Bill Russell, Red Auerbach and Us

With Red Auerbach as the coach and Bill Russell leading the team, the Boston Celtics won 11 championships over 13 seasons. Bill Russell recently wrote a book about his friendship with his mentor, titled Red and Me. According to a review of the book in the Wall Street Journal, Russell described how Auerbach didn't try to change his playing style to the Celtic’s style when he joined the team in 1956. Instead, Auerbach focused on making Russell a better player through his own strengths. This is a great lesson for any leader or manager, although certainly not a new one: play to people's strengths. I do think this is easier said than done, as many of us often want our people to conform. And I am not saying that this means that people don't have to be managed. But, if the employee and manager want the same end result, the employee is talented and there is mutual respect, better results will often come when the employee can focus on maximizing his or her strengths, as opposed to conforming to existing systems within the company. NY Report contributor Adrian Miller applied these principles to training sales staff in the article “How to Get Your Sales Staff to Love Training.” One caveat to all of this: I have seen times where a company needed different strengths from those of a very talented employee. In cases like these, the fit and timing just isn't right and it was best for the company to encourage the employee to look for a new opportunity.