Don't Assume: Interview with Former WNBA player and coach Crystal Robinson
I recently went one on one with Crystal Robinson. Crystal is a former WNBA player and coach and a member of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and the NAIA Hall of Fame.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your story and your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. What is something about you that would surprise people?
Crystal: Something most people don’t know about me is that I come from a line of firsts. I’m the first black female to be inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, my aunt was the first black female in Oklahoma to pass the Navy aptitude test, and there are a lot more firsts in my family. I think that’s something to be proud of, and I hope that legacy lives on in the rest of my family.
Adam: How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Crystal: All of them. When you get to a certain age, hindsight shows you how important some of your setbacks were. But when you’re experiencing these struggles, you often don’t think of them as instrumental to your growth. No matter how big or small the setback, you have to learn to embrace them all because they got you to where you are today. I think I grew the most through the hard things that happened to me, because they taught me what my limits were. I’m also not one to allow my highs to cloud my view of myself, because that’s the way I was raised. I don’t focus on the successes too much. Instead, I find the lessons in my setbacks.
Adam: Who are the greatest leaders you have been around and what did you learn from them?
Crystal: I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Sheila Johnson and she is a phenomenal leader. But the first time I experienced a loving leadership was probably from my high school coach, Phil Daniels. I became the best I could be out of love for him because I didn’t want to let him down. He led with love and humility. He got the best out of me but it had to do with the love that he gave me. And that taught me that coaching has to come from the heart. This is how you get results.
Adam: What are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Crystal: The defining quality of a leader is his ability to connect to people. There has to be a strong form of connection if you want to take people to where you want them to go. It’s about understanding that you are dealing with individuals and you will not connect to one person the same way you will with another. One individual may need to be coddled while another may need to hear the hard truth so that you can get the best out of them. When you treat your teams in that way, they will start working a plan for you, and with love for you. It’s not work anymore, it’s a group of people working for a common goal, a group of people who are willing to put their egos aside for that common goal. This is especially important when there’s money involved. When you are the CEO at the top, you don’t need to know it all. Don’t get me wrong, you need to be very smart! But your ego has to be such that you understand that you don’t know everything so you can hire people who are better than you to carry your mission forward, and to make you stronger.
I would also add: lead by example. You can’t expect people to work hard for you if you’re not willing to work hard yourself. Working hard is a part of it, and something I always preach to my players is: you have to learn to love hard work. If you wanna be successful, you have to like working.
Adam: What are the most important attributes of a great coach?
Crystal: Being a great listener. If not, you won’t be a great problem solver. The devil’s in the details and if you want to be a great coach, you need to pay attention to those details, so you can peel the layers and get to the very core of the issues at stake. If you miss the minute things, you won’t be able to identify the problem. So you need to listen to what the person in front of you is telling you, but more importantly, you need to pay attention to what they’re not telling you. You need to identify the gaps, because this is where you will find the blind spots that your client doesn’t see. Helping them see those gaps is how they will be able to find solutions.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?
Crystal: First, I would say: don’t assume. Be aware of your biases in order to look past them. If you know someone without a college education, don’t just assume that they’re not smart, and don’t underestimate what they could teach you. Be open minded with everyone you encounter. If you’re a CEO, of course you can’t entertain every single thing that comes across your desk, but I do believe that to whom much is given, much is expected. It’s important for me to create leaders who want to give back.
Second, search for mentors. Surround yourself with people you want to be like, and learn as much as you can from them. Don’t insert yourself into those circles and expect everything to be given to you. And as you start to grow and build yourself, you’ll see people who want to jump on board and help you because they see that you’re willing to work hard for something and they will want to be a part of that.
Third, make sure your culture resonates loudly within your organization. As a leader, you have to be an embodiment of your organization’s culture. In basketball, the Lakers have a culture – you know that if you’ve played for them, you’re a Laker for life, and that culture treats you as such. The Spurs have a very high-moral, high-character culture and if you don’t fit that, they won’t want you there. Culture is just as important in a company. Ultimately, your culture is the bones of your organization. The employees have to adhere to the organization’s culture, not just the CEO’s culture. If the CEO’s culture is not completely aligned with that of the company, that’s probably gonna get in the way at some point in time. If a culture is built around a certain CEO, whenever that CEO gets replaced for one reason or another, there will be instability which can be fatal to the organization. But if the culture is built around the company instead, the culture will stay strong regardless of who is CEO, because no CEO will get that job if he doesn’t strongly embody that culture.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?
Crystal: Building a team is not just about talent, it’s about culture most importantly, as I’ve said before. If you have unhappy campers, the culture’s always going to be unhappy. I’m not a “win at all costs” kind of person. I’d rather build something powerful than win at all costs. In a sports team, there are excellent players that I would never bring into a team because they don’t fit the culture. Find the right kind of people.
When leading a team, you need to set high, clear, measurable goals for your team. When you have a team that lacks in something, pair the people who are lacking in a specific thing with the people who are more consistent in that same thing. This way, they will push and pull each other forward. The work achieved in smaller groups will eventually trickle down to the rest of the team. Teach them to accept failure: when you don’t reach your goals, there’s a consequence. It’s not the end of the world, but if you miss your mark, you’ll be moved out of the way and someone else will be given that opportunity. Be ready for your opportunities when they come. So as a leader, I have my eye on the prize, but I don’t ask my team to focus on the prize. They focus on the work they do together in smaller groups. As the team leader, you need to look simultaneously at the big picture (the result you’re aiming for) and at the small, incremental steps it will take you to get there. The pressure of the big picture result is solely on you as the leader. It’s not your team’s concern. Your team must be concerned with one step at a time, not with the big picture result.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Crystal: Don’t sweat the small stuff. I think we worry about so many things and in the end probably only 10 or 12 percent of these things actually end up happening, if that. Worrying only hurts you inside, it only messes up your head. If it’s something you can’t do anything about, leave the people who can do something about it to do the worrying. I’m not saying I don’t get stressed out. I definitely have my moments. But when I set out to do something really hard, and I miss it by a close margin, I just have to laugh and keep my eyes focused on the next goal. Getting mad about it is only making my hair turn grey faster. I don’t have time for that anymore. I won’t spend time worrying, I’ll spend time on solutions.
Adam: What is one thing everyone should do to pay it forward?
Crystal: Treat others the way you want to be treated. To me, that is the thing that a lot of people don’t understand. Very small acts of kindness, throughout the day, can have a very powerful ripple effect. I recently released a book, and a lot of people have been sending me private messages about ways I impacted their lives, and very often these are not things I even remember doing. I might have impacted someone with a very small act of kindness on the day that they were having suicidal thoughts, and I would never have known what difference I made in that individual’s life. To me, that’s way more important than any Hall of Fame inductions, or any awards. When it comes down to it, that’s what we are put here to do. At the end of the day, no one is going to care how much money you made, they’re going to care about how many lives you affected, and how you affected those lives. I’m not setting myself up to be an angel. If you treat me poorly, chances are I’m probably going to give you a taste of your own medicine. But if everybody treated others the way they want to be treated, it would change the world.
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Crystal: One last thing I would add is that we all have a duty to find a way to make peace in the world. There’s a lot of hurt out there. I’ll take racism as an example, because it affects me directly. I feel like it’s polarized me so much that I’m constantly on the edge of my seat, ready to pounce at anyone who might make a comment I perceive as racist. And that’s not a good feeling to have. I think the internet age has brought light to a lot of bad things in this world. We know what’s happening as it is happening, every day. The only way evil can triumph is for good men to sit by and do nothing. We have to start talking about what we’re gonna do about the problems that we have. With racism for example, I don’t think we’re making progress. So I’m ready to start talking about the solutions instead of complaining about the problem, because merely complaining won’t solve anything.
Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.
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