Leadership Lessons from the Golden State Warriors

I lived in the East Bay for twelve years, and during that time I was a fan of the Golden State Warriors NBA team. Since I've moved, I've become a fan of the Sacramento Kings; but I still have a soft spot for the Warriors, and not being far away, I've been able to follow their progress pretty closely. Three years ago, team owner Joe Lacob took a huge risk in hiring Mark Jackson, a man with no coaching experience, as the team's head coach. To say that the risk paid off is a huge understatement. Under Jackson's leadership, the Warriors have performed better than they have in a quarter century, making it to the playoffs two straight years, and posting their highest number of wins in decades last year. Jackson was enormously popular with his team and the fans, but apparently not with the front office and ownership. Yesterday, in spite of his success, Jackson was handed his walking papers by the team. Here's the story from ESPN.

There are lessons in all of this for us as leaders, both from the perspective of Jackson and Lacob. From Jackson's perspective, for all his success and popularity with the team and the fans, who I think of as stakeholders, he got fired partially because he didn't do a good job of managing up. The ESPN article talks about his "boisterous personality" not meshing well with management, and some clashes with management over how to manage his assistant coaches. There's a lesson in there for all of us. As leaders, our jobs are all about managing relationships, with our staff, our stakeholders, but also with *our* managers. It's important to work on developing a trusting and respectful relationship with your manager. I obviously can't comment on what went wrong between Jackson and Lacob, but I know from my own experience that you have to invest a lot of time in that relationship. It's also important to be honest, and when you disagree with your boss to tell him or her. But it is really important to do that carefully and respectfully. Finally, it's important as a leader that you don't bring drama into the organization.

What about Lacob? This move is a risky move for him, firing a popular and successful coach. To move beyond it, he has to bring in someone who will be at least as successful as Jackson, no matter what it costs. The other thing I'd advise Lacob is to figure out how to integrate a personality like Jackson's into the organization. I noted this sentence in the ESPN article "Jackson's demeanor, which bordered on confidence and cockiness, might have ultimately cost him his job." Really? I'd make the argument that his confidence and cockiness contributed to his success as a coach. In the workplace, sometimes we have high performers who are, for want of a better word, divas. And the diva personality has to be handled carefully. It is true that sometimes it's not worth the effort. I've seen the diva personality on good, but not great, performers. That's not worth the cost. But when you have a great leader with a diva personality, figure out how to make it work.