Great Coaches Care About Their Players Learning, Not About Being Right
David Griffin (@dg_riff) was the General Manager of The Cleveland Cavaliers from 2014 to 2017. As general manager, Griffin repositioned the organization for continued and sustainable success via the draft and trades, while managing the salary cap to sign key free agents in the summer of 2014, namely LeBron James. David Griffin helped the Cavs reach three straight NBA Finals in his three year tenure with the Cavs.
In this video, Griffin, explains the importance of coaches recognizing that different players learn in different ways, and that a one-size-fits-all approach to coaching isn’t always effective – even when you’re right. To Griffin, the one thing that great coaches have in common is passion for getting the message across, not being right. Coaches may think they're right in the way they teach players, but if the player doesn't understand the message, it's not the players fault. In reality, Griffin says, coaches need to take ownership and try other methods to get their message across in a way that will resonate with that player so they learn. Overall, Griffin says that great coaches are more interested in doing right by the player than being right themselves.