Working for Red Auerbach-Jan Volk

what was he like to work as a the leader of the organization uh... he's very different he was very different than his public persona uh... certainly a very tough minded guy very demanding of uh... of those who worked for and played for him uh... but there were aspects of his uh... personality that were um... hidden from view uh... one of the things that people don't expect out of a person with the success that he had and the ego that he needed to have to have that success was the fact that he knew what he didn't know and he knew he needed to have people working for him that did know those things to make him complete to make the operation complete so if he hired you and as he did with me he let me do my job for the most part obviously he had very high standards and we had to meet those standards but he felt which i think is also unusual amongst people of his success uh... over a long period of time he knew that if you were afraid to make a decision because you were afraid of making a mistake because you were afraid that he was going to come down on you uh... in the end you'd probably do nothing which is worse than just than doing the wrong thing that is by itself the wrong thing you have no chance of succeeding uh... so he was very tolerant of uh... people going out accepting responsibility and and trying to do the job if you didn't do it well and there were some exceptions where i i had some difficulties with red in in those uh... aspects but for the most part uh... if you um... didn't do it he would point it out to you and not in a threatening way and expect you to do better the next time as long as you didn't make the same mistake twice you were okay now in that type of environment where winning every year really was expected is that good or bad for business it's great for business i think i think for business it was excellent i think when you're held to a high standard by others outside of your organization you yourself always want to have your own standards be high but if other people uh... have those views and they feel that uh... that you're worthy of of uh... of meeting those high expectations that's a real plus this excerpt is brought to you by the massachusetts school of law