Salespeople, Managers, and Isiah Thomas

I grew up a New York Knicks fan, possibly because I was raised Catholic and I can’t just have nice things. In the 90’s is was great and frustrating at the same time. Patrick Ewing, John Starks, and Charles Oakley made up this gritty, blue-collar team that was willing to fight, dive into the stands, and claw for every win.

Less so in the 2000’s.

As part of the Bad Boy Pistons of the late 80’s and early 90’s, Isiah Thomas lead the Detroit Pistons into being a powerhouse basketball team, wining back-to-back NBA championships in 1989 and 1990. Thomas is listed as one of the top 50 NBA players of all time on most, if not all, lists.

Then he became President and later Head Coach of the Knicks. My beloved team was being helmed by one of the top point guards of all time, and I was excited as to what they could accomplish. Boy was I wrong. In two years as the Knicks head coach, Thomas only won 56 of 164 games, with a winning percentage of only 34%.

Many of you can say “well it was not Thomas’ team. He did not get to build it. You are wrong. Thomas was President of Basketball Operations from 2003-2008. He got to pick EVERY MEMBER of his team. He also had the highest combined team salary in NBA for many of the years he was President, all of which never resulted in a playoff appearance.

Why is this? Shouldn’t the best players be the best coaches?

Not. At. All.

Let’s look on the other side of the out-of-bounds line. Who are the top coaches. Bleacher Report says the top 5 coaches are Larry Brown, Pat Riley, Gregg Poppovich, Red Auerbach, and Phil Jackson.

Of this list, only three of the top coaches every played at the professional level, and only Larry Brown was ever an All Star (3x in the ABA). Everyone else was either a position player or never played professional basketball.

This is not limited to Isiah Thomas either. Many of the best athletes fail at a coaching or managing level. Simply look into the coaching or managing careers of Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Bart Starr, Willis Reed, Mike Singletary, and Dick Lebeau. These were all top players who lost more games than they won. Some of them significantly so.

So looking at this, think about your company’s promotion strategy. Who do they generally promote to the role of sales manager? What typically happens?

There is a reason for this. In order to be a top producer, you need to be super IMPATIENT. You need to have a very GO GO GO attitude. That is the way most top salespeople get to the top.

As a contrast, a good coach/manager needs to be PATIENT. They need to take the time to teach their salespeople one thing at a time and make sure they understand it before moving on to the next thing.

Think about this when you promote, hire, or are looking for a promotion yourself. Take the time to learn how to teach and lead, not just how to sell.