LeBron James says being a father has helped him learn how to be a better leader and teammate
- A crucial component to LeBron James' success throughout his outstanding 16-year career has been the ability to rely on and support his teammates through good times and bad.
- In a recent appearance on Tim Ferriss' podcast, James discussed the influence being a father has had on his leadership abilities and his interactions with his teammates.
- The four-time NBA MVP said that he encourages his three children in different ways because they all have different personalities and that he has since taken a similar approach to motivate his teammates.
- James also said that patience is a virtue in both his home and his work life.
LeBron James has enjoyed one of the most impressive professional careers in the history of the NBA and will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the best to ever play the game of basketball.
But even the four-time NBA MVP admits that he could never do it all alone.
A crucial component to James' success throughout his outstanding 16-year career has been his ability to rely on and support his teammates through good times and bad. After all, James' nine NBA Finals appearances and three wins would not have been possible without the teammates by his side.
In an appearance on Tim Ferriss' podcast, James discusses the lifestyle and habits that go into maintaining his continued dominance in the NBA. A large part of that, it seems, is working to maintain healthy team dynamics.
James said that being a father has had a major impact on his leadership abilities and his interactions with his teammates. According to James, each of his three children has a distinct personality and thus do not respond to things in the exact same way. He has learned how to take a unique approach to encourage each kid to get the best results and has since used that approach to help motivate his teammates.
"What I've learned is to get the best out of my three kids, I can't approach them all the same way because they all have different personalities," James told Ferriss. "They all are different, and I had to find out how to tap into each one of my kids to get the same results but teach them differently, and that's the same with being the leader of a basketball team or a franchise.
"You can't express or talk to everyone the same way and expect to get the same result or get the most out of them because every personality is different, so one thing I say to one player may trigger a different response in another player."
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In leading both a household and a team, James claims that remaining patient is the most important thing.
"The number one thing is patience," James said. "When I talk about patience, it comes back to being a father... You can't go in and say 'this is how I'm going to lead.' It comes back to that patience of learning their mindsets, learning how you can get the most out of them, what triggers them to be their best, and what triggers them to not be their best. You learn that over time."