Traits of great leaders from The Captain Class : Drawing parallels between teams in sports and business world
I recently joined the engineering team at Kaplan Test Prep after spending over 15 years at IBM. IBM gave me wonderful opportunities to learn by dirtying my hands and also by working alongside some of the best technologists in the world.
In my relatively new job at Kaplan Test Prep, I have been thinking about how to help the product platform organization accelerate its journey of becoming a world class team. I am proud of the journey we have started and the progress we are making. More on that another time.
During the course of thinking about great teams, Srikar Doddi recommended I read a recent book on elite teams by Sam Walker called The Captain Class. Sam Walker has done a great job of researching tens of sports teams in the world and zeroing in on what he calls the tier 1 teams — teams that have had consistency in winning championships in a sustained manner. Based on his research, the author concludes that the one thing common across all these tier 1 teams was an elite leader, the captain. The captains of all these teams had the seven traits mentioned later in this post.
Before getting to my takeaways on tier 1 team captains and relating them to business teams, I have to briefly digress to get one thing out of the way. I have played Cricket most of my life and it has been a passion! As I started reading the book and the approach the author took to narrowing down to his tier 1 sports teams, I was disappointed to not see any cricket team in there. My thoughts were — how could he not have the legendary West Indies team of the 70s or the Australian teams of the late 1990s and 2000s in tier 1?. Was it because he did not really know about cricket much? I did see his acknowledging these cricket teams in the appendix and highlight some attributes of the captains of these teams that are consistent with the theme of his book.
In any case, I moved on to reading the book. The book is based on a lot of research from the sports world. However, for me, some findings did not directly translate into the business world. Many train rides later, below are my takeaways on captains/leaders as I think about how to apply his findings in identifying and developing leaders in an organization.
1. Extreme doggedness — They just keep coming. This resonated with me strongly. Having leaders who do not give up. Leaders who keep coming and do not lose their focus. Persistence and keeping at it are great attributes of a leader and can quickly rub off on the team members. This attribute is especially important in the leader of an organization who aspire to solve difficult problems — business, technological or cultural as that path is filled with disappointments and failures.
2. Aggressive play that tests the rules — For me, this one did not directly translate into a business setting. However, I looked at this as the mindset of pushing the boundaries, not accepting the status quo. Fighting the mindset of “we have always done it this way”. Challenging old ways of governance and risk management which come in the way of adopting modern technology or methods. Being able to reframe the problem by questioning ourselves and our teams to get to the root of the problem. Reframing the problem can offer a different perspective to solving the issue.
3. Carrying Water — This one resonated with me really well. The idea of leading with influence and not title or authority is a fantastic one. This is how people follow you because they want to. I have seen great leaders be great team players. They are ready to take one for the team and do thankless jobs. There is also the notion of servant leaders. As a leader, asking the question of how can I help? What can I do that will help the team be more successful? Being able to wear multiple hats and be a part of the team. A leader’s ability to operate with humility can be inspiring for the team.
4. Low-key, practical communication — In the business world, successful leaders have usually been great communicators. Not all start as being great communicators but over time, successful leaders seem to figure out how to be strong communicators. Leaders need the ability to paint a vision for the teams and provide the context that the teams can operate within.
5. Motivates others with nonverbal displays — This one is an important one in the world of sports which is like a stage performance. The teammates and fans are always watching and looking for nonverbal displays. However, in the organizational set up, non verbal displays are not as profound, although, I feel they are important. Pat on a back, a firm handshake, a high five — these can be powerful tools to communicate endorsement or recognize team members.
6. Strong Conviction and the courage to stand apart — In the organizational context, this attribute is especially important for a leader who is driving transformation — cultural, technological or business. Strong conviction of the to-be state and the courage to see things differently and stand apart are critical for driving impactful changes from the status quo.
7. Emotional Control — Being in control of emotions is extremely important for leaders. Leading people and working with people is full of emotional exchanges. People bring their whole self to work. People take pride in their work. Being able to understand personal emotion in a situation and then keep the conversation focused on the issue and not the emotions is very important. Being empathetic helps us see another person’s point of view and helps get to a better place and often, into win win position.
It is wonderful to have thought leaders like the author of this book who work hard, with a lot of passion and bring to bare key insights. The Captain Class book in particular is backed by a lot of research from sports teams. However, I feel we have to understand the message, identify the principle behind the message and then tailor it to the reality of the organization or the business we are in.
