While LeBron James is a
superstar in the
Cleveland Cavaliers’ organization, everyone can
think of a standout employee
in their own business. The
question is, as a manager, how
do you coach and work with
this player to make him or her
better?
Cleveland Cavaliers General
Manager Danny Ferry offered
his advice at an event benefiting the Ronald McDonald
House about how to coach
your best to be better.
“My thought of how we
coach the best is, for example
with LeBron, being honest
with him — whether he had a
good game or bad game —
being compassionate and trying to do things right, night in
and night out,” Ferry says.
Ferry was a standout player
at Duke University and went
on to play in the NBA for the
Cavaliers and the San Antonio
Spurs, so he approaches the
concept of coaching the best
from a player’s view instead of
a coach’s.
“At one point, I was the best
player on my team, and that
was when I was in college and
high school,” Ferry says. “I
didn’t want to be treated any
differently than anyone else.”
It’s important to treat your
standout just like the others
on the team, and that message
should also be communicated
to that person.
“This was something that
(Duke University Basketball
Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski)
talked about a lot to me, and
this is something that (Cavaliers
Head Coach Mike Brown)
talked to LeBron [about] —
‘You’re going to have to allow me to be hard on you, and you
have to allow me to coach you
because everybody else is looking,’” Ferry says. “You have to
have that level of trust and
communication with your star
player and say, ‘I’m going to get
on you, and I’m not always
going to be right, but it’s important for our culture and important for our team to see that
I’m willing to jump your butt
more than anybody else.’”
Doing this shows the rest of
your employees that you recognize the top performer isn’t perfect. For example, during Cavs
film sessions, Ferry says that
while the staff uses all of the
players’ mistakes, James’ are on
there more than anyone else’s.
“In some ways, you have got
to put us on your shoulders in
the film room, too, and we’re
going to learn from your mistakes, as well,” Ferry says.
It’s also crucial that you don’t
elevate a bad apple to stardom.
“Ultimately, your superstar
has to have character for it to
really work,” Ferry says. “That
person having solid character
is hugely important to the
potential success for the
whole organization.
With solid character, the rest
of your organization will try to
emulate that behavior.
While it’s important to build
up your best person, you also
have to be careful of depending on them too much, which
is something that, like all managers, Brown has had to work
at with his team.
“It’s hard because [James]
is such a good player,” Ferry
says. “We want to say, ‘Hey,
here’s the ball, OK?’ and he
can make things happen, but
staying with it and putting
him more on the back end
has been one of Mike’s focuses, and the offense has
moved better.”
On top of that, Ferry says the
team has done better this past
year at playing well when
James is out than it has in the
past, which wouldn’t have happened if Brown focused only
on James.
“It’s a balance, and Mike
Brown has to have the credibility to say, ‘Hey, I’m putting
us in the best position to win,’”
Ferry says.
As the leader, it’s important
to utilize your best people to
leverage the team, but it’s also
important to explain why your
star was or wasn’t placed on
a project. Doing this fosters
trust and builds stronger
communication between
manager and employee, and
Ferry says Brown does this
with his players.
“He’s very honest and open
upfront, ‘This is going on, this
is going on — I’m going to play
you, but this is what I expect,
or I’m not going to play you
because of these issues,’” Ferry
says. “If you communicate
afterward, it makes it more
challenging because there isn’t
as much trust.”
Balancing all of this with
everything else you have to
worry about as a manager can
seem tough, but Ferry boils it
down to the fundamentals.
“Whatever it is, you have to
win people over with honesty, caring and character,
and you have to be consistent — and doing those
things consistently.” <
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