Lessons in IT Transformation: Technology Expert to Business Leader

Leveraging People's Unique Talents

As a sports fan, I am always fascinated by the approaches coaches take to developing high-performing teams. On more than one occasion, I have seen coaches bring in “their system” and try to get the team to adapt to it. As a long-suffering fan of the New York Jets, I recently watched as the team tried to adapt to a new coach who was a proponent of a “3-4” defensive scheme. The problem with this approach was that the personnel on the team had been recruited for, and were better suited to, a “4-3” defensive scheme. It was painful watching players who had spent years trained to play on the line trying to play from a standing position, and vice versa. The results were not good. The Jets wound up deciding to keep this system and simply trade the players who couldn't adapt to it. They hired free agents who were better suited to play in this scheme. A year later, they fired their coach! Most leaders in a corporate setting don't necessarily have the luxury of making “wholesale” changes to personnel simply to fit their scheme.

I was also fortunate enough to see a different type of leadership exhibited by Pat Riley. Many of you probably remember Pat Riley from his days as the coach of the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. Back in the 1980s, the Lakers and Celtics battled every year for the NBA championship, with both teams taking home the trophy multiple times. The Lakers were famous for playing a type of game that became known to basketball fans as Showtime ...