Noah Croom is a leading Major League Sports Executive and Senior Vice President of Lift Sports Management, an industry-leading athlete management and representation agency with an emphasis on elite and comprehensive client servicing.
In this edition of our Fireside Chat, Noah shares some brilliant perspectives from his extensive career at the pinnacle of Men’s Basketball, where he has scouted, managed, and represented elite-level talent across the past few decades.
Providing vital insight on team management and leadership at the highest stage, Noah emphasises the importance of employee engagement as a key element in fostering positive working culture, whether in the locker room or the boardroom.
"Basketball players are an extension of what Peter Drucker termed as being 'knowledge workers'... motor skill development and coordination are all similar to the individual skills that make a knowledge worker."
M.INT –What does a ‘positive working culture’ look like in your organisation?
NC –I believe based on my experience with professional sports teams that a positive working culture does result in on-court success. Equally, a negative working culture produces on-court failures. In my opinion, a professional basketball team with a positive working culture looks like a place where every member of the organisation respects the leadership group, feels valued, and as a result, is fully engaged in their work.
High employee engagement is an affirmative indicator of a positive working culture. One of the great observations of how Celtics’ legend, Red Auerbach, managed his teams was how Red made a point to engage role players as much as he engaged stars. When the time came for role players to step up, they performed beyond expectations and helped win titles.
I believe that employee engagement on professional basketball teams is a vital element of on-court success because of the nature of the work. In my view, basketball players are an extension of what Peter Drucker termed as being “knowledge workers”. I would argue that motor skill development and coordination along with motivation and work ethic are all similar to the individual skills that make a knowledge worker. Yet as much as the white-collar worker or basketball player has skills, they are also emotional beings. As such, their level of engagement may wax and wane throughout a career for many of the same reasons (personal loss, success, office politics, etc.).
High employee engagement is an affirmative indicator of a positive working culture. One of the great observations of how Celtics’ legend, Red Auerbach, managed his teams was how Red made a point to engage role players as much as he engaged stars. When the time came for role players to step up, they performed beyond expectations and helped win titles.
I believe that employee engagement on professional basketball teams is a vital element of on-court success because of the nature of the work. In my view, basketball players are an extension of what Peter Drucker termed as being “knowledge workers”. I would argue that motor skill development and coordination along with motivation and work ethic are all similar to the individual skills that make a knowledge worker. Yet as much as the white-collar worker or basketball player has skills, they are also emotional beings. As such, their level of engagement may wax and wane throughout a career for many of the same reasons (personal loss, success, office politics, etc.).