It’s that time of year: NBA Finals season, baby! And that means all the Warriors, all the time.
Full disclosure: my husband would like me to point out that I am a fair-weather fan. I prefer to think of myself as a post-season fan. Because if you don’t get to the finals, what’s the point? I just don’t have that kind of time in my life to watch all season. My husband says I’m not a real sports fan. Duh, I’m not. I’m a WINNERS fan.
Anyhoo…post-season Warriors gives me a chance to lavish all of the love and enthusiasm that I don’t share during regular season. I love the 3 point Steph wiggle. I love stone-faced Klay. I love long-limbed KD taking it to the rim. I love Draymond stirring up the pot. I love Shaun looking like an overgrown 7th grader. But, I really, really love Steve Kerr: a Renaissance man, a diplomat and an intellectual.
This morning while enjoying my breakfast, I read this article in the Times about the Warriors halftime routine and why they are such beasts in the third quarter. They are the Kings of the Third Quarter and it’s instructive to read about Kerr’s leadership.
The 15 minutes between the end of the second quarter and start of the third are a carefully choreographed production, featuring clips of game footage, wardrobe changes and managerial strategies straight out of business school. Coach Steve Kerr, based on interviews with players and coaches, has worked to create an environment of inclusion. This is not a place for Lombardi-esque rah-rah speeches. Rather, the Warriors’ halftime locker room is a high-speed 360-degree team review.
“Everybody is a leader here,” said Pachulia, the veteran center. “At least you have a feeling that you’re a leader.”
Steve has mastered the art of making everyone feel like an owner and a leader. By empowering his team to lead and feel ownership over the outcome, they are a better team. Also, take note of the quick game footage reviews. In my career, I often shortchanged the post-mortem and therefore robbed my team and myself of valuable learning.
Bruce Fraser, an assistant coach, described these sessions as think-tankish: Kerr solicits input from his staff, then listens. Sometimes, though, he takes advantage of the opportunity to vent, which is partly by design. By ridding himself of his frustrations, Kerr can act like a more rational human once he appears in front of his players.
“He’s got a fiery side to him,” Fraser said, “and he’ll be screaming and yelling in the coaches’ room for 30 seconds.”
Leaders are people, too. Sometimes you gotta yell and vent and get it all out. But then, remember who you are.
As noted in a previous post, it’s important to know yourself enough to regulate yourself but to show up in front of your team as a rational human. It’s human to have feelings, but know how your feelings may impact your team.
Once Kerr has a good grasp of the material he wants to cover with the team, he and the rest of the coaches enter the locker room with about 11 minutes left before the start of the third quarter. Kerr does not obsessively check the clock. He chooses to keep time by feel.
Intuition and emotional intelligence are key in leadership. They cannot be learned from a book or a powerpoint–they must be mastered through practice and feedback loop. Also, as a leader, having a clear-headed strategy is important to lead the way forward.
But he trusts his staff so much that he does not need to know in advance which clips Laughlin and his assistants have selected for the halftime show. Kerr’s staff members seem to have an intuitive understanding of the types of plays he will want to highlight.
Trusting your staff and working closely with them are key to success. How can we really work together if we don’t know or trust each other?
During the first half of Game 7 against the Rockets on Monday night, the Warriors played so poorly their assistant coaches kept simultaneously shouting, “Clip that!” whenever the team had a decent possession. They knew that Kerr, who loves to emphasize the positive, would want to show the players those plays at halftime.
Perhaps it’s human nature to focus on the negative. One of the mistakes from which I have learned is that you can’t just focus on the one thing that went wrong if ten things went right. It’s demoralizing and doesn’t inspire people to do better.
Kerr, a former television analyst, also has a special ability, Fraser said, to take the information he gathers from his staff and deliver it to the players in digestible morsels.
As a leader, I’m really challenged to distill down the things I think are most important without all the blah, blah, blah. The brain can only process so much so what is the Most Essential thing?
Yet Kerr does not want to be the only voice in the room — far from it, in fact. He has carved out time for others to speak. Once Kerr finishes making his main points, the associate head coach, Mike Brown, often speaks to the group. Then, the senior assistant coaches, Ron Adams and Jarron Collins, add their thoughts. Kerr likes to close by seeking input from the players, too, especially in the playoffs.
You have two ears and one mouth. Behave accordingly.
“He is the authority based on title,” Fraser said of Kerr, “but our culture is by community. He’s one of them. He doesn’t look at himself as a figure that they have to defer to.”
Command and control does not work. Moral authority will always trump formal authority. I’m reminded of the African saying: if you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, we go together.
Perhaps the most amazing feature of the Warriors’ halftime routine is its brevity. Kerr tries to wrap up his whole spiel with about seven minutes showing on the clock — six minutes at the latest. He knows the players want to get back on the court to take some warm-up shots. He also probably knows there is only so much he can say.
Give your team the space to do their damn jobs and get into the game. Have faith in their abilities to execute and get out of their faces.
And that, my friends, is how you go on second half tears and win championships.
