The New York Knickerbocker basketball club is now a woeful 4-16, the worst start in its storied history. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. With the hiring of Phil Jackson as president, the Knicks were supposed to be on their way back to the playoffs, not struggling to avoid embarrassment. The lesson for suffering Knicks fans is one learned by many struggling companies: A transformative leader can’t work their magic from a distance.
It’s hard to know if the Knicks are doing the things Phil Jackson’s championship teams did. The Bulls and Lakers spent time not only learning the triangle offense but learning about themselves and each other. Are the Knicks reading the books Jackson assigned? Practicing any meditation or mindfulness techniques? It sounds hokey but Jackson used these tools to inspire teamwork, selflessness and passion. Derek Fisher experienced it first-hand, but the disciple is not the master.
Jackson’s return to the NBA has parallels elsewhere in the corporate world. In those cases, a CEO who returns for another act seldom succeeds by staying aloof. When Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks and A.G. Lafley came back to the helm at P&G, they got deeply involved with their teams. They are visible, hands-on leaders who take an active role in not just the business strategy but operations and management too. Both spend time coaching and developing their people.
Maybe it’s time for Phil Jackson to do the same. He’s been nearly invisible during the Knicks’ slide into the abyss.
I was a young lad in 1973, but I remember the Knicks championship. My dad, a lifelong New Yorker, was painting the basement of our house (so there would be someplace for five kids to go on wintry days in upstate New York). My main job was to make sure the reception was good on our black-and-white television so we could watch Dave DeBusschere and the Knicks triumph. Little did I know that we’d still be waiting for another championship more than 40 years later.