A Cavaliers Comeback (and the lessons within)

As a lifelong University of Virginia sports fan, I have dreamed of a moment like last night’s men’s basketball national championship. Virginia’s remarkable run to the finals is made that much sweeter by what they endured and overcame in last year’s tournament. There are so many great lessons in this team’s redemptive rise and I couldn’t be happier to see the Hoos lead by example. These are just a few of the things that struck me as applicable to our work and lives:

1)   Failure can be painful but it offers a new beginning. We talk a lot about failure and the value of failure in business. Expressions like ‘fail forward’ and ‘fail early and often’ border on cliché, but there is merit in the idea that a failure is not the end but often the beginning. After what was viewed as a humiliating defeat in the first round of last year’s tournament, Virginia worked its way back to the top of the ACC and overcame the jitters of another first round scare to eventually win it all. We may not all go from such lows to such highs but it is how we respond to crisis that ultimately defines our brand. The discipline and focus that Virginia displayed this year is a model to us all as we look to rebuild and improve.

2)   Write your own narrative; don’t let others tell your story. As important as failure can be, we need to be careful not to minimize the pain of failures. There are countless articles detailing the brutal ridicule and social media insults that Virginia players had to endure last year after losing to a sixteen seed. In business, as in life, hindsight makes everyone a critic. We are quick to question products and approaches that don’t produce the expected results, without giving enough credit to the elements inside that were working. Last year’s Virginia team won the ACC regular season and the ACC tournament and was 31-3 overall. Still, their success before the tournament was largely forgotten after their loss to UMBC. It would have been easy for them to collapse and buy into the narrative that others wished to assign. Tony Bennett made sure this did not happen. He and the returning team members found the best way to rewrite their story: first in their own minds, then with each other, and finally with all of us.

3)   Rely on the team to give you strength. It would have been a daunting task to overcome the negativity Virginia faced all alone. Everyone should be as lucky to have a coach like Tony Bennett and a team as uniformly supportive as the Cavaliers. When we have failures, it is much easier to start over when you know you can count on your teammates to lift you up. In business we should actively support our risk-taking colleagues and find mentors who will do the same for us.  The images of De'Andre Hunter consoling Kyle Guy at the end of last season, or Hunter, Guy and Jerome all smiling at each other when they missed a shot throughout this year’s tournament, are important reminders that we must learn to rely on each other to move forward.

4)   Defense is just as important as offense. Much has been written about how boring defensive basketball can be. (Hopefully, last night’s game diffuses that sentiment.) The same notion exists in business, where many ignore risk mitigation and scenario planning as a waste of time. However, the success of Virginia’s pack-line defense speaks for itself and arguably the best offense is a good defense. As a former brand manager, I know that half a brand’s success is understanding where the market is moving and how to stay one step ahead of the competition. From creating turnovers and forcing bad shots to controlling the pace, there is much that can be learned from the right blend of defensive strategy.

5)   Success is where preparation meets opportunity.  This is a mantra that was posted in the Virginia locker room but applies just as much to today’s job market. There is too much presumption in our current workforce that one can enter a job and make an immediate impact. It’s good to believe in yourself, but you can bet that Kyle Guy didn’t hit three consecutive clutch free throws without years of practice. Yes, it’s good to have confidence, but it’s just as valuable to be self-aware and accept that you have to build your skills in order to be able to deliver in the big moments. 

6)   Share the ball. Share the praise. The last and perhaps most admirable quality of this Virginia team is their humility. They have been criticized for taking too much time off the shot clock and passing the ball too much, but this formula allows them to find the individual with the best shot. The team has many stars who can shoot but they know how to put ego aside for the benefit of the collective whole. Ty Jerome is an incredible shooter but he is just as impressive when providing the perfect assist. What if we were all judged more not on the shots we hit, but on the shots we set up?