A Hall Of Fame Coach
Few people have the resume of Larry Brown. While at the University of North Carolina from 1960-1963, he played college basketball for Hall of Fame coaches Frank McGuire and Dean Smith. He then won a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics playing for another Hall of Fame coach, Hank Iba.
Though he was a three-time all-star as a professional player, it quickly became apparent Brown was a natural at coaching. Over the course of 27 seasons, he would amass a 1,275–965 lifetime record while leading eight different ABA and NBA teams to the play-offs. In addition, Brown won an additional 262 games coaching the UCLA Bruins, Kansas Jayhawks, and SMU Mustangs.
Brown is the only head coach to win both the NCAA and NBA championships, leading Kansas and the Detroit Piston respectively to titles. In 2002, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Last year, Brown was awarded the Chuck Dailey Lifetime Achievement Award by National Basketball Coaches Association.
If anyone has the right to say, “I know everything there is to know about the game of basketball and coaching,” it would be Larry Brown. With his experience as a gold medal-winning player, a championship coach on multiple levels, and a Hall of Fame career, surely he has seen and done it all.
But Brown takes the exact opposite approach. He humbly takes on the posture of a continual learner.
Because of Brown’s vast knowledge, he is frequently asked to observe numerous team’s practices throughout the year. While he is there to advise and impart wisdom, it is actually Brown who always learns something new.
Leadership Lessons
Coach Brown models for us the importance of being a continual learner.
Forrest Gump once said, “Been there. Done that.” While this is an entertaining and memorable statement, it is a terrible perspective for leaders to have.
Leaders should be going there and doing that. There are always new places to go, new people to meet, new things to do, new experiences to have, and much, much more to learn.
Practical Application
I know the more I’ve learned about life and leadership, the more I have realized I don’t know. Can you relate?
The following are five practical things you can do to become a continual learner:
- Read books. Books expose you to the thoughts and experiences of people you will probably never meet. Also, you are likely facing problems today which have already been solved by others. Their answers are only a few click away on Amazon. Click The Top 10 Books Leaders Need To Read In Spring 2022 for my current reading list.
- Travel. The world is a very big place. Traveling expands your perspective and knowledge of what is possible.
- Listen. When you are talking, you are sharing what you know. When you actively listen, you learn what others know.
- Ask great questions. Be curious. Be humble. A side benefit of this is interested people are more interesting themselves.
- Hang around people smarter and more experienced than you are. They are an endless wealth of knowledge. This can also be done through podcasts, conferences, and Masterclasses.
If Coach Larry Brown can still be learning new things every day, so can I. So can you.
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