Leadership Lessons From Linsanity

Sports often provides good leadership lessons and this is true for the phenomena known as “Linsanity”. Even casual sports fans have heard about Linsanity the term that refers to the buzz being created by Jeremy Lin the New York Knicks overnight sensation. Lin’s saga is like “Rocky Balboa plays in the NBA” because Lin wasn’t supposed to be doing what he’s doing.

Just to re-cap what Lin has done. The New York Knicks were struggling with a record several games below five hundred and playing without their best player.  Out of desperation Lin was inserted into the lineup and since then he has led the Knicks to seven wins in their last eight games. He’s averaging 25 points and more than nine assists per game while outplaying some of the best players in the NBA including Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki.

Why is this so special? Because according to all the experts and using all the data available to the NBA’s brain trusts Lin wasn’t supposed to be playing in the NBA let alone carrying a left for dead franchise on his back.

Lin was undrafted out of college because his stats and size weren’t anything special and he played at Harvard which isn’t known for producing NBA players.  Lin is also the first-ever American born player of Taiwanese descent.  The bottom line was Jeremy Lin just didn’t fit the established profile of an elite NBA player. Although he did make to the NBA he was cut twice this year before joining the Knicks. He saw little action and has averaged less than 3 points a game.

The coaches and experts who assess talent looked at Jeremy’s profile and used that to judge his ability to play basketball. It wasn’t until he was given a chance to actually play the game that the experts were proven wrong.

So what’s the lesson here for business leaders? The NBA like most businesses is looking for ways to minimize risk and to make good business decisions (i.e. selecting players). To that end they’ve developed metrics and profiles of what an elite NBA player looks like. However relying too heavily on the data can blind them from seeing real talent that exists outside the profile parameters.

This happens in business as well.  Business leaders spend more and more time looking at data and forget to look at the actual business.  As important as data and metrics are, business leaders must not confuse good data with good judgment.  In your efforts to quantify, systematize, incrementalize and operationalize all aspects of business you must not abdicate judgment. Data and metrics are supposed to help make decisions not make them for you.

Think back for a moment about the number of bad business decisions that you’ve seen that were made based on good data. The data said that this would be a great location; the data said that she would be a perfect candidate; the data said that we couldn’t miss. The list of examples is almost endless.

If you want a great basketball player watch him play basketball.  If you want to understand your customers better talk to them. If you want to engage your employees spend time with them.

Linsanity is a celebration of an individual who overcame the short comings of his “profile” by showcasing his talent where it mattered most… on the court. To apply the leadership lessons from Linsanity make sure that you celebrate your decisions where they count most by using data as a guide for your good judgement.