ESPN recently produced a phenomenal piece on Gregg Popovich, uncovering an extraordinary example of leadership. You should read the entire article (ESPN Article), because I won’t capture all of the details below. In short, one of the NBA’s winningest coaches has built an unmatched culture through his deep love of food and wine.
Let’s take a look at some of the core ideas from Popovich’s example that you can bake into your culture.
- Start with passion – Even from his early days in his first head coaching position, Popovich understood that basketball wasn’t his beginning and end. He wore many hats, and ignoring them would leave him unbalanced. That fervent pursuit of all his interests has allowed him to remain balanced in his growth. The same is true for you, regardless of where you are in your career. You’re more than your job, and have to find ways to grow yourself outside of that work environment. So go paint, garden, play music, cook, throw horseshoes, or whatever you feel like I left out of that list. You’re more likely to succeed when you’re balanced.
- Bring others along – Popovich shares his passion with others, breeding success at every turn. He excitedly connects with others who share his passion for wine, building strong relationships that foster even more success for everyone. The article specifically references that his team recruited one of their star franchise players because of a wine dinner hosting an often-overlooked group of visitors. Your passion is your starting point for building successful relationships. Invite others into those interests and take the time to learn about theirs. If you can connect on those passions, you’ll build relationships you can lean on as you grow. Success breeds success (as long as it’s genuine).
- Community – The biggest thing Popovich does to create success is to build community. He could easily do his entire job without connecting on anything more than a surface level. Instead, he intentionally creates repeated opportunities for his teammates to come together outside of the work space to grow together. This approach builds mutual respect and strong relationships, both of which lead to a successful culture. Admittedly, this isn’t easy, because it requires you to spend extra time with people you work with, which often means taking time away from family and friends. However, creating that regular, intentional time together outside of the office trenches creates the foundation from which you can build a solid culture.
You don’t have to be an NBA championship-winning coach or some high-powered CEO to implement these ideas. You can start today with the teammates you regularly work with…they don’t even have to report to you. If you do, before too long, others will start recognizing you as someone who can successfully build a winning program.
Want to share your leadership ideas with others? Here’s the link!
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
