Basketball season is almost here, and that means from time to time I'll be riffing on the connection
between talent in the workplace and the NBA. Some of you will love it, some of you will unsubscribe in response to it (don't go! work through it! feel the burn), and at least one guy will comment because of it (Lance from Your HR Guy, a Trailblazers fan..). I gotta be me, so I'm dancing with the lady that got me this far...
Please stick around. I promise to always have a talent/HR/workplace connection to my NBA posts.
Today's connection - the "grinders" in your workplace. The grinders are the folks who, on the surface, aren't as talented, gifted, well-liked, attractive, connected or socially aware as your top talent. But here's the scoop - they show up every day, work their *** off, and often times, through sheer effort and competitiveness, come close to performing as well as your star, and occasionally outperform the star.
They grind it out. Mama said knock you out, so they show up with their helmet on, hop in the test crash car you call a company, and take the licking and keep on ticking.
In basketball, the equivalent of a grinder comes in many flavors. One flavor is the guy/gal who can score, but has to get points from the free throw line because they don't jump well or aren't superquick. So they drive the ball to the basket, create contact, and go to the free throw line, usually after taking a beating.
In hoops, they call that doing the "Dantley". That's Adrian Dantley, who knew his role and how to get his.
From the esteemed Basketbawful:
"The Dantley (thuh dant'-lee) noun. Describes those performances in which a player scores a
significant number of points and more than half of those points come from the foul line.
Usage example: Kobe Bryant had a Dantley in Game 1 of the Lakers' second round playoff series against the Jazz: 38 points on 8 field goals and 21 (out of 23) freethrows.
Word history: Bob Ryan invented the term (as noted in David Halberstam's Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made) to describe how Adrian Dantley was able to ignite many of his famous scoring explosions from the foul line. Dantley scored 23177 over his 18-year ABA/NBA career, and 8351 of those points -- roughly 36 percent of them -- came from the charity stripe. He led the NBA in free throws four times (and was the league scoring champion during two of those seasons) and currently ranks sixth all-time in that category. He shares the record (with Wilt Chamberlain) for most free throws made in a regular-season NBA game (28). Dude straight up knew how to draw fouls. It helped that he could bulldoze his way to the basket with his giant ass (see below).
We love to talk about the superstars, the rockstars. Take the time to say thanks to your grinders this week, and show them some love by dropping the following in a meeting this week - "Ed's doing the Dantley on the Jones account". Once they figure out the term means that you think they're outworking everyone, they'll wear it like a badge of pride.
I am sad this post about Dantley is lost on HR people. I'll give a good summary of Dantley from my dad:
You always hated playing against Dantley. If you were keeping track of stats at home, you could automatically give him 10-12 free throws and divide up 8-10 fouls between whoever was guarding him, his backup and your low post guys. It changes your entire game.
His name never gets mentioned with the top players because the NBA was such a mess during most of his playing career (in fact, I think he was just inducted into the HOF). I think your post is spot on, the guy played beyond his talent and he made coaches of other teams frustrated nightly.
Posted by: Lance | October 21, 2008 at 10:40 AM
Excellent post -- and exactly why traditional, elitist employee recognition programs that target the top 10% of performers fail to change a company's very social architecture. We advocate recognizing the top 80-90% of employees, regularly and frequently, for their efforts, actions and behaviors that demonstrate company values or advance the company mission. Not only does this method bring the company values to life for all employees, but it changes the company culture to one of appreciation in which all employees start paying attention to the contributions of their peers -- and nominating them for recognition for exceptional efforts or performance. That type of system truly affects long-lasting, successful change in a corporate environment.
Posted by: Derek Irvine | October 22, 2008 at 02:30 PM
Derek - I agree, the world needs ditchdiggers too... Makes sense to keep them engaged...
Lance - thanks for the notes, your dad sounds like a cool guy. Here's what I'll always remember about AD - I grew to love him when the Pistons were climbing the mountain in the late 80's against the Celtics. My friends and I would mess around on the court, and of course, I would give my best AD imitation - driving to the basket, then regardless of whether I was touched, I would act like I was savagely hacked. Then I'd walk to the free throw line with zero emotion.
Grinder=AD. Then the Pistons screwed him out of a title and traded him for Mark Acquire before they won the 1990 title. Marc Acquire got the ring that AD earned! That ain't right, and that's my biggest regret as a Pistons fan...
KD
Posted by: KD | October 23, 2008 at 10:07 PM