Explore an Uncommon
Approach to Leadership!
Coached Hard
“When your best player can be coached hard, that is going to be good for your franchise.”
“When your best player can be coached hard, that is going to be good for your franchise.”
Tyrese Maxey
I liked this from Tyrese Maxey on the influence of his parents and being able to “sit at the table” and “converse with different people.”
Tyrese Haliburton
“He resonates with the older guys. He listens to everything they say. He fits into everything you’re doing. He takes coaching.”
“Man, I’ve watched him all practice,” the scout said. “He resonates with the older guys. He listens to everything they say. He fits into everything you’re doing. He takes coaching. His presence and demeanor are always positive, he always has energy. He’ll be your highest draft pick.”
An NBA scout to Iowa State Coach Steve Prohm after one of his practices. Halliburton was a freshmen at the time who had only played about 10 games.
“Great Players Don’t Get Tired”
“We are not here to coach your energy and your effort. That’s a given.”
Geno Auriemma on the difference between good players and great players.
You can just about always control whether you are in shape or not.
“Be Authentic”
“Your habits are really who you are.”
Steve Nash on what it takes to be an effective leader.
“Your habits are really who you are.”
What Does Your Instinct Tell You?
Whoever asks the most questions wins. Asking the right questions is a great leadership tool.
Phil Jackson used to say, “When in doubt, do nothing.”
As coaches we are expected to have the answers, and in general there is a lot of pressure in our business. So it’s natural to try and find a solution right away. First of all, that doesn’t necessarily give you the time you need to think the problem through. And secondly, you aren’t teaching your players to solve the problem. You are just giving them solutions. That leads to a compliant team - one where they always look to you to provide the answers. The problem with that is, in the heat of a game, they need to solve the problems. They need to find the answers.
By asking “What does your instinct tell you?” or a similar question, you force your team to think. You ask them to solve the problem. You get them away from relying on someone else to provide a solution. It also allows you to learn more about their mindset, what the root of the problem is, and how you can go about helping them.
Whoever asks the most questions wins. Asking the right questions is a great leadership tool.
Thought-provoking stuff from Admired Leaders:
Immediate answers to questions don’t allow those team members to develop their own insights and wisdom. To develop fully, team members need to wrestle with the issue before they listen to the advice of others.
After fielding an inquiry or request for feedback, good leaders start the conversation with a simple but effective question that asks the other party to think through the issue on their own: What advice would you give yourself?
This temporary pause doesn’t derail the discussion, nor does it suggest the leader doesn’t want to help.
What it does is to ask the other party to be their own source of insight for just a moment. This also tells them that the leader won’t always be around, and they need to think through issues on their own to develop and grow.
Other questions like, “What does your instinct tell you?”, “What has worked in the past?”, and “What have you seen others do?” are equally powerful.
Such questions slow things down and also allow the leader to gain more context before they offer their view. Interestingly, in many cases, the advice they would give themselves is exactly what the leader would offer, further cementing their confidence and insight.
Is it possible that you respond to questions and requests for advice too quickly?
You can help others, including children and those who are highly inexperienced, by asking them to share their own insights first before you respond.
Leaders develop people. They won’t always be there to guide them. Investing in others has a bigger payoff when team members have already invested in thinking through issues for themselves.
Their Voices
The best leaders listen more than they talk.
The Nuggets made the bold decision to fire Mike Malone with 3 games left in the season and the team holding a top 4 seed in the Western Conference. Assistant David Adelman took over. I really liked this from his first game as their head coach.
The best leaders listen more than they talk.
Wednesday night was a palate cleanser for everyone. The Nuggets jumped to a 10-3 lead and only trailed briefly early in the second quarter before cruising to an eight-point win in Sacramento.
Adelman said he made a point of encouraging the players to speak up in huddles and on the court. He wanted to hear their voices, not his.
"I think as far as communication goes, it was probably our best game of the year," Braun said. "Everybody was into it. We had players communicating to each other instead of relying on a coach to tell us everything."
Trust Yourself
“That’s what makes you walk into a room different for the rest of your life.”
Really good stuff here from Mark Pope.
“A bird can rest peacefully on a branch, not because of its trust in the branch, but because of its trust in its ability to fly.”
https://x.com/MVP_Mindset/status/1904908011405271415
“That’s what makes you walk into a room different for the rest of your life.”
Delivering A Tough Message
Far too often, leaders “think” their way through a tough message and create a mess in the process.
Get right to it. It’s never easy delivering tough news. But the best way to do it is to know what you want to say and get right to the point.
I’m not saying it’s easy. But it’s your job. Leadership isn’t easy.
Far too often, leaders “think” their way through a tough message and create a mess in the process.
From Admired Leaders:
Delivering a message others don’t want to hear isn’t easy for any leader, but it comes with the territory.
Good leaders deliver tough messages because it is inherent in their role as decision-makers.
Decisions and actions come with consequences. It is the leader’s job to communicate those choices and outcomes even when they know they will be unpopular for those negatively impacted.
If there is good advice about delivering a tough message, it goes like this: The bad news must come up front — in the first two sentences.
The first sentence explains the why, and the second sentence states the action or outcome.
This helps to keep tough messages simple, clear, and crisp. The idea is to create perfect clarity, not to get the message over with.
Stating the “Why” or reason behind the decision and then the action that follows doesn’t allow room for misinterpretation or a weakening of the decision.
This approach also requires the leader to know exactly what they want to say before they engage in the conversation. This clarity is essential for a resolution to whatever issue is involved.
Here are some examples of the “Why” followed by an action or outcome:
“We have found a better price and a more agreeable contract, so we are not going to re-order your product.”
“You’ve made some critical errors that have placed the project in jeopardy. As a result, we are taking you off the assignment.”
“Your skills are not a good fit for our team, so we are going to make a change and find someone else.”
“The coach doesn’t believe you are 100 percent committed to improving. That’s why you will be asked to sit on the bench this game.”
Far too often, leaders “think” their way through a tough message and create a mess in the process.
By knowing exactly what they want to say and communicating the heart of the message right away, the remainder of the conversation can be focused on how to implement the action or outcome.
In fact, good leaders move the conversation toward future implementation as quickly as they can.
After hearing of this strategy of stating the “why” and outcome in the first two sentences, some leaders believe this makes delivering the tough message even harder.
They claim it is better to “ease” into the message and allow people the room to debate or argue about the issue before landing on a decision.
This is true if a decision hasn’t been made or an action has yet to be formulated.
In that case, exploring the issue by listening intently to what the other party believes about the issue and what has occurred is the best course by far.
But that suggests a tough message is not required yet, although the conversation may portend one.
When an unpopular decision has been made for known and rational reasons, putting the message upfront projects integrity, candidness, and firmness.
It produces the clarity and deep respect that the other party requires.
Waiting to get to the point is akin to ripping off the band-aid slowly. It is usually much more painful for both parties.
Placing the bad news up front with the “why” followed by an action doesn’t prevent a leader from setting the stage for the message and helping others get prepared to hear something uncomfortable.
Telling others that this will be a difficult conversation before entering it is a wise approach. But then, good leaders get right to the point.
If the decision or action can’t be negotiated, then a leader’s integrity won’t let it unfold any other way.
Houston BLOB
“Joe's personal trainer was a blacktop court and a double rim."
What a great instinctive play by Houston’s Jo Jo Tuggler to go back to the inbounder with 2.8 seconds left.
"Nobody on our team has played on outdoor courts more than Jo," Kellen Sampson said. "And so the fact that was an instinctive play, that's him. We got a lot of guys that have personal trainers. Joe's personal trainer was a blacktop court and a double rim."
Great Minds
"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
“Championship Level Effort”
“Eventually… it evolved to where everything mattered.”
Ben McCollum on what he learned as they started to win on a high level.
“Eventually… it evolved to where everything mattered.”
Wise People Are Present
“There is no finish line. The finish line is we need to be a little better tomorrow than we are today.”
Buzz Williams with a great approach.
“There is no finish line. The finish line is we need to be a little better tomorrow than we are today.”
Josh Schertz - Success
“The way the world defines success for you is like cotton candy. It evaporates quickly.”
“The way the world defines success for you is like cotton candy,” he says. “It evaporates quickly. Leaves you wanting more. You’ll never be fulfilled chasing those things. Your peace and contentment in life always comes from the relationships and the things in your life that are completely unconditional, that won’t be moved by who you are or how you did or how much money you make.”
Josh Schertz - St. Louis
Conflict
Conflict is an essential part of high-performing teams.
Conflict is an essential part of high-performing teams. Trying to avoid or ignore conflict will undermine your culture. What we do is competitive, it’s intense, and it’s hard. To be great, we have to confront the wrong behavior. It’s a natural part of developing an elite team.
Accept and embrace conflict and learn how to deal with it.
Kara Lawson on conflict:
Steve Sarkisian on Culture
“Culture is organic. It’s not a sign up in your building. It’s not a t-shirt that you wear.”
“Culture is organic. It’s not a sign up in your building. It’s not a t-shirt that you wear.”
https://x.com/TheHoopHerald/status/1861773660324803020
Culture is behavior. It’s not stuff you talk about. It’s what you do.
Geno on Game Day
Interesting thoughts from Geno Auriemma on the difference between coaching in practice and on game day.
Interesting thoughts from Geno Auriemma on the difference between coaching in practice and on game day.
Focus and Eliminating The Noise
Every team has to deal with outside noise and distractions. Not dealing with them will not be productive. Address the situation directly. You won’t be able to eliminate the noise, but you can minimize the impact.
From Admired Leaders on Focus:
Where we focus our attention significantly shapes our experience. Focus is a limited resource. Our perceptions and experiences are largely dictated by what we choose to pay attention to and focus on.
People achieve more when they focus on where they want to go and not on the noise that surrounds them. Both short- and long-term goals benefit from this forward focus.
Losing focus on the prize is what derails accomplishment and success. Distractions impede progress. While it is not always possible to block out the peripheral noise, the better we do at concentrating on the endpoint, the more we achieve.
Our actions follow our attention and focus.
When we concentrate on where we want to go and not on the obstacles and traps along the route, we unconsciously align our behaviors to move us forward and toward that goal.
We begin to see opportunities that might help us in our journey. Our heightened awareness reinforces the need to zero in on the details and milestones critical to success. Good things begin to happen.
As the impact of distractions lessens, our confidence rises. With a narrow scope aimed at a specific target, our execution becomes more fluid. With each passing milestone, the momentum of success builds and increases our commitment. All because we refused to direct our attention to anywhere else but on the end goal.
Focusing forward is a skill and a discipline, and the most productive and highly accomplished performers and leaders have mastered it.
The question for coaches is how do you teach your team to focus? How do you lessen the distractions?
I don’t think it’s productive to simply say “eliminate the noise” and ignore the distractions. The noise is there. The distractions are real. Trying to ignore them doesn’t allow you to address the impact they might be having on your team. I think it’s important that you talk about them with your team. You connect on the impact that outside influences can have if you let them. And then you talk about how to deal with them.
Every team has to deal with outside noise and distractions. Not dealing with them will not be productive. Address the situation directly. You won’t be able to eliminate the noise, but you can minimize the impact.