In this episode, Michael talks to Dr Wayne Wright — entrepreneur, inventor, company director, leading business coach and owner of the largest all-inclusive basketball club – The Maidstone Warriors.
Listen in as they talk about all things business and basketball. Dr Wayne brings a vast and varied business experience to the conversation. His main business interests have been in the arenas of healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and he is a huge proponent of innovation and invention, with his name on eight patents. For the last twenty years, he has led [W]sq solutions, a boutique coaching organisation that supports entrepreneurs in starting, running, growing and exiting fast-growing businesses. He also works with the executive teams of larger businesses to ensure continued growth and success.
As they talked about Dr Wayne’s involvement in the basketball club, it quickly became clear that his interest in this organisation came not from playing the sport, but from observing the positive impact that sport can bring to the lives of anyone involved in it. He talks about the benefits, not just for the top-performers—the stars—but for everyone, and how that spills out into their lives outside of basketball. The success of the club is not just about creating a winning basketball team, but about creating a community, and fostering the next generation of leaders.
He brought his understanding of strategy and success, gained from his years in the corporate world, to this very different arena, and helped the club to grow far beyond its origin. He sees many parallels between what happens on the pitch and what happens at work. The club relies on a sizeable team of volunteers, and by supporting and coaching these people, the whole club thrives. In any organisation it is the leadership team who need to set the tone and if they are not sufficiently skilled, whether in their technical skills, such as ball control, or in their interpersonal skills, such as clear communication, then the whole venture is in jeopardy. But a highly skilled top team can spot potential and nurture it, they can spot potential trouble and find the strategies to avoid it. They can help turn an underperformer into a star.
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