The magic of Larry and Magic: extraordinary team performance starts at the top.

• Author: Wiesner, Pat
• Position: On Management

A FRIEND OF MINE WAS A COLLEGE BASKETBALL player and played in Europe afterwards. He was a contemporary of Larry Bird and knows many basketball people up and down the ranks of the NBA. We got into a conversation the other day about what it would take to make the Nuggets into a true championship contender and ended up discussing what makes a basketball team great. What my friend told me is this:

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"Your No. I horse has to be great. Not just at the physical skill it takes but he has to inspire everybody else to play above their normal level. I have been told that, when Larry Bird was with the Celtics, he came with superior skills, worked harder on improving his skill than anyone else, was the first one to practice and the last to leave. He simply would do anything he could to help the team win. The result was that nobody wanted to let Larry down. And the level of play of everyone on the team went through the roof. And they won a lot of basketball games."

It was the same with Magic Johnson. He was that kind of hard worker, and his vision of success was adopted by the rest of the team because he believed so strongly.

So you and I want to be the leaders of great teams in our businesses. How should we motivate ourselves? How should we measure ourselves?

Know your business. Larry and Magic were respected for their skills. Neither would have led a great team without those skills. If you want to lead the top team in your business, you have to be the expert in your business--to the point that you are respected in and out of your company.

Get everybody playing. No matter how good the leader is, he/she can't do it alone. Everyone has to contribute. The true leader helps every other team member find his best self. He enables them to "take shots," come up with new ideas, take chances, etc. When the individual player sees that he/she is important to the leader, that's when they start to produce outside their former comfort...