If you're at all familiar with basketball, you could appreciate the parallels drawn between the sport and home building by six-time WNBA All-Star, former San Antonio Spurs assistant coach, and current Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon during her Game Changer session at the International Builders' Show in Las Vegas.
Claiming to be "the one who was never picked," the coach in Hammon was on display as she inspired the audience with an early morning pep talk. She provided insight into her career path from basketball player to coach before offering up the acronym she tailored to her IBS presentation: BUILD (Believe, Unity, Intentional, Labor, Dedicated). A combination of these things is what it takes to build a team that's going to excel, she said, and it all starts at the top.
"You can have good seeds that breed good things, but it starts with the leadership. When everybody gives, everybody gets more," Hammon said. However, "before you can expand and bring people on board, you need to believe in yourself. That happens through successes that you've had but also failures. Belief is a contagious attribute. It's transferable because when you believe in yourself and what you're building, that's contagious to everyone else, and they come by and support."
Hammon recalled a time when an earthquake hit when she was in Las Vegas coaching, and she marveled at how "these tall buildings swayed but were built on foundations to withstand it. They're built to withstand hard stuff, these buildings," she said—adding that so are we, as people. A strong foundation is necessary to create winning habits and culture.
"When you’re building your teams out, or building a house, you’re bringing people together. Everyone has a job, right?" she asked, noting that it's important to have a job description for accountability. "'What is your job?' I said to a player at halftime during a game. They responded, 'Rebound, defend, and screen.' Once you have a job description, a job expectation, then you can have the effort. Now you can start to hold people accountable, and accountability helps your unity. That helps bring people together."
Hammon often referenced San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and the impact he has had on her and her career. Before she worked with him as an assistant coach, she recalled him asking her once, "If I asked you a question, would you tell me the truth?" She said yes, of course she would, to which he replied, "Good, I don't want a bunch of yes men."
Authenticity is important, Hammon said, and she wants her players to feel like they can be themselves. She strives to give them "the security to be free out there on the court." She also talked about how she believes in the power of words, and she works hard to be intentional with her players in terms of the words she uses, how she says things, and her actions. In addition, she noted that listening to your team is nonnegotiable.
"If you want to lead and unite, it requires you to be a servant. How can I make you be the best that you possibly can be?" she asked. "It requires you to be authentic. I think people respect if you tell them the truth. Leadership really comes down to caring about people. If you don’t care about the people you’re leading, you have no business in leadership."
She laughed a little as she brought up how parents are always asking, "How can my kid get better at basketball?" Her definitive, booming response: "Practice." She said in sports, you can't cheat it. You have to practice and put in the effort, and that applies elsewhere in life as well.
"If you can get a labor of love, now you’re really living, because it doesn’t feel like work," she said. "But there’s no replacement for work. You gotta get out there and work. Wherever you are in your life, take ownership of that. You are where you are by a series of choices. Some things are out of your control, but you are in charge of how you journey the road you travel."
When her general manager asks what she wants when building out her team, Hammon said she wants competitors—and so do you. To explain why, she brought up those known as GOATs (greatest of all time) and how these people all have similar characteristics, including "God-given talent and physical tools," and being smart and competitive. "You want competitors, and then you don't ever have to coach effort," she said. "The work these GOATs put in, they are maniacal in their work. They are self-starters, and you want to fill your workforce with them."
When Hammon asked the audience, "Don’t you want those workers that go out and do, where you don’t have to dictate every action?" she received a collective, enthusiastic "yes" in response. She continued, "You want those go-getters, to cultivate that kind of culture. When you’re trying to build unity and character, you have to be careful who you are bringing to the party. You bring in bad ones, and it can bring the whole thing down like a house of cards."
There are hard things in basketball, in home building, and in life, and those hard things build resiliency. "The journey always builds you up for the next thing. If being great were easy, everyone would be doing it," Hammon said. "That full commitment, you can’t get that without full belief in what you’re doing and in yourself. You won’t get that buy-in factor. It’s all sewn together."
