3 lessons on teamwork from March Madness

Longwood takes on Tennessee at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN on Thursday, March 17 during the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

This time of year sees spikes it two areas: The number of people who are watching college basketball and the number of scheduled vasectomies (due to the benefit of skipping work to watch March Madness). It’s really not surprising. If you’re going to have that procedure done, you might as well do it when you can spend the days after watching nonstop college basketball. But it’s not all slacking off and recovering. You can really learn a few things from the greatest teams in college basketball…

Next man up: Whether it’s injury, sickness, or suspension, sometimes you’re missing a player or two from your starting lineup. The Michigan Wolverines started their tournament without point guard DeVante’ Jones, but fortunately had the benefit of a bench of players to use and still got the win in the first game of the day on Thursday. In much the same way, you need to have backup ready to fill in when one of your “starters” is out. If you haven’t fully developed your business continuity plan, an app like Tango might be a great way to get started.

You can’t do it alone: Every once in a while, you’ll have what they call a “Cinderella” team in college basketball. A Cinderella is a team that greatly exceeds expectations. Back in 2011, 11 seed Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) made the tournament without winning their conference tournament and became the first team to go from the First Four (play-in game) all the way to the Final Four. How did they do it? Superstars? Nope. They had a team who believed in each other, knew their individual roles, and played as one. This should be a goal of your team as well.

Gotta be prepared: You may not be involved in long practices or spend hours watching film, but when it comes to team projects and goals, you have to be prepared throughout each step of the process. Just as a coach holds his team accountable after every game, as a leader you need to find ways to make sure your team is engaged and ready for anything that might come their way in the duration of a project.