The most popular and mesmerizing basketball player in the world right now is not Steph Curry. It’s not LeBron James. Or even Victor Wembanyama, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, or Anthony Edwards.
It is Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark. She has transcended the game of basketball and this past week, Peacock streamed the game in which she became the women’s all-time collegiate scoring leader. Clark will also soon pass Pete Maravich’s scoring record for men’s college basketball. Her record breaking shot is shown below:
Recently, Clark was featured in Episode 3 of ESPN’s Sue’s Places to discuss her trademark shot – the Logo 3. It is called this because the shot is taken from the logo located in the center of the court.
7 Leadership Lessons We Learn from Caitlin Clark and Her Mastery of the Logo 3
During the interview, we learn the following 7 Leadership Lessons from Caitlin Clark and Her Mastery of the Logo 3:
To Achieve Mastery You Must First Perfect The Fundamentals
To master anything, you must first perfect the ordinary. Clark’s first basketball coach was her father. Initially, he would only let her shoot close to the basket. This allowed Caitlin to develop the fundamentals of shooting.
She said, “My form has always been my form… He would never let me shoot 3s when I was a young kid cause he knew my form would be awful… Shooting form fundamentals are the best thing.”
Achieving Mastery Takes A Long Time
You would think someone as talented as Clark had been performing at this level for quite some time. The opposite is true. She was not a deep shooter in high school. When asked when she became comfortable with the deep 3, Clark noted, “I first became comfortable, honestly when I got into college.”
A common phrase is something “aged liked fine wine.” There is a maturing, seasoning, and development process a person must go through to achieve mastery. You cannot microwave mastery, it must be crock-potted.
For more on this concept, click 12 Skills You Must Teach New And Young Leaders To Do To Become World-Class Performers.
Achieving Mastery Takes Hard Work and Training
Mastery smells a lot like sweat. In my book Timeless: 10 Enduring Qualities of Apex Leaders, one of the common threads of those who achieve mastery in any area of discipline is hard work. Caitlin Clark has become a Apex Leader.
She recounted, “I came in as a little twig. The strength and conditioning program was a big help to me. I kind of got stronger.” Simply put, hard work works.
Achieving Mastery Requires Overcoming Adversity
Located in the fine print of the “mastery contract” is adversity, and few people talk about it. It sounds counterintuitive but adversity is what causes us to develop the skills and abilities necessary to make mastery possible.
When Clark first started collegiate basketball, she said, “The way people guard me. They would just be physical, just push me off the line, make it harder to get to my spots. So I had to learn to create off the bounce a lot.”
It was the way opponents guarded her that caused her to expand her shooting skills and distance.
Someone reading this post is facing significant challenges right now. It can appear daunting and almost overwhelming. But if you persevere and develop the skills necessary to overcome those challenges, what you are facing may be what propels you to mastery.
Mastery Is Comfortability
When you have done the following:
- Perfected the fundamentals
- Consistently put in the time
- Worked hard, very hard
- And overcome adversity, then….
You become very comfortable performing your craft. Clark said, “Now I feel like I’m almost more comfortable having the ball in my hands and shooting off the dribble rather than a catch-and-shoot 3.”
Once again, this is because she perfected the fundamentals, put in the time, worked hard, and overcome adversity.
Have you?
Mastery Generates Momentum
Mastery becomes contagious, not in the sense that everyone can do what you can do, but it raises the level of performance by everyone around you. When Clark is performing at a high level, the excitement level of everyone in building – teammates, coaches, fans – goes up as well. So does the team’s overall performance.
Clark observed, “We’re definitely an offensive-minded team. When you make a few 3s it’s kind of infectious to everybody else and that’s what makes basketball so fun.”
If anyone thinks they have achieved mastery, one question they must wrestle with is does their work generate momentum and raise the level of performance in everyone around them?
Mastery Is Intuitive
One of the reasons great players have a hard time being great coaches (or great salespeople being great sales managers) is because of their intuition. It’s there ability to see around corners and anticipate events. This is something most practitioners simply lack.
For example, Clark said, “The first thing I know if it’s going in right off my hand and that just speaks to how much time I’ve put in and how many shots I’ve taken. I either know if it’s off or if it’s dead center. Any good shooter can feel the ball off their hand like that.”
Mastery allows you to “feel and see” things others do not.
Conclusion
Once again, Caitlin Clark is appointment television. This is because of many things but one of which is her mastery of the Logo 3. What did you learn from her which would allow you to achieve mastery in your industry?
For more on the leadership of Caitlin Clark, read 8 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From Iowa’s Caitlin Clark On What A True Team Is.
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