The other week, The Wall Street Journal, published an article titled, “Coach K on How to Connect.” Duke’s basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, became the eminent motivational leadership force he is today not because he just knows basketball, but because he understands people–and what’s more, what motivates them.
In the aforementioned article it’s just as easy to imagine Coach K providing guidance to a wilting ecommerce team struggling at the controls. Ecommerce, as we all know, isn’t like a high intensity game of basketball where all the players are sprinting back and forth at 160 beats per minute. If Coach K thought convincing a top tier basketball prodigy was difficult, what must he be thinking as he dribbles his mind around the ecommerce court?!
Would he tell your ecommerce team to mount their laptops on treadmills to get the brain flow going, or to rip out their power cords until they can picture themselves as ecommerce leaders?
One thing Coach K doesn’t seem to be is an impetuous bully, at least not one without strategic purpose. First, he would size up the challenges well known to the industry, coming to the conclusion that the organizational structure seems a little too loose for action. Because the ecommerce work environment involves many very different roles and positions interacting with each other across massive divides of land and sea, key parts of the organization’s staff network often become fragmented and disconnected.
In basketball every player must understand their role, and act on that knowledge within a split second to be successful. A team should operate like a well-built machine–each part firing in sync with the big plan. It’s not good enough to be the hero, as even a group of average players who can effectively cooperate as a team can run circles around clusters of disassembled talent. Each player should have mind and body cocked for the next play, and the wisdom to know when to shoot or pass. Without the perfect harmony and receptiveness to team-centric achievement, company spirit quickly dissipates.
With that said, what would Coach K do for a demotivated ecommerce team? He would call for a timeout. Then our hypothetical Coach K would quiz the CEO with questions like, “Do you see yourself increasing your business by 30% next year?” Having a committed visionary in place who can clearly see their victorious team at the annual championships is essential, maybe even more so than having a ball in motion. Once the right leadership is in place, your team trajectory can go from Good to Great, with a few extra pointers from Jim Collins of course.
