Team Player

Jeff Jannsen: Leadership Lessons from the Holy Cross Leadership Academy

by Becky Bedics, Ed.D., Director of the Holy Cross Leadership Academy

Each week we are privileged to learn from so many coaches and student-athletes from programs across the country. We’ve been very fortunate to partner with Holy Cross, a member of the Patriot League, over the past few years. Here are some practical and proven ideas you can use with your team from the coaches and student-athletes from the Holy Cross Leadership Academy.

1. Core Values and Culture Building

Although it may seem natural to most that student-athletes should be involved in clarifying the direction of the team, it might be surprising to know that we see many teams where the coaching staff creates all the goals and hands them to the team to execute. Regardless of the field, whether business or athletics, people tend to have the most buy-in when they have been involved with the process.

Head men’s hockey coach Paul Pearl has his team create a “team core values” statement that they create separately from the coaching staff. He has found that it gets the younger team members involved and invested from the start. Head volleyball coach Erin Cady has her team develop a mantra/slogan and team goals for each season. The team creates a visual representation to hang in the team locker room to keep those goals top of mind throughout the season. This past season, the team created a ladder and had each step represent something that would get them closer to their goal. It was a great visual representation of what was required to achieve what they want to do.

Kevin Durant NBA MVP: Amazing Speech

Jeff Janssen on Commitment

The 6 Key Components of Commitment 

How do you define commitment?

What exactly does it mean to truly be committed to someone or something?

In today's age of entitlement and instant gratification, the critical concept of commitment is getting watered down in the minds of many athletes.

80% of coaches believe that today's athletes don't fully understand nor appreciate the importance of commitment. To combat this insidious assault on the importance and value of commitment, I have athletes define the concept of commitment and have them discuss the 6 Key Components of Making and Keeping a Serious Commitment listed below. I strongly encourage you to do the same.

Here's how we define commitment:

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Commitment is a serious, long-term promise you make and keep with yourself and others to fully dedicate yourself to your task, training and/or team, even when, and especially when times are tough. Further, commitment means not only promising to do something, but much more importantly, actually investing the necessary effort and actions to make it happen.

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The 6 Key Components of Commitment 

Based on this definition, you’ll notice that there are six key components of making and keeping a Serious Commitment.

A Serious Commitment is a...

1. Solemn Promise 

Instead of just being hollow words said casually in passing, a Serious Commitment is a solemn pledge you make and keep with yourself and others. You must understand the complete consequences of your commitment and fully mean it when you say it. When you make a commitment, others will take you seriously and rely on you to be true to your word.

“Our tradition calls for a commitment to accountability. This is not an assumption – this is a promise that I will be there for you; and I can count on you being there for me.”
Bob Ladouceur, De La Salle High School Football Coach 

Jon Gordon: Sharp Knives… And Focusing On What Matters Most

Posted by Jon Gordon

I was once speaking to the employees of a hotel/resort and the head chef shared a comment that really stuck with me.

“Yep, I’m a typical chef,” he said. “At work my knives are all nice and sharp. But when I cook at home, all my knives are dull.”

Sharp knives at work… Dull knives at home.

How many of us need to spend more time sharpening our knives at home?

Rajon Rondo on Team Decisions

"It's What's Best for the Team"

  "My job is to play, whether Doc throws an 8th grader out there...I'll try to make his job easier and bring the best out in him."  That’s Rajon Rondo talking about how he isn't concerned with who starts and who doesn't.

Part of leadership is getting the team to buy into the importance of team over self, and that's what Rondo is talking about.  There are some great lessons in this quote if you spend some time thinking about it: leadership lessons, teammate lessons, and trust lessons.  Let's take a look at each of these:

LEADERSHIP LESSONS:  Rondo is basically saying it's not as important who starts and who doesn't; the key is that the best lineup at any given time in the game be what's best for the team.  He's putting team before individual and he fully understands that the best decisions for winning are decisions that put the team above the individual.

TEAMMATE LESSONS: This is a tough one.  In one sense, he's saying, "we want the best player out on the floor for that time of the game."  This gives that teammate tremendous confidence in that Rondo is saying, “I believe in you".  On the other hand, the player who's not out there may be thinking, "he believes in him more than he believes in me."  This is where leadership becomes tougher than people think -- that balance between keeping guys happy, motivated, and engaged when their number isn't called.

TRUST LESSONS:  What Rondo is really saying here is, "I trust the decision my coach is making.  I know my coach makes his decisions based on what's best for the team.  I trust this and now it's my job to help that player excel."

The ultimate lesson here is even bigger.  What you say can be very important to the success or failure of a team, an organization, or a business. Whenever a statement is made with an individual's name in it, you can bet that person will pay attention to it and he will make his own interpretation of the message.  So what you say does become important.  I just warn players to think first, talk second. And the same applies to us as coaches.

There are even more messages we can learn by Rondo's statement.  These are just a few to get you thinking.  It's a good exercise as you read articles on other teams and players as well as your own.  To quote one of Doc's favorite phrases: "I know what he said, but what did he say?"  

Doc Rivers

Holding Others Accountable

From Championship Coaches Network
Link: Hold Everyone Accountable

Greg A. Shelley, Ph.D., Colgate and Lafayette Leadership Academies

Excerpt from Dr. Shelley's new book: 50 Rules to Build Committed, Confident, and Motivated Athletes and Teams 

Holding others accountable is difficult, often uncomfortable, and yet absolutely necessary. If your athletes are going to grow and develop, and your team is going to mature and progress, you will need strong coach-player and player-player accountability.

Accountability is about empowering, encouraging, and "pushing" others to accomplish a task. It is a rare person that "enjoys" being held accountable. Who wants to be told they need to gain strength, work harder, commit more, improve their attitude, or communicate more effectively?

Similarly, it is also difficult for the person holding others accountable . . . as the process of holding another person accountable often ends with that person becoming angry, offended, or feeling "singled out". In contrast, holding others accountable should conclude with everyone involved realizing their goals and expectations are within reach. All parties should have a clear understanding of where they stand in relation to any previously agreed upon individual or team goals.

Holding others accountable is about helping others reach their goals and follow through with what they initially set out to do. Below are several coach considerations for establishing individual and team accountability.

Relationships: A Key to Your Success

KEVIN EASTMAN/BOSTON CELTICS

kevineastmanbasketball.com

Relationship has become a huge buzz word not only in athletics, but in the corporate world, higher education, and elsewhere.  Seems like everything we read has a reference to the importance of relationships.  What's interesting is that it's really true.

Relationships are the foundation for everything that's important in coaching.  Getting players to buy into your system is rooted in how strongly your players believe in you.  Their belief will be a byproduct of their relationship with you.  I really don’t know of too many players who dislike and distrust their coaches and still go out and play hard for them.

BOOK QUOTE

"Pratice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better"

BY: by Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway, and Katie Yezzi

"The enemies of practice are pride and fear and self-satisfaction. To practice requires humility. It forces us to admit that we don’t know everything. It forces us to submit to feedback from people who can teach us."

What Separates "The Best" from "The Rest"

Observations from Training Camp

One of my favorite books is Training Camp by Jon Gordon.  Whenever I speak to groups -- whether basketball or corporate -- I tell them this is a "must read" for players and coaches, and from young grads to corporate leaders.

I'm writing this late at night after two days in Istanbul, Turkey, with our Boston Celtics team at Training Camp for the upcoming NBA season.  The NBA has a great program that sends different teams to compete against pro teams from other countries.  It's not only about competition, but also about sharing of the game with kids over here. (another of the many NBA initiatives that's not always known by the public but is such an important part of what the NBA believes in.)

Since we're in the midst of training camp, I thought it would be appropriate to share a passage from Jon's book:

"Because if you want it you’ll be willing to pay the price and invest the time, energy, sweat, and dedication that greatness requires. People think it’s all about talent. But talent isn’t enough anymore. Everyone here has talent. It’s about infusing talent with heart, soul, spirit, and passion. It’s about doing the things that make the best of the best better than everyone else. And these things have nothing to do with talent."

Principles of Leadership

To help you be, know, and do, follow these eleven principles of leadership (U.S. Army, 1983). The later chapters in this Leadership guide expand on these principles and provide tools for implementing them:

1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement - In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.
2. Be technically proficient - As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees' tasks.
3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions - Search for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, they always do sooner or later — do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
4. Make sound and timely decisions - Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools.
5. Set the example - Be a good role model for your employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. We must become the change we want to see - Mahatma Gandhi
6. Know your people and look out for their well-being - Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your workers.
7. Keep your workers informed - Know how to communicate with not only them, but also seniors and other key people.
8. Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers - Help to develop good character traits that will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.
9. Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished - Communication is the key to this responsibility.
10. Train as a team - Although many so called leaders call their organization, department, section, etc. a team; they are not really teams...they are just a group of people doing their jobs.
11. Use the full capabilities of your organization - By developing a team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.

Article Link: Concepts of Leadership

Coach K: Leading With the Heart

“During the season, your team should be led with exuberance and excitement. You should live the journey. You should live it right. You should live it together. You should live it shared. You should try to make one another better. You should get on one another if somebody’s not doing their part. You should hug one another when they are. You should be disappointed in a loss and exhilarated in a win. It’s all about the journey.”

27 Page Preview to Del Harris book "On Point"

27 Page Preview of Del Harris Book: On Point

Crucial Simplicity

From Randy Brown’s: Coach RB Website

By Dan Fouts as told to Charlie Jones, extract from the Chicken Soup for the Soul Sports Edition

We’d like to share with you this extraordinary story below. I re-found it recently and shared it with a number of our clients and they loved it as much as I did. Crucial Simplicity is an excellent example of how the best head coaches get the most important things right. This short story is inspiring in its simplicity and is all about achieving the best from your players and athletes, when it matters the most…. Read on.
"Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothin' when it is absolutely necessary" Ray Knight
I remember one of the first times I went to the sideline for that “end of the first half, two minute-warning talk” with the coaching staff. It was Don Coryell’s first year as head coach of the San Diego Chargers. He had an impressive staff, as well as some great receivers for me to work with. On the phone was assistant coach Jim Hanifan, connected upstairs to the other assistants Joe Gibbs and Ernie Zampese.
So I’m at the sideline, expecting to hear Coryell tell me exactly what he wants me to do. But I don’t hear a word from Coryell; Hanifan’s doing all the talking. Gibbs is relaying to him, and Zampese is relating to Gibbs, and the three of them are going back and forth, funneling all this information into a bewildered young quarterback.

Jesse Owens: My Greatest Olympic Prize

Original from Reader's Digest, October 1960

Jesse Owens amazed the world by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games—in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, the broad jump and the 400-meter relay. When this piece was originally published in October 1960, he was an extremely active member of the Illinois Youth Commission, which sponsors local committees “dedicated to keeping youngsters active in sports and out of mischief.” Luz Long, about whom he writes here, was killed in Sicily during World War II.

A story of triumph, sportsmanship

Gettysburg's Cory Weissman overcomes odds to return to the court one more time.

LINK: ESPN VIDEO      LINK: ESPN ARTICLE 

GETTYSBURG, Pa. -- Even two weeks later, the moment, for those privileged enough to behold it, still blazes in the mind's eye.

Cory Weissman, with the cockiness you would expect of a New Jersey point guard, stares down the rim from the free-throw line. He touches his white Gettysburg College shorts just above the right knee, then tosses the basketball upward and a little forward with an almost unconscious wrist motion he has practiced thousands of times. Like a magic trick, it jumps back into his hands. He bounces the ball three times, flips the ball again, then cocks and releases it with his right hand. Few notice that both of his size-10 Nike Hyperfuse shoes are an inch or two off the floor, a clear breach of free-throw etiquette, but he knows he needs a little something extra.

An awkward hush has fallen over Bream Gymnasium; some spectators are clasping their hands in prayer or pressing them to their hearts. All eyes are on the ball, floating above the court, rotating three, four, five times as it begins to descend. Everyone -- even the five Washington College players -- finds themselves trying to will it into the basket. The conflicted look on Weissman's face reveals what is at stake. His teeth are bared, clenched in a grimace, but his hazel eyes are already dissolving into something joyous -- even before the ball swishes through the net.

Stardom for Oklahoma City forward Durant almost never came to be

Read more: LINK: SPORTS ILLUSTRATED ARTICLE

Kevin Durant nearly gave up basketball 

(twice) before stardom set in.

The NBA would go on without Kevin Durant, but it certainly wouldn't be the same.

LeBron James would have a larger lead in the latest MVP race, the Lakers would be their relevant and theatrical selves and commissioner David Stern would still be hoping that all these compelling storylines -- from young Derrick Rose and his Bulls to the ageless Big Three and their Spurs to the Chris Paul-led Clippers -- were enough to take the stain off this lockout-shortened season. But something special would be missing without the willowy wonder from Oklahoma City, a unique talent who has all the makings of an all-time great and just became the first player to lead the league in scoring three straight times since Michael Jordan from 1995-98.

There were times during Durant's early years in Seat Pleasant, Md., when this was a possibility, when the gangly kid who wasn't sure he was good enough nearly gave up his future profession because, well, it was already feeling like the job he didn't want. It was a dark chapter in his otherwise-blissful basketball life, a stretch of about two years when he occasionally questioned if all the work was worth it and considered quitting more than once.

Jeff Janssen: THE 7 KINDS OF CULTURES

IS YOUR TEAM’S CULTURE WHERE YOU WANT OR NEED IT TO BE?

ARTICLE LINK: Jeff Jannsen's Sports Leadership

Do you have a positive and productive culture firmly in place that helps you win on and off the playing fields?

Or are you frustrated because you seem to have a Country Club Culture where many of your athletes are too soft, lazy, and entitled?

Or worse yet, do you have a Corrosive Culture filled with conflicts, criticism, and cliques that distract, divide, and destroy your team from within?

Unfortunately, many coaches don’t realize the full impact of their culture - until it’s too late. For example, in the frustrating last days of his coaching career at Illinois, former men’s basketball coach Bruce Weber candidly lamented to the media, “You have got to develop a culture. I think the last three years all I worried about was winning rather than developing a culture. I am disappointed in myself for not developing a culture of toughness with our team.”