High Performing Teams - Uncommon Leadership

The Characteristics of High Performing Teams - Part 3

High performing teams have uncommon leadership. Most good teams have great leadership, but that is different. The best teams I have been around have uncommon leadership - meaning, they use a different model. Everyone on the team leads, and they do it in a way that fits their personality.

The traditional top-down leadership model is not the best way to get the most out of a team. When you have one or two voices at the top who are charged with leading the team, you won’t get the best out of everyone. I’ve coached plenty of teams that had juniors and seniors who weren’t great leaders, and younger players who were natural leaders. Having two or three captains who are expected to lead the team only increases the odds that you’ll have some of the wrong guys speaking up while you are also stifling the leadership from other players.

The best teams learn to accept a different approach to leadership. It’s okay for an older player who is a starter and a producer to not be comfortable with traditional leadership. It’s also okay for a younger player to speak up when the time is right. As a coach, you have to steer them in the right direction. Create a model where everyone can lead, and everyone does it in a way to fit their personality.

Ask a lot of questions of your players, and explore the curiosity each one of them have for their teammates. Get to know how they can contribute leadership. to your team, and create an environment where they are comfortable. doing so. Every one of them is a gatekeeper to your culture, and they all have to uphold the standards every day. Find a definition of leadership that works for your team and fits your approach.

Our definition was that leadership was making the people around you better and more productive, and it was the responsibility of everyone. The senior leading scorer doesn’t have more responsibility then the freshmen back-up post player. Now, he has different experience than that freshmen does, so he may be able to contribute in a different way. Treat leadership as a skill, not a rank.

I’d seriously consider the traditional model of naming a couple of guys captains at the beginning of the year. How does that impact your team? It’s hard to know you are getting the most out of your leaders when you dictate who is allowed to lead and who is supposed to listen. The few leading the many isn’t as powerful as a team that leads from the middle, where everyone has a voice.

Leadership is constantly evolving and highly situational. The model you use has to fit your approach and your team. But don’t just stick to a traditional model because that’s what you’ve always seen. Embrace an uncommon approach and discover the best way to get the most out of your team. High performing teams, teams that sustain elite success, embrace an uncommon approach to leadership.

Consistency

Quick take on the value of Consistency.

“Not being consistent will guarantee that you won’t be successful.”

High Performing Teams - Ownership

The Characteristics of High Performing Teams - Part 2

Compliant teams do what they are told. Committed teams take ownership of their culture. High performing teams take ownership of their behavior every day, and the standards are established by the players.

Compliant teams can be very good. If they have talent and a smart coach, they’ll have a chance. The coach tells them what to do, they follow their coaches lead and they get a lot accomplished. The problem is the ceiling is lower for compliant teams. They do what they are supposed to do, but they don’t take ownership. It’s something they are doing for the coach, and to try and win, but it’s not something they are doing for each other.

The trick about building a committed team that takes ownership, however, is that the coach has to give the players the space to do it. Most players are trained to do what the coach tells them. They are waiting for direction. They have to be given the freedom to take control of what happens every day once they know what the standards are, and what is expected of them. It’s on the coach to build a culture of ownership, and wants that is established the players can take control of it.

I’ve always said the best feeling I’ve had as a head coach - when I knew we were really good - was when I would blow my whistle in practice, and before i could get the whistle out of my mouth I heard players talking. They knew what was expected, they knew what was coming and they were already talking about what needed to be done to get better. “Not good enough, let’s go. Do it again.” They start leading each other, because they know what it’s supposed to look like and it matters to them. They hold each other accountable to the standards, and they don’t have to wait for the coach’s direction to do it. It’s an incredibly powerful feeling as a coach, to see your culture evolve under the direction of your players.

How do you create a culture of ownership amongst your players? Ask a lot of questions. Get your players feedback. Instead of constantly making declarative statements to your team (“You can’t make that pass there!”, ask them questions (“What did you see there?”). When something goes wrong ask your players how they are going to fix it (“What are going to do about it?”). Ask them how much it matters to them, ask them who they want to be as a group. Keep asking questions. When they tell your the answers, listen to them. And remind them that the standards are theirs, and they had to live up to them.

A lot of teams struggle to get to this level, and it has a lot to do with the coach’s ego. Creating ownership is not about giving up power or letting the players make all of the decisions. You are still in charge. In fact, you’ll build even more confidence in your leadership style from your players by giving them a voice. Many of us are still stuck on the idea of the old school coach who tells the kids to jump and expects them to ask how high. Dictating to your team everything they are supposed to do may feel comfortable, but it isn’t the best way to get the most out of them.

Now the kids have to take on a lot of responsibility for ownership as well. The team, and the standards they set, have to really matter to them. If they don’t really care, and they are just trying to get through practice every day, their really won’t be a lot of internal accountability or leadership. They can’t take ownership if it doesn’t mean a lot to them. That has to be established within the culture first. And they players have to learn how to handle the ownership they are given. They have to address the things that need to be addressed, and they have to think about what really matters to them on a day to day basis. Whatever they let go, that sets a new standard, because it becomes acceptable to the rest of the team.

Ownership is a collaboration between the team and the coaching staff. It’s an understanding that starts with clear standards and expectations, and knowing what behavior is expected. A culture of ownership is not about the slogans you put on the wall or a shooting shirt, it is about the behaviors displayed every day. Your players becomes the stewards of that behavior.

High performing teams take ownership of their standards and their culture. They take ownership of what happens every day, and their coach has to give them the space to do so.

The Cost of Leadership

Georgia coach Kirby Smart talks about 3 things that come with being a leader.

The Cost of Leadership

High Performing Teams - Highly Conditional

The Characteristics of High Performing Teams - Part 1

There are conditions to being a part of an elite team. There are established standards that everyone has to live up to, and just as importantly everyone has to enforce. There are no free rides. Everyone is expendable if they refuse to live up to the standards.

I’ve talked a lot about how we use the word family. Just about every team, every school, every organization uses the word, and I don’t really like it. I think being a part of a TEAM is really special, and a lot of ways that gets lost or isn’t celebrated enough. My love for my family is unconditional. Being a part of a high performing team is HIGHLY conditional. There are conditions. There are standards. Everyone knows what they are, and everyone has to meet them.

I love everyone in my family, and when they are late for Thanksgiving dinner, there are no consequences. They didn’t let us down. They just showed up late. I’m happy to have a beer with them on Thanksgiving and watch some football with them, and we’ll have a great time. But I’m not trying to win with them.

If somebody shows up late for practice, we have a problem. High performing teams have a problem. It doesn’t mean they are getting kicked off the team. But whether or not we can count on you, that really matters. It’s not just one guy being a few minutes late. It’s that we aren’t sure we can count on you. That’s why there are standards. If you don’t live up to our standards, trust starts to erode. And that’s a big problem for high performing teams.

Teams are different. They aren’t families. These aren’t your co-workers. Teammate really means something. Not only are we investing in one another and counting on one another to live up to a high standard, we are literally investing sweat, energy and effort - physical effort - to make it work. Law firms don’t get up in the morning and run sprints together. Hospital staffs don’t lift weights together during the summer instead of going to the beach. Teams are different. They are different than any other group or “team” you will be a part of. Teams are special, because the investment is both mental and physical, and you have to give everything you’ve got.

Being a part of a team is conditional. Your membership depends on your approach - as do your teammates. High performing teams have high standards, and the conditions are not easy. That’s part of the deal. The standards are set and every detail matters. The head coach may lay them out, but the players are the true gatekeepers. They embrace the conditions and hold each other accountable to the standards.

Membership on a high performing team is exclusive. It’s incredibly challenging but also incredibly rewarding. Understand that being a part of a team is special, and there is nothing else like it. Embrace the fact that the standards are high and the conditions are tough.

High Performing Teams

High performing teams share some unique characteristics. I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of some elite teams. I’ve also faced the challenge of coaching some awful teams. Both experiences gave me a unique perspective on the make up of elite high performing teams.

Last week I spoke to the student-athletes at Salve Regina about the characteristics of high performing teams. Below is an outline of some of the most important elements that are crucial for high performance. Over the coming weeks I’ll expand on these points in more detail

High performing teams are highly conditional. They are not families. They are teams. There are conditions required for membership, and many of those conditions are very demanding. They are not for everyone.

High performing teams take ownership. They are not compliant. They are committed.

High performing teams have uncommon leadership. They are led internally, using a non-traditional model. Leadership comes from the middle.

High performing teams communicate directly and embrace confrontation. Communication can never be an issue. They are brutally honest and refuse to accept bad behavior.

High performing teams never make excuses. They Win Anyway.

High performing teams find great perspective. They have a particular, intentional attitude towards what happens to them. They have a relationship with losing.

High performing teams have an unbreakable trust. They create a safe environment where no one is afraid to fail.

Derek Jeter/Zach Johnson

Zach Johnson asks Derek Jeter about his leadership approach.

https://twitter.com/ChampionsTour/status/1696531306900005215?s=20

Humility, Clarity, Courage

There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage. ~ Fuchan Yuan

There are hundreds of different definitions of leadership, and to me leadership is very personal. Your approach has to fit who you are, the behavior you model and the core values you believe in. I’ve always loved this quote. Leadership is a lot of different things to different people, but leaders have certain characteristics.

The best leaders are clear, courageous and humble. And great leadership isn’t easy, which means always being clear, courageous and humbles isn’t that simple. Think about how you coach your team. i think most of us think it’s important to be clear. That’s pretty basic. But how do we go about it? A lot of coaches think being clear is yelling the same thing louder, rather than slowing it down and explaining it.

I’m not sure how much coaches think about being courageous or being humble. A lot of us are driven by the power that comes with being in charge, and our egos grow. I think most people respond better to a humble leader, rather than to arrogance, but again it isn’t easy. We want to be in command and control and with that I think humility often goes out the window.

Courage is another element that probably doesn’t cross our mind enough as head coaches. I used the word courage with my players a lot, and to be effective they had to see a courageous coach. Am I willing to take the necessary risks for us to be great? Will I start the walk-on who brings it every day and is tough as nails when the starter isn’t locked in? Will I leave the freshmen on the floor late in the second half to close out a game when he is outplaying the starter? It’s so easy to stay with the decisions that are comfortable, that won’t get criticized, but it takes courage to be great. I’m not sure we think about the courage we need to display as the head coach to get our team playing without fear.

Great leaders have a lot of different characteristics and there is no one set formula that fits everyone. But if you are humble, clear and courageous your approach will resonate with your players and enhance their belief in your approach.

Model The Behavior

“Leading by example is exceedingly hard. Not because leaders can’t set a strong example others will follow, but rather because truly leading by example requires near-perfect consistency. Any deviation, exception, hypocrisy, or departure from the example negates whatever made it so worth following to begin with.

A leader who displays and acts with integrity can’t do so 99 percent of the time and still serve as an example. It’s 100 percent or nothing when it comes to illustrating for others what we hope they will emulate. 

Team members and colleagues watch leaders like hawks. They zoom in on what leaders do with great consistency and purpose. When they have immense respect for those leaders, they learn from their example.”  - Admired Leaders

I’ve always said the biggest difference between being an assistant coach and becoming a head coach is that, as a head coach, you are always “on.” You are always the guy expected to provide direction, answer the questions and set the tone. As soon as your kids see you walk into the gym, they are looking at you for cues (I once had a graduating senior tell me that he’d look at the color of the quarter zip I was wearing and know what type of mood I was in that day). They are reading your body language, the tone of your voice, and every other move you make. Like it or not, when you are in charge you are sending a message as soon as you walk in the room.

What type of team do you want to have? If you want them to be tough, smart, disciplined and composed - do they see that behavior in their head coach? If you want energy, excitement and intensity at practice every day, they need to see it from you. When you look at your team, like it or not, you are looking in the mirror. If they are unprepared and undisciplined, I’d take a look at the behavior they are seeing from you.

The most important thing as a coach that you can do is model the behavior you want to see from your team. You are always leading by example, and it only takes one situation where you show some inconsistency to lose their trust. If you want to see it from them, they need to see it from you.

Influence, Not Authority

“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” - Ken Blanchard

What is your approach with your team? To influence them, or have authority over them?

The traditional coaching and leadership model is I’m in charge, I tell you what to do. Ask yourself if that is the best way to get the most out of your players. The best leaders give control to their team and teach them how to solve the problems they will face. The best coaches do the same.

Your influence is very powerful, your authority not as much as you think.

Transcending the Environment

https://twitter.com/WDWconvo/status/1525993080205230081?s=20&t=Ojc7HD3fPAozMtT7aAtyMg

Tell Them What To Say

I don’t think any team communicates enough if you ask their coaches. We are always pleading with our teams to talk more. Every team I’ve coached hasn’t talked enough to satisfy their coaching staff, to the point where it must be harder than we think. It’s not natural for a lot of guys to communicate openly and consistently, especially when they have a job to do in the middle of an intense game. It’s simply not that easy to get players to talk, or we wouldn’t be complaining about it all of the time.

It’s hard for a lot of players to do their job and talk to their teammates at the same time. Not everyone can handle it. We can’t just simply yell at them constantly to talk more. They need to know what to say.

I think this is a point a lot of us miss. If you want your team to communicate more, tell them what to say. They need to know the language, and it needs to be simple. One word cues. “Help.” “Blitz.” “Left.” “Right.” Don’t expect your guys to have a full conversation with their teammates. If you make it too complicated for them to talk, you are only making it harder.

Simply yelling and screaming at your team to “Talk!” isn’t helping them. For most, it doesn’t come naturally. Develop your own team language, using as many one word cues as you can. It can be something that your players take ownership of, that becomes their own. But make sure you tell your team what to say. It will make them a lot more comfortable talking on the court, and ease some of your frustration with your team’s lack of communication.

Interview - The Coaching Ladder

I had a fun conversation with the guys from The Coaching Ladder this week.

https://twitter.com/CoachBobWalsh/status/1686148498616467456?s=20

Decisive

“It’s more important to be decisive than to be right.” - Brad Faxon, 8-time PGA Tour winner, talking about putting.

I was at Manhattan’s summer workout yesterday watching John Gallagher with his new team, and they were focused on offensive execution. Gal has always been a great offensive coach, his teams running fluid motion with great spacing and relying on skill and sharing the basketball. With only 2 returning players on his roster his team was far from perfect, but they had a very good idea of the spacing and timing needed to be hard to guard.

The offense involves a lot of reads, with the ball movement and the cutters dictating what happens next. The offensive players have a lot of freedom to read the defense and. make the right play. Gallagher was constantly teaching his guys how to make the right play, not run the play. One word that kept coming out of his mouth was “decisive.” He kept telling his team they had to be decisive on offense, because the decision made by the ball would dictate the rest of the action.

It reminded me of the above quote from Brad Faxon, something I read early in my career as a head coach and have repeated to my teams ever since. It is more important to be decisive than to be right. It always resonated with me and fit exactly what I was trying to get out of my teams. But I usually find myself saying it on the defensive end, not the offensive end. When it comes to help, attacking the ball, rotations, and all of the the things that need to be in sync to have a great defense, I wanted my guys to be decisive. I didn’t want them to worry about being right.

I had never really thought about the term on the offensive end, but it’s applicable as well, especially if you aren’t a set play guy and you want your guys making plays. We are trying to score on offense, we are not trying to run the play. I want our guys to have the freedom and confidence to do so. If they are too worried about being “right” - and pleasing the head coach - they aren’t going to react properly and make the right play. I want playmakers on offense, guys who aren’t afraid to make mistakes.

It’s more important to be decisive than to be right. On both offense and defense, the committed action of one player tells all of the other ones where they need to be. Get your guys to be decisive - and top worrying about being right - and you’ll have a much more confident team.

Josh Merkel - Randolph Macon

A terrific podcast with Josh Merkel, a national championship winning coach at Randolph-Macon. Well worth your time.

Culture and Confidence Podcast with Jeremy Mellady

Emotional Response

Are we too controlling as coaches when it comes to the emotional responses of our players?

When a player responds emotionally, he’s telling you a lot about himself. We don’t usually like to see emotional responses from our guys - especially negative ones - and we tend to jump on them quickly. Somebody misses an open shot or turns the ball over and lets out some frustration, and we want them to move past it. “Next play, let’s go!” We don’t want any negative energy in the gym, and the ability to move on quickly is seen as a sign of mental toughness.

We don’t want a player getting emotional to impact the next play. Or do we? Granted, if a player gets frustrated and then can’t focus on the next job at hand, that’s a problem. But what if a little bit of anger serves as motivation and turns into energy on the next play? What if it helps sharpen his focus? I think we often jump on a negative response because we think it looks bad or we just don’t want to see it in our gym. But is there value in seeing an emotional response? I think there is.

First of all, you have to let your players be themselves. Some people wear their emotion on their sleeve while others hardly show any at all. I’m not sure you can - or should want to - control that. The important thing is their ability to move on to the next most important thing. And everyone handles that a little differently. I think there are some players who need to let out some emotion to be able to get past what just happened. If you jump on them right away, you may actually frustrate them even more.

Emotion will also allow you to learn about your players - how mature are they, how do they handle challenges, how much it matters to them. I’m not saying it’s the only way to understand your guys, but it is a way to get to know them better. To see them react naturally to what is going on around them, and to see if they can handle it. If you let it happen in practice and watch it play out, you’ll get a better understanding of how your guys might handle the pressure of a big spot in a game. You can get a better window into the mindset of your players and how you can coach them better.

I’m not saying negative emotion - or any emotion at all - is always a good thing. But it can be productive in the big picture. It’s a way for you to learn more about your players and the best approach to making them better. You have to be intentional about how you deal with it - I don’t think adding more emotion to the situation is the best way - and you have to know what’s best for your team and players. You also have to coach to your own personality. A lot of coaches are on their kids about emotional responses, but are out of control emotionally themselves. What message does that send?

Don’t be too quick to jump on your guys for an emotional response. The fact that they really care is a good thing. The games are going to be emotional. It’s how they handle their emotions - and most importantly, how you coach them to handle them - that is really crucial. An emotional response isn’t always a bad thing.

Ask Better Questions

Asking the right questions is an essential skill for any leader. I’m struck by how little we actually ask questions when we are a head coach. We think our job is to tell everyone what to do - players, staff, support staff. When we do that we create a compliant team, one that does what it is told. If you want a committed team, ask them questions and allow them to take ownership.

This is really good from Admired Leaders:

Asking great questions is a skill in short supply, even among some very good leaders. 

The benefits of great questions go beyond expanding knowledge and gaining insight. Well-constructed questions can build trust and rapport with others and guide them to, rather than tell them, what they are missing. Of the many tools of leadership, great questions are unequaled in their value and impact. 

Great questions don’t have to be complex or clever or brilliant. They simply have to get others talking. The power of a superbly crafted question to get people to share their views is amazing. As a result, good leaders spend considerable time formulating, borrowing, and revising questions they believe will expand the conversation and allow for insight and connection. The best questions are on occasion thought-provoking and challenging, but they are always expansive and empowering, creating a space for others to share their views. 

Like many things leadership, learning from others through questions is more about the questioner than the answerer. Whenever good leaders don't like the answer to a question they pose, they know it's due to the question, not the responder. 

The rule good leaders live by is this: If I don’t like the answer, I need to ask a better question.

Learning what others think and experience is what all good leaders are ultimately after. When they receive single-word answers, grunts, or replies without description from others, including children, leaders presume it is the question and not the responder that is responsible. 

Asking someone, “How was your day?” may elicit a wide variety of responses, including the lazy reply of, “Fine.” In the eyes of a good leader, this is more a function of the question than it is the responder. Ask a better question, such as, “What was the best thing that happened today?”  Suddenly, the other person begins to talk. 

Learning to ask better questions requires trial and error. With an eye toward what gets others to share, open up, and express their honest viewpoints, leaders begin to appreciate what makes some questions better than others. They soon appreciate it is not the answer that illuminates what people think, but the question that breaks down the door. Better questions get better answers. Did you know that? 

Shot Selection

“I don’t tell you guys what shot to shoot. You tell me.” - Paul Mills, Wichita State

Change and Teaching the Game

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay." - Harold Wilson

How much are you willing to change as a coach? A lot of coaches get stuck in a certain way of doing things, it’s what they know, and they just continue to do it. When things aren’t working, the adjustment is to work harder and do it better. Put in more time and figure it out.

In the business world you’ll hear the phrase “adapt or die.” You had better stay up with the current climate, the changes being made and adjust your approach accordingly. Most businesses are in an incredibly competitive environment where customers have a lot of options. If you don’t continue to provide the best product and customer experience, somebody else will. As coaches we work in a similar environment - high pressure, a lot of options for our players and a changing landscape within and around the game - remember when 7 foot post players had to be the first pick in the draft? But a lot of coaches aren’t really on board with innovation and change. In my first 9 years as a head coach we went to 8 NCAA Tournaments, and I realized each year we had to adapt and adjust, regardless of how good we were, to stay on top.

One reason why I think many of us are resistant to change is the business itself. Think about how we learn in the coaching business. We try as hard as we can to get on staff somewhere, and that’s how we learn. There aren’t nearly as many instructional camps to work as their used to be, where the best players used to go and play for the best coaches. I learned how to coach at Morgan Wootten’s basketball camp outside of DC, and all of his former coaches came back and served as commissioners. I watched a bunch of different coaches teach the game. When you go to college camps or showcase camps and work these days, the emphasis isn’t really on instruction. You can certainly learn from the staff at the camp, but you don’t really get to see accomplished coaches teaching the game in different ways. The emphasis is on keeping the kids happy so they’ll come back, or playing games in front of coaches at a showcase camp.

We learn to teach the game, therefore, with a very narrow lens. We really only see the staff that we are working for “teach” the game, and when you move on, that is what you know. There isn’t a lot of diversity in what you see being taught to players. You can learn by going to clinics, and through scouting opponents in your current job, but in neither situation are you watching the game being taught. You might love the way another team you are scouting plays offensively, but by watching film you aren’t learning how to teach it.

What does this create? I think it creates a lot of coaches who are creatures of habit. You learn one way to teach things, and that is how you operate. I know as a head coach there were times I wanted to change, but it was in an area I wasn’t comfortable teaching, because I had never done it before, nor had I seen it taught before. As we continued to have success year after year I did find ways to adapt by studying the game, picking the brains of other coaches I respected, and coming up with a way to teach what I had learned. But that last part is the most important - to be able to adapt and change, you can’t just learn the material, you have to figure out how to teach it.

As a coach coming up, diversify your experiences as much as you can. Learn to teach from different people. Take different jobs and move around as an assistant. Try and get to camps where you know the coaches are teaching the game. The more you can mix up your experience, the better you will be down the road as a coach, and the more you will be willing to change and adapt to stay on top.

Autonomy

Great podcast from 3x5 leadership on autonomy.

It’s interesting to learn about what really motivates people, and the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. I think a lot of times as coaches we get this stuff wrong. The reward/punishment approach (extrinsic) doesn’t really motivate our players the way we think it does. Studies show that we are motivated more by intrinsic rewards - specifically autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

Are you giving your players the autonomy they need to really achieve at a high level?