Leadership lessons from The Last Dance
Even if you’re not a hardcore basketball fan, you have probably heard of or seen The Last Dance, a documentary mini-series about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, known for winning six NBA titles in the 90s. Although the series focuses on Jordan, an extremely competitive personality with a uniquely fierce leadership style, watching how the Bulls succeeded provides some really useful takeaways to any leader, regardless of the industry.
#1 One top talent won’t do; you need a diverse team to succeed
Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player of all time, joined the Chicago Bulls in 1984, however, the team did not win a championship until 1991. In Jordan’s early years, the Bulls’ strategy was simply to “give the ball to Michael and everyone else get the fuck out of the way” which did not prove to be a successful one. No matter how good performer Jordan was, he couldn’t win a championship by himself.
The Bulls only started to succeed when a team had been built around Jordan and all essential roles had been filled: they had Scottie Pippen, the supportive comrade, Phil Jackson, the great people manager, Tex Winter, the strategists, Dennis Rodman, the defensive specialist, and some reliable role players like John Paxson or Steve Kerr.
Just like for any team, hiring was key for the Bulls: the management had to make sure to find the right talents with the right skills that complemented each other and also had the chemistry to play together.
#2 Good leaders trust and empower their teams
A team may have the best talents, if the leader doesn’t have confidence in them, they won’t perform well together. Michael Jordan had to learn to trust his teammates and even though his trust was sometimes hard to earn, it was essential for the team that he had no problem passing the ball to John Paxson or Steve Kerr in critical moments to make the final shot.
#3 Lead by example
Michael Jordan was a perfectionist and as such, he demanded a lot from his teammates which often lead to conflicts or sometimes even fights. But despite his controversial leadership style, he clearly demonstrated a lead-by-example approach. As interviewees confirmed in the series, “the one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn’t do.” And no matter how ruthless he had been with his teammates during practices, his hard work was always acknowledged and inspiring to others: “When you see your leader working extremely hard in practice, you feel like, “Oh, man, if I don’t give it my all, I shouldn’t be here”, former teammate Horace Grant admitted.
#4 Identify your weak spots and improve on them
During his career, Jordan kept looking for ways to improve his game. A key turning point was when he realized he just hadn’t been physically strong enough to keep up with the Detroit Pistons who in the 80s regularly beat the Bulls in the playoff series. Having recognized that, he spent the summer of 1990 in the gym, gaining 15 pounds so that he could throw his “weight around a little more”. He insisted that the whole team join his mission in building muscles and learning to be more physical on the court. The next year the Chicago Bulls defeated the Pistons in the Conference finals and beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA finals to win their first championship.
#5 Identify your strengths and have a vision for your career
Assessing your strong skills is also essential when it comes to defining where you want to get in your career. Dennis Rodman started to play in the NBA as a “generalist” until he identified where he could distinguish himself. “The second or third year in the league, I actually figured out what I can do best: rebound and play defense. I just started learning how to perfect that”, he recalled in The Last Dance. Having recognized this, he changed his workout routine to focus on defensive skills (and even sacrificed his offensive game to some degree). From this point on, he had a clear vision for his career: to become the best rebounder in the league.
#6 Do your research and leverage data
Although Dennis Rodman seemed an undisciplined player at first sight, he actually did an outstanding job humbly studying and researching his opponents behind the scenes. He spent an incredible amount of time watching videos and studying other players’ shooting styles and the trajectory of rebounds. He wasn’t just aggressively fighting under the rim, he used statistics to anticipate where the ball was expected to bounce.
In the last minute of the sixth game of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz, Michael Jordan famously stole the ball from Karl Malone and made a game-winning shot with only a few seconds left in the game. That whole scenario wasn’t just “instinctive”, as we could learn from The Last Dance. Jordan studied thoroughly how the Utah Jazz had played and anticipated that the pass would go to Karl Malone so even though he was supposed to guard another player (Jeff Hornacek), he moved to a position where he could grab the ball from Malone’s hands.
Making that famous final shot wasn’t coincidence either. Jordan observed that Bryon Russel “played on the front of his toes” so he knew exactly how to get rid of him with a crossover to make space for that final shot. All those final seconds were the result of some conscious planning, based on observation, research, and analysis.
#7 All batteries need to be recharged
Everyone needs a break from time to time and champions are no exception to that. Jordan was known for taking a break and playing golf to recharge but once he even spent a night in Atlantic City before a playoff game in New York. “I went out to get my mind away from basketball”, he admitted. Scottie Pippen missed almost half of the 1997–98 season because of an injury but the underlying reason was that he needed to take some time off. Dennis Rodman was known for missing practices and going to parties or even wrestling with Hulk Hogan instead. Some of these “breaks” are obviously out of the line but Phil Jackson, being a good leader, understood that everyone needs a break every now and then to keep up the good performance. “That’s good about Phil. He knows we need a break”, Jordan pointed out.
#8 Letting go of a team mate
Sometimes a short break is not enough and more drastic changes are needed: Michael Jordan announced his (first) retirement in 1993. At the press conference, Jerry Reinsdorf demonstrated a great deal of empathy as an employer when he said: “the greatest athlete to ever play a team sport is leaving the game, but it’s really, for me, a very, very happy day because somebody who I admire and respect is doing exactly what he wants to do”. This is how every manager should feel when someone from their team is leaving. A resignation is not a betrayal. It’s your employee wanting to do something else and that should be embraced.
#9 It’s never too late to change careers
Soon after his retirement from basketball in 1993, Jordan joined the Birmingham Barons to play professional baseball. This was an unprecedented move back then: why would a star athlete decide to start all over again and become a rookie in another major sport? However, it’s not so uncommon nowadays, especially in the tech industry: a senior developer learning to be a designer, a psychologist learning to be a UX researcher, a teacher learning to be a developer. If you pursue your dreams in your career, sometimes you have to move into a more junior position and build everything from scratch. Jordan just did this before it was cool.
I believe that regardless of your job, you can always learn from and get inspired by other professions. Did you have any takeaways from The Last Dance? I’m curious.
