Playbook for Success

A Hall of Famer's Business Tactics for Teamwork and Leadership

Nancy Lieberman

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780470905074
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

A top coach teaches the sports-related skills and basics every women needs to succeed

There are basics that every woman must have if she is to succeed in the corporate world, start and run her own business, or coach her own winning team. In Playbook for Success, Hall of Fame Business Entrepreneur Nancy Lieberman brings her leadership and coaching ability to the boardroom to teach professional women the same rules of success she teaches her players.

Playbook for Success is a plan to help make success a part of one's daily routine and teach women that success is not just a title or corner office, but an attitude, belief, and way of life.

• Teaches the top sports-related skills women need to thrive in the corporate world, featuring a provocative examination of women and teamwork
• Includes profiles of women succeeding in business, ways to recognize your own strengths and weaknesses, and exercises that can be used in the business world
• Foreword by Basketball Hall of Famer and business legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson

Playbook for Success gives you a unique and inspirational road map to compete and win in your life and career.

1

Why Sports and Business for Women?

Never stop working, wanting, or dreaming.

—NANCY LIEBERMAN

How does a poor girl from Far Rockaway, New York, defy the odds and become a Hall of Fame basketball player, coach, author, television analyst, entrepreneur, and mom? The simple answer is luck, and in many cases, I created my own luck. However, the complete story about how I got from there to here involves love, passion, faith, vision, fearlessness, and a stubborn will to succeed.

I’ve lived my own Playbook for Success, and it comes naturally to me. Now I’m putting it all down in this book to share what I’ve learned with you: the secrets and steps that will take you to new levels of success you didn’t think were possible. Well, they are! I know this from firsthand experience. My life has been about overachieving and showing people that they, too, could do anything they wanted to do—if they had a plan and were willing to put in the hard work.

The streets of New York gave me a toughness that has helped me to survive and keep moving forward when everything seemed hopeless. If not for the playbook provided to me at a young age by Lavoiser Lamar, one of my coaches in Harlem, you might not be reading my book—or absorbing and utilizing this plan for your own personal growth and success.

My days on the courts proved invaluable in developing my competitive spirit. They taught me not only how to win but also how to use my losses as tools for evaluating myself, zeroing in on my weaknesses, and turning them into strengths. I had to be honest: Did I make myself and others around me better? Now, you might be shaking your head and wondering, “How does athletic experience translate into business success?” Well, whether you’re a female doctor, lawyer, stockbroker, sales or marketing associate, business manager or owner, it’s still a man’s world, and we women must be able to communicate, interact, earn respect, lead, and impact everyone who comes in contact with us. Playbook for Success: A Hall of Famer’s Business Tactics for Teamwork and Leadership will let you in on something men have been doing for a very long time: connecting through, and using what they’ve learned by participating in, sports, to get ahead in the business world.

I made history as the youngest Olympic basketball player ever, but that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t played in the schoolyard against the boys. They pushed me, made me work harder, and taught me to show up—and toughen up, both mentally and physically—if I intended to play in their game. Man, did I take some bruises to my body and ego early on! But those lessons taught me to keep coming back and get better. Along the way, I developed a successful strategy for self-improvement—one that I still utilize today.

Want to know how I always got into the basketball games at Harlem’s Rucker Park? Simple: To be allowed to play, you had to hit your foul shots. The first 10 players to do so were automatically in the game. Well, I couldn’t dunk, and I wasn’t as fast or as strong as the guys, but I could hit my foul shots. When the baddest dudes with all the talent couldn’t, I could. That, my friend, is what got me on the court time after time, and left those guys who threw up the bricks from the foul line sitting in the stands waiting for their turn to play. I found my strength and a strategy, and I used them to be successful. I didn’t know at the time that I was using a Playbook for Success, but I was.

Once I proved myself to be a worthy contributor, the guys began to respect me, protect me, and share with me what they knew about the game. To this day, so many of those simple but vital strategies I learned back then play a huge part in my interactions as a business leader—with both men and women. I’m in the business of sports, a multibillion-dollar industry; in fact, it’s the fourteenth largest-grossing industry sector—larger than the steel and railroad industries. My point is, love and/or knowledge of sports can bring you into the loop and help you to generate trust, close a deal, and build lasting friendships. Sports can teach us girls that we can do anything. Vice President Joe Biden made that point in an interview on ESPN, given when he attended the 2010 women’s basketball championship game between Connecticut and Stanford. He sat a couple of rows from the floor, at center court, with his two young granddaughters. When asked why he was there, Biden replied: “I tell my daughter and my granddaughters they can do anything a boy can do. Sports gives you overwhelming confidence.”

Sure, I played the game, but even those who didn’t can use the same strategies and techniques I developed as an athlete to conduct business on an equal playing field with both men and women. How did my involvement with sports contribute to my successful business development? Let me count the ways:

1. Leadership skills

2. Discipline

3. Ability to participate on a team

4. Communication

5. Self-confidence

6. Goal-setting skills

7. Vision

8. Positive attitude

9. Perseverance

10. Resilience

11. Healthy competiveness

Wow, that’s a long list. And let me add that you find your love and passion in sports; they teach you how to read people and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them in the trenches.

Why do I use a playbook analogy? Because, throughout my life I have lived the connection between sports and business. Women who never played sports or who aren’t interested in them often find themselves relegated to the sidelines and lacking vital knowledge. That’s why I believe strongly that all businesswomen need my Playbook for Success. So many of us were given the chance to participate in sports in our youth—and it was the purest form of competition. We played with and against one another in the neighborhood. We watched sports together on television. I remember to this day getting chills when the New York Knicks won the NBA title in 1970 against the Los Angeles Lakers. I can recall injured team captain Willis Reed limping out of the tunnel for his dramatic entrance for game 7 of that series. Similarly, I can still see Michael Jordan hitting a buzzer-beater to win a game.

Sports stir emotions that connect strangers to each other. Just think what that same experience can do for you in a meeting, with a key client, or among your staff. It reinforces success for both men and women; it’s an economic force. It can help you communicate, relate to clients, and grow your sales.

Consider a survey conducted by Oppenheimer Funds a few years ago that surveyed 401 female senior executives. The results found that 82 percent of them had played organized sports after elementary school. Coincidence? I don’t think so. When asked, the respondents claimed that their experiences playing team sports contributed significantly to their business success and provided them with leadership skills, greater discipline, and the ability to function well as part of a team. They also said sports helped them deal more effectively with failure and gave them a competitive edge.

No doubt about it: The workplace favors athletes, whether male or female. A sports background enhances your passion for winning and teaches you “soft skills,” such as how to read nonverbal clues, focus in the midst of chaos, and support others. I know this because I have more than 35 years experience playing and coaching basketball, starting and running several successful businesses, and working within ESPN and other major companies. Thanks to these experiences, I have developed a passion for winning and working at a higher level. In this book I want to teach you the “plays” you need to master to reach that same level of success—no matter how big or small the league you’re playing in.

Being able to communicate and bond in the workplace is absolutely critical, and I assure you that two of your greatest assets will be developing an appreciation for sports and understanding their connection to business. Yes, sports! Reading the red (i.e., sports) section of USA Today, for example, is a great way to bond and develop friendships before any deal is ever discussed. Think about it: Don’t you enjoy working with people you like and connect with? More important, if you can hang with the boys, you can sell to the boys!

When I emphasize how important sports are to your career, I don’t just mean being able to participate in the discussion about the big playoff game the night before (though that always helps); I am talking about competition in a larger sense—being able to apply to the workplace the valuable lessons of teamwork and leadership we can learn in sports. I firmly believe that success flows from becoming the best you can be, from constant self-improvement, and from the pursuit of personal excellence. This is the philosophy that underlies every play in this book. Once you tap into the ability to recognize your own potential, the rest of the plays will follow.

The workplace is as competitive as any playing field, and knowing how to compete is a big part of learning how to win consistently, and can give you an immediate advantage over a colleague who never set foot on a soccer field, wielded a lacrosse stick, or dribbled a basketball.

But what if that nonathletic colleague is you? Never fear! That’s what Playbook for Success is designed to do: arm you with the sportsthemed tools of a professional athlete, no matter what your sports background. You don’t have to be a player to understand and use sports to get ahead in business. You can be a fan—anyone can. Whether it’s your hometown team, or the team in the city in which you do business, sports talk is a great icebreaker. It can be exactly what you need to start a conversation that bonds someone to you and ends with you getting the job, the client, or the next big order.

Discussing sports also can be an effective equalizer, giving you the chance to connect with someone you’ve never met, as well as a reason to connect again. However, women frequently don’t know how to start this type of casual conversation, so instead they head right into the thick of negotiating. Believe me, it’s easy to pick up a few sports-related tidbits on your car radio; or glance at the sports section of the local newspaper; or turn on ESPNews to get the quick-hit headlines of the day; or log on to one of the numerous sports sites on the Internet. Do you want to know how many people have been hired in business because they are alumni from the same school as their employer? That’s called loyalty, and it happens in business all the time. You’ll have a definite advantage with someone in a position to give you a job if you are able to “speak the same language,” share common memories, and be a fan of teams from your mutual alma mater.

Honestly, you don’t have to be a former player or sports fanatic to learn how to use sports as a tool for winning in your business. Anyone can be a winner by having faith, self-confidence, and the correct mind-set. Muhammad Ali has said many times, “It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.” Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? You have the opportunity to practice success each and every day. Own it!

At nine years old, I walked into our kitchen in Far Rockaway, New York, and had a conversation with my mother, Renee, that changed my life. She told me that little girls didn’t play sports, because it wasn’t a ladylike thing to do, and that I would never make anything of myself if that’s all I cared about. I looked at her, stood up, put my hands on my hips, and said, “I am going to make history. Get used to it.”

I have no clue now where that assertiveness came from and how I found the chutzpah to say that to my mother, in her kitchen, at nine years old. But I can tell you that that was what was in my heart. And still is.

To be the best, and be perceived as the best—whether in sports or in business—you’re going to have to face a lot of competition. I look back on my basketball career now and I can see that it has always been about execution. It’s no different today: writing this playbook is an expression of my desire to share with you how to execute the winning plays so that you can consistently achieve high levels of success at whatever you choose to do in your life. Doing so brings me great joy and personal satisfaction. I was told a long time ago that if you have something good, you should share it with others. My life has been about dedicating myself to and accepting any challenge placed in front of me. Learning how to work well with others, help make them better, and not be afraid to fail, is what it’s all about. No matter what happens in life, in business or on the basketball court, you must learn to execute in tandem with other people.

Often, success on the court requires a teammate doing the grunt work for you by setting the monster screen to get the shooter open. No job is too big and no job is too small. So ask yourself: Have you been there to help a coworker lately? Have you shared a great strategy or leadership skill with others around you? Do you give more than you take? Do you smile a lot? Working together and executing ideas as a team are critical to success in any business, not just sports.

We all have epiphanies in life. I had one in 1974 at 15 years old, when I was chosen to try out for the U.S.A. National Basketball Team. Forty women were flown in from all over the country to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Of those 40, only 10 would be chosen to attend a training camp under renowned coach Alberta Cox.

The second day of tryouts I had my ribs broken; the next day, I was on my way back to Far Rockaway. Coach Cox was sitting in the front seat of the car that was taking me back to the airport. From what I remember, she was from the Midwest—Missouri—and fairly stern. Now imagine me, a kid from Queens with my harsh New York accent (an accent that, later in life, I paid a speech coach $2,000 to teach me to lose, for a job at ESPN—true story!) So, we’re in the car, and Coach turns to me and says, “Now, honey, we’re going to need you in 1980, because you’re going to be a very important part of U.S.A. basketball.”

I looked at her and said, “Coach, you know I’m not real smart or nothin’, but I do know ’76 comes before ’80, and I am going to be on the ’76 Olympic team, so you’d better get used to me.” (This conversation took place in 1974, so apparently I hadn’t changed much from the day my mom and I had our conversation in the kitchen in Far Rock.)

Coach looked at me like I was crazy—as though she couldn’t believe what had just come out of my mouth. But that’s how I felt.

All the way back to New York, I was thinking, “How dare the coach of the U.S.A. National Team tell me what I can’t be?” This woman should have been telling me what I could be and encouraging me, instead of taking my hope and my dream away.

At that point, Alberta Cox became the single most important person in my life, simply because she was the person who thought I couldn’t. Even when I was tired, didn’t feel well, wasn’t motivated, didn’t think I had it in me, I would go to the park and I would work, every single day. I would practice, over and over and over again, all of the things that I knew could make me better.

To be the best in business, you have to execute just like that—every single day. You have to deal with people in the field and in your office, with your clients, and your peers. Part of winning and using the lessons of sports involves encouraging others to be better than they ever thought they could be. You have to be the hope-giver; you have to empower people by motivating them to do things they didn’t think they could do. You also have to teach them that failure is a noble trait, in business, life, and sports. We all are capable of trying to achieve something at a higher level when we are willing to take ourselves outside our comfort zone. In essence, we have to stretch the possibilities of who we are and what we can be.

A wonderful thing happened to me in July of 1976. At just 18 years old, and a senior in high school, I stepped up on a podium, bent over, and felt the amazing sensation of an Olympic silver medal being placed around my neck. I was, and to this day remain, the youngest basketball player in history—male or female—to win an Olympic medal. But my greatest satisfaction that day was running back to the Olympic Village in Montreal, grabbing the telephone off the wall, and calling Alberta Cox—collect—to say, “Coach, thank you! Thank you for making me more than I ever thought I could be.”

Yes, it’s important to have true belief and inner confidence in yourself, others around you migh...

Table of contents

• Praise
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 - Why Sports and Business for Women?
• Chapter 2 - The Playbook
• Chapter 3 - Find Your Love and Passion
• Chapter 4 - Never Fear Success
• Chapter 5 - Think Like a Champion
• Chapter 6 - It’s All about Teamwork
• Chapter 7 - Do Your Homework
• Chapter 8 - Stay in Shape
• Chapter 9 - Sports Talk
• Chapter 10 - Game Time!
• SPORTS TALK—GLOSSARY
• INDEX