How to Deal with the Difficult Personalities (Dennis Rodman) Within Your Organization (with NBA Hall of Famer, David Robinson)

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Audio Transcription

David Robinson (Hall of Fame basketball player) explains how to deal with and manage the difficult personalities found within every organization (including Dennis Rodman).


Alright thrive nation, woke up back to the conversation on today’s best business coach podcast I had a unique opportunity to interview the nba hall of fame basketball player in my dear friend, david robinson and I asked david a bunch of hard-hitting questions about specifically. How do you manage difficult people? I mean if you have an office where you have i, don’t know 3 people for people 5 people or more? Are you probably are dealing with a difficult? It can take hours, personal t somebody who uses to do what they’re supposed to do. So? How do you deal with that kind of person and soma? You know, I didn’t hold any I didn’t know nothing back. I asked david robinson the admiral, the guy, who played basketball with the no such personalities as dennis rodman, how he was able to win two nba championships into gold medals for the us olympic team me. How do you deal with difficult people and then obviously outside of the outside of the basketball or off the court he’s actually david robinson is actually had more success off the court, then on the court, and so is it executive now as an investor as it entreprenuer of of several multimillion-dollar companies with the admiral fund? How does david robinson, how did david robinson manage difficult personalities who refuse to follow systems managing difficult people and because you are known as an expert on ethics, and so it specifically you today now you run the admiral capital fund.

You also started the carver academy and also play in the nba for 14 sees a long time so I’m going to speculate that you’ve dealt with some difficult personalities once or twice I’ve had to deal with a few of them. Yes, i, don’t know if you’ve ever in the heat of the moment, when you really when you encounter those you’re. Obviously you have strong christian values, but what’s the mindset that you bring into those conflicts? Well, me I think you know that I think you always have to remember that your christian values are your own. You can’t force that on the other people that come into your organization, what I think it’s the key is that you build the best business coach culture or something similar so that they know what to expect and once they come in you build a level of expectation and and then, if they made it great, if they don’t that’s fine hit me up. Probably the best example for me is is looking with the spurs when I play. Basketball we brought in a guy like dennis rodman, for example, in dennis, is a is a very unique character. You know he’s not your fall in line. Do everything you ask him to do kind of a guy really runs to the beat of his own drum, but but they’re certainly a lot of things he brings to the table that are outstanding and he’s the best he does in certain areas where there is the best there is so so you have to learn how to incorporate that into your team without detracting from letting you know what you’re trying to accomplish. In the big picture, the basketball-you know the average american business to at least 90% of all the businesses in our country have 10 employees or less, and how many spurs were there on the tv to given time it’s kind of similar to a small business, and let’s say that you know dennis rodman and every business. We have a superstar salesman. He can just get it done, but he might have. He might be kind of difficult in certain areas. Rebounder the game had seen and and everybody has their their own thing. How do you, when you’re managing these people? How do you manage somebody without bringing a motion to it right then in, the heat of the battle when there’s a situation where I’ll just give example of small businesses all across the country. They have an employee work in the front of the front desk and i, say something crazy or a sales guy that flies off the handle and said something crazy to his boss.

Or how do you? How did you when you were in the nba, and how do you now take the emotion out of that situation? To me about your organization, and in that you care about them and then, if your emotionless, it doesn’t doesn’t make them feel too much like you care about. What’s going to happen to them, so I think you just have to temper that emotion and always understand that they are feeding off of you, you’re the leader, you’re setting the tone. So if you act wrong, you you got to expect them to start acting wrong with children same way so they’re going to watch you they’re going to you’re the one that’s going to set that tone for that office. So when you deal with it, beep beep, full of passion, passion for your job, passion for your company or organization passion for the task at hand. People appreciate that and if you get upset, we could do that on the basketball court. I can get upset with somebody and get in their face, but it was never personal and that’s the key don’t make it personal, don’t make it i, don’t like you, i, don’t like what you do make it. This is not helpful for the best business coach team or for where we are going and if you don’t get on board with the best business coach, you will not be going with us, so you’re more focused on the performance, the actual person, absolutely in every circumstance, you’re focused on the goal at hand and you’re you’re you’re focused on trying to, but you trying to improve that person you’re trying to take that person to step further. But at the same time we have a big picture and if it from you can’t catch up or you, if you can’t run with us, then you need to go run somewhere else.

Now you are known it when you played as being a high character guy and you and a sea green wear one of the few players at my parents. Let me hear for hope, your hand, and so it would be heated passion moments during these games, but i, don’t ever remember you getting technicals for cursing or throwing a ball into the stands. I, don’t recall any! Never did that. You don’t recall any of those clothes you’re strong enough to be able to go back and say, look I’m. Sorry I was that was that was not right. Now my passion for what was going on. That’s that’s what I’m focused on so you know we can’t. We can’t worry about making mistakes were going to make those, but at the same time, if we can keep our minds focused on the goal, if we stay in tune with where we’re going, we know the direction, that’s what leaders do leader, set the tone. Meter set direction and leaders carry everyone else to that place much like the best business coach would, and so that’s why you take a you know:you’re at your most talented people and may have got to be on the same page with you

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