After completing his second season as an NBA Coach, Brad Stevens has had impressive results. He increased the number of Boston Celtics wins by 60% and moved the team up from 4th place to 2nd place in the NBA Atlantic Division. This past season, Stevens–a numbers guy who heavily utilizes analytics–coached the Celtics to the playoffs with an ever-changing roster and what many deemed mediocre talent. Stevens is building on the Celtics’ culture of hard work. Here are six tips managers can learn from him:

1. Enhance the current culture by reinforcing accountability, trust, and togetherness.
2. Gauge your own performance and make necessary adjustments.
3. Help your team move from “buy-in” to “ownership” of new behaviors.
4. Make known the behaviors that will not be tolerated.
5. When hiring, look for a baseline level of talent, then determine whether the person’s presence in the locker room will raise everybody else on the court.
6. Extract the most out of every player no matter their skill level and how long they play

In his short time of NBA coaching, Stevens has maximized his own performance. He finished fourth in NBA Coach of the Year voting for 2014-2015.

DB&A can help you implement a game-changing management culture. One-on-one coaching of frontline managers encompasses 85% of DB&A’s model. You can achieve dramatic improvements in productivity, quality, service, and profitability. Contact us now.