High Performers vs Good Managers: Lessons from the Hardwood
- Sean Cooper
- Apr 27, 2024
- 7 min read
Before you go any further, watch this clip.
When you're done with this article, go watch The Last Dance on Netflix.
Without a doubt, Michael Jordan was one of the best to ever play the game. But could he have made a good coach? Not with those kinds of attitudes and behaviors. I use MJ as an example because he's an extreme outlier in both his behaviors and his accomplishments.
Very often, the highest performer in a team is promoted to being a manager. The best salesperson is tasked with leading the sales department. The top developer is promoted to lead the software development team. This often fails. First, let's look at the lessons we can take from Michael Jordan as a player as well as two coaches associated with the Bulls dynasty: Phil Jackson and Steve Kerr. Next, we'll see how those apply to software engineering teams.
*I'm purposely looking at some legitimate outliers. I believe their successes allow us to distill out the lessons easier than if we looked at individuals that weren't out on the extremes.
Being a High-Performing Teammate
In the clip, Jordan is described as being an a**hole. But he was also referred to as being "a hell of a teammate". He pushed the people around him to be better. Indeed, he pushed his teammates hard enough that they achieved something historic, winning the NBA title 3 times in a row...twice.
As exceptional as Jordan was on the offensive side of the ball, he was also a skilled defender, winning Defensive Player of the Year five times in his career. He led the league in steals three times. And, of course, he led the league in scoring 10 times. He was an all-around threat.[1]
This is not to excuse or endorse his behaviors. In many environments, he'd be considered a toxic employee and would be released. His behaviors were at the outside edge of acceptable in the environment and culture he was in.
What I'd like to highlight is the way he pushed his teammates. He demanded excellence from his teammates and he delivered excellence. He worked with his teammates and FOR his teammates. His teammates knew he'd deliver day in and day out and felt the pressure to match. Jordan elevated the Bulls by setting a bar and demanding that everyone who worked with him strive to reach it.
Michael Jordan is the extreme outlier of a high-performing individual. But we can look at his behaviors and learn some things:
Demand excellence both from yourself and your teammates. On the Bulls, slacking was not an option. Turning in a half-hearted effort was not an option. MJ gave 100%, or more, every day and demanded the same of his teammates.
You need the team. Jordan knew he could not win the championship alone. He knew he needed other people; people like Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and even Steve Kerr (more on him later).
You can say things to your peers that, as a manager, you cannot say to your staff.
Winning solves a lot of problems.
Being a Hig-Performing Coach
Phil Jackson
Phil Jackson is one of the legendary coaches in the NBA. After a successful 12-year playing career that saw him win a championship, he transitioned to coaching. While he was, without a doubt, a successful player, he was not a superstar. His biggest impact would be as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls.
With the Bulls, Jackson won 6 championships in 8 seasons including the two three-peat performances. After leaving Chicago, Jackson took the LA Lakers to 7 NBA Finals, winning 5, over the course of 11 seasons. His 11 championships are the most of any NBA head coach or any coach of American professional sports.[2]
Jackson is known as the "Zen Master". His philosophy emphasized teamwork, selflessness, and defense. "Jackson’s ability to connect with his players on a deeper level and understand their individual strengths and weaknesses was instrumental in his success. He was known for his calm demeanor, strategic game plans, and the trust he placed in his players to make the right decisions on the court."[3]
From Phil, we can learn that, as managers, we need to prioritize the following:
Connecting with our players
Promoting teamwork
The importance of defense
Giving team members autonomy
Steve Kerr
Steve Kerr is another successful player who has become a successful coach in the NBA. Throughout his career, Kerr was mainly a role player who came off the bench. His career regular-season average points-per-game of 6.0 pales in comparison to Jordan's 30.1 but is close to Phil's 6.7. During his playing career, he won 5 championships; 3 with the Chicago Bulls and 2 with the San Antonio Spurs. Kerr was considered a three-point specialist for much of his career. He has gone on to coach one of the best three-point shooters in history, Steph Curry.
Like his former coach, Phil Jackson, Steve Kerr was no slouch as an NBA player but he was far from being a superstar. He's gone on to a successful coaching career, guiding the Golden State Warriors to 4 championships in 6 appearances over his first 10 years with the team. While Kerr's coaching style does vary from Phil's, there are some things we should look at, especially as his style may resonate better with younger developers.
"Steve Kerr’s leadership style is predominantly transformational. He prioritizes building strong relationships with his players, fostering a positive team culture, and inspiring individuals to achieve their best both on and off the court."[4] He emphasizes teamwork, ball movement, a three-point focused game plan, and open communication.
From Steve, we can learn about:
Connecting with our players
Promoting teamwork
Ball movement
Three-point shots
Open communication
Lessons from the Hardwood
How can we translate our takeaway from the basketball court into actionable items we can use as managers in the software engineering world? Some are obvious. Let's get those out of the way early.
Principles:
Connecting with your team members
Promoting teamwork
Open communication
Autonomy of team members
That leaves the following to be addressed:
The importance of defense
Ball movement
Three-point shots
The Importance of Defense
In software engineering, we defend against a few things. First off, we defend against people with malicious intent. Secondly, we defend against accidental breakage. Finally, we defend against poor practices that lead to bugs later.
In software, if we're constantly having to address tech debt and bug fixes, we can't work to score points aka move the product forward. However, if we code defensively, we can make our lives easier and set ourselves up for taking those big shots that give big results.
Ball Movement
Ball movement is a short way of saying "Pass the ball around until a player has an open, high-percentage shot". In the software world, this is best translated as helping your teammates get set up for success. A simple example: If Manish is working on a story but needs some database work that Pyotr is better at, "ball movement" would say that Pyotr should take on that task to set up Manish to complete the story quicker and with better results aka the high-percentage shot.
Three-Point Shots
Over time, the three-point shot has gone from an outlier to a standard of today's game. The 3-pointer has become a staple of the game with an average of 35.2 shots attempted per game and a make percentage of 35%.[5] In comparison, all field goals have a make percentage of 46.8%.[6] For giving up ~11% in make certainty, a shooter gains the ability to game 33% more points. in software, this translates to delivering high-impact, easy-to-execute features.
Complete List of Principles
Here's our final list of principles that we take from Steve and Phil:
Connecting with your team members
Promoting teamwork
Open communication
Autonomy of team members
Code defensively*
Help your teammates be successful*
Prioritize high-impact, easy-to-execute features
Notice that only two of those, numbers 5 and 6, align with any of the principles we learned from Michael Jordan. That should not be a shock to anyone. Even Michael knew that he needed teammates and he did work to make his teammates successful. He knew the value of defense very clearly.
Takeaways
Phil Jackson and Steve Kerr's successful playing careers in the NBA gave them a foundation for being very successful NBA coaches. However, they were not the top players of their time or even of the teams they played on. In contrast, Michael Jordan is one of the best to ever play the game of basketball. (In my opinion, he IS the best ever. Fight me!) The qualities that are needed to be at the very pinnacle of a profession as an individual are very different than those that are needed to successfully coach/manage a team.
While a manager must hold their team accountable, a team member can do so in ways that a manager cannot. Criticism from a high-performing peer is often taken differently than from a manager, where it can be taken as punching down. Additionally, while successfully shipping a new feature may smooth over ruffled feathers between teammates, resentment towards a manager takes much longer to dissipate.
A good manager lets a high performer set the standard for the team. A skilled manager understands how to use the high-performers on their team to hold the rest of the team accountable in a good way. A great manager gets the team to hold itself accountable to high standards.
In our industry, we need to start looking at more than just who's writing the most/coolest code or has the best architectural understanding when promoting people to leadership. The modern engineering manager needs to be able to foster an environment of collaboration and communication. They must be able to help the team prioritize work based on impact and value, not just on attractiveness at the moment. Above all, an engineering manager must be able to connect with their team members at a deep level to understand what motivates them and what might be holding them back from greatness.
Conclusion
Whether it's in basketball, football (American or European), or any other endeavor, promoting the highest individual performers is often a recipe for disaster. Executives should be looking for those individuals who exhibit great domain knowledge but have the emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills that will allow them to guide the team to long-term success.
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