“The most important measure of how a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.”
– Bill Russell
In a sport ruled by tall athletes, 11-time NBA basketball champion Bill Russell stood tallest.
Through the 1950’s and 60’s, the 6’10” Center of the Boston Celtics (along with Coach Red Auerbach) stacked trophy upon trophy in a run that hasn’t been replicated since.
After Auerbach’s retirement in 1966, the search began for a new coach. Auerbach knew who he wanted to take over, but initially, Russell wasn’t having it.
“What better way to motivate Bill Russell the player than Bill Russell the coach,” Auerbach said.
Eventually, Russell agreed. Still a dominant force on the hardwood, he was now being asked to coach his own teammates in a dual role. The game was vastly different back then:
No assistants or trainers.
No black head coaches.
No “player-coaches.”
In fact, Russell was the first “player-coach” of any professional team sport. In his first season in the role, the Celtics lost to Wilt Chamberlain’s Philadelphia 76ers in the 1967 Finals.
Fans booed.
Critics jeered.
Russell’s next move? He righted the ship and led Boston to 2 more championships in 1968 and 1969.
As a player, and coach.
How are you winning in business today as a player, and how effectively are you managing yourself as a coach?
2 Takeaways:
1. Player Coaches Make More Sense in Business Than in Sports. What Russell pulled off in the late 60’s will never be attempted again. Norms and experiments change in Sports, (Business too). Ladders that we used to climb now have missing rungs in the middle, creating wobbly structures. Today, people are less interested in managing others, and the notion of coaching ourselves is a bit foreign. It is hard to know when to start and where to focus the coaching.
2. Everyone is Replaceable, No Matter the Performance. No one would question Russell’s eye-popping statistics, but as a player he was complex, introspective, and aloof. He knew that he had to shed some of himself as a player in order to be seen and heard to improve the team as a coach. His playing statistics dropped, but his value grew. How do you see your role as an owner evolving? How would you coach yourself to improve your business?
1 Action:
Create an estimate of how much time you are spending in your business vs. on your business.
The simplest way to do this is to be honest about the percentage of time you are spending:
- Completing day-to-day tasks (in the business)
- Investing time and energy to business models and strategy (on the business)
How can you move time from #1 to #2 through coaching yourself (learning, being mentored, developing new skills)? If you can’t (or won’t), where will you turn?
Hubert