bcg blog

Keep It Simple

One of the more difficult aspects of coaching basketball is helping players understand, and embrace, their role on the team. It’s much easier in other sports like football, baseball, or volleyball. The position in those sports draw a fairly clear distinction in what a player should and shouldn’t be doing. The left tackle on a football team isn’t throwing passes and the quarterback isn’t usually running pass patterns. 

That clarity isn’t as present in basketball. In the age of positionless basketball, centers dribble and guards post up, and everyone shoots threes! For the most part, everyone does everything. While this provides a different dynamic to a team, it also blurs the lines of duties and roles. And, not too many things are more detrimental to a team than blurred duties and roles. 

Sometimes it can be difficult to identify who has a full grasp on their role and who doesn’t, but the primary indicator is easy to find. We don’t need to ask questions or survey other people. We just need to know the answer to one question:

Do they keep it simple?

Why Should We Care?
Consistently trying to do more than you are capable of doing is a crystal clear indicator of a blurred role. By trying to do more, they are demonstrating their lack of acceptance for their current role and what the team needs them to do. Beyond that, they are also downplaying the importance of the role they currently hold.

Roles are empowering. 
Clarity creates conviction. 

When defining roles for our team it is imperative that there is no room for misinterpretation - bright lines only. Of course, we need to articulate the “Dos & Don’ts” but more importantly we need to articulate the “Probably Shoulds & Probably Shouldn’ts”. These are the decision-making areas that tend to smear the line the most. 

Roles add value.
Clarity grows impact.

While most people view roles as limiting, we like to look at a role as a way to add value to someone. By putting people in the best situations for them to succeed, we are playing to their strengths where they will ultimately contribute more, progress faster, and typically experience more joy as a result of their contribution to the greater good. The more clear that role is, the more team members can pour into all aspects of it.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Keeping it simple is not an easy thing to do as a leader. There are deadlines to be met, skills to be learned, and profits to be made. Although it may seem counterintuitive, finding a way to simplify roles for those we are leading may be the quickest path the means we are striving for. Here are a few ideas on keeping it simple:

• Brutal Honesty
  
  • Tell your people the truth. Not part of the truth. Not kinda the truth. Just tell the truth. And remove all the little softening qualifiers you like to include also - they just dilute the message. Remember, people often hear what they want to hear and that’s especially true when your message is filled with unnecessary ego massagers.
    

• Limit Options
  
  • Especially when starting out, less is more. One option creates clarity. Two options create a fog. By simplifying our choices we bring clarity to our role. It’s this … not this or this or this. Just this - over and over and over.
    

• Know Your Nos
  
  • Knowing what we don’t want is just as important as knowing what we do want. By simply eliminating some things we narrow our focus and heighten others. And, remember, saying ‘yes’ to one thing is always saying ‘no’ to something else.
    

Simplicity is magical, but it’s not easy. Far more work is required to eliminate the many so we can focus on the few than most people realize. It is, however, work that is worthwhile.

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