You’ve probably never heard of Ken Shank, but his story is worth remembering, as we begin the national holiday known as March Madness.
⛹️ Shank was a senior reserve forward who played on Princeton University’s 1965 Final Four team. Well, played isn’t exactly the right word, for Shank rarely saw time in actual games. But what he did was integral to the success of the team. For his job was to guard Bill Bradley in practice.
Long before he was a U.S. Senator and presidential candidate, Bill Bradley was the best college basketball player in the land and the subject of John McPhee’s classic book, “A Sense of Where You Are,” which I just re-read to get psyched up for the for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
While Shank wasn’t good enough to play much, he could jump high and practiced hard and over the years learned every “ripple of Bradley’s manner of a basketball player” in ways no opponent could do. That forced the star player 🌠to become more inventive. “Bradley, in practice scrimmages, knew that he had to be at his most precise or Shank would block his shots,” McPhee wrote
In short, he made the best player better. He knew his role and embraced it.
How many times do we ignore or marginalize those who aren’t stars? How much do we value the role players in our offices, who are necessary for the success of the team?
This doesn’t mean lowering standards. I once had a reporter tell me with a straight face that there were two types of reporters: those who broke news and those who didn’t and he had chosen to be the latter.
🤦‍♂️ For him, it was an excuse to stop trying, and that was unacceptable.
But I’ve also learned over the years running news departments or big communications operations at places like Delta Air Lines that you need a mixture of Bill Bradleys and Ken Shanks to succeed. Not everyone can do everything great the way Bradley did. But most everybody can find a role if they’re put in the right situation, get the proper coaching and receive the right amount of encouragement.
It will make your life as a leader much easier.
As for Shank, his story on the court had a nice ending. At the end of the regular season, he was inserted into a game that Princeton was winning by a huge margin. The sub soared and in the waning moments of his career he scored a career best 14 points. Princeton’s coach even sent Bradley back into the game so Shank could come out to a standing ovation. “For well over a minute, the whole crowd stood up and applauded his performance, and the applause was now as genuine as it had ever been for Bradley himself.”
Keep that in mind as you’re watching the games over the next three weeks – and as you gaze out your office at your own team. Who are the Ken Shanks in your office?
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