In recent years, NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament has had a few upsets, a few memorable moments and a few captivating quotes. This year’s memorability quotient has reached new heights which includes:
No surprise then, that out of the 5.9 million entries in the ESPN bracket contest, only two had this foursome making its way to Houston. Did they go on a hunch? Or just tie on a blindfold and throw darts at the bracket?
While this year is special, from my perspective, the coach and the team to watch from a leadership/team perspective is Brad Stevens and the Butler Bulldogs. Last year they were the Cinderella story almost beating Duke in the NCAA Championship game. This year, they’re back to their old tricks of playing the underdog role and toppling giants. And its Brad Stevens that I think leaders need study, understand and possibly emulate. Following Butler’s upset of Florida, this is what Brad Stevens said about his team and Florida’s coach, Billy Donovan.
“They (Butler’s players) carried their coach today in a big way. I was saying I got outcoached in a big way.”
This comment probably caught most off-guard, wondering how Stevens could even make such a statement. Was he simply playing his team’s underdog role to the max? Did he really mean it? Or was he simply giving credit where credit was deserved - to his players?
Let me change gears here for a second. Last week, the New York Times ran a story about Google’s quest to identify what it took to be a good boss. Their search looked at quantitative and qualitative data, from which they identified 8-key criteria. They being:
- Be a good coach.
- Empower your team and don’t micromanage it.
- Express interest in team members success and personal well-being.
- Don’t be a sissy - be productive and results oriented.
- Be a good communicator and listen to your team.
- Help your employees with career development.
- Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.
- Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team.
At first glance, these leadership traits have been taught for decades. Nothing new. Nothing fancy. No surprises. Pretty basic stuff. Yet its reassuring that the simple basics of being a good boss remain relevant in an era of “whats new lately” can dominate leadership classes. So let’s get back to Brad Stevens and the Butler Bulldogs. I’m of the opinion that the question about whether Brad Stevens was outcoached or not isn’t even relevant. I think the question should be, “Who is the better leader/boss?” Because I’m coming to the conclusion that Brad Stevens is a pretty darn good coach, however he is a brilliant leader/boss. This is why the Butler Bulldogs have returned to the Final 4 two years in a row. It’s why his players give 110 percent and don’t choke under the heat.
Just maybe, schools are doing a pretty good job of recruiting coaches, however they need to do a better job of finding leaders. I think its that plain and simple.
What do you think?
