Why I Root for Steve Kerr
My wife and I were having our anniversary dinner in Santa Monica, I’m pretty sure it was late November 2006. Sitting at the table next to my wife and me was another couple. The guy looked familiar but we’d never met, even though we had technically “worked together” a few years prior. Finally, as the other guy and I were being handed dessert menus I reached over to introduce myself to Steve Kerr, now head coach of the Golden State Warriors and then a TV NBA analyst for Turner Broadcasting. I let Kerr know that I had been the GM of Yahoo! Sports when we hired him to be our NBA Analyst for the 2003–04 season, before he then left to become a part-owner (and later General Manager) of the Phoenix Suns.
We laughed how we had never actually met during that time when we were both connected to Yahoo! Sports. Folks on my team had worked with his agent to put our deal together, and then our editorial team did all the work getting Kerr’s insights pulled together and packaged for delivery to fans coming to Yahoo! Sports. All of that collaboration took place many years ago, back in a media world when Yahoo! mattered way more than Google, Facebook, or Netflix. Fast forward to today and that chance meeting at a Santa Monica restaurant still resonates for me. The Steve Kerr I met that night, the Steve Kerr who was authentically happy to meet me and my wife, and who graciously appreciated his time with Yahoo! Sports, is the same Steve Kerr I see and hear when interviewed at halftime by ESPN’s Doris Burke or on a weeknight call into his University of Arizona teammate Tom Tolbert’s KNBR sports talk radio show.
So when I happened, on the eve of the 2018 NBA Playoffs, to come across a recent piece by the San Francisco Chronicle describing the evolution of Kerr as Warriors coach, I excitedly scoured the article to learn a bit more about how his role has evolved in the four seasons since he took over the team. The feature article confirmed further why I’m a Steve Kerr fan (even if I’m an Oregon native and therefore technically a Portland Trailblazer fan), and also highlighted a few really valuable leadership and management lessons that go beyond the basketball court.
Each player is different
This may be stating the obvious, but it’s so often missed by coaches and managers. In Kerr’s world, the difference between how Draymond Green is wired versus what make Klay Thompson tick is night a day. Understanding the obvious — and not so obvious — personality traits, strengths, and weaknesses of your team members is crucial. You need to get to know your teammates on their level and through their personal lens. This is why being an empathetic coach, manager, or leaders is crucial.
And there’s a corollary to this tenet. What you learn about your team members should inform how you motivate, encourage, and push them to grow and succeed. I learned this lesson during my brief stint as an assistant college baseball coach years ago. Some players, I learned, need a pat on the back when they’re struggling, while others do better with a bit of a “tough love” (or what some might call a “kick in the pants”). Part of the art in coaching and managing is understanding your team members well enough to know when to pat, when to push, and when to perhaps stand back and let the struggle progress a bit longer.
Let different voices speak
The Chronicle article describes how one of Kerr’s super powers as a coach is his ability — and what some might call his willingness — to let others around him take the stage. Plenty of examples fit here, including how he has empowered star players like Steph Curry and Kevin Durant to be star players, thus giving them the space to speak to the team, while also supporting lesser known, but equally respected, voices like those of veterans Andre Iguodala and David West. Kerr’s done this with colleagues on his coaching staff as well, making sure guys like Mike Brown and Ron Adams (and Luke Walton before he left to coach the Lakers) are heard loud and clear in the locker room, practice floor, and during crucial timeouts.
At the same time, however, Kerr’s silence and listening also enables him to speak and contribute with precision when needed. And, as a result, this cadence enables the coach to be heard. The point Kerr emphasizes in the story is how important it is to provide direct and specific feedback when needed to players so that they can improve, and to ensure that the feedback never becomes personal. This approach doesn’t just apply to how a coach needs to treat those with rare talents like professional athletes, it applies to every organization. Leaders and managers owe it to their team members to provide the feedback that supports professional growth, and to do it in a way that respects the team member as a person — as a contributor on equal footing with every other human being in the organization.
Stay connected to your players
Perhaps the point that resonated most with me from Kerr’s profile is the importance he places on staying connected with those on his team. It’s easy in today’s hyper-digital world to become consumed with processing the information flowing to us via so many channels. Yet, the fundamental success of any organization rests on how effectively those on the team create and foster relationships with one another. The Chronicle piece highlights a great anecdote of how Kerr texts Green periodically to simply “check-in” and see if they should catch up in person on anything. I suspect these check-in texts more often than not lead to an in person conversation given how much Kerr and Green are individually processing and then trying to optimize together.
As a CEO, investing time to check-in with those on my team is always something I know I can do better. I work hard to keep the cadence of my weekly 1–1s with my e-team, and I make it a point to always available to meet with anyone in the company, on any topic, at any time our calendars can mutually support a meet up. Finally, even though digital tools can sometimes be used excessively as a crutch, I do find them helpful to sync with folks on my team when I’m on the road or on weekends if needed. A note via email, Slack, or even a good old fashioned phone call is something I’m trying to make a more conscious part of my personal workflow. Like Steve Kerr, I firmly believe that making the effort to stay connected with your team lets them know their coach, manager, or CEO cares about the important work they do for the team. And what I’ve learned over the years is that I’m always more committed and connected to an effort when those leading me (or whom I essentially report to like my board) have demonstrated they really care about me and the work I’m doing every day.
A final note on Kerr
Oh, and one last note on Kerr. It’s been a bit easier to watch him lead the Warriors past my Blazers these last few years knowing that for a fleeting moment he was a Portland Trailblazer — playing in 65 games for the 2001–02 Portland squad that was swept in the first round of that year’s playoffs by the Los Angeles Lakers. The same Lakers who went on to sweep the New Jersey Nets in the NBA Finals later that spring.
Originally published on Medium on April 21, 2018. This Substack version is maintained as the canonical archive.