Warning: Here comes another sports anecdote about leadership!
Competitive sports and leadership
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a sports junkie and I watch a lot of live televised games, especially NBA and WNBA games (having played basketball for my high school team and intramural leagues in college), as well as the NFL, tennis, track & field, and more.
That said, a controversy has been brewing in recent days about NBA star Kyrie Irving and his leadership role on the Boston Celtics. Without giving you all the longish details if you don’t follow the National Basketball Association, the shortish story is that Kyrie Irving shocked the basketball world last year demanding a trade away from his team where he had won a national championship, the Cleveland Cavaliers (and away from the greatest player in the league and maybe of all time, Lebron James–even if you’re not a real sports fan, you’ve probably heard of him, right? )
Be Careful What You Wish For
He demanded the trade because he was tired of being (in his mind) James’ sidekick. He wanted to be “the man,” leading his own team to a championship game. Well, be careful what you wish for, because he got that chance when the team, in a surprise move, gave in to his whims and traded him to the Boston Celtics.
Leadership style – Are you ready to be “the boss”?
Now Boston is one of those sports capitals where there are always high expectations for the team to win. The Celtics is a storied franchise in its own right. The short version of that part of the story is that it’s been a rocky tenure so far. He got injured half way through his first season and the young team made it all the way to the conference finals without him. When he returned to the team this season, he struggled a bit finding his way and his voice, given that he’s supposed to represent veteran leadership for the mostly youthful team. They’ve been in a kind of slump (by Celtics standards, i.e. not living up to expectations given their holding pattern in the middle of the top half of the standings instead of dominating their conference like everyone expected.)
As a result, locker room tensions are starting to get aired out in the media. Not good!
Show Your Leadership, Don’t Tell
What’s got everyone buzzing right now is a number of controversial moves where Kyrie Irving has tried to whip his team into shape by calling them out in the media. The latest stunt involved telling reporters (unprompted) that he called his legendary former teammate, Lebron James, to eat crow and apologize for being a hot headed youngster and not appreciating James’ leadership skills and just wanting to do it all on his own, and that he’s facing the same thing now with “these guys.”
The problem isn’t the call so much as that he took to the media to tell the world about this phone call, which came off as being all for show (‘fronting’ is old school slang for this behavior). Most analysts thought it was possibly a soft move in two ways:
- that it was actually an underhanded dig at his young and talented roster, indirectly calling them hotheads that didn’t know what it takes to win a championship like he does; and
- he’s trying to be a leader by telling his team, ‘hey I’m the leader so you should listen to me.’
What was probably meant to be self-deprecating and humble came off as tone-deaf and arrogant to many and a little bit disingenuous given the team experienced quite a bit of success without him, in contrast to his own record where he was never successful without James. Ouch.
On TNT’s Inside the NBA (which, if you haven’t tuned in you really should, even if you are not the biggest sports geek, because it’s a lot of fun! But I digress….) Shaquille O’Neal, another NBA living legend noted that you shouldn’t have to declare your leadership, just be a leader. “Sir” Charles Barkley agreed, noting former NBA greats who demonstrated leadership with their actions (always being early or giving maximum effort at all times).
Sincere or Just Frontin’? You decide…
Basically, they were talking about the power of motivating others with actions, not just words, and dealing directly with people instead of trying to show them up publicly or throwing a title around.
What is the substance of your leadership?
All of this hubbub made me think about something we are really against here at Outreach by Design, namely trendy leadership discourses that focus on nailing your leadership “style.” What about leadership substance?
What does it take to truly become a transformational leader who can light the way towards eliminating toxic workplace culture; who can meaningfully connect, engage with and motivate stakeholders; boost morale, diversity and inclusiveness; or shift your organization from being wasteful and harmful to being sustainable and socially responsible? For us, it is less about style and more about making five crucial shifts in your mindset, problem solving approach, and how you relate to others.
If you want to learn more about the shifts needed to become a highly effective, transformational leader that can motivate and inspire change (no matter your official title or role) then set aside a little time to watch our free training, ” Outreach by Design: 5 Steps to Organizational Transformation and Social Impact.”
To your success!
