Phil Jackson – Coach of the
Los Angeles Lakers
MGTO 234 Team Project
Group 7
Outline
 Profile and accomplishments of Phil Jackson
 Personal attributes
 Leadership style
 Situational circumstances that may contribute
to his success
 Will he continue to success as a leader?
 What we have learnt from him
Profile and Accomplishments of
Phil Jackson
• In 1981, Jackson was the coach of the
Albany Patroons of the CBA
Steered the Patroons to a league title
Won a CBA Coach of the Year Award
Left after 1986-87 season with a 117-90
career record
Profile and accomplishments of
Phil Jackson
• In 1990, Jackson became the head
coach of the Chicago Bulls of the NBA
 Six-time NBA champion
 Winning percentage is the best in NBA history
 First coach to win championships in two leagues
(NBA & CBA)
Profile and accomplishments of
Phil Jackson
In 1999, Jackson moved to Los
Angeles and coached the Lakers
 Win the 2000, 2001, and 2002 NBA
titles that Los Angeles had not seen for
more than a decade
• In 2002-03 season
 Has the best winning percentage in the
NBA annuals
 Has the no. 1 playoff winning percentage
Attributes of Phil Jackson
Vision
Emotional maturity and equanimity
Self – confidence
Consideration
Awareness
Vision
Vision
Motivating to provide direction for future planning
and goal setting.
Phil has vision and a plan to achieve that
vision.
He says, “vision is the source of leadership, the
expansive dream state, where everything begins and
all is possible.”
Emotional maturity and calmness
 Remain calm and stay focus to a problem, especially
when dealing with adverse situations
Phil is incredibly calm when facing high
pressure.
Usually stays seated on the bench
during games
Rarely calls timeouts even when his
team is lagging behind the opponent.
Self – confidence
 With strong self-confidence, a leader is more
likely to make influence attempts, and nay
influence attempts made are more likely to be
successful.
 Phil acts as a salesman, able to
get his players to believe in what
he is trying to accomplish on the
basketball floor.
Self – confidence
 Able to convince superstars
such as Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe
Byrant of Lakers and Michael
Jordan of Bulls to put their
egos aside for the good of the
whole team
 John Paxson commented Phil,
"He's so confident that he doesn't need to
rant and rave. He's even-keeled, and it's
rubbed off -- it's why we play with the
poise we do."
Consideration
 Subordinates more likely to cooperate as a team and
respect a leader if a leader is considerate.
Phil gives support to his players and
always be in touch with them.
Knows the duress his players are under,
what kind of travel schedule they have,
the pressures they have etc.
Awareness
 Viewing most situations from a more integrated,
holistic position.
Phil Jackson’s motto:
“In the beginner’s mind
there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind,
there are only a few.”
Views himself as a beginner
 see more opportunities and possibilities
in a game, like how to guard, how to
rebound etc.
Leadership style
High-high leader
Task-oriented
Relations-oriented
He practices
 Participative leadership
 Transformational leadership
High-high Leader
Shows high concern for both his team
and the outcome
 “you have to have the ability to pat the player on the
back and you have to provide enough support or
enough discipline so that they know there are
standards that have to be met. So that's the
balancing act that coaches get into.”
Task-oriented behavior
 Sets common goal for himself and his team
 Highlights the importance of teamwork and
building a selfless team
 Eliminated isolation play
 no overdependence on any single player
 Uses different approaches to bring players
back on track
 Reads failures and successes quickly
 Make adjustments to the team
Relations-oriented behavior
 Shows support and concern for
his players
 Knows clearly what his player’s
body is going through
 Let the players maintain a
balance life between families and
work
 Shows concern not only for his
players but all such things that
support a team
 Shows recognition to his players
 spoke to the public that he was
fortunate to have Michael Jordan
in his team.
 Appreciates teamwork
Participative leadership
 Exercises delegation
 Gives his team the responsibility and
authority for making decisions
 Seldom gives detailed instructions during the
game
“You have to rely on yourself, because when it comes
to crunch time, I am not out there on the floor with
you.”
 Appreciates any suggestions and initiations on
decision making from his players
 Consult his players and other staffs
 More open to assistants’ advice by practicing
meditation
Transformational leadership
 Emphasizes selfless team play
 Uses a famous strategy, triangle offense
 Makes his team more aware of the importance of task
outcomes.
 “It means thinking and moving in unison as a group and being
acutely aware, at any given moment, of what's happening on
the floor.“
 transcends his players’ own self-interest for the sake
of the team
 "I learned that the most effective way to forge a winning
team is to call on the players' need to connect with
something larger than themselves. It requires the individuals
involved to surrender their self-interest for the greater
good so that the whole adds up to more than the sum of its
parts."
Transformational leadership
 Able to make otherwise-could-be-extremelyarrogant star players like Michael Jordan to
be humble and cooperative
 "This is the game I try to coach, in which everybody gets
the ball, and everybody moves the ball, and everybody has
a feel for the ball,“
 "They have this idea that this is a community game."
 Able to gain trust, loyalty and respect by his
players
 Michael Jordan: “I enjoy playing for Phil. I am loyal to Phil
and to what he has done for the Bulls, and have no desire
to play for another coach.”
Situational Circumstances
Situational factors contributed to
Jackson’s success
He is able to grap every opportunity in
the situations
Enables his leadership traits/ behavior
to become more effective and
prominent
Situational Circumstances
A. The Bulls got substantial
media attention prior to
Jackson’s arrival
 Having stars like Michael Jordan &
Scottie Pippen
 But never won a single
championship in NBA
Jackson emphasized on
escalation of Teamwork
 Brought the Bulls to consecutive
NBA championships

Gained attention and support from
the public and the media
Situational Circumstances
B. Jackson got the best NBA
players under his teams


Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe
Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal
Demanded a less directive, more
supportive leadership style
Jackson can focus on the
psychological aspect and team
work of his teams
 Has a PhD in psychology
 Experienced by being a past NBA
player
Situational Circumstances
C. Have a loyal and supporting coaching
staff
 Managers manage different facets of the team
 Assistants helped design complex offensive and
defensive strategies
Jackson able to get full attention on
his players
The public overwhelmed by the
effectiveness of the strategies
Situational Circumstances
D. Jackson played basketball in the New
York Knicks for thirteen years
 Unselfish, team-oriented style of play
 The Knicks won by maximizing collective
achievement of individual player
The Knicks’ style of play adopted by
Jackson
 Success in transforming individually-perceived
players e.g. Michael Jordan & Dennis Rodman
into a well cooperated team
Phil Jackson: Continue to Success
as a leader
 He is a greatest professional coach of all time
“He has built the highest winning percentages of all
NBA coaches for both regular season and playoff
games”
 At the same time, He has proven to be a
Successful Leader!!!
To be an effective leader…..
 Create alignment on objectives and strategies
 Help interpret the meaning of events
 Builds mutual trust and cooperation
 Strengthens collective identity
 Encourages and facilitates collective learning
 Promotes social justice and morality
 Develop and empower people
Create alignment on objectives
and strategies
Jackson taught the team the complex
offensive and defensive strategies
He states clear objectives by
emphasizes the importance on selfless
team:
“the first principle of teamwork, of sports, is
the spiritual principle of
unselfishness…because no one person, no
matter how great, can carry a team ”
Help interpret the meaning of
events
Jackson could see more possibilities
than one could imagine
Always can see what the opportunity is,
how to guard, how to rebound.
Builds mutual trust and cooperation
 Convinced Jordan to believe
in his teammates and share
the ball
 Makes a statement to his
players: “ if you don't play
team basketball, sit down.”
 Teammates trust and
respect him so much, one
player said: “he (Phil) really allows
you to grow into your own space, and I
think that's why players respect him
so much.”
Strengthens collective identity
 Enhances strong collective
identity among the teams,
rather than individualism
 Jackson ameliorated the
simmering feud between Shaq
and Kobe, made them realized
that they are a part of the
team, not superior to any
other teammates
 Established a peaceful coexistence between superstars
Encourages and facilitates
collective learning
Let players work out their own problems
One of his players said: “he (Phil) really
allows you to grow into your own space”
Encourages his players to learn their
best way to work toward common
objectives
Develop and empower people
Jackson said: “You need to empower everyone to
meet their goal!”
Encourages his players to take a time
out to consider the past, present and
future short-term goals in between
playing
Lets them work on their problems by
learning from past experiences
Promotes social justice and
morality
Treats all the players equally no matter
they are superstars or not
E.g. one of the superstars does not share his ball to
his teammates, Jackson just call him out of the
court
Increases his players’ satisfaction by the
climate of fairness and compassion.
Other things that contribute to
Phil Jackson’s success
Phil Jackson’s high adaptability
Leads both Chicago Bulls and Lakers into a
big success
One of the Lakers’ players said: “Before Phil
came, no matter how many points Lakers led over
their opponents during the game, they would lose.
Now, no matter how many points they were down,
they could come back and win.”
Other things that contribute to
Phil Jackson’s success
Gains support and respect from his
players and the public
 One of his players said: “This really is a coach
that, No. 1, loves the game.”
Rated 3.75 on online rating website
(RateItAll) (the top one rating is 4.12),
position at the 5th rank out of 30 NBA
coaches
Public comment: “The best coach in
basketball” ”One of the greatest coaches
ever”
To conclude
 Jackson performs all the functions that an
effective leader should have which are
strong predictor of his future performance
 Jackson will continue to success as
He has great ability to adapt
Focuses attention to the outcomes that the
team desires
Motivates, challenges, tutors, and counsels
his teams to victory
Get the support and love from the public and
his players
What have we learnt?
To become a leader in the future…
Need to understand well
Our position
Situation and the environment we are in
Abilities and characteristics of our
subordinates.
Able to identify problems quickly and
correctly, make suitable solutions to the
problems.
What have we learnt?
Develop mutual trust with our followers
and respect them
Easier to motivate our followers to commit in
common goals.
Reference Source
 Video Link:
http://www.nationwidespeakers.com/speakers/phil_jackson.html
 Book:
Phil Jackson, Hugh Delehanty, Bill Bradley (1996). Sacred Hoops:
Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior. New York: Hyperion
 Websites:
http://www.nba.com/history/jackson_50.html
http://www.nba.com/coachfile/phil_jackson/
http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/J/JacksonP1.asp
http://www.bebeyond.com/BBToday/062000/BT062100.html
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nba/02playoffs/2002-06-05-coverjackson.htm
The End
Group 7
Rita Fan
Ivy Lam
Wendy Lam
Mimi Ngan
Ivy Yip