A game plan for team success

Photos: Kristen Coppock Crossley/dvm360

Team success relies on a winning combination that includes communication, accountability, coachability, and trust. Having the right players in place is also key.

These messages were delivered by former basketball coach Donnie Campbell and resonated with an audience of veterinary professionals on Monday, May 26, 2005. In his welcome reception address at the North American Veterinary Community’s NAVC SkillShop in Orlando, Florida, Campbell spoke of career wins but also the losses that taught him lessons he then applied on the court and in life.

“You can coach your team to be really, really skilled at what they do, whatever it might be…but that doesn't mean they're going to play together as a team. That doesn't mean they're going to work together. But if you can develop your team, your players, to be the best version of themselves, I promise you, there will be sustainable success, which is what we all wanted, sustainable success,” said Campbell.

Campbell is a career mathematics teacher, currently instructing students at Lee’s Summit North High School in Missouri. As a basketball coach for more than 30 years, he spent time working with students at Shawnee Mission West High School in Overland Park, Kansas. There, his rosters included a then-teenaged Jason Sudeikis, the actor and comedian in the eponymous role of the television show “Ted Lasso.”

In public interviews, Sudeikis has said that Campbell served as the inspiration for the Lasso character, an American football coach that is hired to lead a soccer team in England. According to Campbell, the show incorporates some of his coaching traits including signature phrases and analogies, which Sudeikis delivers humorously. In watching the show, Campbell said, “I did see many lessons that I taught Jason and his teammates 30 years earlier.”

Speaker Donnie Campbell discusses his coaching style and its' tie to the television show "Ted Lasso" during the NAVC SkillShop welcome reception.

Dana Varble, DVM, CAE, chief veterinary officer for NAVC said that Campbell was chosen as a speaker for SkillShop for his ability to bring positivity. She was also reminded of the ‘believe’ message in the show, written on a sign that she thinks every veterinary practice should have placed in the clinic.

“Ted Lasso as a show really spoke to the idea that, one, to have confidence in yourself…There’s something about the way that Coach Donnie Campbell is and, of course, the show that he inspired, bringing the sense of positivity. Everything’s not easy. Everything’s not perfect. But, it’s OK. We’ll get through, and we can do it in a way that we’re still good people. We’re still friendly. We’re still empathetic. That is a great message to remind people of,” Varble said in a dvm360 interview.

Speaking to veterinary professionals, Campbell used basketball analogies and stories from his successful coaching career, including anecdotes about Sudeikis, to score points with the audience and deliver wisdom. “When you create better people, you create winning teams,” Campbell said, evoking a mantra that he elaborated on throughout the talk.

He said that when focused solely on winning early in his coaching career, his teams lost games much more frequently than they won. However, by pivoting to focus more on shared values and the character of his players, teams were more successful on the court. “It's about developing my players to be the best version of themselves, to be the best people they can be,” he said.

Another takeaway from the talk was that teams don’t necessarily need the “best” people but rather the “right” people. Teams need to be built on trust, accountability and commitment, Campbell noted. As an example, he shared a story about the coach who mentored him cutting the most skilled player from a basketball squad, much to his and the player’s surprise. In his mentor’s opinion, the young athlete wasn’t the right fit for the team. “Coach looked at me and said this, ‘Donnie, we have to have people that we can count on. We have to have people we can trust,’” Campbell said.

One person that is “wrong” for the team can potentially have a negative impact. “There's an old saying, ‘you can pick captains, but you can't pick leaders.’ Those that control the locker room control the team; those that control the office space control the team. They better be having the same message as you and you have problems [if you don’t] pick the right folks,” Campbell said.

The longtime coach also shared what he learned through experience about leadership. “To me, a true coach, a true leader is someone who sees potential in a team and does everything they can to help guide that team to be successful, ultimately, to be great. That's what a leader does. Ted Lasso says, ‘I do love a locker room. It smells like potential.’ I'm the same way,” he said.