Explore an Uncommon
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Buy-In
“People get on board slow-moving trains where leaders ask them to collaborate to build a railroad. Buy-in always starts with collaboration and gains steam from the dialogue that ensues.
The most skillful leaders know exactly where they want the team and organization to go, but they get there by asking others. They aren’t scared that the team will forge a different path or set a poor direction because they have planted the seed in many conversations before the idea or change fully materializes. They don’t sell or direct. They involve and collaborate. And buy-in is the result. “
“The true source of power for a leader is not authority but buy-in. How to create more buy-in is the master skill of great leadership.” - Admired Leaders
How do you create more buy-in as a coach?
In a business setting, the best leaders realize that cooperation from their team is essential. They aren’t achieving their goals if they don’t get the team on board. In coaching, we seem to take a different approach. We are going to tell you what to do, and you have to get on board. Do we look for cooperation from our team when we are coaching? We should.
Buy-in in the business world starts by asking your team for their opinion and involving them in the process as much as possible. Do we do this with our teams? Then they find leaders within their team to carry the torch from them amongst other team members. They get a couple of key influencers on board and give them the space to make an impact. We can do that with our teams - the idea of team captains comes to mind - but is it as effective if we don’t ask the questions first? We just assume our players are going to buy-in because they are supposed to listen to the coach.
As the process continues, the best leaders are in the weeds having multiple conversations with key team members, especially those who might be resistant to change. The best coaches do this, constantly communicating, listening and taking stock of where their team is mentally. But is it as effective as we think it is if we aren’t asking the right questions early on in the process?
Great business leaders don’t just make big, declarative statements. They don’t just give the team the answers, and tell them to go do the work. We do this too much as coaches. We want to give our guys the answers, and just have them rep it over and over. The problem is when the test comes, the questions change. We should be teaching our guys how to solve problems, not how to follow instructions.
You can give your team a vision with declaring what will be done and how it will be done. Do we want to be a championship level team? Yes. Okay, let’s talk about the best way to get there. Ask them what they think. Get them to understand what it takes, and take ownership of the approach. Ask them for their opinion, and get them involved in the process. Are we secure enough as a coach to do that?
“People get on board slow-moving trains where leaders ask them to collaborate to build a railroad. Buy-in always starts with collaboration and gains steam from the dialogue that ensues.
The most skillful leaders know exactly where they want the team and organization to go, but they get there by asking others. They aren’t scared that the team will forge a different path or set a poor direction because they have planted the seed in many conversations before the idea or change fully materializes. They don’t sell or direct. They involve and collaborate. And buy-in is the result. “ - Admired Leaders
“You Gotta Face It”
Great teams have a mature relationship with losing.
Matt Painter on dealing with past failures.
Great teams have a mature relationship with losing. They don’t accept it, but they don’t run from it. They know how to deal with it. They keep it in perspective, learn from it and move on. It doesn’t affect their approach moving forward, it only impacts their preparation in how they learn from their mistakes.
Great players, great teams, great organizations - have a mature relationship with losing. They know how to deal with it.
Rory McIlroy on Coaches
"Coaches are important, but I think coaches are important because they need to know who you are as a person and how you receive information rather than who you are as a player. “
Rory McIlroy with interesting and insightful thoughts on coaches, that I think you can apply to coaches of any sport.
"Coaches are important, but I think coaches are important because they need to know who you are as a person and how you receive information rather than who you are as a player.
"You see it all the time [on the PGA Tour], guys will change coaches and they'll have an instant bit of success. That happens. But that goes back to every PGA Tour player is an amazing golfer and if you give them just a little bit of belief that they're on the right path, they can go and win or they can play better again...you get that quick uptick in performance and then you regress back to your average...I think it's way more important for a coach to know who you are as a person and how you receive information.
"Michael [Bannon] knows that it needs to be my idea. That's on me, I just need to feel like I own it. Maybe that's a little bit too much ego or, I'm a bit more of a control freak over it than I should [be], but he knows that I need to be the one in control of that and if I'm not and I feel like I'm being told what to do and it's not my idea, I don't respond to it very well, I shut down.
"Since [Michael and I] started working together on golf, we've been doing it together for 27 years. He knows how I tick, he knows what I respond to, what I don't respond to. I think that's super important in a player-coach relationship."
Xabi Alonso
“At this moment I feel this is the right place for me to be to develop as a coach.” - Xabi Alonso
Xabi Alonso is the young head coach of Bayer Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga. He took over just two years ago, and has the team on pace for an historic season, with a great chance to win the Bundesliga. His success has led to speculation about his appointment to some of the biggest jobs in Europe.
I thought his quotes here were very self-aware, intelligent and refreshing. There isn’t a lot of stability in college athletics these days, and it feels like great coaches are constantly being talked about for other jobs. And I totally get the idea of striking while the iron is hot, with the support, opportunity and money being difficult to turn down.
But how often does your development as a coach come into play in these situations? When do you hear about a coach saying “this is the best place for me to develop right now?”
When things move as fast as they are moving in college athletics today, what is actually best for you as a coach usually takes a back seat. And it shouldn’t.
Xabi Alonso has confirmed he will stay on as manager of Bayer Leverkusen for the 2024-25 season despite strong interest from some of Europe's biggest teams, including Bayern Munich and Liverpool, as he sees the club as the best place for him to continue his development as a coach.
"For sure all the decisions, you need to analyse well, and I tried to take the right ones, I tried to take the ones that come in a natural way, and at this moment I feel this is the right place for me to be to develop as a coach.
"I am a young coach, but I have to feel it, and right now I feel that this is the right place."
"It's a process, the development of the team is parallel with my development as a manager," he added. "This is my first complete season as a manager. I still have a lot of things to prove myself, to experience, and right now I have a situation in the club where I feel really stable, really happy with the team and the club."
TJ Otzelberger
“It was really a reflective time for me,” Otzelberger says. “I felt like a hypocrite and that I needed to change more than our team did.”
TJ Otzelberger talks about how he had to adjust when he first became a head coach. I think most of us have a vision of what we expect our program to look like and to be all about when we become a head coach, but what we don’t know is how the situation we are in is going to impact us.
Otzelberger took over at South Dakota State and envisioned his program looking like Tom Izzo and Michigan State. And his team was different than that. Showed a lot of foresight and self-confidence to realize he was the one who had to adjust as a young head coach.
From C.J. Moore’s article in The Athletic
“I went in there and wanted to be more like Tom Izzo and coach really hard. Defensive-minded and physical rebounding. And my team was a little bit different than that. They were more of a flow offense group.”
He leaned on what he’d learned about offense from Hoiberg and McDermott, because that type of style fit the Jackrabbits, who were the second-best shooting team in college basketball his third and final season at SDSU. Otzelberger also reviewed the film and watched himself on the sideline and realized he was too emotional. Immature. He was arguing too many calls and reacting to every little thing, and his team was following his lead. He decided that you’d never see him go after a referee again.
“It was really a reflective time for me,” Otzelberger says. “I felt like a hypocrite and that I needed to change more than our team did. And so I really tried to change my approach and focus on what we will do, what we can be, what our strengths were, and how I can lean into those as opposed to being frustrated or upset by the things that we were not.”
Dying To Follow You
“If you’re going to lead… you better have someone who is dying to follow you.”
“If you’re going to lead… you better have someone who is dying to follow you.” - Geno Auriemma
Caitlin Clark
“Stone cold,” one witness told me. “It was so cool.”
From Wright Thompson’s article on ESPN about Caitlin Clark
Her teammates came to understand that they were dealing with someone like Mozart. She wasn't rude, nor necessarily nice, just a different species. At one point that year a sports psychologist came in to work with the team. She started going around the room and asking the players when they felt stressed and anxious and how they reacted to those feelings. One by one, the young women described familiar symptoms and scenarios: sweaty hands, a fear of the free throw line, struggling with breathing, anxiety about the last possession.
Finally it was Caitlin's turn. She seemed a little embarrassed.
"I never am," she said.
Everyone in the room somehow understood she was being more vulnerable than cocky.
"Stone cold," one witness told me. "It was so cool."
Are You a Great Teammate?
Great teams are made up of great teammates. How much are you willing to put your team ahead of your own best interests?
Great teams are made up of great teammates. How much are you willing to put your team ahead of your own best interests?
This is an incredible story from Dana O’Neill about Trey Hicks from Longwood.
FOR SEVEN MINUTES OF PLAYING TIME, HE BURNED HIS MEDICAL REDSHIRT
Dana O’Neil - The Athletic
Most of March’s magical moments – the buzzer-beaters, game winners and monster dunks – come with an exclamation point. This was an ordinary substitution, a basketball exchange that happens countless times during the course of 40 minutes. Yet it left Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich in tears.
Seven months ago, Trey Hicks, a junior forward from Louisville, Ky., injured his knee for the second time, this time an MRI revealing a complete tear of the meniscus. Surgery followed, the latest setback for a walk-on turned scholarship player who already missed time with a broken ankle as a sophomore. Aldrich and Hicks talked about it, agreeing that Hicks would redshirt, getting a fifth year that would not only give him a better chance to play, but also pursue his MBA.
But when he checked into the Big South Championship game against UNC Asheville four minutes into the second half, on what could be the Lancers’ next-to-last game of the season (as a 16-seed, they’ll play No. 1 seed Houston in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday), Hicks burned his shot at that redshirt season. An improbable confluence of circumstances put Longwood in a situation to need Hicks; but it was Hicks who answered the call. “I told Coach, if you need me, you got me,’’ Hicks says. “For a program that has done so much for me, that’s the least I could do.”
After graduating from South Oldham High School, Hicks did a prep school year at the Hill School, hoping the extra year would get some more basketball bites. Instead, COVID-19 happened and he only got nibbles, mostly from Division II schools. Longwood offered him a chance to come as a walk-on sight unseen, and wanting the D1 experience, Hicks took it. He spent his first year happily on the scout team, played in 11 games as a sophomore, but the broken ankle robbed him of a chance to do much.
At the end of that season, after Longwood won the Big South tournament, Aldrich awarded him with a scholarship. Two weeks later, Hicks injured his knee playing pickup. An MRI showed no damage, so Hicks participated in summer workouts. But then he felt the same tweak again, an MRI this time showing a tear of the meniscus capsule. He went with the team for a European trip. Didn’t play but as he toured around, he noticed his knee kept ballooning up. Another MRI, this one showing the tear. “It was emotionally draining,” Hicks says.
But with the safety net of the redshirt year, Hicks settled into his rehab. He didn’t so much as practice. “I hadn’t run 94 feet in seven months,’’ he says with a laugh. Nor did he intend to. And then the dominoes started to fall.
In the Big South tournament semifinal, starting big man Elijah Tucker got banged in the thigh, but the seemingly innocuous injury turned into a real issue. Blood pooled from the contusion, meriting a hospital visit and stay, and knocking Tucker out of the championship game. Knowing his team would be shorthanded, Hicks tossed and turned all night, mulling over his own situation. He talked with his dad, Brian, who was staying at the team hotel, the next day, and then sent a text to assistant coach Quinn McDowell. Aldrich shared the text. Just talked to my dad and I’m ready if y’all need me. The team comes first in this situation. I’d be pissed if I passed up on that.
“I showed my wife and we both started to cry,” Aldrich says. But Aldrich also wasn’t immediately on board. He texted Brian Hicks, telling him how impressed he was with Hicks’ selfless offer but his inclination was not to accept it. “It’s just a game,” Aldrich says. “His life is so much more important.” Brian Hicks, however, told him that his son not only had his blessing, he was immensely proud of his choice.
That morning, Hicks went to athletic trainer Leah Dunagan, asking her to tape his ankles. Dunagan looked at him quizzically. “I told her what was going on, and to her credit, she just shrugged,” Hicks says. “We checked with my doctor and he gave me the all clear.” At walkthrough, the coaching staff reiterated there were no expectations.
“I told him we’d only ever use him if there was an emergency,’’ Aldrich says.
With 18 minutes left in the game, the emergency came. Asheville’s Fletcher Abee was ejected for a flagrant two. In the chaos of the play, backup big man Johan Nziemi stepped onto the court – “a foot fault,” Aldrich called it – and by rule, was ejected for leaving the bench area. “I looked down the bench, and Trey looks at me,’’ says Aldrich, tearing up. “He just said, ‘I’m ready.'”
Longwood fans cheered as Hicks entered the game. “He’d been through all of those injuries, but I don’t think anybody truly grasped what was going on,” Aldrich says. “He burned his redshirt year for his team. For one game. I’ve never seen anything so selfless.”
Tucker is being evaluated for his NCAA Tournament status. Regardless, Aldrich does not intend to play Hicks. Instead he wants to appeal to the NCAA, asking them to consider the circumstances to see if they’ll restore his redshirt year.
Hicks is philosophical about it. “I would love to get the year back,” he says. “But I wouldn’t trade what I did for anything. No regrets. None. All of the pleasure I’ve gotten from this program, the chance that the coaching staff gave me, I was happy to do something for them.”
Longwood’s Trey Hicks dunks in the final minute against UNC Asheville on March 10. (Isaiah Vazquez / Getty Images)
Hicks played seven minutes. In the first, he fouled twice and missed a layup. He issued another layup, pulled down a defensive rebound and turned the ball over.
But with 25 seconds left before Longwood secured the title and NCAA Tournament bid, he scooted down court on a fast break. He got the ball, blitzed down the lane and flushed a dunk for Longwood’s last points.
And Trey Hicks’ magical March moment, with an exclamation point.
What Must Be Done
“Knowing what must be done does away with fear.” - Rosa Parks
“Knowing what must be done does away with fear.” - Rosa Parks
A great quote from one of the strongest people our country has ever known, it almost seems silly to think about it in a basketball context. But if you want a fearless team they have to know what must be done. And if you want to be fearless as a coach, same thing.
The challenge obviously is that you never know how the game is going to play out, and strategy can change in a matter of seconds. But the more you prepare for those situations, the more fearless you will be. Chip Kelly used to say “Make your most important decisions in air conditioned rooms.” Go through the scenarios your team may face, and come up with the way you are going to play it before the game. Write it down, keep it in your pocket. Put together the line-ups and match-ups you think will be most effective. Have a plan, albeit a flexible one, as to what must be done.
But more importantly prepare your players to do the same. You want them to be problem solvers and decision makers, not hoop jumpers waiting for your command. The decisions need to be made in the heat of the action, with a split-seconds notice. The more you prepare them to make decisions, the more fearless your team will play.
If You’re In Control…
“Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.” - Tom Landry, former Dallas Cowboys coach
Believe in Themselves
“Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel.”
“Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” - Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club
I wonder how much as coaches we think about boosting the self-esteem of our personnel. Research has shown one of the most powerful motivating factors for leaders is to show your team that you are a fan. That you believe in them. Yet most traditional coaching approaches don’t prioritize encouragement or positive reinforcement.
Often we look at coaching through the wrong lens, one where we think our job is just to point out mistakes and change that behavior. Coaching is really about making your players and your team better, and while that does involve pointing out and correcting mistakes, the way you go about it can make a big difference in how much and how quickly your players improve.
Our job is to create the best environment for our teams to improve. Positive encouragement goes a long way towards establishing that environment. Our job isn’t so much to point out the mistakes and correct them, as it is showing them how to figure out the mistakes and how to get better from them. They have to know how to make the adjustments to get better, and we have to teach them that. Simply pointing out the mistakes and making them repeat the task falls short.
It’s easy to get so caught up in the intensity, the energy and the pace of coaching, where we feel a ton of pressure and never have enough practice time to get things done. We can become taskmasters, where we simply point out the negative and stay on it until they get it right. We often lose sight of the tone of practice, and ultimately what our players need from us to be really successful.
Go out of your way to boost the self-esteem of your players. If you take that approach my guess is you’ll get better long-term results.
Spreading Ideas That Work
“Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.”
"Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work." —Seth Godin
I’m struck by this quote from Seth Godin. How does it connect to the way you coach?
One of the mistakes we make about coaching is thinking it is about telling people what to do and getting them to do it. It’s about getting them to understand what to do, and teaching them the best way to go about it. We aren’t supposed to give them the answers to the test. We are supposed to show them how to get to the right answers during the test - on game day. We shouldn’t be coaching our players to jump through hoops, we should be teaching them how to solve problems.
Giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work. You likely wouldn’t use that description as a coaching approach, but it makes a lot of sense to me. There are a lot of ideas that work on a basketball court. And they change day to day and game by game. Because our opponents have a say in what happens as well. You aren’t staring at a math equation and trying to get the right answer. Your opponent is a complex equation that is constantly changing.
Give your players the platform to find - and spread - the ideas that work. It’s a great big picture approach to coaching. Don’t give them the answers, because the questions on game day are certain to change. Give them the ability to process the questions and find the right answers with their teammates.
Do You Respond or React?
I’ve always said this and believe it to be vital to effective leadership - coaching is not about what you feel, it’s about what your team needs. Very often, those two things are diametrically opposed.
When you are coaching your team, do you respond or react? Do you ever think about what will get the best out of your players?
I understand we work in an intense environment with a lot emotion involved. But most of the time the way we act is based on what we are feeling. We don’t like a call, we yell and scream. A bad turnover and we get visibly upset. Somebody misses a defensive assignment and everyone in the gym knows we are pissed off.
I’ve always said this and believe it to be vital to effective leadership - coaching is not about what you feel, it’s about what your team needs. Very often, those two things are diametrically opposed. You see something you don’t like and you get emotional about it, and you’ve got to let everyone know. You are in charge here and that was unacceptable! It’s reasonable to feel that way, but in the moment is that what your team needs from you? Do they need a high level of emotion - especially negative emotion - when they just made a mistake? In that moment, they need to be coached. They need to move on to the next play. What’s the best way to help them do that?
Admired Leaders had some great stuff recently on the difference between reacting and responding. Read it below. What does our team need from you?
Admired Leaders:
There is a world of difference between reacting and responding to situations, people, and events.
Reaction is an emotional and reflexive act that is largely unconscious and always impulsive. People are hardwired to react when triggered by something that bothers or scares them. Reaction operates from instinct rather than thought.
In contrast, responding is thoughtful and deliberate. It is a highly intentional and rational decision. A leader decides how they want to respond.
Whenever a leader reacts instinctually, offering raw and uncensored remarks, they become suspect. When those spontaneous retorts are imbued with disappointment, hurt, anger, or frustration, the leader’s credibility comes into question. Strong reactions often escalate whatever negative feelings exist for any of the parties involved. As a rule, reacting rarely leads to positive outcomes.
Leaders who decide when and how they will respond, as opposed to react, take ownership of the situation and the people involved. Through responding, they purposely shape the trajectory of the exchange and influence how people might positively navigate whatever is at issue. Learning to harness the power of responding over reacting is something good leaders work hard at.
The best leaders make a conscious commitment to respond more and react less.
Leaders can never positively influence a negative situation with a bad reaction. Responding with just the right message can make an enormous difference. Good leaders respond and leave reaction to others.
Sunny Wicks - UWGB
“You cannot stop growing and developing as players in the middle of the season.”
Some great stuff on culture from Sunny Wicks at Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Team Leadership
If leadership is important to your team, then you have to teach and develop it. Wherever your team lacks leadership, you have to fill the void.
Your team’s leadership is your responsibility.
If you are struggling through a bad year and one of the reasons is your team lacks the right kind of leadership, that is on you. Not every great team has natural leaders, who speak up, take control and are capable of lifting everyone else around them. You have to provide the leadership you want from your team.
Leadership is a skill. While I do believe certain people have natural leadership instincts, leadership can be taught and developed. If leadership is important to your team, then you have to teach and develop it. Wherever your team lacks leadership, you have to fill the void. Figure out what your team needs, and if you can’t teach them how to do it, you provide it.
Certain teams require a more hands on approach from the head coach. It doesn’t mean they can’t be great teams. It’s just a matter of you figuring out what your team lacks and finding a way to give it to them.
Don’t let a lack of leadership be the reason why your team has a bad year. To me, that’s an excuse for many head coaches, when really it should be a void that they fill. If your team needs better leadership, provide it for them.
Appreciation
To get the most out of your players, they need to know that they are appreciated - and they need to hear it from you.
How much do you tell your players you appreciate them? Perhaps the most powerful leadership approach you can take with your players is to be a fan. It’s one of the keys to motivation. Too often as coaches we think our job is to teach, demand, yell, scold and correct. We fall into a trap where we don’t appreciate the good things we see every day, because we take them for granted. We come to expect them.
To get the most out of your players, they need to know that they are appreciated - and they need to hear it from you.
From Admired Leaders on appreciation:
Here’s a surprising fact that many leaders don’t understand: If people aren’t told or shown that they are appreciated and valued, they will presume the opposite.
This is true even for top performers who receive the highest compensation and enjoy the most influence on the team. Unless a leader explicitly tells people they are appreciated, over time they will come to feel undervalued and taken for granted.
To many leaders, this doesn’t make any sense. Team members, who are highly rewarded, included, and treated specially shouldn’t require the leader to say it out loud, right? Showing is more powerful than telling, or so we have been taught. So why would self-secure, mature, and clearly effective team members need the leader to confirm their value through simple expressions of appreciation?
The answer is strikingly simple.
In a world of profound uncertainty, overt ambiguity, competitive jealousy, and constant change, people seek validation. Everyone wants to know where they stand, especially in the eyes of those they respect and who have the authority and social position to validate them.
They desperately want to know that the leader appreciates who they are, what they do, and how they contribute to the team’s success. An appreciative leader confirms exactly what team members desire most—a stamp that acknowledges how important they are.
Producers
The best way to handle producers? Let them produce. Stop trying to get more out of them from an approach or leadership standpoint. You are only going to frustrate yourself, and probably get less out of them as players. Just tell them to produce.
We all want to get the most out of our players. We them all to be hard workers, great competitors, leaders and great teammates. We establish a culture for our team, we set standards, and we want all of our players to live up to them.
But every player has different strengths and weaknesses, and not all of them are going to fit the mold we set for them. We get frustrated when certain players don’t give everything they have - they aren’t leaders, they aren’t vocal enough, they don’t seem to care as much as we’d like them to care.
I’ve learned that certain players are simply producers. They are talented and they help the team by putting up numbers, but they don’t always do it the way we want them to do it. They don’t always play hard. They may not be the best competitors. Maybe they are a bit selfish. They aren’t perfect, but when the lights go on they are good enough and they produce. They help the team.
Producers are valuable but they can be hard to coach. A lot of the time they are just relying on their talent, not giving everything they have. We spend a lot of time trying to get them to change. We want them to compete harder, to care more. We want them to be vocal and lead the team, to be great teammates. But not everyone has that in them. Some players just want to play.
You can get very frustrated as a coach trying to change these players. We want them to care more, we just know they can give more, and it bothers us. But as we continually harp on them about the things they aren’t doing, they are still producing. Maybe not as much as we think they can, but they are helping the team. And we are trying to turn them into people they are not - they’ll never be the best competitors, the tone setters, or the leaders. They won’t carry your culture. But they will be productive players.
The best way to handle producers? Let them produce. Stop trying to get more out of them from an approach or leadership standpoint. You are only going to frustrate yourself, and probably get less out of them as players. Just tell them to produce. I’ve had many conversations with these players over the years, where I’ve had to say “Look, I’m not going to get on you to be our hardest worker, our best competitor, or our leader. But what you have to do is produce. You have to bring it every day and be our leading scorer and rebounder. That is your job, that is how you help this team.” They may not do it the way you want, but give them the room to be productive.
If you find yourself banging your head against the wall with a player who is productive but not quite giving you everything you want, take a step back. Maybe the best thing you can do is just get them to be their best. They may not be leaders for you, but they can’t take a day off from doing what they do best. They are producers. Accept that fact, and get the most out of them.
“Where They Have Not Been…”
“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.”
Henry Kissinger, former U.S. National Security Advisor & Secretary of State
Great Simplifiers
Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers…
“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”
Gen. Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State