So, why do so many of us struggle to focus on the basics and execute them with excellence and consistency?

In my last post, 3 Reasons We All Struggle With Fundamental Career Skills, we looked at three common barriers using lessons from basketball. In this post, we will turn to some of the legends of the game for their wisdom to overcome three more challenges.

It’s not easy to continually improve our fundamental job skills. So, let’s learn from trusted experts who have trained and inspired leaders on and off the court to master the basics and succeed.

The struggle is real

Mastering the fundamentals for any job is not easy.

If anyone disagrees, they likely don’t have high standards for executing the basics. Or, maybe they don’t understand what their fundamental job skills are.

This actually proves the point that executing the basics of a job can be a struggle.

It’s hard to improve on a skill if you don’t know about it. It’s equally difficult to get better at something if you’re not willing to admit it’s important.

Fundamental job skills can sometimes be hard to spot even when they’re right in front of us.

Struggle 1 – We don’t recognize them

It’s easy for me to make things harder than they need to be. Maybe you’re the same way.

Many of us invest precious time searching for secrets to success. Only later do we realize that success comes through doing things that aren’t secret at all.

We tend to ignore what most of us have been taught all our lives.

Success comes through executing the fundamentals with excellence consistently over time.

I can’t write a blog post about basketball and fundamentals without including the wisdom of John Wooden.

Wooden won ten national championships in a 12-year period as head coach for the UCLA Bruins, including a record seven in a row. He has influenced generation after generation of basketball and business leaders through his teaching.

Wooden’s Pyramid of Success captures what he considered the fundamental skills for his basketball players to be successful.

Take a moment to read through some of the building blocks of Wooden’s pyramid. Sincerity. Friendship. Patience. Poise.

Would you typically think of these as the skills required to win basketball championships?

John Wooden did.

Would you consider these to be fundamental job skills any person seeking career success should master?

John Wooden did.

Wooden didn’t just train basketball players. He also taught leaders in businesses and organizations of all types.

He continually highlighted the components of the Pyramid of Success as critical to success in every career. And, more importantly, in every aspect of life.

So, don’t be distracted looking for secrets to success. Identify the fundamentals that will lead you to success in your career and life. Then, do them with excellence.

Get good, very good, at these fundamental job skills. The basics.

But there’s a problem with the basics.

Basics can be boring.

Struggle 2 – We get bored with the basics

Why do we get bored with our fundamentals job skills? The basics?

Because, they can be boring.

They aren’t flashy. Or fun.

Fundamental job skills are repetitive. We do them over and over, day after day.

We do them all the time in our job. So why would we want to spend more time practicing them?

Enough already of the boring basics. Who cares about the monotonous fundamentals job skills?

Basketball basics can be boring

Like a grade school basketball player on the playground, we don’t want to do dribbling or passing drills. We want to practice the fun stuff.

Like throwing up shots from half court. Because someday we just might have the opportunity to heave the game winner as the clock expires. And, we all know that chance only comes a few times in any basketball player’s career. So, we need to be ready to be the hero.

More likely, though, an opportunity like that never comes.

But, what does come in every game?

The chance to dribble the ball or make a pass or get a rebound.

The opportunities to do the boring things are abundant for every player on the court. Multiple times in every game, players can apply their skills in the boring basics.

Career basics can be boring too

The same is true for us in our jobs.

How many times each day do you communicate with someone? How often do you plan and organize activities, either your own or a team’s? I suspect you do these things about as many times as basketball players dribble the ball.

So, we need to be committed to not getting bored with the basics.

We need to recognize the value of practicing our fundamental job skills, whatever those may be, and improving each day.

Would you be motivated to know the value one of the best basketball players to have ever played the game placed on the basics?

This video provides a behind-the-scenes view into Kobe Bryant’s mindset and attitude toward practicing his fundamental job skills.

The greatest don’t get bored with the basics

It’s a fact that practicing fundamental job skills can be mundane. Basics can truly be boring.

But, we must have the self-discipline to do difficult things, like practicing the basics, to continually improve.

And, that brings us to the third reason we struggle with fundamental job skills.

Struggle 3 – Self-discipline is hard

Self-discipline is, in itself, a fundamental job skill. And, it’s a basic skill that doesn’t come naturally.

Self-discipline is hard.

Julie Fournier, author of the book, The Art of Embracing Adversity: A guide to living a meaningful life in the midst of losses, setbacks, and uncertainty writes about self-discipline in her blog.

In the post, Choosing Discipline, Fournier writes this.

Every day you are faced with a series of choices: you can either choose to be disciplined or choose the easy way. If you want to win, discipline is always the right answer.

Julie Fournier

Citing examples from legendary University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach, Pat Summitt, Fournier outlines the incredible commitment champion-level athletes must have to be successful. To win.

She describes how players on winning teams, choose discipline over laziness. They practice self-discipline and, as result, become more disciplined.

Like any skill, we can improve in our ability to execute self-discipline.

A double bonus

Think about that for a moment.

Self-discipline is a fundamental job skill. We get better at it through practice. And, we can practice self-discipline by practicing our other fundamental career skills. It’s a double bonus (pun intended for you basketball fans).

Here’s an example.

Communicating well is a fundamental job skill.

To get better at this basic skill we must discipline ourselves to practice communicating more effectively. By doing this, we not only become better communicators. We also become more disciplined.

And, this allows us to perform at a higher lever in every other area of our work.

Is practicing a fundamental skill always enjoyable? No.

In fact, self-discipline is rarely fun. But, the rewards are immense.

So, I encourage you to apply the lessons of basketball from the wisdom of these two women.

Commit to disciplining yourself to master your fundamental job skills and you will reap the benefits.

Two fundamental truths

When it comes to fundamentals on the basketball court or in a career, these are two statements I believe are always true.

Here’s my reasoning.

You can never be too good at fundamental job skills

This is a phrase you will never hear, “You’re too good at the fundamentals.”

Have you ever heard anyone say that?

Of course not.

Think about the last basketball game you watched.

True in basketball

I like basketball. I played it decades ago and watch quite a few games.

Here are some things I’ve never heard any coach or commentator say.

“Steph would get a lot more playing time if he didn’t handle the ball so well. He needs to increase his turnovers for us.”

“Julie had a pretty good night tonight, but she needs to back off on defense. She’s hustling way too much.”

“Keegan’s season is impressive so far, but he needs to miss a few more shots.”

Statements like these are ridiculous.

If you know anything about basketball, you know every coach wants players who are exceptional in the fundamentals.

Good coaches teach young boys and girls the basics of the game. Young men and women are recruited when they do the little things well. Professional basketball players make serious money when they are foundationally excellent.

At all levels of basketball the fundamentals are critical to success.

A basketball player can never be too good at the basic skills required to play the game well.

The same is true in your career.

True in business

Your career most likely doesn’t include announcers broadcasting to the world their commentary on your performance. (Mine doesn’t and I am so thankful for that by the way.) But, you likely get feedback from your manager and your peers.

Has anyone ever told you this?

“Raymond, you communicated much too clearly and concisely on that customer call.”

“Your team is motivated, enthused, and delivering amazing results. You’ve clearly spent too much time working on your leadership skills, Jenell.”

“You make my job easier with every email I receive from you, Julio. That really frustrates me.”

Of course, no one has ever told you, or me, anything like this.

Just like in basketball, the fundamentals are critical to success in every job.

A team member in any organization can never be too good at the basic skills required to do their job well.

But, is that statement really true?

Does it apply to every team member? Even those who have established their position and reputation in the company?

Let’s return to the common theme in this post.

What is true in basketball is true in business.

You will never outgrow the need to execute the fundamentals well

Basketball teams, businesses, and all organizations come in many different sizes and have team members at various levels.

It is important that every team member at every level execute the fundamentals with excellence.

But somehow we fail to remember this as we progress.

This could actually be a fourth reason everyone struggles with fundamental job skills.

We think we outgrow our need to execute the fundamentals well.

And, that just isn’t true. It isn’t true in basketball or in our careers.

Basketball basics are important at all levels

Basketball players vary in age and skill level. The game is played by little kids and full grown adults with people of all ages in between enjoying the sport.

Basketball players on YMCA courts, high school gyms, college arenas, and professional stadiums all need to be masters of the fundamentals of their game if they want to be successful.

But, in my experience, many basketball players think they’ve moved beyond the need to practice the fundamentals.

This attitude is represented by a phrase that I expect every youth basketball coach has heard.

Come on, Coach. Do we have to do this drill again? When can we scrimmage?

Every youth basketball player everywhere

In other words, the players believe they have mastered the fundamentals and they are ready to just play.

The great players, however, understand they will never reach a level that allows them to quit working on the fundamentals.

If you skipped over the Kobe Bryant video above, scroll up and watch it.

The man who was, at the time considered by many to be the best basketball player in the world described his need to get even better at the basics of the game.

Kobe did not think he could coast and only focus on the flashy skills. Sure, he was flashy and his highlight videos document his ability to wow his fans. But, he did these things while still executing the fundamentals with excellence.

He knew that even Kobe Bryant had to be exceptional in the basics.

Fundamental job skills are important at all levels

In your career you may be at the early stages, a kid holding a basketball on the hardwood for the first time. Or you may be the Kobe Bryant of your organization. At the pinnacle of your career with everyone watching with amazement as you perform your duties.

Either way, your success depends on how well you execute your fundamental job skills.

A poorly communicated message from the CEO can have devastating effects on a corporation. An unplanned, unorganized meeting led by an Executive Director can waste hours of a team’s precious time. A sloppy email can have a similar effect.

The same is true for work done by a team member who just joined the organization right out of high school, trade school, or college. Of course, the level of impact typically increases with the amount of authority and influence associated with a person’s position.

But, the work every member of an organization does has an impact. And that impact can be positive or negative.

This is why it is critical that every person at every level understands the importance of executing their fundamental job skills with excellence.

An employee will never reach a level that allows them to dismiss the responsibility of executing the basics captured in John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success.

More wisdom from John Wooden

If you’ve read this far, you realize I am a John Wooden fan. I appreciate his wisdom and approach to life.

I don’t make my living coaching basketball, but his teachings help me personally in my career and in my life in general. And, I believe they will help you too. Regardless of your calling in life.

This quote from Coach Wooden, summarizes this post and my previous post, “3 Reasons We All Struggle With Fundamental Career Skills“, very well.

“I believe in the basics: attention to, and perfection of, tiny details that might be commonly overlooked. They may seem trivial, perhaps even laughable to those who don’t understand, but they aren’t. They are fundamental to your progress in basketball, business, and life. They are the difference between champions and near champions.

John Wooden, Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

Let’s be different

It is my hope that through my blog, you will be encouraged and equipped to recognize and perform the fundamentals with excellence.

I don’t want you to be one of those who, as John Wooden stated, “don’t understand” the importance of the basics.

My goal is to help you realize the basics are not “trivial” and certainly not “laughable”.

Fundamental job skills are critical to your success in your career. Execution of the fundamental job skills is of utmost importance to be a successful leader who leads with kindness and confidence.

Not every leader will do what I hope you (and I) will do. Many will ignore the basics.

Let’s be different. Better.

May we together apply the wisdom of these basketball legends in everything we do as we serve our teams throughout our careers.

Let’s lead with kindness and confidence.

Greg

Discussion Questions

• What lessons from sports do you find helpful in your career?

• Which coaches or athletes do you admire and learn from?

I’ve written about basketball, but all sports hold business and life lessons. I’m curious to learn which sports have influenced your approach to leadership. Please share your input and answers to the discussion questions in the comments section.

About the Author – Learn more about Greg

Click here to download the free guide.

How to Write a Professional Email: Make a positive impact with every email you send.

The post 3 More Reasons We All Struggle With Fundamental Job Skills appeared first on Greg Harrod.

This is true in business and in sports.

The game of basketball provides us with many lessons on the importance of fundamental skills. It also helps us better understand why even those who are most committed to success sometime struggle with the basics.

If you aren’t as good as you want to be in the basics in your career, be encouraged. You’re not alone.

And, you can keep making progress by being aware of these three common barriers and taking action to push through them.

The importance of fundamental career skills

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or what type of job you have, the people in your organization will likely agree in many ways about fundamental skills.

In your field most people will know what skills everyone needs to do well. The core competencies are particularly obvious when a teammate doesn’t perform well in one of these areas.

Poor performance highlights the need

Here’s an example I’m confident you’re familiar with.

Communicating in a professional manner is a fundamental skill that applies to every career.

Think back to a time when you’ve heard someone in your organization says things in a way that was entirely inappropriate. Or, maybe you’ve read an email that makes you cringe.

In those moments you, and everyone else involved, were keenly aware of the importance of mastering the fundamental career skill of professional communications.

The failure to execute this basic skill well highlighted its importance.

Communicating poorly can limit a person’s career.

Fundamental career skills are general and specific

A skill like communicating well is an example of a general competency. Things every team member should know how to do well.

Other important fundamentals skills are competencies unique to your trade. They are the little things. The basics that are required to be successful.

Most of these fundamentals are tasks that are done over and over but aren’t necessarily glamorous.

If you and your teammates stop doing these things, your organization will shut down.

These fundamental career skills are important. Critical. Essential.

It’s hard to argue with this statement. And, people rarely do.

Nearly everyone would agree fundamentals are important, in theory

If you were to talk to people in your organization at any level and ask them if the basic skills are important, they would respond with an emphatic, “Absolutely!”

In my career, these fundamental career skills are things like communicating well, whether in emails, presentations, and in person. Leading projects and project teams. Critical thinking. Getting along with others.

These competencies are critical for most people in many different career paths.

In theory, nearly everyone will agree that these general fundamental skills are important.

Reality and theory often don’t match

But, if you were to ask these same people if they invest in improving themselves in these areas to further their career, do you think they will respond with the same enthusiastic, “Absolutely!”?

I don’t think they will.

They will probably say something about not having the time to work on these or they’ve done a little bit of training a long time ago. And, they do them well enough already.

The truth is most people say fundamental career skills are important but their actions reveal something else.

In my experience, many people really aren’t that good at executing the fundamentals. And, they aren’t investing time or money to get better.

This doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable team members. They are.

But, it does expose their hidden truth that they don’t actually consider these fundamental career skills as important as they say they do.

So, why the disconnect?

Why don’t most employees excel in executing the basics and work to continually improve in the fundamental career skills they need?

3 reasons everyone struggles with fundamental career skills

There are many reasons, but let’s start with three.

1. Fundamentals must be practiced. And not everyone is willing to practice.

In the game of basketball, shooting free throws is a fundamental skill.

For men and women who earn their living playing the game, it’s a fundamental career skill. An important part of their job is shooting the ball well.

One of the greatest shooters of all time is Stephen Curry.

Stephen Curry’s example

In the book Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets From the Best of the Best, Alan Stein, Jr. gives us insight into why Steph Curry is as good as he is.

Stein describes how at a high-school camp for high-level prospects, Steph Curry would not leave the court until he swished five free throws in a row.

For you non-basketball followers, a “swish” means the ball passes through the rim without touching it. Hence the phrase, “Nothing But Net.”

Swishing a free throw is not that hard for skilled shooters, but swishing five in a row after an incredibly intense workout?

That’s difficult.

Listen to Alan Stein, Jr. describe Steph Curry’s commitment to practicing the fundamentals and see just how good Curry is in this short video.

Steph Curry’s does his job at an amazingly high level of excellence.

How does he do this?

He relentlessly practices his fundamental career skills.

And, I think it’s safe to say he does this more than anyone else.

Did you catch how Stein mentions that other players were not as committed to putting in the effort to practice the basic skills?

Not everyone practices like Steph Curry practices. And, it’s no coincidence that no one else shoots as well as Steph Curry either.

To perform the basics with excellence we must follow Steph Curry’s example

We can also perform in our jobs with high levels of excellence. But, we must do as Steph does.

We too must practice our fundamental career skills.

But just like the other very good players who left the court when Steph Curry stayed to shoot free throws, we often don’t practice. We accept good as good enough.

As a result, we don’t improve in our fundamental career skills. We perform them at a decent level. Maybe even a good level, better than many of our teammates.

But, we’re not as good as we could be if we practiced our fundamental skills more often.

And, sometimes that lack of practice causes our performance to decline. The results we deliver aren’t what we expect them to be. Or they aren’t what others expect them to be.

Then the pressure starts to build. Inside us and around us.

2. There is pressure to do something different

We know executing fundamental career skills consistently over time will lead to success, but we often feel pressure to do something else.

This pressure can tempt us to make poor choices. We entertain the idea of not investing time to get better at the basics, but rather to seek different solutions.

Internal and external pressure

Whether it’s internal pressure from the words of our inner voice or external pressure from others who have strong opinions about our approach, the influence can be hard to resist.

It may be judgmental comments from a critic or a seemingly innocent question from a teammate. Both can suggest that staying the course and doing the basics more consistently just isn’t going to work.

“Surely there’s a better way” they tell us. “There must be a shortcut to get the results you want.”

There’s always a new and flashy path to success.

These methods start to look attractive, especially when we’ve have had setbacks. We think maybe being committed to the basics really is too simple.

Those fundamental career skills we thought we could trust may not be so trustworthy after all.

We can all find ourselves facing doubt when these internal and external pressures come our way.

The pressure comes quickly when the results don’t

In December of 2019, the Texas Tech men’s basketball team had just lost two games in a row. The record was 5 wins and 2 losses. Not a terrible early season record, but they had played for the national championship the previous season. They were expected to be 7 and 0 at this point.

A reporter asked head coach Chris Beard if he was going to do something different based on these two recent losses.

His response showed his commitment to sticking to the process he had established with his team. A process built on the consistent execution of the fundamentals that he knew would bring success.

Chris Beard’s words in this one minute clip should be applied not only by every coach and athlete but also by every person who wants to have a successful career in any field.

Most of the basics Coach Beard lists in his response are specific to the athletes in his program. But, the application to us in any career is obvious.

We can trust that consistently executing a sound process of applying fundamental career skills will bring success over time.

We just need to stick to the process and continue doing the basics as we’ve been trained to do them.

But what if we haven’t been trained in the fundamental skills we need in our career?

Sadly, this is the situation for many people.

3. We don’t get properly trained

This final reason we struggle with fundamental career skills may be the most important because it’s often the easiest problem to fix.

Take a moment to think about the basics of your work. The things you need to do well every day to be successful.

Have you received training in these areas?

Or, did you only get hands-on training when you first started your job and you’ve had no meaningful guidance after that?

Proper training is not a problem for professional basketball players

You are most likely not feeding your family by playing basketball. But, if you are, you probably have been trained in the fundamentals. You likely have a group of talented people committed to making sure you are doing the fundamentals of your job to the best of your ability.

You have professional trainers studying your footwork. Coaches dedicated to analyzing your shooting form. Nutritionists ensuring your body is fueled to perform. Staff members breaking down your game film to prepare you to rebound more effectively against your next opponent.

If you’re a professional basketball player, you have all these things and probably more.

But, we’re not you.

Most of us don’t have groups of people who are personally dedicated to helping us continually improve our career fundamental skills.

But proper training is a problem for many of us

Many of us are not properly trained in the basic tasks we use every day to make a living.

Despite this lack of intentional training, too many people are expected to be highly competent in these fundamental career skills.

Training in the basics is sometimes considered too, well…

Basic.

Doesn’t everyone know how to write an effective email, or lead a meeting, or have a professional conversation with a customer or their peers?

No. Everyone doesn’t know how to do those things.

They don’t intuitively know how to do them well. Sure they’ll figure it out on their own. Or they’ll learn from someone else.

But, is that how organizations should train their employees on the skills they use continually to deliver results for the company?

Of course the answer is no. But based on my conversations with many people, this is a common approach.

Too many companies don’t consider it valuable to train their employees on fundamental career skills. They don’t consider it valuable despite the fact their employees spend a significant amount of time each week applying these skills.

You can get the training you need

If you aren’t getting the training you need to perform your fundamental career skills with excellence, I encourage you to invest in yourself.

Explore your organization’s internal training resources to find classes to help you improve in these core skills. Investigate external options to get training like this too.

Free resources are abundant. You can find articles, podcasts, and webinars on a variety of relevant topics.

If you’re serious about being exceptional in executing fundamental career skills, online courses are also an excellent option.

For a reasonable price you can learn and continually improve the basic skills that will benefit you in any role you have in any field or organization. A one-time investment in yourself will pay for itself quickly and continue to benefit you throughout your career.

Don’t let your organization’s lack of investment in you hinder your career growth and performance. Find a way to get better at your fundamental career skills.

But, what are those skills?

What are your fundamental career skills?

I don’t know what specific skills apply to you. But, in my career, I’ve found there are fundamental skills that benefit every person I’ve encountered.

Here are a few examples.

I’ve got a much longer list, but this is a start.

What would you include on your list?

Do you do these things with excellence? Do you invest to continually improve in these areas?

I hope you do. But, if you don’t, don’t be discouraged. Just take the next step to improve.

Start now to find ways to perform the basics a little better each day.

It will be worth it.

Executing fundamental career skills with excellence will bring success

People who do the basics extremely well have successful careers. They break through the three barriers we discussed in this post (and many others) and execute these skills with excellence.

And, they deliver exceptional results for their organizations.

Exceptional team members continually strive to execute the fundamentals with excellence.

This is true in basketball and every other field. It takes practice, training, perseverance, and courage to stick to the process. And the results will be worth all you invest.

Let’s lead with kindness and confidence.

Greg

Discussion Questions

• What are your fundamental career skills?

• Are you investing to improve these skills? Are you helping your teammates do the same?

I’m interested to know how you put this into practice in your life. Please share your experiences in the comments section so we can learn together.

About the Author – Learn more about Greg

Click here to download the free guide.

How to Write a Professional Email: Make a positive impact with every email you send.

The post 3 Reasons We All Struggle With Fundamental Career Skills appeared first on Greg Harrod.