John Wooden On Stars
by Miki Saxon and KG Charles-Harris
In spite of being severely overloaded, KG still finds time to send me stuff he finds interesting and/or inspirational.
Over the years, we’ve had many discussions about culture and its importance in hiring.
He recently mentioned a quote from basketball player and Coach John Wooden.
“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”
KG: In any high performing organization, there are lots of systems and processes that make the organization successful.
When you look at people considered stars, they are almost never part of second or third rate teams; they are almost always in organizations performing at the highest levels.
This doesn’t mean that there aren’t truly high performing people in lesser teams, it’s just that they are not defined as stars in general (sometimes they may be local stars, but generally don’t get the full recognition).
So a star, per definition, is a member of an organization that performs at the top.
Me: So true. I’d add that in most cases people become stars as a result of the culture and their manager, or so I’ve found.
KG: Exactly. Look at all the people who leave Goldman Sachs or Google who were stars there (e.g. Marissa Meyer) but are unable to maintain their level of performance outside the culture & systems of that environment.
That’s why it’s always dangerous to hire stars — more than anything else they are a product of their environment.
Me: Absolutely, and the poster child is GE’s Bob Nardelli!
(Click for more Wooden wisdom. For more information about stars and Nardelli use use the tags below.)
Image credit: Wikipedia
