Point to the Passer

The baskets were being scored, but nobody was acknowledging where they were coming from.

And during a meeting in the mid-1960s, Dean Smith and John Wooden felt this needed to change.

“He said he wanted the recipient of a pass that led to a basket to say thank you to the passer or wink at him,” Smith, the long-time University of North Carolina coach, wrote of Wooden, the legendary UCLA coach, in his book The Carolina Way.

“That was a good idea, but I wanted a stronger, more visible signal of thanks. I preferred a gesture that the fans could see. The media too. So, we asked the player who scored to point to the man who gave him the pass that resulted in the basket, to show appreciation for an unselfish act that helps the team.”

Nearly 60 years later, the “point to the passer” that Smith so heavily emphasized will be on display tonight as North Carolina takes on Kansas in the National Championship game.

It’s a basic gesture that has become a staple of the Tar Heel program and has spread across the sport as a whole, but it also has some relevance for our own leadership worlds.

At the root of our successes and triumphs is almost always someone who has operated in silence, someone who very few people recognize or even know about.

It may be a secretary who took care of the logistics, an employee who tested the technology in advance of our big presentation, a security guard who worked extra hours because we were pulling a late night in the office.

We’re often guilty of dismissing their work as “just part of the job” or “doing what they’re supposed to do,” but the reality is that our success would not be possible or as easily attained without them.

We as leaders can do better at pointing to our own respective passers and making sure that the “behind-the-scenes” workers whom we’re dependent upon are getting more than just a check every couple of weeks.

The recognition may come in the form of a hand-written thank you note, a physical gift or just a routine phone call to remind those who have played a little part in our success that we are grateful for their contributions and that we would not be in the position we’re in without them.

“It makes for a stronger team because everyone likes to feel appreciated,” Smith wrote.

When a North Carolina player scores tonight, he will undoubtedly extend his index finger toward the passer and carry on this timeless program tradition.

But the gesture is more than just a brief acknowledgment. It’s recognition, it’s appreciation and it’s trust.

And those values almost always point our teams in the right direction.