A bomb goes off in Turkey, and our lives change forever.

Christmas 2016 was one like no other.

Whilst the rest of the nation was busy with the usual family commitments, holiday merrymaking, or the momentous religious significance, we at the Perth Wildcats were facing the very likely prospect of not making the finals for the first time in the club’s record-breaking history.

We’d cut a shooting guard, replaced him with another who after just two games wanted to be released, brought back the former who then failed a drug test! Key players were injured, and were sliding to the bottom of the ladder.

Pressure was mounting on coaches and management to turn things around.

So, instead of the traditional festivities, the coaching staff ran depth charts and made phone calls worldwide.

Our recruiting model was simple: the coaches picked the talent, and I had veto rights on character.

Whilst they were watching tapes of the player’s competency, I was screening for tell-tale signs on character.

What were their behaviours on a made play? Did they acknowledge the passer, or did they flex to the crowd? Were they honest on 50-50 calls, or did they fake innocence? Did they raise their hand to acknowledge a foul, or did they remonstrate with the officials? What were their routines pre-game and post-game? Were they paying attention during time-outs? What was the body language when benched? How did they bounce back? Did they celebrate their team-mates’ successes? Were they respectful to the coach?

The list went on…

What does the evidence show? With the volume on mute?

Getting caught up in the spin, the words, and what someone says about themselves is easy. Their reasons, their excuses, their narrative, their reasonings.

But what do you see when you turn the volume down?

Past behaviours, not words, are the most reliable predictors of an individual’s future performance.

This system worked well for eight years. Two head coaches and multiple assistants.

But it was by no means easy.

Difficult conversations that lasted hours. Days of research. Background checks stretching back to college and high school.

We’d considered more than 50 players that summer and kept saying NO until the right YES came along.

It’s the ones you reject! Especially on Character!

Then, of course, there’s luck. Yes, a bomb did go off in Turkey, and the Wildcats’ unlikely appearance in the post-season seemed like a good and safe short-term exit strategy for a young Bryce Cotton.

But that would not have become a reality if we’d been less pedantic and taken an easier option earlier.

Because the evidence is irrefutable, character trumps competence!

When leaders talk about performance and culture, they overestimate their ability to shape either. The starting point must always be in the recruiting phase. Pick the right people, and you’re halfway there. Pick the wrong ones, and your problems multiply.

This is simply because people can be encouraged to improve their performance, but their character has already been formed, especially with adults.

Once the die has been cast, changing character or behaviours, even in young athletes, is hard work. The only proven drivers are confronting or conforming, perhaps inspiring. But that is a topic for another article.

I’ve dedicated the last two decades to the importance of character in team performance in religious institutions, non-profits, professional sporting teams and corporate boardrooms. And by character, we look at three fundamental traits: Honesty, Humility and Hardwork. Goodness values (such as Fairness, Empathy, Kindness, Patience, & Generosity) help round out our profiling.

A key learning has been that high-competency, low-character individuals lower team performance. More importantly, they have an even stronger negative influence on culture. Despite their individual statistics, they have a negative impact on the whole.

Conversely, high-character, low-competency individuals improve team performance and team culture despite not being high achievers themselves.

Put another way, high-character individuals are unlikely to lower team performance and very likely to increase team culture compared to low-character individuals who, even if they are individually talented, are unlikely to improve team performance and very likely to lower team culture.

Whether on the sporting field, in the boardroom, on the factory floor, or at the mine site, you’re always better off hiring based on character first for team success.

Even if a person is low on competency, their high character will improve team culture and performance

Yet, the temptation to prioritise competency over character is often too great.

Let’s look at basketball. As in most sports, scoring is a key factor in success. If you want to win a championship, the natural inclination is to sign the best scorer in the League. Yet, this rarely correlates.

INDIVIDUAL SCORERS vs CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS – THE NBL

In the 2024-25 season of the National Basketball League (NBL) in Australia, the Illawarra Hawks finished first in the regular season, and quite convincingly.

Yet the highest scorer in the League was not on its team. Neither was the second-highest scorer, the third, the fourth, or even the fifth.

Yes, none of the top five scorers in the competition were on the team that finished first.

Character trumps Competency, and Culture drives Performance every day of the week.

What we did find, however, is that in that year Adelaide featured two players in the top five scorers list. Out of roughly 170 players spread across 10 teams in the competition, two of the top five scorers were on one team.

Where did that team finish?

Sixth!

This was not the only time. There was a pattern.

In 2022 – Perth had two players in the top 5 scorers – finished fifth.

In 2021, Brisbane finished sixth again, with Law and Sobey in the top five.

In 2020, South East Melbourne finished second last despite having the third and fourth-best scorers in the League on their team.

We looked even further at the last 13 seasons of the NBL.

Only once, in 2020, did the League’s top scorer play on the championship team.

On only three occasions did the second-best scorer’s team win a championship.

In fact, almost half the championship teams in the National Basketball League did not feature a single player in the top five scorers list…in a sport where the team with the highest score wins.

In our work to date, performance and winning have a simple lead indicator – high individual character, which results in good team culture, delivering sustained success over time.

If you’d like to improve your team culture, please do reach out to us on +61 8 6377 7607 – we’d love to be of assistance.