First Team Meeting
- It will not go the way you think.
- We are all on the same team
- Richard Pitino writes this on the board for his team's first meeting of the season.
Things I've learned about the first team meeting of the year:
- You aren't getting all of the messages you want across.
- It's better to talk less and listen more.
- Ask questions and hear your team.
- Who do you guys want to be?
- What's important to you?
- How good can we be?
- How are we going to get there?
- Start the process of ownership of your culture for them.
- Let them know how hard it's going to be.
- It's too early to name captains.
- Don't set numerical goals - set goals for how you are going to compete every day.
- Take everything you want to say and throw 75% of it out - it's too much.
- People don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it.
- Let them know who you are.
- Ask them about the pre-season.
- The less absolutes you declare the better.
- Be absolute when it comes to academics, punctuality and respect.
- Don't paint yourself into a corner with penalties - you don't know what's coming.
- It's a marathon, not a sprint.
- The path to success is not linear.
- Your culture takes shape gradually, over time. You can't force it.