Every March, millions of college basketball fans eagerly await one of the most anticipated sporting events of the year: the NCAA Tournament.
Many fans tune in to March Madness to keep an eye on their brackets, hoping to win their office pools and earn a year's worth of bragging rights. But if you look beyond your potential winnings, each game is a lesson in management that can translate to the business world.
As Professors Joseph Fuller and David Garvin explain in Management Essentials, general management is defined as coordinated action in pursuit of performance. During March Madness, no one better exemplifies management than coaches, who manage individual players with distinct skill sets to work together and achieve team goals.
Two of the sport's best—Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University and Bob Knight, formerly of Indiana University—have demonstrated four crucial management lessons during their time on the sideline.
The winning formula:
- Trust is the foundation of relationships
- Understanding the types of internal conflict is the first step to managing it
- Set high standards—winning should be expected
- Regular feedback is necessary for improvement
Both Krzyzewski and Knight have won multiple national championships, earned various coach of the year awards, and guided many players to professional careers. Although both coaches achieved significant success, their management styles are vastly different. In fact, the two became the subject of a Harvard Business School case study for their disparate approaches. We took a deep dive into the case to see how these two coaches exemplify the management skills Professors Fuller and Garvin teach in Management Essentials.
The course highlights various critical managerial responsibilities, including executing a plan, monitoring progress and performance, and providing continued support.
This support can come in all forms, from motivation to strategy advice. For Krzyzewski, it means providing emotional support tailored to each individual player with the goal of making them feel like an integral member of the program.
Providing managerial support requires understanding and addressing the types of conflict that hurts teams: cognitive or affective. Cognitive is focused on executing tasks and arises when team members disagree about how to best achieve shared goals. Affective is more emotional—this type of conflict focuses on personal incompatibilities or disputes, and is frequently what Krzyzewski prioritized.
Once, he stopped practice to ask why two of his star players, Shane Battier and Jason Williams, weren’t passing the ball to each other. He questioned their loyalty to and trust of each other, focusing more on their relationship and emotional state rather than their inability to execute a certain play. This management style impresses upon his players that they are part of a greater organization, something more important than each individual, inspiring them with the privilege and honor of membership in the Duke family.
Whereas Krzyzewski’s management focuses more on providing emotional support and managing affective conflict, Knight left little room for emotions on his court. Knight had a reputation for angry outbursts, and he was known for throwing players out of practice who weren’t performing. In one infamous instance, he even tossed a chair onto the court during a game after seeing a call he didn’t like.
This behavior resulted in a more militant culture than Duke. Knight—who was nicknamed “The General”—was a leader of his troops who was not to be crossed or questioned. Unlike Krzyzewski’s focus on managing affective conflict, Knight focused solely on performance and cognitive conflict. Good performance—running the correct plays, executing the team’s defense, and more—resulted in increased playing time for players, while poor performance subjected players to verbal tirades and extended minutes on the bench. Knight was a perfectionist who believed in his own style of basketball and relentlessly demanded it from his players, sometimes at the expense of the emotional well-being of his players.
While Krzyzewski and Knight provided support in vastly different ways, they were consistent in one regard that is crucial for good management: giving feedback. While the type of feedback might differ, every player knew that he would be provided with immediate and honest feedback. Professors Fuller and Garvin explain how important giving feedback is so that employees can improve and grow, both for their own benefit and the benefit of their organizations. Providing this feedback in a timely and consistent manner helps employees learn and turn that feedback into action for improved performance.
So as you follow the road to the Final Four, don’t forget to keep an eye on the coaches too. Each one delivers an example of management in action that offers valuable lessons you can bring with you into the business world.
Are you interested in elevating your managerial abilities? Explore our eight-week online course Management Essentials and learn about how you can gain the skills needed to effectively lead teams and initiatives.