Recently, in many of my coaching sessions, I have been encouraging leaders to think of themselves like college coaches. The current trends and generational differences mean people aren’t staying in roles for 30-years anymore; they move every 3-5 years. A college coach understands this. They generally have players for four years, and if they are really good it might be less than that. They get the most out of the people they have while they have them, knowing many will move on. The current employment situation is the same – people stay in jobs for a few years then move on to new jobs or different companies. To expand this concept, the leader’s role is to:
• Have a strong recruiting strategy/pipeline
• Hire people with great attitudes and potential
• Develop and train them while they are with you
• Aim to get the most out of them while they are on your team
• Understand they will likely move on
• Occasionally you might get lucky, when someone stays a bit longer
• Don’t begrudge people their career moves
Think about someone like Tom Izzo at Michigan State. He has run a consistently successful basketball program since 1995 knowing that his teams were all transitional. I noted a couple of his rules that add to my list:
• (The Coach) doesn’t determine playing time, the player does
• A player-coached team is better than a coach-coached team