Don’t blink.
Thirty years ago this week I received a call from a gentleman named Gerry Ryan, head of business at the Philadelphia 76ers, and offered me a job that would change my life. I was making a rare jump at the time…from the college sports communications role to a top job at the NBA and was the youngest head of communications for an NBA team at the time…but to have been given this opportunity by Sixers owner Harold Katz was both scary and amazing.
Looking back thirty years there have been many cringe-worthy moments and lots of amazing people; the entire Sixers front office staff was about 36 people (now the Sixers analytics staff is probably that many), and there were lots of faking it til we made it (or didn’t make it) but the experience and best practices learned in our three years in Philly were another piece of the bedrock of what has been ana amazing run.
Some lessons that still apply.
Make Chicken Salad: The three years there were ones of transition for the team, coming off The Charles Barkley era, closing down the Spectrum, and eventually having the team sold with a new ownership group changing a great amount of staff (including myself but that’s another story). We didn’t win a great deal, but we found ways to use hustle and grit to market and storytell to a community that wanted to learn and love the athletes as people not just as players. We had A LOT of players…one of the three seasons we had 36 come in and out…and trying to listen to them, and the coaches and the salespeople, to try and find ways that we could impact the community regardless of wins and losses was the challenge. However, one lasting lesson learned was that EVERYONE has a story if you listen to them hard enough. Then you take the stories and match to a place to bring a megaphone to their whisper. Suddenly you are connecting with an audience larger than just the diehard fan and the brand legacy grows. Keep in mind this was before social media, so now that ability to amplify is much bigger than before.
Build Lasting Relationships: At the end of what I thought was a good run, Pat Croce, who was brought in by ownership to re-energize the fan base, made me one of the first casualties of the transition. Out the door, we need to start storytelling wider. While I was dumbfounded (and still am) in the way it was handled there were lessons learned that I could use for decades afterwards. One of the reasons I heard from third parties was that the team had little relationship with the editorial leadership at the city’s two newspapers, The Inquirer and The Daily News. The beat writers and columnists yes, but the editorial staff? Not much. That was on me, and it made me understand that the relationships had to come from everywhere, because you never know who, or when, you will cross paths with someone for an opportunity. It is a business of people and sitting behind a text chain or an email without knowing someone as a person who you have seen and spent time with, just makes things harder to get done. Meet the people, listen to them, and build relationships that are more than transactional.
Overcome FOMO: One of those key leadership traits that is hopefully built over time is delegation and having confidence in those you work with to get stuff done. It is really hard to be everything to everybody, and surrounding yourself with the right people and giving them the ability to do their jobs is so important, especially today when we have such a complex remote work environment. At a young age I felt like I had to be everywhere doing everything, and frankly it probably ticked many people off. You also want to get credit..a lot of credit…for doing tasks big and small. Credit is important, but getting the work done I the most important task. You don’t have to be everywhere all the time. Have confidence in those around you to keep you in the loop, to ask questions, and to manage your time in the best way possible. Now that’s not to say you do not have to manage up, and make sure that self-worth is understood and documented. We do have to keep redefining ourselves by being curious learners. It is very important that those you report to and work for understand what is getting done and its value. That does not have to be done by constantly running around taking credit. Balance the credit and the accolades around, don’t take them all on yourself. Those around you will appreciate the kudos, those above will understand the value.
Have Empathy and Understanding: When you are thrust into these situations where you have perceived power, it is very easy to forget the path from whence you came. There were more than a few moments where FOMO, overmanaging or not taking the time to fully understand a difficult situation led to misunderstandings, all of which become regrettable learning experiences over time. One thing is clear; everyone, everywhere has their own life drama going on, so if you are in a leadership situation at any age, take the time to listen and understand a bit more. Sometimes there are circumstances that we can’t control that effect something which might be seen as simple. If we listen and work together, we can problem solve and avoid drama. It’s not always about you, it’s about the collective of getting tasks done.
Employ Joy. Pressure to get stuff done, how do we deal with it. I often find that those who work for a team, a school, a league, on the sports side live and die so much with on field performance. It’s understandable, but when you work in the highly competitive atmosphere of sport, you only control certain things, and chances are wins and losses are not one of them. No matter what happens on the field you have a job to do, and it is so much better to do it joyfully and with enthusiasm than do bring drudgery to the situation. Yes, fans are emotional, media can be difficult, tensions can run high, but the best situations come from finding little tasks to lift others in the toughest times. We didn’t in a great deal with the Sixers, but we found ways to bring lemonade from lemons. Much of that came from the eventual joy we found in each other, even if we did not realize it at the time.
Thirty years flies by, but I treasure those memories, even the tough ones, and the people and the places so much. It set in place a path which we didn’t really comprehend or could not have fathomed in many ways, but the lessons learned then, with those people, keep giving back to this day.
Thanks to all those who toiled in the basement of Veteran’s Stadium back then. If we knew then what we know now…
