We are finally at the last episode of the Netflix series ‘The Playbook: A Coach’s Rules for Life’ with American Basketball coach Dawn Staley. Her stellar career as a basketball player includes 3 Olympic Gold medals and her time playing in the American Basketball League and the WNBA. She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. Her coaching career is even more remarkable. She is the architect of one of the best college basketball programs in South Carolina. On May 7, 2008, she was named head coach for women’s basketball at the University of South Carolina. Over the following six seasons, she improved her program’s record every year, up to winning the SEC in 2013–2014. In late 2014 her team achieved the program’s first #1 ranking, making her only the second individual to play on and coach a #1 ranked team. Staley has led South Carolina to five SEC regular-season championships, five SEC tournament championships, six Sweet Sixteens, and two Final Fours. On April 2, 2017, she guided the South Carolina Gamecocks to the program’s first NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship. On March 10, 2017, she was named head coach of the USA national team. On April 2, 2020, Staley became the first to win the Naismith Award as a player and coach. Today, we look at Dawn Staley’s Rules for Life.
Jigsaw puzzles teach you building something from the ground up. It’s frustrating and gratifying. Puzzles can overwhelm you but the moment you put one piece into another, it keeps you coming back to complete the puzzle.
Dawn Staley’s Rules for Life #1: Bring Your Own Ball
Growing up, there weren’t girls in my neighborhood playing any sports. So I grew up playing with boys. My older brothers went out to the courts but didn’t want their sister to play ball with the guys. I didn’t care.
Staley recalls how they used to create makeshift basketball courts anywhere. They would cut out the bottom of a milk crate and put it on an electrical pole. She recounts how the big boys didn’t want to play with her because she was a girl, so she used to stand there and watch the game. As I saw this bit, my mind raced back to my school days. Even though I couldn’t make a jump shot to save my life, I found it weird when girls used to play with us and wished they would leave so we could get into a proper game. I wish I could go back in time and slap myself silly. Staley recalls people saying to her,
“You need to be in a kitchen somewhere. Go put on a skirt.”
Because she would bring her own ball to the court, sometimes she used to be the only one with a ball. She ensured she was on the court if her ball was being used to play. Unknowingly, I used to do the same thing whenever I wanted to play sports. I realized early on that I was not good at sports, and people would not pick me to play if they could avoid it. I used to bring my own ball, so I didn’t have to rely on anyone to include me.
I made people respect me for my persistence. I wasn’t going to allow them to not pick me because I was a girl.
People are a product of their surroundings. Where you come from and what you take notice of becomes part of yourself. It shapes your personality and your style. These are things no one teaches you, and they set you apart from others.
Sometimes you gotta be tough, suck it up, and persevere. Everything that I have ever achieved in my professional life was because I had the desire in me for them to respect my game.
Dawn Staley’s Rules for Life #2: Growth takes place outside your comfort zone
There will be situations where you will be out of your element. It could be a new environment where you don’t know anybody, feel connected to anyone, and don’t identify with anything. You may feel like you are the only one struggling and don’t know where to go. Just remember growth takes place outside your comfort zone. Anything new is not supposed to feel comfortable; it has to feel like a struggle because that’s how you will know you are moving forward.
Just because life throws something at you that makes you a little uncomfortable or makes you different from other people, don’t allow that to be a weakness.
Sometimes you have to take steps that make you uncomfortable, to understand where you are and where you want to go.
Dawn Staley’s Rules for Life #3: Create a home-court advantage
If it’s been said once, it’s been said enough times. No one succeeds alone. It’s essential to build a community around you and your cause. Tap into the community around you and get people invested in your successes and failures. Generating the hype and having the attention of people will create opportunities you need to succeed on a large scale. You need someone rooting for you when you compete in any arena of your life. Find people who will build you up and give you that home-court advantage.
Ask any marketing person, entrepreneur, or anyone you idolize, and they will tell you the importance of building a tribe, a rabid fan base, or a group of loyal supporters. Fans are essential to teams because they give them a home-court advantage and make them look like a championship team. Staley helped build a fan base for her team at the University of South Carolina, which proved pivotal in their success. Having consistent attendance at home games helped them recruit better players needed to win championships, and it helped create a daunting atmosphere for the opposing teams.
If you are running a business or a nonprofit or even if you are a person working independently, having a loyal and supportive community around you provides you great leverage in many situations. You could be launching products, you could be raising funds, or you could be playing a gig. No matter where you go, you will always find a crowd of loyal supporters around winners, so invest in people because they will give you back in the long run.
Dawn Staley’s Rules for Life #4: the 24-hour rule
It’s tough dealing with a loss or a major setback, no matter who you are. You put in all the hard work and months of preparation and come so close to success you could taste it, but it all slips away in a moment. It can be heartbreaking and devastating.
You can either have the mental capacity to keep moving forward with it or you don’t.
As a leader, when something like this happens, the best way to deal with it is to share your experience with your team. Odds are you have been in their position before and know exactly how they are feeling at that moment. You replay that moment repeatedly, trying to figure out everything you could have done differently. Some people have a hard time getting over it. They may become depressed over it, obsessed with it, and even feel like giving up. The good news is that you can help them move on and deal with it.
I call it the 24-hour rule. Twenty four hours from a win or a loss, we move on. I saw that some players were super competitive, just like me. Losing wasn’t an option for them, it really impacted their day and even coming weeks to the point where we had to say, Let It Go!
Losing is part of becoming a champion. It’s all about momentum and it’s not always a positive thing. You could be having a bad streak and it can bring out an ugly side of you. You have 24 hours to bask in your victory or you have 24 hours to agonize over your defeat.
Dawn Staley’s Rules for Life #5: what is delayed is not denied
When you didn’t achieve something, even when you tried your level best, it doesn’t mean you have lost the opportunity forever. Many people take losses to heart, give up, and go in completely different directions. Staley didn’t win the National Championship as a player in the 1990s, which was her dream. It became her motivation when she took up coaching. She believed that what is delayed is not denied.
If you have ever given up on your dreams because you couldn’t achieve them while you had the chance, you can achieve them in another way. History is rife with examples of people who have kept their passion and dreams alive by taking a different path. Many of the coaches in this mini-series have such a story. Renowned sports journalist Robin Roberts wanted to be an athlete but couldn’t make it happen, so she pursued her passion through journalism. Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, has a similar story.
Having that belief and keeping that hope alive only works to make you work harder and put in that extra effort that will take you past the finishing line.
It wasn’t meant to be for me to win a National Championship in college. So somehow coaching found me. It’s strange because I never wanted to be a coach. Most people say this when they have won something big that it was divine intervention. But I say that in a loss in 1991, it was divine intervention. Just being dedicated to something that you don’t know if you’re ever going to reach that pinnacle or not. But when it happens to you, you get to reflect on all the people that allowed for that to happen. All those people were pieces in my life’s puzzle that were put in my life to make that moment happen.
With this, we come to the end of the series. You can check out the article for Episode 1 with Doc Rivers here. It is undoubtedly one of the best documentaries on Netflix (After Last Dance… duh) and a must-watch for anyone who wants to improve their leadership skills or achieve great things in their personal and professional lives. I have learned a lot from watching this series and unpacking it here for those reading.