Checking in From #SHRM15 – Back To Leadership Basics?

Sunday afternoon brought the kick off to the 2015 SHRM Annual Conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  After a surprise visit from Vegas legend Penn Jillette, and usual opening comments by emcee Juana Hart Ackers and SHRM CEO Hank Jackson, attendees had the opportunity to hear some words of wisdom about building a successful team from NCAA winningest coach of the Duke men’s basketball team, “Coach K” Mike Krzyzewski.

It was apparent that there were mixed emotions in the crowd about the coach himself, depending on where your college basketball loyalties lie.  In the bloggers lounge where I was, a number of my fellow bloggers made their distaste for Duke well known.  I personally have no specific loyalty to any school, so for me it mattered not.  Generally speaking, I didn’t find Coach K to be the most motivational speaker I’ve seen at SHRM from a stage presence perspective, but he had some nuggets of wisdom to share that were on point.

As I looked back at my notes and my tweets from the session, one thing that became apparent is that there was nothing truly earth shattering about what Coach K offered.  What it seemed is that he was actually encouraging us to take a step back, go back to basics, and focus on the little things.

Here’s what I took away:

You’re Great, But You Can Be Greater

Encouragement is an important component of leading a team.  Everyone wants to feel important, so ensure that they know what they’re doing well, but don’t let it end there.  You need to encourage and push your team members to want to continue to be better.  Great teams need leadership at all levels, so allow your people to focus on what they do well, and keep pushing them to be more.

Personal Accountability

For a team to be great, you have to get everyone to own what they are doing.  One way to do that is to have team standards rather than rules.  When you lay down rules, those rules can only be obeyed (or not).  If you develop standards, that’s something everyone can buy into and take ownership of.  Coach K’s number one standard on his teams is “no excuses.”

A Culture of Caring

As a leader, take the time to really know your people.  Create and nurture an environment where everyone has each other’s back.  Coach K’s “3 E’s” to a winning team are energy, emotion, and enthusiasm…it’s much easier to achieve those when you have a team who truly cares about each other.

After walking attendees through these concepts, Coach K wrapped up his keynote with the following incredibly simple message: Keep feeling.  Leadership doesn’t mean distancing yourself; quite the opposite, in fact.  Show that you care, show some emotion, and encourage your team to do the same.  Create that culture where people care about the goal they are striving to reach, and through that become personally accountable for doing their part to get there.

Again, nothing truly new or radical here, but a great reminder to get the basics right.

 About the Author: Jennifer Payne, SPHR, SHRM-SCP has over 16 years of HR experience in employee relations, talent acquisition, and learning & development, and currently works in talent acquisition and development in the retail grocery industry.  She is one of the co-founders of Women of HR, and is currently the Editor of the site. You can connect with her on Twitter as @JennyJensHR and on LinkedIn.