Key leadership lessons from Steve Kerr
I recently returned from the Box conference Box Works in San Francisco. As one would expect, the event had a full set of exciting product announcements around digital workplace, digital business and digital security. All of these new modules and features are focused on the future of work.
However, the powerful and motivational closing keynote featured Steve Kerr firechat conversation with Aaron Levie about leadership. Kerr discussed his journey as a player, as a TV commentator, his preparation to become a coach and his approach, once he took over a winning team. Here are some of the key leadership lessons he shared.
When the opportunity knocks on your door, you must be ready.
Kerr said he was very lucky to learn from many hall-of-fame coaches that he played for. Once he retired as a player, he spoke with coaches in basketball and from different sports.
One piece of advice — keep a notebook, write your ideas, develop your own strategy playbook, you will need it when you are interviewing, when you are leading a team. You will develop your manifesto, your philosophy, and it will force you as a leader to cristalize your thoughts, your philosophy, how you are going to different approach situations.
Changing of the [leadership] guard — build from there, or overhaul it
When Kerr was hired as the Golden State Warrior head coach, he recognized the talent, and the incredible foundation that the previous coach built. His focus, was to honor that foundation and continue building from there.
Kerr argues that new leaders come in and the first thing they say is “We’re going to change the culture.” He views that as potentially insulting. The people in your team might like the previous regime. Instead, at the beginning of training camp, he recognized the good things the team had and said let’s build from there.
Kerr shares an example of a tweak he made with the team — they were last in number of passes. He wanted the team to get to the top 5. The ball has to move — defense has to react with every pass — he wanted to get to 300 passes per game, the more you pass, the higher the chances for the other team to make a mistake.
Sometimes, if you take a team that is underperforming, where there are talent gaps, or that does not have a strong foundation, you have to make a big shift,
Always be prepared, empower everyone in your team
Kerr discusses how he works with his coaching staff to try to empower each guy. One way we do that is try to play everybody; he says he is not afraid to throw anybody out there. ‘Strength in numbers’ is real.
“Why do you care as a coach that everyone plays?” — Aaron Levie
“There’s something really important about guys 11–15. They can set a tone for the team.” — Steve Kerr
Collectively, you are going to get better. When you create opportunities for everyone to have a role in your team, that creates engagement, and everyone feels vested in the success of the team.
Be open, be transparent, be truthful
Kerr emphasizes that open communication is fundamental to create an environment that embraces trust. As a leader, you have to be honest. With honesty, you build trust, you invite open sharing of ideas and knowledge amongst a team and the organization.
Transparency and candor are important as a human being in any setting, or organization. If the leader of the group is open, communicates, and is honest, you get better results and higher engagement as a group.
Communicate, over-communicate
Kerr says the team has film sessions every day — they review 5 or 6 plays that worked, 1 where things went wrong, they celebrate birthdays, joke around about bad plays, and hang out as a team. The goal is to strengthen communication, not to always meet formally.
I over communicate with the players. Because of that honesty, I build trust. Since I don’t keep a player on the bench too long, they stay ready. And what really counts is having Steph Curry on the sidelines leading the chants.
The dreaded team meeting
In sports, when things are not going well and you hear that they had a “team meeting, they had to sort through their problems.” It usually means that the team is not communicating.
As a leader, you need to actively communicate with your team, informally, and sometimes in a more formal setting. Effective communication builds trust. You don’t need to have a “team meeting” because the team knows what you are doing, what is expected of each one of them and what they should expect from you.
Own and recognize your mistakes
A key to building trust from your team is to own up to your mistakes. Kerr shared an example when he was upset with the team performance, the team was playing awful. He aired his frustration with the media and said “that they have to care more.” That was the wrong thing to say. The team obviously cared, they let him know through his assistant coaches and the next day he apologized to them.
Aaron Levie — how did ou find out they had a problem, did you get some Slack messages or something?
Steve Kerr — no, I don’t even know what that means…
As a leader, you have to admit your mistakes, learn from them and recognize where your weaknesses are.
You’ve got to admit your mistakes, and when you do, that’s how you build strength. — @SteveKerr
Changing roles, developing talent, trying new things
Try having everyone on the team play a different role occasionally. Keep them engaged. See work through a different lens, realize new perspectives they can gain and develop when they take on a different role.
Kerr believes that “any kind of operation” would benefit from changing roles for a while, as a benefit to everyone involved. This is a key foundation of leadship simulation exercises, where a group of high potential individuals, get assigned key roles — the CEO, CFO, CPO, CMO. They need to develop an organization strategy based on a scenario. All involved, individuals, coaches and executives, benefit from these types of exercises.
The success of the team makes everyone better as individuals
Kerr believes that the success of the team raises the level of all involved. If you are talented, you work hard and you are prepared, you become better as an individual.
Success is never given, you have to earn it.
Collectively, we all have a social responsibility role to play
Kerr believes that everyone has a role in our society, this is even more important for those who have a platform. As an example, he highlights the recent OpEd that Stephen Curry wrote about women’s equality.
Our guys understand that they are in a position to help others, and I do too. — Steve Kerr
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