The Agile Crimson Tide

The Alabama Crimson Tide lost on Monday evening, giving the Clemson Tigers their first national college football championship in 35 years.

But within the world of American college football, it’s undeniable that the University of Alabama’s football program—under head coach Nick Saban—is a powerhouse.

So despite the fact that Crimson Tide fans everywhere are in a state of mourning this week, there’s an interesting lesson to be learned from how Alabama has adapted its approach to the game of football during the past five years. It’s a lesson in sensing and responding to the forces of change, and it’s about having the ability to improve continually—even when, overall, you’re still winning most of the time.

I won’t belabor the details of what Saban noticed or what he changed in his approach toward the game—those points are well-documented by ESPN Senior Staff Writer Chris Low. Instead, here are few excerpts from Low’s observations about Saban and how they contain lessons about agility for the rest of us:

“‘I might not like it, but it ain't the way ball is now,’ Saban said of the blueprint that won the first three of his four national championships at Alabama. ‘It's unbelievable how much the game has changed, and it's really hard to coach defense now. But hey, it's on me—regardless of the way I think football should be played—if I don't change with it.’”

Saban readily accepts the fact that we typically have little to no control over the external realities within which we must operate. Good strategy is about having an approach that corresponds with external reality, not having wishful thinking about what the world should be like.

“But while Saban might be old school and might have strong convictions about the direction of the game, the one thing he's not is stubborn. He's smart enough to know that nothing stays the same, especially when you're in the business of chasing championships.”

I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to work frequently with some extraordinarily smart executives, researchers and students. But smart doesn’t always equal agile. Sometimes, people can fall too much in love with their own beliefs about what creates success or what should be done that they fail to recognize that the game has changed around them. And if they finally realize that they must change, it’s often too late for it to really make a difference. Being a little bit suspicious of your success is a good thing.

“‘It just points out how [Saban] is always looking at everything, how to find a better way to do things,’ [former Alabama offensive coordinator Lane] Kiffin said. ‘In the offseason, he's flying us to different places to go learn things and bringing in coaches all the time, which again, that's unusual, because someone like him ... why does he want to learn from someone else? He's the best coach in college football, but that's why he continues to be the best coach.’”

Staying at the top of your game—either as an individual contributor, a middle manager or a senior executive—demands that you (a) have a growth mindset toward your own knowledge and skills and (b) intentionally immerse yourself in useful information. Complacency and comfort are dangerous because they lead to what Robert Quinn, in his book Building the Bridge as You Walk On It, called “slow death.” Or, similarly, it can lead to what Jim Collins, in his book How The Mighty Fall, called “hubris born of success.”

Either way, being agile—as an organization, team, leader, or in virtually any other capacity—demands that you stay on guard. And Saban’s approach with The Crimson Tide is a good reminder of what that “looks like.” It suggests a few good bits of advice, including:

• Don’t change just for change’s sake, but be wary of the status quo.
• Continually watch for subtle forces of change that affect how you win.
• Be prepared to let go of what used to work and adopt new strategies.
• Learn from other people and help your team do the same.

Adopting these habits may not result in you being the highest paid state employee in Alabama. But these routines will help you deal with the change around you much faster and better than those who don’t.

And even if you never win a national championship in anything, I’d wager that being nimble makes the uncertainty of the future a bit less scary and bit more fun.

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About Ben Baran

Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com.

Advanced Manufacturing and Two Ways to Reward Agility

Modern factory floors fascinate me. There’s something about the clang and whoosh of the myriad machines, the hum of an overhead crane gliding along its tracks, the intricate yellow lines demarcating where it’s safe to walk and the ambiguous chemical aroma punctuating the air with hints of solvents or grease or paint or maybe all of them mixed together.

There’s something about the delicate dance of interdependent and interconnected parts and processes that somehow—amazingly—produce that which we and the entire world outside the factory walls often takes for granted. 

When I’m in a factory, I still get the same sense of wonder and curiosity that I had when I was 8 or 9 years old, touring the Rohm and Haas plant in Louisville, Ky. And this week, I had the opportunity to visit one of Cleveland’s (and Ohio’s, for that matter) oldest and largest manufacturing firms: Lincoln Electric. 

Although it’s old (founded in 1895) and large (about 10,000 total employees, $2.5 billion in revenue), Lincoln Electric has a distinct track record of innovative practices within the realms of strategy execution and incentive systems designed to channel its employees' motivation and effort. 

It’s not surprising that it has long served as a case study for Harvard Business School.

But what I found most intriguing was how Lincoln Electric has structured agility—the capability to sense and respond to change—into two distinct parts of its measurement and evaluation systems. 

First, Lincoln Electric’s managers systematically assess and rate their employees’ flexibility. These ratings—along with ratings on dimensions of teamwork and dependability, safety, quality and contributing to improvement efforts by providing recommendations—form what’s known as the employee’s “report card.” And this report card plays an important role in determining the employees’ bonuses, so it’s meaningful. 

The feature of Lincoln Electric’s incentive system that’s probably most well-known is its piecework pay structure. For many workers, that means they get paid based upon how many items they actually produce—no hourly wage, no salary. This creates a powerful motive for workers to work quickly and efficiently. To ensure quality, mistakes matter. If an item fails any aspect of a quality check, the same employee (or group of employees) who put it together must fix the problem. 

Many aspects of this system are intriguing, but what I like about the flexibility component of the report card at Lincoln Electric is that it’s strategic in nature. That’s because Lincoln Electric is a low-volume, high-mix manufacturer. Simply put, they make many different types of products in quantities that often vary. This has allowed them to meet their customers’ often-diverse needs, but it also means that they need their employees to become proficient in more than one area of expertise. They need their employees to be willing and able to jump in and help in other areas if needed. This is critical to maintaining their business model, and it’s critical for employee behavior. As such, including this type of flexibility (which I’d argue is closer to agility) is part of the evaluation and incentive structure sends a clear signal to their employees in terms of what’s expected and rewarded. 

Second, Lincoln Electric’s commitment to agility extends to its supply chain. Not surprisingly, to support its diverse array of products, Lincoln Electric depends heavily on high-quality materials. And because their production volume is often variable, they depend not only on having high-quality materials, but also upon having those materials available in variable quantities. As such, Lincoln Electric requires flexibility from its suppliers. 

And just like it does with its employees, Lincoln Electric systematically assesses the flexibility of its suppliers. This occurs as part of periodic evaluations in which its supply-chain leaders rate each supplier on a number of dimensions as part of an overall scorecard. Furthermore, Lincoln Electric works with its suppliers to ensure they have contingency plans in place to help them manage the unexpected—because that which affects the suppliers will certainly affect Lincoln Electric. 

There’s surely much more detail and nuance involved in both Lincon Electric’s commitment to employee and supply-chain agility, but I think one big lesson that applies to organizations everywhere is this: 

If you truly value an aspect of behavior, it’s not enough to talk about it. You must take the next step and measure it—and reward it. 

This sounds simple enough, but I’m continually surprised by firms that hope for certain outcomes or changes in behavior yet are unwilling to systematically measure and incentivize those very same outcomes or behaviors. 

Many companies claim to value agility, flexibility, responsiveness or nimbleness. But never forget—hope and expectations and slogans and posters and speeches won’t necessarily influence what people actually do. To create alignment between behaviors and strategy, the right incentives must exist. 

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com. 

Leadership Advice for the New Administration

On the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 9, one day after the general election here in the United States, I met with my graduate students who are in my course on leadership and interpersonal effectiveness. 

Up until this point, we hadn’t talked much about the U.S. presidential race in class. But I felt that on that one class the day after the election, it might make sense to do so. It just felt weird to not talk about it. Our course is about leadership, after all.

In particular, we’ve talked at length in the course about the agility required for leaders to pivot into new roles. This is particularly true for people who have never managed or led people before—that first-time manager job can be tough. 

And although both Secretary Clinton and now President-Elect Trump have extensive experience leading people and projects, transitioning from presidential hopeful to President of the United States must surely be a dramatic shift personally and professionally. 

For anyone. 

And so, on Nov. 9, with my class, we discussed. We talked about, based upon what we’ve covered in the course so far, what advice we would give to the new administration, including the newly elected President, in making this transition from campaigning to governing. 

We didn’t get into the politics of the matter. 

We didn’t get into who’s right and who’s wrong. 

Instead, I prefaced the conversation with a few observations:

• If you’re sad today, about 59 million other people aren’t
• If you’re happy today, about 59 million other people aren’t
• Things are usually neither as good nor as bad as they may seem at first
• The country isn’t even close to being at its peak of divisiveness, if you consider our entire history
• We always have myriad reasons for which to be grateful about living in the United States

We then focused the conversation on leadership. Namely, we zeroed in on a few key concepts that could assist the new administration as it transitions into power during the next few months. 

Here are some of the excellent observations that emerged from our discussion. The new administration could benefit from, among other things, doing the following:

• Communicate differently. Remember that one’s words have consequences, and those consequences are often magnified when spoken from positions of authority. Also, move from generalities and begin speaking more precisely about goals and policies. 
• Empathize. Although the nation isn’t as divided as it was in 1862, that’s not exactly a high bar for cohesion. People get inspired when they feel as though their leaders are listening to them and attempting to understand their situations. This, for the new administration, includes people of all backgrounds, status levels and ideologies. Trust must be earned, and it must begin with demonstrating respect. 
• Share leadership and delegate. Remember that it’s OK to not know everything. Seek and rely upon experts for complicated decisions. Include people who think differently from you—maybe even very differently—in the conversation. Think carefully about whom you appoint to key positions, and demonstrate an openness to ideas and people who aren’t necessarily familiar at the moment. 
• Flip your mindset from “me” to “we.” This bit of advice comes directly from the great book we’re reading in the course—Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For—by my good friend Bill Gentry. The new administration must broaden its message, recognizing that being a great leader requires an emphasis on the people you’re trying to lead—not on your own greatness. 

Another bit of advice from my class? Maybe the newly elected President shouldn’t take a salary, or maybe he should donate all of it to a reputable charity. 

I was particularly impressed with my class and their ideas on this tough, emotionally freighted topic. I have no idea if the new administration will do anything that resembles the ideas my class discussed or not. But the new regime would, I think, be wise to consider them. 

Because regardless of your preferences, we’re all on the same ship. And although we Americans can fight and bicker and sling mud at each other with the best of them, we also have a proud tradition of peaceful transitions of power and of resilience. 

So, let’s get to work. 

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com. 

Never Give Up, Never Stop Learning

Photo By: Lance Cpl. Jesus Sepulveda Torre. The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

Although I teach courses on various topics related to leadership, I’m quick to admit it: Learning a lot about leadership won’t necessarily make you a great leader. 

Similarly, just because someone has 20 years of experience doing something doesn’t necessarily make him or her an expert. It’s quite possible—and common—for people to have the same experience, 20 years in a row. 

What oftentimes elevates truly great leaders above the rest is their tenacity, their commitment to never give up—and to never stop learning. It’s their ability to persevere through adversity with an open mind, applying the lessons they acquire along the way. 

One such leader whom I’ve always enjoyed listening to and reading about is United States Marine Corps General James Mattis (ret.). Among recent military leaders, Mattis is a legend, particularly if you talk with other U.S. Marines. 

Stories about his selfless, direct style of leadership abound. 

Additionally, his use of the “knife hand”—basically pointing for emphasis with all of one’s fingers outstretched and the hand oriented such that the little finger is closest to the ground, like the sharp edge of a knife—is equally legendary.  

So I couldn’t help but pause for a moment recently when the Marines released a video of Mattis talking about leadership. In the video, he answers a number of questions related to leadership. At the end, he even addresses the lethality of his knife hand. 

He’s quick to point out that it was the spirit of the people he led, his Marines, that kept him motivated throughout his career. 

And in no uncertain terms, he says that the key to improving continually as a leader is that “You have to assume that you must keep improving.” For Mattis, this is simply a given. Leaders must “maintain this body, mind and spirit improvement at all times.”

But above all, I’m impressed with his humble-yet-confident demeanor. People tend to follow those who know where they’re headed, but at the same time they’re inspired by those who are humble enough to share recognition with the team for getting stuff done. 

Or, as Mattis says, “You’re not going to win any fights as a leader. Your troops are going to win those fights.”

Take a few minutes to listen to these and other bits of timeless leadership wisdom in the video below. 

Although none of us will go through the same situations as Mattis and it’s unlikely that any of us will achieve his level of regard among any group of leaders, not to mention leaders in the U.S. Marine Corps, there’s plenty that we can learn from his style. 

And if we do, I think we’ll be just a little better equipped than we were before to adapt to change and to perform well in adversity.

That’s not to say that it’s easy. Quite to the contrary, leadership is hard. It’s often vastly different from the somewhat romantic vision that we sometimes have of it. But just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean that leadership can’t be effective. 

Because, as Mattis says, “Difficulty is an excuse that the Marine Corps will never accept.” 

What excuses do you accept? What do you tolerate, in yourself, in those around you, in your organization?

And what, during the next week or so, can we all do to re-identify what’s important, to re-commit to never giving up and never stopping our process of learning?

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com. 

On Human Connection, Vulnerability and Leadership

Years ago, as a young junior officer in the U.S. Navy, a few hundred of my peers and I shuffled into a large auditorium to hear an admiral speak. I don’t remember his name or his title. But I remember one phrase, one nugget of “wisdom” that he provided. 

He said, “Leaders are people who know stuff.” 

At the time this seemed like a simple, yet compelling insight. And it’s certainly the case that one source of people’s power and influence over others can be their expertise. In many situations, we follow those people who know the most (or at least seem to know the most) about how to solve problems. 

We also tend to follow people who have definitive answers. People who are decisive, outspoken, direct. 

But such tendencies grossly oversimplify the heart of leadership and what it means to connect with our fellow humans. 

The implication of treating leaders and leadership as being about “knowing stuff” is that to be a leader, you need to have all of the answers. You need to know more than the people you’re trying to lead. And your knowledge, therefore, gives you the right to tell those people what to do. 

Sorry, admiral, but this conceptualization of leadership is as sophisticated as my 3.5 year-old son—whom I caught wiping his nose on the couch cushion yesterday. 

Clearly, it’s important to have professional expertise and competence if you want other people to follow you. There’s a great benefit to knowing “stuff,” to building specific sets of knowledge and skill. By all means, do this. 

But leadership at a higher level is all about human connection. And that’s where another set of ideas kick in and truly start to matter. These are topics that often receive less attention than expertise or decisiveness. These include concepts such as

• Empathy.
• Compassion.
• Forgiveness.
• Vulnerability, and, dare I say … 
• Love. 

Vulnerability is particularly interesting. Being vulnerable is fundamentally about being open about who you are, your strengths and your weakness. And embracing who you are—not who you think you should be, not who other people want you to be—can be a tremendous source of confidence. It allows people to walk into the unknown, facing the ambiguity that characterizes so many of the problems in this world that require leadership. 

Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, has studied this and related topics extensively. And, as she discusses in her popular TEDx talk below, vulnerability is about not only being courageous enough to see ourselves as we truly are, but it’s also about feeling worthy. 

If you’re not one of the more than 26 million people who have already done so, take a few minutes to hear her talk. You won’t regret it. 

Being vulnerable and willing to admit that you’re not perfect opens the door to new possibilities; it opens the door to creating new opportunities in the face of uncertainty. It’s a quality that specifically requires you to admit that sometimes you don’t “know stuff,” that other people might have better ideas than you do. 

And leaders who do that, I think, are uniquely suited to lead others, particularly in times of change or adversity. They still must, of course, be willing to make tough decisions when necessary. They still must, of course, be competent and knowledgeable. 

But thinking that leadership is only about being the smartest person in the room is short-sighted. And it’s fragile. It breaks down quickly when things change. Instead, what’s becoming increasingly clear is that being an agile, adaptive leader in times of turbulence demands courage, authenticity and the confident grace that comes with embracing the unknown. 

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. More at www.benbaran.com and www.agilityconsulting.com

The Courage to be Agile and Pivot

My morning routine gives me comfort. I get up at the exact same time almost every day. My coffee maker is set to turn on 15 minutes earlier, so I go downstairs, pour my coffee and fill my 1-liter water bottle. I then head to my home office and get oriented for the day’s activities. 

After about 40 minutes, my coffee cup and water bottle are empty. Then, it’s time to get ready for some exercise. That lasts for about an hour, after which comes the remainder of my tasks to prepare for the day prior to the stampede of our four soon-to-awaken children. 

And so on. 

These are comfortable routines; they are generally productive habits. 

But sometimes habits can become too comfortable. We can stick to routines for the sake of sticking to the routine—when in fact, change is necessary. 

For example, I recently had a fairly ambitious exercise regimen outlined for the week ahead. I noticed some pain after a few days, but I ignored it. I wanted to stick to the plan. 

Sticking to the plan, though, resulted in a level of pain that I couldn’t ignore, and I ended up having to take the whole next week off from exercise. 

This was all because I was stubborn and refused to recognize that the game had changed. My original assumptions were invalid, but I pressed on anyway. 

That’s why it takes courage to change, courage to pivot toward a new set of routines. It involves recognizing that some condition or something in the world around you has shifted. It then involve realizing that you must give up something comfortable and sail into uncharted waters. Goodbye, familiar routines. 

The same process happens over and over again in teams and organizations. For example, consider the startup Gild Collective.

During the past 15 months, I’ve had the privilege of watching and documenting Gild Collective grow and evolve. This has involved much more than casual observation. In fact, I’ve surveyed the team of co-founders 45—yes, 45—times during these 15 months. 

Like most startups, they’ve evolved quickly. And for a number of months, they settled into what seemed like a good set of routines. Their business focuses on making it easy for women to get together and create something beautiful—think art, accessories, and more—all while the group has great time and learns something about themselves and each other. 

This was going well, but along the way, they discovered a potentially bigger opportunity—transforming their “get togethers” into professional workshops for the purpose of women’s leadership development. 

They realized the game had changed; an opportunity presented itself. But it would require the courage to venture into the unknown, leaving behind their comfortable routines. It would require them, in startup parlance, to “pivot.”

They’ve had to forge new networks, and, above all, adapt to a new sense of who they were as leaders and who they were as a company. 

That level of agility—sensing and responding to the forces of change—is hard. It takes courage. But it’s what it takes to succeed in a changing world. And in the case of Gild Collective, I’m happy to say, it’s working. Their new approach is resonating with recent clients (like Procter & Gamble), and many others are starting to notice what they’re doing. (Because their new focus aligns with my expertise, I’ve joined Gild Collective’s advisory board—I’m thrilled to have a role in helping them.) 

So regardless of whether it’s with a startup, an established organization, or within your own daily life, I think it’s valuable to remember that quitting the old to take on the new—in other words, being agile—is courageous. We must be open to the possibility that the assumptions under which we made our original plans may have changed. Just because you planned a certain exercise regimen for the week doesn’t mean you should stick to it in the face of injury; just because your original business strategy demanded a certain focus and set of actions doesn’t mean you should stick to it if new information or opportunities emerge. 

And by having the courage to pivot, we open ourselves to opportunities; we create the freedom within which we can innovate and evolve into the next chapter of our lives. 
 
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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit www.benbaran.com.

Can Leadership Prevent Mistakes?

“While I was in the middle of the room, the attic floor and beams collapsed onto the second floor crashing down to the first floor where I was standing. The time between us entering the building and the time of the collapse was no longer than 90 seconds. I was knocked to the floor and was trapped under the debris. I suffered a head injury and a torn patellar tendon. The contents of the upstairs ended up in the first floor room and I could have been killed. By my judgment, approximately 80,000 gallons of water was pumped into that structure and we were ordered in anyway. This was after a previous call to evacuate 45 minutes earlier. This should not have happened! ”

Mistakes happen. Sometimes, those mistakes hurt or kill people. I’ve studied them among fire fighters, who sometimes experience events like the one described above (which comes from Report 07-0001036, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2014). The mistakes that people in the fire service and other high-risk occupations make often have important safety implications. In other industries and occupations, mistakes may not hurt or kill people, but mistakes often derail projects or anger customers. They create conflict and they degrade the quality of what we make or do. 

Mistakes aren’t exclusive to any industry or sector. 

Mistakes also almost happen. These close calls or near misses—when discussed well and integrated into a learning program—can serve as powerful wakeup calls for people and teams.
Regardless of whether we’re talking about mistakes or near misses, learning from the past to improve future performance is a fundamental management and leadership objective (Catino & Patriotta, 2013; Morris & Moore, 2000). But a common problem that I’ve seen in organizations is that we’re often apt to treat mistakes as problems with individual people. Sometimes an individual person is part of the problem, but pinning a mistake on a single person doesn’t necessarily help a team or organization learn. Instead, what’s required is a culture that embraces learning from mistakes in non-judgmental, non-punitive way. 

One example of such an approach is in health care. Modern hospitals are systems in which extraordinary good and life-saving care happens daily. But they’re also places where mistakes hurt and even kill people. 

Frequently. 

And one person within the healthcare industry whose insights I’ve always enjoyed is Paul F. Levy, the former president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. 

In the clip below, he discusses some of the nuances of teamwork and leadership as they pertain to mistakes in health care. Paraphrasing one of his senior leaders commenting on what to do about a doctor who made a serious mistake (starting at 7:00 in the video), he says,

“If we want to establish a culture in our organization that encourages and permits people to admit their mistakes and their near misses, we are more likely to establish that culture if we do not punish doctors who, with best of intentions, make a mistake. They’ve already suffered enough. ”

So, is there a way to make organizations error free? In this continually changing world, probably not. The key, instead, is to promote continual learning through what we do and what we say, catching small errors before they become big ones and taking the necessary steps to improve. That’s at the heart of building a team and organization that encourages open discussion of hazards and errors, of what almost went wrong and what could have happened. 

Years ago, I had a much more punitive approach to dealing with mistakes than I do now. That’s because I’ve realized that leadership isn’t about being perfect or having a perfect team. It’s about unlocking people’s own ability to learn, to imagine, and to become something greater than they realized was possible. 

Leadership, therefore, can’t prevent mistakes. But with an approach of humility, continuous improvement and open communication, it can help to build routines and patterns of learning that make mistakes less likely and less frequent. 

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com. 

References

Catino, M., G. Patriotta. 2013. Learning from errors: Cognition, emotions and safety culture in the Italian air force. Organizational Studies, 34: 437-467. 

Morris, M. W., P. C. Moore. 2000. The lessons we (don’t) learn: Counterfactual thinking and organizational accountability after a close call. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45: 737-765.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 2014. National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System. Retrieved from http://www.firefighternearmiss.com

What LeBron James Gets About Leading in Adversity

Both the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers and their opponents in the 2016 NBA finals, the Golden State Warriors, are extraordinary professional basketball teams. 

But on Thursday, June 16, the Cavaliers became only the third team in history to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA finals to force a seventh game in the series. Clearly, Cavaliers star LeBron James is central to their performance. They’re one win away from taking the championship, but even if they don’t win, there are some interesting insights we can take away from how James has led his team in the midst of adversity.

Most of the time, we have little insight into what happens behind the scenes within professional sports teams. Or when we do, it might be well after the fact, from memoirs of players, coaches or confidants. 

The case of the 2016 Cavaliers is different. 

That’s because we have a compelling data point—an insider’s account—via Richard Jefferson, a 15-year NBA veteran and one of James’s teammates on the Cavaliers. It comes in the form of an essay he released just hours prior to the team defeating the Warriors in Game 6. The essay is titled, “Who We Are,” and you can read it on The Players Tribune. 

Jefferson’s essay contains many simple, humanizing elements about the Cavaliers. Simply thinking about a player like Jefferson going through a Starbucks drive-through or learning how to use Snapchat brings him and the team back down to earth. 

But what I found particularly compelling is Jefferson’s account of a dinner that James hosted at his home just after the season ended, as the team was getting ready to begin the playoffs. As Jefferson wrote,

“The change really took off at a dinner at LeBron’s house right before the first round.

We were 15 guys sitting around his big dining room table. In the middle of the meal, he stood up and addressed each guy in the room. He pointed out something that each player brought to the team, and explained how it was going to be vital if we wanted to win a championship. And he gave each one of us a memento, a little gift. I won’t share what exactly it was because it was a team thing. But it wasn’t anything big. I think it just struck us all in that moment how special a position we were in. Bron was saying to us, ‘We can only do this if we do it together. That’s all that matters.’ He’s won championships before. We wanted to listen.”

From what Jefferson describes, James clearly is more than a great basketball player in terms of individual ability and skill. He brings an element of confidence and humility to the Cavaliers that has made them come together as a team. Specifically, in this one instance in the middle of one particular dinner, he:

• Clearly identified each person’s unique abilities and talents,
• Made each person feel needed and appreciated, and
• Emphasized the connection between each person and the team’s overarching goal.

Part of leading in adversity is inspiring every member of the team to contribute beyond what he or she thinks is possible. And as James illustrates in this story, one powerful way to do that is to look each person in the eye and authentically tell him or her (a) why he or she matters to the success of the team and (b) how his or her effort fits into the team’s objective.

On top of this, James generates confidence because—as Jefferson noted—regarding championships, he’s been there and done that. And he’s willing to take the risks associated with leading the team, win or lose.

In Jefferson’s words:

“I don’t care if you’re a LeBron ‘fan,’ or not, I have seen it: Bron has something I’ve never seen. The way he says ‘follow me and I’ll take you there’ with actions, more than words, is like no one else I’ve ever played with. He’s the kind of leader who makes you want to carry the weight too. I feel indebted to him. We all do.”

Outside of sports and various times in the military, it’s hard for me to think of more than a handful of instances in which I was fortunate to be on a team with an inspirational leader. But I think there are some simple things that leaders everywhere can do to create this type of inspiring atmosphere. These may sound like “common sense”—whatever that is—but I disagree. If they were common sense, they would be more common. 

• First, leaders must know what their people actually do in their work.
• Second, leaders must know what their team members care about—their values, their goals, what inspires them. 
• Third, leaders must clearly identify the team’s objective. 
• Fourth, leaders must look their people in the eye—frequently—and tell them specifically what they appreciate about their contributions, how they care about their well-being and how what they do fits into the bigger picture. 
• Fifth, leaders must be humble enough to listen to their people for feedback and follow any recommendations they have that will contribute to the team’s overall success. 

Chances are that none of us will ever be on a world-class level sports team. But we all live in a world filled with adversity. And we all have the chance to exercise leadership, some sort of positive influence, on our coworkers, our friends and even within our families. 

So sometime soon—today or tomorrow, perhaps—maybe we could all take a cue from LeBron James and recognize the people around us for their gifts, their talents and their efforts. If we all actually did that, I think we’d all be a little better off in this turbulent, crazy world. 

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com.

For Those About to Lead

For those about to lead, I salute you. 

The vast majority of people go with the flow. Many people—even those whom we often dub “leaders”—fulfill their roles by finding out what others expect of them and meeting those expectations. This includes many heads of state—current, former and aspiring—military generals and admirals, university presidents and chief executives. 

There’s nothing inherently wrong with going with the flow, depending on where the flow is headed. 

There’s nothing inherently wrong with doing what’s expected, depending on the nature of those expectations. 

But leadership is something different. 

Leadership is about exploration, adaptation, guiding others through uncharted waters. It’s about sensing and responding quickly to the forces of change; it’s about agility. 

Consider an example from May 1804.

As the keelboat turned her bow into the stream, Lewis and his party cut themselves off from civilization. There would be no more incoming letters, no orders, no commissions, no fresh supplies, no reinforcements, nothing reaching them, until they returned.

The captains expected to be gone two years, maybe more. In all that time in whatever lay ahead of them, whatever decisions had to be made, they would receive no guidance from their superiors. This was an independent command, such as the U.S. Army had not previously seen and never would again. Lewis and Clark were as free as Columbus, Magellan, or Cook to make their mark on the sole basis of their judgments and abilities.

Such is the description of the first moments of the famous expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who, upon the orders of no one other than the third President of the United States Thomas Jefferson, embarked upon one of history’s greatest expeditions—as documented by Stephen Ambrose in his 1996 bestselling book Undaunted Courage (p. 139).   

Lewis and Clark, in their journey across the North American continent in the early 1800s, truly didn’t know what to expect. Consider that President Thomas Jefferson himself, for example, believed that the expedition might encounter mastodons upon the prairie (Ambrose, 1996, p. 91).

These two leaders and their team had only themselves, their supplies and educated guesses about what they might face. The rest they would have to deal with in real time, in an environment of complete self-reliance. 

When we truly lead, we are taking risks; we are being vulnerable—to judgment, to criticism, to both passive and active rebellion, and to failure. 

It’s simply easier and safer to do nothing. But the solution to most of what ails our organizations and our society often boils to doing things differently. And as such, the answer always requires leaders and leadership. 

And so, regardless of whether you’re setting out with an expedition party exploring a new geography or charting a new course for your team, department or organization, I salute you for giving it a shot. 

Go boldly—either out in front or by following someone else who’s doing something worthwhile—and chart new waters. 

And never forget that going boldly doesn’t have to be big or even public. Small positive disruptions, repeated over time, can indeed yield radical change.  

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com.