Becoming Coach Ha-Keem
Photo by TJ Dragotta on Unsplash
If you indulge me, I'd like to take you on a journey that started when I was a child and continues today.
As early as I can remember, I've been playing basketball. Growing up, we didn't have all of the leagues, AAU (until much later), and programs that are available to boys and girls around the world. In the 3rd grade, we had the YMCA, and my dad was the coach. My dad, who loved basketball, but had never coached sports in his life. However, he had a passion for helping others, and he knew how to teach. To this day, I can't tell you what he taught me specifically about basketball, but he instilled in me a love for the game he loved so much. From there, I continued playing basketball and became a high school standout in our town. Eventually, I was fortunate enough to earn a spot as a walk-on ("Go Cyclones")! At that time, I had many coaches, but it wasn't until my sophomore year in college that students called me "Coach."
Many universities offer summer camps for youth basketball players. As a player on a college basketball team, it was a way to make money over the summer. During the summer basketball camps, we taught skills and ran drills to help younger players improve their overall game. At the end of each day, each coach would take a team to play against other teams. It was there that I first heard the word "coach" in reference to me. I was young, but I liked it. It felt like I was giving back to a game that had given so much to me. I continued playing basketball at the university for four years. After college, I moved to Minnesota and continued playing in several leagues within the Twin Cities, but it would be several more years before I would start coaching again.
A few months after moving to Minnesota, I started my professional working career. I was hired into a company with a job I loved and my professional career flourished. I had a passion for learning and success and was able to accomplish both. I experienced career growth and would seek out the advice of many of my colleagues on how to manage my career. I continued to play in basketball leagues and made many new friends at work and in basketball.
All in all, things were going well! Then something that I hadn't anticipated happened. Everything seemed to be going perfectly, but I felt lost. I had achieved many of my early career goals and found success, but I wasn't entirely satisfied. Something was missing from my life, and I couldn't put my finger on it. It took one of my mentors, a coach of sorts, to point it out to me.
It had been a few months, and I was looking for direction in my career. I have always been fortunate to have a vast network of leaders who have seen and experienced so much in their careers and were willing to provide me with sage advice. Well, in this particular meeting, I shared with this mentor the challenges I was facing in finding career fulfillment. He calmly listened to me, asked me to write out the words to the things that I was passionate about in life. Thinking primarily from a professional career perspective, I wrote down words you'd expect; "successful career," "achieving business goals," etc. All true. However, after reviewing the list, he quickly pointed out that I was looking for all of my answers in a professional career, and one of the words that I had written, "basketball," might be a clue to something more. We finished talking that evening., I thanked him, and the next day I answered an ad in the paper for a Junior Varsity Girls basketball coach position. When I stepped on the court for the first practice, after several options were explored, I suggested "Coach Ha-Keem" as the proper name to call me.
Fast forward a few years and several positions later, and I found that my professional role helped facilitate people reaching out to me as a mentor. I loved it! If you look at my LinkedIn profile or articles that I've written, you will see that I'm still passionate about helping others. So, when employees, colleagues, and peers reached out to me for career advice, I would happily say "yes." I became invested in their success. After quite a few of these conversations, I decided to write a book (link below) outlining some of the insights I had gained from those conversations. After writing the book, I had several discussions with my editor, which helped her understand my vision for the book. Once she had a chance to read the book and provide feedback, I noticed that she summed up many of the stories in my book by simply calling me "Coach."
Now we've come full circle haven't we?
At that moment, it dawned on me that I had been coaching in a personal and professional capacity for most of my adult life. The lessons learned from leading a basketball team were similar to the lessons learned from coaching a business team. It takes a vision, hard work, good people, a lot of listening, creative solutions, influential leaders, and yes, I believe it takes a good coach.
Thanks for taking a moment out of your day to walk on this journey with me. Find out more about what I learned in my upcoming book!
Coach Ha-Keem
You’re Worth It! Navigating Your Career in Corporate America - coming June 23, 2020! Click here to sign up to receive notifications on the book release.
