Introduction:
LEARNING TO BE A LEADER
When I was twenty-four years old I was selected to be the basketball coach at Boston University, becoming at that time one of the youngest head coaches in the country. I was thrilled to be picked for that top spot, but the unmitigated euphoria of getting the job quickly ended. I looked around at these players who were now looking at me for all the answers. I realized that I had to be a leader.
But how?
Leaders are not born, I believe, or at least I felt that I had not been born to be one. Nor was there any weekend seminar I could attend, or any course I could take, at least none that I was aware of at the time. There was not a pill I could swallow that overnight was going to turn me into an enlightened leader, some magic potion to quickly give me all the right answers. I had to learn how to be a leader by trial and error, by figuring out what worked for me and what didn’t. There’s no doubt I made my share of mistakes along the way. Gradually, though, by observing others who were in leadership positions, by seeing what worked and what didn’t, I began to learn how to become an effective leader myself.
Ever since those early coaching years, I have been fascinated with the nature of leadership and its role in organizations.
What is the essence of great leadership?
Why are some people able to get other people to follow them, while other people don’t seem to have this ability? Why are some people able to get other people to not only achieve their potential, but even move beyond it? Why are some people able to get others to achieve great things, while others cannot do this? Why do some companies grow, while others with just as much potential flounder, never seeing that potential actualized?
These are some key questions I asked myself as I studied leaders in all walks of life. And as I began to understand the reasons why certain people were effective leaders, and the traits they shared, this awareness eventually led to other more significant questions:
Are there certain traits of leadership that can be taught? If so, what are they?
Can anyone learn to be a more effective leader? If so, how?
These questions may have never been so important as they are today. From politics to business, and from education to coaching, the concept of leadership is under a national microscope. Companies are merging, streamlining, trying to position themselves for a future that seems to be changing by the week. Everyone in business today is under pressure to cut costs, improve the quality of goods and services, try to stay ahead of the competition and the technology curve, and do what they do better, all within a climate of uncertainty. The business climate changes rapidly, and while no one knows where the future is going to take us, we all know that it’s going to be somewhere different.
With so many aspects of our work and personal lives up in the air, we need leadership more than ever as we head into a new century. Good leaders provide a vision. Good leaders take away the doubt and uncertainty, the fear of the future. Good leaders provide an environment in which other people can grow. Good leaders instill values. Good leaders make the people around them more successful.
There is little mystery to this. Successful organizations don’t just happen, suddenly appearing in some puff of smoke. They don’t happen by accident. Nor do they happen in a vacuum. They happen because of strong leadership, some vision that’s able to be actualized.
This always has been true, as timeless as leadership itself, but the entire concept of leadership has become muddled and confused. This is especially true in this era where traditional roles have been questioned, where the entire concept of authority is different from what it was a generation ago.
We now see, in politics and business, leaders who cannot lead themselves trying to lead others. We see people trying to lead by being friends with the people they are leading, and then wondering why it doesn’t work. We see people in leadership situations in the workplace who possess few, if any, leadership skills, and then we wonder why both production and morale in that particular workplace is so low. We see people fail all the time as leaders and bring down organizations with them, affecting other people’s lives. We see companies that start out with great potential, only to hit some invisible plateau, seemingly unable to move forward. We see people fail simply because they don’t possess the tools—or understand the traits—it takes to be successful as leaders. Simply having the title doesn’t make you a leader. This is what I had to learn back when I was a young coach, just starting out in my chosen profession. It’s an important lesson, maybe the most important lesson. People are placed in leadership positions and think that simply having the title makes them effective leaders, that simply by being called “the boss” solves all the problems and makes everything function both smoothly and efficiently. It does not. Not even close. Leaders are only effective when they effectively lead the people of whom they’re in charge. More to the point, leaders are only successful when the people they’re leading become successful.
Sounds simple, right?
Yet this is overlooked time and time again. People are placed all the time in positions of leadership—whether it’s in business, education, sports, whatever—and told, “Good luck.” They are given a pat on the back and sent on their way. They are sent to lead others on little more than a wing and a prayer. No matter that they’re ignorant of many of the skills needed to be effective leaders or that they immediately make time-honored mistakes, for the simple reason that no one gives them any alternatives. No matter that they’re ill-prepared to be leaders and have about as much chance to be successful as they do in winning the lottery.
Some, of course, eventually learn on their own through trial and error and become effective leaders. Some never do, will forever seem as if they’re working on intricate puzzles they can never solve, forever walking on some treadmill to failure.
I can spot a poor leader a mile away.
They’re the people who are giving in all the time, the people who operate with a lack of discipline. As soon as I hear the expression “He’s a player’s coach,” or “He’s a boss whom everyone likes,” I know that eventually, the discipline is going to break down; it’s just a matter of time. When you lack discipline—be it in an office or on a basketball team—your chances for success have been significantly narrowed.
Discipline is your foundation: You have to have it, the people you are leading have to have it, the group has to have it. Discipline—showing up, putting in the effort, taking responsibility for your actions—sets the tone for all the work you do. Without it, all your great intentions will soon begin to unravel, and your vision cannot be actualized. Without discipline, your game plan will start to become unglued the first time you are severely tested.
I can put up with many things from the people who work for me, whether it’s immaturity, poor fundamentals, bad techniques, lack of focus, or any of the laundry list of negatives that are out there. But I will not put up with a lack of effort. As a leader, I cannot tolerate that. The other negatives can be improved upon, changed, but a lack of effort undermines everything that you have worked for, and that is why a leader must maintain good discipline among those he or she leads.
It’s discipline that gets you through adversity and discipline that is the very foundation of your goals and your mission statement as an organization. In short, discipline is the glue that holds everything together and it starts at the top. If you expect discipline from your followers then you must be disciplined yourself, in your work, in your personal life, in the environment you create.
It’s been over two decades since I first set out as a young coach. My first job was as assistant coach at the University of Hawaii. From there I went on to be an assistant at Syracuse, before I became the head coach at Boston University. I then went to the New York Knicks as an assistant coach for two years, before becoming the head coach of Providence College. In my second year at Providence we came out of nowhere to go to the Final Four and I became the national coach of the year. That led to becoming the head coach of the Knicks for two years, then on to Kentucky.
Even though I had worked with a lot of players and coached top professional and college teams to great success, in retrospect, it wasn’t until I got to Kentucky in the spring of 1989 that I truly became a leader. Until then, I was just a basketball coach. Until then, I really hadn’t thought a lot about the traits of leadership. I had spent those years consumed with learning my trade, building my career, trying to win games, and trying to move up the coaching ladder. I really didn’t think of it in terms of leadership, even though so many of the traits that go into being a successful coach are leadership traits.
A coach is a teacher of fundamentals. A coach is a motivator. A coach is someone who looks after his players off the court. But there are many more facets to being a true leader; my experience at Kentucky taught me that.
When I first got to Kentucky in 1989 I was inheriting a storied program that had been wracked by scandal. It was similar to taking over the IBM of college basketball and finding the business at its absolute nadir. Kentucky was on NCAA probation because of recruiting violations, had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated with a headline that screamed out “Shame,” and was, indeed, wallowing in its shame. It needed more than just a new basketball coach. It needed more than just wins and cheers and good players. It needed more than just time to heal its wounds.
It needed a leader.
Kentucky needed someone not only to bring back the glory days on the court, but also resurrect the image of this storied program. It needed someone to help give both the university and the state it represented its pride back. So when I came in, I had to do more than coach. I had to build up the program. I had to police it. I had to make it grow. I had to bring integrity back to Kentucky basketball. Most of all, I had to go from being a basketball coach to being a leader.
From those days in Kentucky to my current experience as head coach and president of the Boston Celtics, my search for the effective traits of leadership has been an ongoing one. It’s a search that has taken me in many different directions, from reading about the great leaders in history to trial and error in my own professional life, to educating myself about successful leaders in all aspects of society. This book is the story of that search.
In a sense it is a journey, both philosophical and pragmatic, a journey that has gone on now for over two decades, from the small gym at Boston University to giving speeches to some of the leading companies in the country. I hope this book will expedite the process of learning about leadership for you.
Philosophically, we will explore the great leaders, both past and present. We will examine the traits that made them great, and the flaws that often were their Achilles’ heels. Some things don’t change and are as timeless as the concept of leadership itself. All leaders—from great historical figures to great classroom teachers—share certain traits that make people want to listen to them and follow them. We also will take a journey through contemporary leaders today, as we look to find the key reasons why they are so successful at leading others, be it people or companies.
Pragmatically, we will show you how to be a leader in today’s changing world: the traits you need, the awareness you need, the knowledge you need to be a more effective leader. You will discover the traits and concepts that will work for you regardless of the arena in which you play. Learning these lessons of leadership has helped my career, my work, and, most important, my relationships with people. I know they can do the same for you.