The Unhappy Teammate

The Purdue Boilermakers are once again ranked in the top five of men’s college basketball this year behind one of the best players in the country, Zach Edey.

Despite the team’s success and wins over other top-10 programs — including Marquette, Gonzaga and Tennessee — the season hasn’t been without challenges for Coach Matt Painter.

Thirteen of Purdue’s 17 players are averaging less than 20 minutes of playing time per game, which inevitably can lead to some bitterness and resentment.

Instead of trying to fight this, though, Painter is fully aware of it — and even coaches his players on handling their mini frustrations.

“I don’t want them to be happy, but I want them to be professional,” he said last month.

“I don’t want somebody who’s a good player to play 10 minutes and be O.K. with it. I want them to work so they can play more and keep grinding it — but be professional and cheer for their teammates.”

It’s a critical message.

As coaches, executives and leaders, we often expect wins and other successes to be enough to earn credibility with those we lead and quell any discontentment.   

After all, our tactics and strategies seem to be working and are putting those we lead in positions to succeed.

But even impressive wins and performances can bring with them some feelings of envy, resentment and general frustrations with roles.

Instead of being surprised by this, Painter gets ahead of it and coaches it — telling his players that while he sympathizes with them to an extent, they still have job to do.  

“Whoever is playing in front of them is their teammate,” he said. “If you can have that mindset as a young player when you do get a chance, you’re just going to play better.”

“When you get mad and you sit there and you stew, now when you get your opportunity, you won’t play as well,” he added.

As leaders, we’d be wise to keep this in mind and remember that no matter our win totals, no matter the deals we secure or the accolades we receive, we’ll always have a team member or two unhappy with his/her role.

Instead of being surprised, we may want to get ahead of it and make our standards and expectations all the more clear.

We don’t need unanimous approval from everyone we lead — but we do need buy in and professionalism.  

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