Explore an Uncommon
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Bad Leaders
If you work under a terrible leader right now, remember this: Every bad leader leaves a blueprint. The best leaders simply build it in reverse.
Good read on the value of learning from bad leaders from Admired Leaders:
Bad leaders, parents, and coaches are not in short supply.
Many up-and-coming leaders suffer under the tutelage of an ineffective or dysfunctional leader, sometimes for years. But surprisingly, many of the best leaders credit these bad role models with helping them to perfect a highly effective approach to leadership.
How can this be?
The answer lies in the creativity and motivation of those who experience poor leadership.
In many cases, leaders who endure an awful leader dedicate themselves to doing the opposite once they gain influence. They invent a leadership style that produces the opposite effect on others from what they experienced.
Consider a leader who spent years under a supervisor who hoarded information and punished bad news. When this leader finally ran their own team, they made transparency their signature.
This leader now shares the numbers early, thanks people for surfacing problems, and treats mistakes as data rather than betrayal. They didn’t learn this from a mentor who modeled it well. They learned it by feeling, day after day, what its absence cost.
Pain is a remarkably good teacher. It shows exactly where the damage happens, and so exactly what the repair must be.
Inventive leaders who experience poor leadership are well positioned to chart a very different course if they choose to. In that sense, bad role models can play a pivotal development role for some leaders.
Good role models, by contrast, can make leadership look effortless, and effortless is hard to copy. When a skilled leader handles a tense moment with grace, the craft behind it is often invisible.
A bad leader leaves every flaw exposed.
The humiliation in the meeting, the credit taken, the promise broken each become a vivid lesson that sticks with a clarity no good example ever could.
For those who go on to become exceptional leaders, suffering under poor leadership can make them unusually attentive to small moments and specific behaviors. By remembering how those moments and behaviors felt, they gain the core ingredients to develop something different and better.
The worst leaders rarely mean to teach anything. But for those paying attention, they may end up teaching exactly what not to do, and that lesson may be the most valuable of all.
If you work under a terrible leader right now, remember this: Every bad leader leaves a blueprint. The best leaders simply build it in reverse.
Defense: Motivation or Clarity?
“I think about that a lot with defense because so much of what we call a motivation problem might actually be a clarity problem.”
Mike Jagacki with some interesting thoughts on how we teach defense. We tend to lean very hard towards effort and toughness on defense, and we always say our teams don’t communicate enough. But are we being clear as we possibly can with them? Do they actually know how to solve the problems?
If you want your team to talk more, you have to tell them what to say. If you want your team to react quicker or compete harder, you have to tell them what to do.
“I think about that a lot with defense because so much of what we call a motivation problem might actually be a clarity problem.”
Low Maintenance
“The talent level is immense. But the ability to be professional, and that’s general, but that means be on time, have a work ethic, be low maintenance. I think that’s the big thing now. Being low maintenance, which means not having anybody have to worry about you, or asking for too many things, or you being a prima donna, or things of that nature.”
Garrett Temple played 16 years in the NBA.
“The talent level is immense. But the ability to be professional, and that’s general, but that means be on time, have a work ethic, be low maintenance. I think that’s the big thing now. Being low maintenance, which means not having anybody have to worry about you, or asking for too many things, or you being a prima donna, or things of that nature.”
“Change The People or Change The People”
Clark Lea, Vanderbilt football coach, on avoiding a victim mindset.
Clark Lea, Vanderbilt football coach, on avoiding a victim mindset.
“Opposite The Moment”
Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko talks about what his job is as the head coach.
Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko talks about what his job is as the head coach.
CJ McCollum - Longevity
Smart words from CJ McCollum about how to stay employed and maximize your earning potential.
Smart words from CJ McCollum about how to stay employed and maximize your earning potential.
https://x.com/CulturedUpdatez/status/2076772088451662232?s=20
Pop on Leadership
“Wins and losses fade. Relationships last.”
Gregg Popovich on leadership…
“Great leadership isn't one style. It's knowing your people well enough to give them what they need. Invest in the relationships. Wins and losses fade. Relationships last.”
Becky Hammon - Resilience
"I wouldn't change the hard parts. Because the hard parts were necessary to build the strength needed for whatever challenge was coming." - Becky Hammon
The Ability To Learn
“The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.”
– Sheryl Sandberg, Former COO of Meta
Steve Kerr - What Coaching Brings Me
Coaching has unlocked the best version of myself…
"Coaching has unlocked the best version of myself," he told me in March. "I have to constantly be evolving, thinking, growing. I have to work on myself, learning how to be kinder and gentler to myself the same way I am with others. And I've had to learn to fight this very human instinct that I'm not good enough. Like most people, I'm insecure. I want to be great but I don't really know if I am or not, but I've learned the value of just being really kind and competitive at the same time. I've lived this charmed existence, an amazing life, a blessed, fortunate one, but I've also been through some s--- with my dad's death and my own health the last decade. I think I'm scared that I will lose that daily engagement and purpose that not only feeds my soul, but helps me deal with my literal chronic daily pain. If I knew I could retire and go do the physical stuff that I love, it would be a lot easier. But I can't do a lot of that stuff anymore. So I'm scared of being at home without the constant engagement and friendships that coaching brings me!"
Ben McCollum - What First Place Looks Like
“This is what first place looks like.”
https://x.com/coachajkings/status/2037148748170539450?s=20
“You can tame a fool quicker than you can resurrect a corpse.”
Mark Daigneault - When They Need You
“You have to be there when they need you.”
“You have to be there when they need you.”
John Henry - Decision Making
“He is not set or hardened or entrenched in a point of view. A lot of people, especially people who have had that kind of success, get to this point and they fit facts to support a conclusion. He really has a very open, almost Socratic way of processing things.”
A good look at Red Sox owner John Henry and his approach to decision making.
“He is not set or hardened or entrenched in a point of view. A lot of people, especially people who have had that kind of success, get to this point and they fit facts to support a conclusion. He really has a very open, almost Socratic way of processing things.”
Dawn Staley - Truth
Tell the truth, even when it costs you comfort. We're in the business of winning. And winning built on half-truths is fragile; it cracks under pressure. Real leaders choose honesty over image, because trust, not talent—is what holds a team together when things get hard. - Dawn Staley
Dusty May - Point At What It Looks Like
“Point at what it looks like.”
Some great stuff here from Dusty May on anticipating the problems that derail teams and talking about how to fix them ahead of time.
“Make your most important decisions in air conditioned rooms.” - Chip Kelly
“Point at what it looks like.”
Steve Kerr
"You knew they cared about you. You could feel that they loved you and they cared about you. But you were a little afraid of them."
Steve Kerr talking about the one quality that made Greg Popovich and Phil Jackson so special.
The Jockey and The Corner Man
Dan Hurley talks about the different personalities he takes on with his team between practices and games.
Dan Hurley talks about the different personalities he takes on with his team between practices and games.
Bold Action
"The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action…”
"The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign — even as the rest of the world wonders why you're not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special." -Bill Taylor