What Corporate America Can Learn from Basketball
Basketball has always been near and dear to me. In college, I was a three-year starting guard at Yale University. I spent nearly five years working at the National Basketball Association. During my tenure as the Marketing Director for NBA Latin America and Managing Director for NBA Japan, I had the privilege of helping the NBA and the sport of basketball plant roots in diverse cultures outside of the U.S. I’ve seen firsthand how love of the game can transcend boundaries. Race, gender, nationality, and class—these identifiers all seem to fade away during a quality game of pickup or when watching the greatest players on TV.
Today, professional basketball players and other athletes are role models and conduits for both cultural and economic change. From Serena Williams advocating for women’s rights to Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and systemic oppression—athletes can play critical roles as change agents in our country’s racial journey. For all these reasons, when my friend Greg Taylor, Executive Director of the NBA Foundation, invited me to join him and ESPN’s Maria Taylor for an NBA town hall discussion focused on these issues, I was thrilled to attend.
Our discussion focused on investing in Black futures and the systemic challenges facing young Black students and professionals. Here are my takeaways from the discussion:
1. Today, a college education does not guarantee economic mobility for people of color, and that disconnect explains the wealth gap.
Nearly 500,000 Black, Latinx, and Native American students graduate from four-year universities every year. 60% of those graduates leave college either unemployed or in positions that do not require a college degree. Those who do successfully secure employment are paid roughly 10% less than their white peers, and that number only widens with time spent on the job. This trend results in educated people of color averaging a net worth that is 80% lower than that of their white counterparts and 20-25% lower than white individuals without a college degree (Sources: NCES and CEPR).
These long-term discrepancies are what we refer to as the systemic wealth gap. And, of course, the ongoing pandemic has only magnified the existing disparities. The goal then becomes moving people of color firmly into the middle class, where there is a heightened career trajectory, where people and their families can be safer during a pandemic, and where they can cultivate generational wealth in the form of savings that can be passed down.
2. It’s time for corporate America to find a new playbook on recruitment.
During our discussion, Greg shared how the NBA Foundation is focused on intentionally connecting young Black professionals with meaningful employment. The use of “intentional” and “meaningful” are key to me here. Today, the corporate world requires a shift away from the current approach to recruitment, which looks a lot like elite college admissions. Companies list career opportunities on their websites and make the application available, they do outreach at a few feeder schools and organizations that overlap directly with their white executives’ alma maters, and then they expect the talent pipeline to flow right to their front door. If it does not, then that reinforces their false narrative that the pipeline is not there.
The sports world remains one of the closest manifestations of meritocracy in our society—if you have talent and you’re willing to work hard, you don’t get lost. Regardless of identifiers, such as ethnicity or race, determination and skill can allow an individual to excel and close societal gaps. This blueprint would greatly benefit the corporate world as it navigates recruiting, developing, and retaining employees, especially those of color.
3. If corporate America wants employees to stick around and become superstars, they need to develop them like athletes.
By studying the way in which athletic talent is developed in the sports world, I’ve identified the core areas where employers should improve their efforts:
- Athletes are given high accountability coaching on all aspects of their performance at every stage. Whether a fifth-grade recreational athlete, a high school or college player, or a pro athlete, this coaching is provided at every stage of one’s professional career. In corporate America, that level of high-accountability coaching is only available to senior executives, usually when they experience challenges. This is an extremely important distinction from the occasional mentoring individuals tend to receive in the world outside of sports where 99% of us pursue economic mobility.
- In the sports world, the requirements to take one’s performance to the next level are made extremely clear. Beyond high-accountability coaching, athletes are given a playbook that clarifies what they need to demonstrate to get to the next level. Further, we surround them with a network of peers and mentors to accelerate their growth and keep them on track every step of the way. Unfortunately, this approach to talent is not present in the academic and professional worlds, where coaching is reserved only for senior executives, and the criteria to even get there in the first place is very unclear.
If employers applied these insights from sports to the professional development of their own staff, they would advance racial equity, drive improved performance, and productivity among all employees, and see improved business results overall.
It’s not a pipedream either; it’s the foundation of the work that MLT and the NBA Foundation do every day. Each year, the team at MLT secures high-trajectory job offers for 90% of our undergraduates and placement in top business schools for 90% of our MBA Prep students. Furthermore, the #MLTBlackEquityatWork Certification has established the comprehensive standard for racial equity in the workplace, with 25+ leading companies having committed to driving change and accountability. Shaping the corporate world into a true meritocracy—that’s my American dream.
Epistemic Leadership Consultant & Coach | Storyteller | Speaker | Author | Heroin to Harvard; Epistemic Leadership Master Class
3 年You nailed it John. If corporations saw their entire workforce as a team, and applied the principles of coaching to that team, performance would increase dramatically and everyone would win. The same is true for recruitment. I've seen it work in South Africa in the years following the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. Can you imagine what it was like bringing white and black South Africans together immediately after Apartheid ended? The only comparison I can make is trying to do the same thing in the US when slavery was abolished; not easy to say the least. But using the team concept was one of the tools I used to break down barriers and it worked. There are still challenges in SA but it's a much different world today than when I first arrived in 1991 after we graduated from HBS. This is great work John and I applaud you for your efforts and the difference you've made in the lives of many.
Independent International Trade and Development Professional
3 年Your article is so “right on,” John. Thanks for posting! And best!
Managing Partner/Private Wealth Advisor at Clearview Wealth Partners
3 年johnny, well written and the timing of this couldnt be more timely! Well done!!
President and CEO at Dorval & Chorne Financial Advisors
3 年John Rice This is a fascinating article and I appreciate the work you are doing. It prompted me to look around a bit. Statista indicates that in 2018, roughly 54% of companies in the US had CEOs identifying as POC. From 2007 through 2018, the number of Asian/Indian and Hispanic/Latino CEOs approximately doubled. The share of African American CEOs dropped from 6% down to 5%! It appears corporate America has done an exceptional job of increasing economic mobility for POC, but not specifically for African Americans. Also, I looked at the racial diversity of the NBA and roughly 17% of NBA players identify as white. While corporate America has become much more racially diverse, it appears the NBA is much less diverse with 74.2% identifying as Black. Only 2.2% of players were Hispanic/Latino and 0.4% are Asian/Indian. I agree with the premise that player development in basketball is critical, but the players that move up are mostly based on merit and not specifically race. That has produced a highly racially segmented group of players and yet I have yet to see any outrage over 74.2% of NBA players being Black. We continue to see outrage over the lack of Black representation as CEOs. I don't understand?
A MOD since birth, now dealing from the corner office at The House of MOD;** recovering business consultant / strategic marcom practitioner; sometimes a prime mover behind the scenes, sometimes a gadfly on the wall
3 年Terry Lyons was at the NBA for 27 years so he saw much of its growth firsthand. He summarizes the evolution of the sport quite nicely. I would add these points: 1. Black athletes took on leadership roles in the NBA faster than in any other sport. Formed in 1946, the NBA added its first Black players in 1950, and its first Black superstars transformed the game from 1955 on. In 1965 Oscar Robertson became the first Black president of any national sports or entertainment union (the National Basketball Players Association). In 1966 the Celtics' Bill Russell became the first Black head coach in any professional sport. 2. The 1960 US Olympic gold medal team had a huge influence on the sport's international development. That team, coached by Pete Newell and co-captained by Robertson and Jerry West, put on a nightly clinic in how to play the game. Newell went on to give clinics around the world. 3. Basketball's most important lesson is flexibility. The game itself is simple. Its 5 fundamental skills require purposeful work and repetition to master. But because few plays work exactly as drawn up, the ability to read and react in the moment is also critical. Command of the fundamentals enables a player to execute in those situations.