Daniel Pink's Three Laws of Mastery

I recently finished reading a good book by Daniel Pink called "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us." He mentions three elements that are responsible for motivating us - Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. I found his "Three Laws of Mastery" particularly fascinating for anyone wanting to become great at anything.

1. Mastery is a Mindset:
Pink's "Type I" behavior has an incremental theory of intelligence, prizes learning goals over performance goals, and welcomes effort as a way to improve at something that matters.

2. Mastery is a Pain:
"Grit" - perseverance and passion for long-term goals
"Mastery - of sports, music, business - requires effort (difficult, painful, excruciating, all-consuming effort) over a long time (not a week or month, but a decade.)"
"Mastery involves working and working and showing little improvement, perhaps with a few moments of flow pulling you along, then making a little progress, and then working and working on that new, slightly higher plateau again."

3. Mastery is an Asymptote:
"This is the nature of mastery: Mastery is an asymptote. You can approach it. You can home in on it. You can get really, really, really close to it. But...you can never touch it."

John Henry Newman on Vocations

I was teaching a class this morning on the topic of vocations. I came across this quote from John Henry Newman about vocations:

“God has created me to do him some definite service: he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.”

Six Keys to Being Excellent

Tony Schwartz is the President and CEO of The Energy Project and author of "Be Excellent at Anything." He posted his "Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything."

These keys can serve as an extension of Anders Ericsson's work on "deliberate practice." Ericsson made the case that it takes 10,000 hours of work to achieve expertise.

1. Pursue what you love. - Passion

2. Do the hardest work first. - Delay gratification.

3. Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break.

4. Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses.

5. Take regular renewal breaks. - Relax after intense effort.

6. Ritualize practice. - Build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.

You can find more from Tony Schwartz on his website http://tonyschwartz.com/

Leadership Thoughts from "A Season of Life"

"A Season of Life" is a book written by Pulitzer Prize winner, Jeffrey Marx. Marx profiles the 2001 football season for Gilman High School in Maryland. One of Gilman's assistant coaches is Joe Ehrmann, a former Baltimore Colt and now a minister. Marx shows how Ehrmann and the rest of the Gilman coaching staff use their roles to lead their players into becoming much more than football players but most importantly, men. Marx writes about many of the discussions he and Ehrmann had during the season. In one of these discussions, Ehrmann gives his take on leadership...

"It's gotta be based on some kind of moral, ethical foundation. You can't just go with the flow in life. There's a broad road and a narrow road, and you have to learn how to courageously stand up on some kind of foundation, some kind of principle, make decisions, be a leader, and go that way. It takes great courage to lead in the right direction...and especially at the age of the boys on our football team. In the midst of all of the peer pressure, the whole social setting, it takes tremendous courage to stick to the right values because they're often gonna find themselves at odds with the rest of their peer group."

Tony Hinkle's Offensive System and Other Thoughts

Coach Paul D. Tony Hinkle served Butler University as head basketball, football, and baseball coach, and athletic director, over the course of six different decades. Most of his coaching success came as head basketball coach at Butler, where he coached from the 1926-27 season and ended the 1969-70 season (Coach Hinkle coached at Great Lakes Naval Training Center from 1942-45 where he was stationed during World War II.)

Among Coach Hinkle’s greatest accomplishments include the 1929 National Collegiate Championship, having his name put on Butler’s historic Fieldhouse, and being inducted into the Nasimith Basketball Hall of Fame. Coach Hinkle was extremely innovative, as well. One of his great contributions to the game was his idea of using the orange basketball.

The following thoughts on Coach Hinkle came from Howard Caldwell’s 1991 book “Tony Hinkle: Coach for All Seasons.”

“THE HINKLE SYSTEM” – Coach Hinkle’s Offensive System
- Constant movement between pairs of players on the floor
- Coach Hinkle worked out an array of 14 two-man exercises designed to block out defensive players; today they’re known as picks and screens
- Concentrated on getting good percentage shots, since most teams were bigger than Butler
- The offensive drill on the first day of practice with Hinkle was identical to the offensive drill on the final day of practice.
- Hinkle wanted habits so deeply ingrained in his players that they would respond to changing situations without thinking.

COACH HINKLE ON RECRUITING…
No matter how competitive the search for player prospects became, Butler’s coach never wanted a kid who had been talked into a commitment. He wanted the prospect to get a factual rundown of what Butler was all about…He was proud of the university’s academic reputation, a reputation that carried over into a strict interpretation of the rules as they pertained to athletes.

COACH HINKLE ON BEING SUCCESSFUL…
His basic approach was to remind everybody that success depended on the team as a unit, not on the individual. What better way to remind them of that concept than to use the word “kid”, a number, a hometown, or an abbreviated form of the name.

Brad Stevens Thoughts and Defensive DNA - Final 4 Part 4 of 5

8 COMPONENTS THAT MAKE A GREAT TEAMMATE…
1. Selflessness
2. Honesty – “Truth is a prerequisite of trust.”
3. Accountability – “We have accountable people. When you don’t, you can’t improve.”
4. Respect
5. Passion – “Kids have to love the game.”
6. Enthusiasm – “Attitude is everything.”
7. No doubts
8. Servanthood – “If you want to lead, serve first.”

ON WHAT IS NEEDED TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN BASKETBALL…
“The game honors toughness.”

ON EXCELLENCE…
"Success is having something. Excellence is being something."

ON BEING WHO YOU ARE…
"We're Butler and we're going to be Butler. We're going to be as good as we can be, but we're not going to be something else."

BRAD STEVENS’ DEFENSIVE PRINCIPLES…
These were notes from the University of Florida Coaches’ Clinic last August. Thanks to Mark Daigneault for providing these:

Coach Stevens developed these 6 Defensive "DNA" Principles because he was coaching six freshmen who needed to learn how to play their defensive system.
1. Commitment - In 11 years, he never had a player in the program that worked his tail off on the defensive end that wasn’t a great teammate and student.
2. Positioning – Starts with transition.
3. Prioritization – The goal is to stop the other team from scoring.
4. Awareness – Awareness can allow a marginal athlete to become a very good defender – more so than a great athlete with marginal awareness.
5. Execution/Technique – Technique is easy to work on in individuals (workouts).
6. Completion – The importance of finishing plays (blocking out)

Jim Calhoun Thoughts

In this third blog of a five-part series from this year's Final Four coaches, I will provide some thoughts from UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun. I have read his book "A Passion to Lead." The book is a great summary of Calhoun's leadership principles and beneficial for not just coaches but all leaders.

ON COACHING...
"I coach because I love to help transform impressionable kids into responsible adults."

"I want every kid, first, to value himself and his potential as a human being. I want him to learn that getting a good education is important; that being dependable and responsible to yourself and your family, friends, and teammates is vital; that there is no substitute for hard work; and that the need to broaden yourself never ends."

ON CHALLENGING HIS PLAYERS...
"I ask our players all the time: 'How did you feel at six this morning?' What I'm really suggesting is that they take an aggressive, can-do approach to life."

ON LEADERSHIP...
"I think that one of the things that separates good leaders from lesser ones is this: attention to detail."

"If you want to build a winning organization, you must first establish a culture of winning. To do that, set high standards for yourself and your colleagues in every aspect of the operation. Make everyone accountable. Out of high standards come victories."

"All good leaders have two key responsibilities which are vital to organizational success. First, you have to surround yourself with good talent to achieve goals. Second, you've got to be a hellacious motivator to develop your talent every day so that it performs at a peak level."

ON DEVELOPING HIMSELF AS A COACH...
"My tactical ideas about basketball don't change a lot from year to year, but I keep my head in the game every day by talking to other coaches, by attending coaching conferences and seminars, by running basketball camps in the summer, and by spending lots of time chewing the fat with my assistants. I'm still curious about the world, too. I read books about psychology and leadership to pick up motivational ideas. And I enjoy talking to people in other professions."

John Calipari Coaching Thoughts and Dribble Drive Motion - Final Four Series Part 2 of 5

ON HIS COACHING PHILOSOPHY…
“In a paragraph, my goal each year is to help each player have a career year and to get those players to play together. It’s simple…. have each guy have a career year and have that group of players play good together. Get them to play off each other.”

ON RELATIONSHIPS…
“Look, in this profession it’s all about building relationships…If you’re not being fair with kids, guess what? All those people over time build up too, and they’re working against you.”

“What have you done for another coach? What have you done for our profession?”

ON THE DRIBBLE DRIVE MOTION OFFENSE…
"The players are unleashed when they play this way," he says, "because every player has the green light to take his man on every play."

DRIBBLE DRIVE MOTION OFFENSE from Sports Illustrated Feb. 12, 2008…
“Instead of going straight into the offense, Memphis sometimes swings the ball around the perimeter or springs the point guard with (gasp!) a ball screen. And instead of sending his post man straight to the lane's weak side, Calipari allows him to go on what Memphis calls a ‘rim run,’ in which the penetrating guard throws a lob in the vicinity of the basket for an alley-oop dunk.”

Special thanks to Sports Illustrated and collegehoopsnet.com for some information from Coach Calipari.

Shaka Smart Coaching Philosophy - Final 4 Part 1 of 5

Three Priorities in Starting a Program

1. Develop relationships – “This doesn’t happen overnight. It takes work.”
2. Build a staff – “The most important decision a new head coach makes.” Looks for “work ethic, loyalty, and personality”.
3. Recruiting – “Different and challenging wherever you go”

Recommendation to Young Coaches...

“Work as many camps as you can to build relationships. When I was a graduate assistant, I worked camps at both the University of Dayton and at the University of Florida…those relationships I built with the staff helped me in my career.”


Special thanks to www.winninghoops.com for some of the material on Coach Smart.

Chris Mack's Plan

Scott Gaede, a friend of Xavier head basketball coach Chris Mack, chronicled Mack's first season as head coach at Xavier during the 2009-10 season and published it in the form of "Next In Line". As both a fan of the program and the fact it's a great read, I got through this one in less that 48 hours. One of the things Gaede covers is Mack's nine-point plan for the program that he discussed in his interview for the job with Xavier Athletic Director Mike Bobinski:

1) Keeping the Core - Continuity through rapport and buy-in from players
2) The Xavier Way - A culture that has produced results
3) The Xavier Mission - Developing basketball players as students and people
4) Basketball Identity - Coaching with respect and dignity toward players; developing close-knit coaching staff; similar X's and O's identity that was developed under Sean Miller
5) Coaching Staff - Having "the smartest room of people" with which to work
6) The Bridge to Xavier Past and Cincinnati - Involvement of past players; ability to sell the program through media and community members because he's native of Cincinnati
7) The Xavier Vision - Moving the program to the next level; playing in the Final 4
8) The Plan and the Philosophy - 360-degree total development of players (academics, off-floor life skills, basketball skills, knowledge of player's support system); systematic approach to recruiting; passionate belief in current offensive and defensive systems
9) Established Trust - Continuity within the program; importance of communication

Nelson Mandela's 8 Lessons of Leadership

I took this one from a 2008 Time Magazine article by Richard Stengel. These are the 8 Lessons of Leadership from Nelson Madela:

1 - Courage is not the absence of fear - it's inspiring others to move beyond it.

2 - Lead from the heart - but don't leave your base behind.

3 - Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front.

4 - Know your enemy - and learn about his favorite sport.

5 - Keep your friends close - and your rivals even closer.

6 - Appearances matter - and remember to smile.

7 - Nothing is black or white. - Decisions are complex, and there are always competing factors.

8 - Quitting is leading, too. - Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task, or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make.

Don Shula on Reducing Practice Errors

This one is from George Selleck's book "Court Sense." Selleck references a five-step plan that Don Shula used for reducing errors in practice. This one is good for any leadership, management, teaching, or coaching position.

1) Tell people whay you want them to do.
2) Show them what good performance looks like.
3) Let them do it.
4) Observe their performance.
5) Praise progress and/or redirect.

Coach K on Motivation

Mike Krzyzewski talked about motivation in one of my all-time favorite books, "The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team":

Motivation can come from many different sources.

One source is reinforcing that sense of perspective that you taught your team early on.

Another source is reviewing your established standards, giving your team the chance to see how they have performed based on those standards and how they can uphold them at an even higher level.

Another element of getting your team motivated is rallying support from the outside by broadcasting your group's message...Typically a group's message is some combination of your goal and your standards: This is what we are going to do and this is how we are going to do it.

Bringing about those emotions and harnessing the energy that they create is the essence of motivation.

Roy Williams' Coaching Philosophy

Obviously, Roy Williams has had a ton of success as a head coach at both Kansas and North Carolina. In his latest book, "Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court," Coach Williams talks about his basketball coaching philosophy.

"My philosophy is that basketball is the simplest game in the world - IF you can get five guys moving in the same direction for a common goal. Coaching is all about me getting my five guys to do what I want them to do better than you can get your five guys to do what you want them to do. If you have one guy looking out for himself, you're in big trouble. If you have more than one, you have no chance."

Leadership from Ronald Reagan

In honor of the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, and the 100th anniversary of his birth, here are some quotes from President Reagan on leadership:

- The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence, and patience to turn that dream into reality.

- A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets rough.

- We did not seek the role of leadership that has been thrust upon us. But whether we like it or not, the events of our time demand America's participation.

Thanks to leadership-skills-for-life.com for sharing.

Morgan Wootten's Big 5 in Coaching

Morgan Wootten may be the most successful high school basketball coach of all time. Wootten won nearly 1,300 games, five mythical national championships, and coached dozens of Division 1 college players at DeMatha (MD) High School. Coach Wootten's ultimate accomplishment came with his 2000 enshrinement in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In his book, Coaching Basketball Successfully, Coach Wootten outlines his "Big 5 in Coaching".

1. Our goal must be to provide a wholesome environment in which young men or women can develop themselves spiritually, socially, and academically.

2. As coaches, we should be the kind of coach we would want our sons or daughters to play for.

3. We must never lose sight of the fact that basketball is a game and it should be fun. We should never put winning ahead of the individual.

4. Because basketball is a great teaching situation...we must prepare them for the many decisions they will be making that will have long-range effects on the quality of their lives.

5. This is the bottom line: Are we doing all we can to make our players' sport experience as rewarding as possible?

Bruce Weber's Keys to Building a Program

I've heard Illinois Head Coach Bruce Weber at clinics on a couple occasions. He always refers to his keys to building and maintaining a program when he presents. Here they are:

1) Have kids play hard. Don't give them the choice to not play hard.
2) Play as a team. Play to win.
3) Have a flexible system.
4) Lift weights and condition.
5) Defend. Spend at least one hour of practice on defense.
6) Teach your players how to play.
7) Have competitive drills. Have them love to win and hate to lose. Practice game habits at game speed. Have efficiency; drills conducive to your system.

Craig Robinson on the Princeton Offense

Some may know him as the president's brother-in-law but Craig Robinson has a pretty good career, himself, as a basketball coach. Coach Robinson played at Princeton under Pete Carill and later was an assistant at Northwestern under former Princeton assistant Bill Carmody. After leading Brown as head coach for two successful seasons, Robinson is now trying to rebuild the program at Oregon State. In his book "A Game of Character," Robinson discussed the Princeton offense:

"It is as much a mind-set as it is a set of strategies designed for winning the game of basketball."

"Others will talk about the Princeton offense as being good use of fundamentals - passing, moving without the ball, and backdoor cuts. Yes, those are some of the strategies..."

"All of that obscures what the Princeton offense is. Bottom line, it comes down to playing unselfishly, passing and cutting until you get open for a shot - as a team. It is a way of thinking. You not only need very skilled players with a level of precision required for making that perfect shot, but they also need to be patient - hence what may parade as slow isn't necessarily."

Quotes on Listening

John Maxwell is one of my favorite authors. In his latest book, "Everyone Communicates, Few Connect," Maxwell discusses many ways for people to improve their communication skills by connecting with other people. He references a few people's thoughts on listening and being inquisitive in this book...

"Listening requires giving up our favorite human pastime - involvement in ourselves and our own self-interest." - Sonya Hamlin

"My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions." - Peter Drucker

Larry King's favorite question to ask is "Why?"...It's the greatest question ever asked, and it always will be.

And when asking questions, remember the word "FORM," which stands for family, occupation, recreation, and message. Ask people these questions to connect!

What Jon Gruden Learned about Practice from Indiana Basketball

I'm a huge Jon Gruden fan. I liked his passion and enthusiasm as a coach. I love that same enthusiasm in his game analysis for ESPN. I recently read his book, "Do You Love Football?!" He obviously has learned from many great football coaches, with experiences at Tennessee under Johnny Major and in the NFL with the Bill Walsh 49ers and Mike Holmgren Packers, to name a few. But here are the lessons he learned from Bob Knight and the Indiana Basketball Program when he was a ball boy, during the time his father was an assistant football coach at IU:

"Teach your players how to practice. That's even more important than teaching them what to practice, because if you don't establish the pace you want and if you aren't consistent about it, they're going to work the way they want to and it's going to change with each day. You have to let them know that you want them practicing hard, with a sense of purpose, every time."

New York Times Comments on Leadership

My lovely and talented wife is part of a "Leadership Academy" at Xavier University, her employer. This group meets monthly to discuss leadership topics relevant to the university and the world around them. I get the good fortune to read some of her materials. Their latest reading comes from several articles called "Corner Office," a series that the New York Times covers on Sundays where they ask a series of questions to CEOs of various businesses. Here are some thoughts I found to be interesting...

Gordon M. Bethune, CEO of Continental Airlines from 1994 to 2004, on hiring people:
"The really good people want autonomy - you let me do it, and I'll do it. So I told the people I recruited: 'You come in here and you've got to keep me informed, but you're the guy, and you'll make these decisions.'"

Meridee A. Moore, Founder of Watershed Asset Management ($2 billion hedge firm in San Francisco), on career advice:
"Find a mentor. It doesn't have to be a mentor who looks like you. They can be older, a different gender, in a different business, but someone you admire and respect, and attach yourself to that person and learn everything you can."

Cristobal Conde, President and CEO of SunGard, a software and I.T. services company, on time management:
"I need an hour and a half once a day to think....many topics or issues can only be dealth with in an uninterrupted format."

William D. Green, Chairman and Chief Executive of Accenture, on three things that matter:
1. Competence - being good at what you do, and focus on the job you have, not the job you want to have
2. Confidence - have to have enough desirable self-confidence to articulate a point of view
3. Caring - Nothing today is about one individual.

Drew Gilpin Faust, President of Harvard, on making people happy:
"You don't make everyone happy, but I believe that if people feel they were listened to, that their views were taken into account, that they had a chance to show you the world from their point of view, they're going to be much more likely to go along with a decision."