If you want a tough team, get tough players If you want to make your team tougher, put them in tough situations in practice and hold them accountable for the result If your team lacks the right leadership, it has to come from you In late clock situations someone else is almost always open – […]
Entitled To Nothing – What They Need Vs. How You Feel
An excerpt from my newly released book “Entitled To Nothing.” The book is available at entitledtonothingbook.com. What They Need Vs. How You Feel We were down 19 with about 5:00 to go in the first half when I called that third timeout. The guys came over to the huddle, and I just laughed. I couldn’t help it. […]
Indecision
“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” – Rush, Freewill Indecision is a choice. Indecision is also a common leadership mistake, one I think coaches make too often. Making strong decisions is not easy. You have to make sure you are informed. You want to be unemotional when you make […]
Three-Pointers
An interesting look at evolving efficiency of the 3 in college basketball.
John Chaney
Growing up I was fascinated by how tough John Chaney was on his players, yet after they graduated they all would take a bullet for him. A true legend who made a huge impact. https://vault.si.com/vault/1994/02/28/the-whittler-temple-basketball-coach-john-chaney-uses-all-his-rage-and-passion-to-carve-lifes-complexity-down-to-a-few-simple-certainties
Ben Horowitz on Culture
Ben Horowitz is the author of What You Do Is Who You Are. I really liked this paragraph on culture. Your culture is how your company makes decisions when you’re not there. It’s the set of assumptions your employees use to resolve the problems they face every day. It’s how they behave when no one […]
Developing Your Presence
I’ve written before about presence. Presence is the ability to command a room. It is a confidence that you have as a leader that engages the people in front of you, and keeps them engaged while you deliver a message. Not everyone has great presence about them, and not everyone is a head coach. For […]
Are You Mentally Tough?
There are a lot of definitions of mental toughness out there. The one I prefer is simple, and comes from Jack Clark, the Rugby coach at Cal-Berkeley. Mental toughness is “the ability to move on to the next most important thing.” However you define it, mental toughness is about handling everything that is happening around […]
To Lead Is To Live Dangerously
To lead is to live dangerously, because when your leadership counts, when you lead people through difficult change, you challenge what people hold dear – their daily habits, tools, loyalties and ways of thinking – with nothing more to offer perhaps than possibility. Moreover, leadership often means exceeding the authority you are given to tackle […]
The Four Emotional Markers of Mental Toughness
Sports Psychologist Jim Loehr has described “the four emotional markers of mental toughness:” Emotional Flexibility – The ability to handle different situations in a balanced or non-defensive manner. Emotional flexibility also speaks to the skill of drawing on a wide range of positive emotions–humor, fight spirit, pleasure. Emotional Responsiveness – You are emotionally engaged in […]