up in reaching account numbers to satisfy investors, that they paid a significant price for their actions.
Respecting Success
I conduct a half-day workshop on how to Respect success and how leaders (and employees) need to focus their time and energy on building on the psychological and character traits that help make one person, team or organization better at something than the one next to them. I use what I term The Afila Group Success Pyramid.
In business, we have various metrics we use to measure whether or not we are meeting our goals. They are artifically created, but are useful resources to gauge whether we are "successful". Below those KPIs are various strategies that are created and implemented to reach the goal.
Under the strategies and aligned with them are programs. There are processes that are put in place to guide our day-to-day tasks which support the programs and strategies. Each one of these layers may have measures to denote whether the activity and results are acceptable.
However, within each individual and team, there are character and psychological traits that are leveraged which enable tasks within the applicable processes to be accomplished more effectively. That brings more power to the programs and helps the strategies drive the KPI success.
Digging into success using Jeremy's experience.
In my previous post, I mentioned that Jeremy and the Carleton team had various goals to win the conference and make the NCAA Division 3 tournament. That required a large number of wins, which became a KPI. In order to win games, obviously, you need to score more that the opponent. One of the main strategies to score more points is to shoot at a higher percentage rate during games.
Also in my previous post, I mentioned Jeremy had a personal KPI of shooting 50% from the field, 40% from 3 point range and 80% from the free throw line. Increasing player and team shooting percentage is a key strategic component to scoring more points. If Jeremy was able to shoot that well (he ended up as the only person in Division 3 and 1 of 5 in all of college basketball to achieve this shooting split while scoring at least 22 points and grabbing 5 rebounds per game), he knew it would have a big impact on points scored.
Within the strategy of being able to shoot that well personally and as a team, various programs were implemented. The coach installed a new offense that completely changed the way the offense ran and enabled each player to have a chance at shooting a higher percentage.
The programs had various processes (you could add policies and procedures here as well) that were laid down that governed how tasks should be done. They also had enough flexibility for the players to read situations and react appropriately.
There were various tasks that were installed to help players shoot better. Many were team drills that helped the players see where they could have the most impact in various offensive sets. However, some of the drills were simply to get up shots - to practice the craft of shooting.
Each player had the chance to put up the same number of shots under the same conditions each day. That practice, in of itself, helped build better shooting percentages. However, each team in the conference, and each team in the nation, has strategies, programs, processes and tasks that are similar in nature to what Carleton did. What made Jeremy one of the best shooters in the nation, and Carleton so much more effective?
Jeremy is not, to be honest, special in many ways on the basketball court. He is 6'8", so he was able to use his height to score a little easier inside. However, such players usually are not great shooters from the outside. He isn't really that athletic (he can blame his father) compared to other players, but he isn't too bad. He doesn't jump overly high (not as high as his dad did) and isn't cat quick.
What Jeremy did (and what the coaching staff and teammates did as well) was to develop their character and psychological traits to:
- Love the process of learning how to get better shooting mechanics at various distances to enable greater shooting percentages,
- Respect how they can get themselves and teammates into positions where they are taking more uncontested shots in areas where they are comfortable,
- Serve themselves by practicing each task with more Love and Respect by going at game speed or Serving teammates by working on ways they can put them in better positions to maximize their capabilities; and
- Have Fun and express Joy in the process of continuously striving to become the best they could be, which involved significant personal and collective sacrifice.
95% of what teams (and organizations) do is essentially the same. It is the last 5% where the nuances and mutations can be found that put them over the top. Carleton found those this season to excel.
By using the Four Fundamental Forces of Leadership to build on their personal and collective traits, the team practiced their tasks differently, found ways to maximize processes which drove success in each one of the plays or possessions (programs) they had.
What Jeremy and the team did enabled greater success in the strategy of shooting better (the team ended up 5th in Division 3 in 3 point field goal percentage, 14th in 3 pointers made per game, 13th in assist to turnover ratio and were in the top 15% in scoring per game. The great success at this strategy helped bring forth:
- The most wins in Carleton College Men's Basketball history (24),
- The first outright regular season conference title in nearly 60 years; and
- The first NCAA tournament appearence since 2010.
Leadership and personal success starts at the foundations
Focus on building the four fundamental forces of Love, Respect, Service and Fun within yourself and each of those in your charge. These can be catalyzed and built up in each and every person. The fire that gets lit up within each person to see things a little differently, to Serve themselves and others to be successful to enjoy what they are doing and to Love the process, themselves and others will make all of the levels above it achieve a little more. This enables those KPIs to get blown out of the water and puts the team and organization in a place to transform themselves and those they serve.
Doing this requires a different way of thinking and a mindset change. It is very liberating and fun. It's not rocket science, but it takes intentional and consistent effort to maintain and grow. Having the support of the organization, fellow leaders and even a coach to help you build your skills is a critical part of success in this journey.