Before the pandemic, a trip to the basketball court every now and then was part of our office-sponsored fitness activities. It used to be that we were pretty consistent about going every Monday night, something we had managed to keep up for three years straight. Most of the participants, myself included, had near-perfect attendance. A lot of us did this to stay in shape, de-stress and have a bit of fun while others were simply passionate about the game. Regardless of their reasons for playing, people oftentimes got competitive — everyone wanted to win at one point or another.

A boss once shared with me a story about his experience with an immigrant whom he had employed in one of his donut shops in New York. The boss learns that this particular immigrant used to be the captain of their cricket team back at home and decides to give him more responsibilities. After all, weren’t leadership skills supposed to be transportable? The boss ends up promoting the immigrant to a supervisory position, only to promote him again as branch manager several months later. The immigrant eventually becomes an area manager responsible for handling several stores.

In a recent performance review of a newly transitioned manager in the office, I’ve seen once again —it certainly wasn’t the first time— how people’s behavior and mindset on the basketball court can be similar to their performance and mentality at work. If I had to come up with more reasons to join office-sponsored sports activities apart from the obvious camaraderie and health benefits, getting a peek into people’s mind wasn’t a bad one. I share my notes below about some of my observations, mainly how I’ve unconsciously categorized players under three main buckets.

First, there are the stars. These are players that need to be in separate teams, lest the game becomes a lopsided affair and all the hopes of having some fun gets eliminated. They can be counted upon to do what is necessary to give their team the best chances of winning. They get the lion’s share of playing time and points because they put in the equivalent amount of work and consistently show good results. It almost feels like cheating when you pass them the ball because they seem to be able to score at will. At work, they bring the same passion and energy in what they do. They’re usually not together in a project unless it’s uber-complex because spreading them across several ones tremendously increases the chances of success on the individual projects they’re part of.

There are also the facilitators. While they could also score points if they wanted, especially when their team is behind or whenever the situation is critical, being the highest scorer or the individual superstar isn’t their priority. On the contrary, they look to pass the ball to open teammates first and even give weaker players the chance to score whenever possible. They don’t mind doing the necessary but less glamorous work either, like rebounding and defending — anything that could give their team the edge. As facilitators, these people are first and foremost leaders and their very presence helps improve the output of their teammates. Back in the office, they do pretty well in their managerial roles, whether the responsibility was thrust upon them or whether they asked for it themselves.

Then there are the role-players. These are the pesky defenders, the tenacious rebounders, or even that guy who favors the side of the court just behind the three-point line and has a relatively good chance of sinking the shot if he’s open. These people have no delusions of becoming the MVP but aim instead to contribute steadily and reliably, even if it takes time to master their chosen role. Part of their internal dialog goes something like, “I just don’t want to be the joker” — the very same words uttered by the boss I spoke about earlier when he decided to start playing basketball again after he turned 50. In the workplace, these people can be relied upon to perform their responsibilities well. They’re the subject matter experts who aren’t any less valuable than their colleagues. Many of them end up doing well in supervisory and managerial positions too.

Whatever roles or labels get assigned to them, and whether it be on the court or in the office, people want to win. They also welcome having fun and learning new things along the way. In basketball, the team with the higher score at the sound of the final buzzer wins the game. At work, the team who wins has leaders that can crisply define what constitutes a win and constantly rally their members towards it.