In youth basketball it’s no surprise that most kids want to score. They see the highlight reels on YouTube and it’s 90% scoring. What doesn’t make the highlight or show up on a stat sheet though can be the difference maker in successful basketball.
As I coach more youth basketball, I find myself getting so much more excited when I see our players do the “unnoticeable” work that creates team success. It’s the help defense that led to a fast break score or a great screen on offense that helped get another player open for a good shot.
The way we see the team live up to its potential is when each kid is using their skillset to help elevate everyone else around him/her. If a kid is focused on setting good screens, making good cuts, being in position to help defensively, box out, along with other good basketball habits, good team basketball can develop. Of course, development on more of the stat stuffer aspects of basketball is important but we can’t lose sight of the big picture of all parts of team basketball, not just what shows up in the stats column. If all around good basketball habits are formed, the stat stuffer results will come.
When we think about the teams we lead, formally or informally, a tough question to answer is how are we creating an environment where team members aren’t just focused on the stat sheet but also invest in the behaviors that help elevate the entire team? One area I’d suggest we analyze is how we’re setting our goals. Many behaviors are driven by goals we set. I work for a public company so stat sheets will always be a huge part of the success we need to drive. The key is not just promoting what happens on the stat sheet but also adding goals that drive behavior for a greater team mindset.
It’s easy to prepare goals to drive a silo of success. But what if we create expectations and an environment where this individual success is not allowed to be contained in a silo? What if behaviors were rewarded when the person with individual success finds ways to use it to elevate others?
Compounding knowledge is powerful. When insights and success are shared with others and these successful behaviors are continued to be shared, an isolated win spreads into many wins.
The team member that chooses to take their individual success and help others understand how they can learn and grow from this win will not necessarily have their work show up in the stat column. To go from individual success to transformational success, we must have a broad lens on what it means to win and not only look at the stat sheet. Individual success looks great in the short term, but we aren’t just worried about short term success. Transformational success has team members focused not just on driving individual success but also finding ways to elevate those around them. Transformational success doesn’t just elevate one line on the stat sheet; it helps elevate the entire team’s stat sheet.
“Alone we go faster, together we go further.”
Take your step: look at your team (however you want to define team) and think about what behaviors are promoted right now. Explore the opportunity to move the pendulum of behaviors to be more centered around team wins as opposed to a lonely lens of a win in a silo. Continue to push individual success but move towards the transformational change of letting that individual win compound into other wins when we also find ways to elevate others in our journey.