Lessons on Coaching Effort: a Las Vegas Aces Leadership Case Study

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Episode 139: Are you responsible for coaching your team's effort level? The question struck me after hearing WNBA Coach Becky Hammon's bold post-game declaration following a tough loss: "I will not coach effort." Her philosophy is clear—professional athletes must bring 100% effort or risk being benched. But how does this translate to finance leadership?

Unlike professional sports, we lead teams with varying experience, motivation, and career aspirations. The approach that works for championship athletes may need substantial modification in our world. As finance leaders, our expectations about effort should adapt based on team member seniority and organizational level. A CFO might reasonably expect consistent high effort from VP-level direct reports, while more junior team members may need different guidance.

This episode explores the delicate balance of expecting versus coaching effort, drawing parallels between sports leadership, military command, and finance team management. We examine the tools available to finance leaders—from bonuses and promotions to training opportunities and key project assignments—and how these can be used strategically to address effort disparities without "benching" team members in the traditional sense.

Most importantly, we consider how our own example sets the standard. The effort we demonstrate daily as leaders becomes the benchmark for our teams. High-performance organizations don't just happen—they start with leaders who consistently model extraordinary effort and establish clear expectations about how work gets done.

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Episode Transcript

Stephen McLain (00:05):
I love coaching others to excellence. Coaching
is a calling for leaders to helplift their team members to a
higher level of performance, tobe better today than yesterday,
and to help them achieve theirpotential. How do you handle
coaching the effort level ofyour team members? What are your
expectations for your team whenit comes to the level of effort

(00:28):
they put in? How comfortable doyou feel about your own coaching
ability? Please enjoy theepisode. Welcome to the finance
leader podcast where leadershipis bigger than the numbers. I am
your host. Stephen McLain. Thisis the podcast for developing
leaders in finance andaccounting. Please consider
following me on Twitter,Facebook, Instagram and

(00:48):
LinkedIn. My usernames and thelinks are in this episode's show
notes. You can also followfinance leader Academy on
LinkedIn. Thank you. This isepisode number 139, and I'll be
asking today about your thoughtson coaching effort self help.
Author Napoleon Hill said,strength and growth come only

(01:09):
through continuous effort andstruggle. I changed up topics
for this episode this weekbecause I saw something so
important that I wanted to shareit right away. Coach Becky
Hammond, head coach of the LasVegas aces of the WNBA, was
giving a post game interview.
The Aces, a recent WNBAchampion, were dominated by the

(01:29):
expansion team Golden State onJune 7, the final score was 95
to 68 now that was a beat downif you know the ACES at all,
Coach Hammond is an incrediblecoach. She was an assistant
coach for the San Antonio Spurs,and in my mind, was on track to
take over the Spurs from Coachpop before she took the ACES

(01:52):
head coaching job, I havenothing but respect for Coach
Hammond. She is a great coach,and she has a great roster over
there. What I want to talk aboutis what she said in the post
interview. She said she was notgoing to coach effort. She was
implying that her players hadbetter show up with that already

(02:12):
figured out. I was intrigued.
When I was serving in the army,we demanded an expected effort.
I have coached effort many, manytimes with my soldiers and
subordinate leaders when I wasserving. So I want to dive into
this a little bit more over thenext couple of minutes. Coach
Hammond's expectation is thatyou show up with 100% effort

(02:35):
already. She said that you arein charge of your own effort,
and that she would pull playersfrom playing if they don't put
in the effort. Additionally, shebelieves that when you don't
have to dedicate time toencouraging effort, you can
coach on other areas, likefundamentals and other critical
skills, team synergy andchemistry and how to work

(02:57):
together as a team to achieveorganizational goals. Now I love
this approach and expectation inthe military. Again, we can
demand effort, and again, I havecoached effort many times. I
fully support her decision tosay she is not going to coach
effort. Coach is saying is thatwhen you show up to work, you
show up ready to give your all100% I don't want you to be here

(03:22):
on my team if you refuse to putin 100% that was her message to
her team in that post gameinterview, and I bet they heard
her. Now, how can thisleadership approach from Coach
Hammond help us in how we leadnow, let's be real here. We
don't lead athletes at thehighest level, we lead people of

(03:42):
various levels of ability andmotivation, various skill
levels, and they all havedifferent goals, desires and
aspirations. It's not so cut anddry for us. We have so many
other factors to consider whenit comes to effort. A lot of
this depends on the level ofyourself and the level of your
subordinate team members. Now,if I'm a CFO and my immediate

(04:05):
subordinate team members are atthe VP level, my expectations
are high. I'll give littlelatitude for anything but 100%
unless there is something elsegoing on, like a medical issue
or a family challenge orsomething else like that going
on. Now, as the leader, you haveto do the work on your end. You
have to identify performanceshortfalls and then develop a

(04:27):
plan of action. We don't havethe ability to bench a player,
so to speak, like they can on asports team, but we have tools.
We can bench team members indifferent ways. Now, your tools
are bonuses, promotions,training and travel
opportunities, invitations tospecial events, networking
opportunities, assignments tokey projects, but always ensure

(04:50):
you're following companypolicies and any legal
application that there is, andalways check your bias for
fairness. I think the most of.
Important lesson here is that,what are the values and
expectations for your team andwhat do you expect every day for
how your team members will act,will interact, will approach
their work, and how work getsassigned, and what effort do we

(05:11):
put in for the high visibilityprojects versus the routine
tasks that we all have now? Doyou guys all have IDPs for your
team members. How is trainingallocated? And then so many
other considerations. Now, whatare your thoughts on coach
Hammond's declaration that shewill not coach effort. Now I
thank Coach Hammond for sayingwhat she said. It definitely got

(05:35):
me thinking, and I also believethat effort and high performance
begins with us as the leaders.
How can we expect highperformance if we are not doing
our job to a high level? Set theexample for doing your best
always. Now today, I talkedbriefly about coaching effort.

(05:57):
Now, what are your thoughts nowin the show notes, depending
upon which platform you arelistening to this episode on,
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(06:19):
thoughts about coaching effort,and I may mention you in a
future episode. Thank you foryour support. I hope you enjoyed
the finance leader podcast. Youcan find this episode wherever
you listen to podcasts. If thisepisode helped you today, please
share with a colleague untilnext time. You can check out
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(06:40):
weekly updates so you don't missan episode of the podcast, and
now go lead your team and I'llsee you next time. Thank you.
You.