Jon Gordon on Excellence

Jon Gordon is a best-selling author who has a unique writing style. His leadership fables have been used by many sports teams and Fortune 500 companies in developing their own teams. I read Training Camp, a leadership fable about a football player attempting to make an NFL team in training camp. Here are some of his thoughts from Training Camp on excellence.

"It's not ability that separates those who make the team from those who don't. It's sustainability. And sustainability has as much to do with mental strength and mental preparation as it does physical health."

"Talent isn't enough anymore. Everyone here has talent. It's about infusing talent with heart, soul, spirit, and passion."

"I realize that not everyone is willing to pay the price, and that's okay. It's just that I'm not willing to waste my time on someone unless they want it as much as I want it for them. Life's too short."

"I found that the best of the best all shared similar characteristics, principles, and habits..."

"The telescope represents the big picture..."

THE BEST...
1. Know what they truly want.
2. Want it more.
3. Are always striving to get better.
4. Do ordinary things better than everyone else.
5. Zoom-focus. - extraordinary consistency, commitment, and focus
6. Are mentally stronger.

Tony Schwartz's Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything

Tony Schwartz is President and CEO of the Energy Project. Schwartz consults with companies to assist them in their performance. He has also authored several books and is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review.

Schwartz had some great things to say about being excellent, including six keys. So many of this can be translated to teachers and coaches, with some modifications.

"We've found, in our work with executives at dozens of organizations, that it's possible to build any given skill or capacity in the same systematic way we do a muscle: push past your comfort zone, and then rest."

"Anders Ericsson, arguably the world's leading researcher in high performance...has been making the case that it's not inherited talent which determines how good we become at something, but rather how hard we're willing to work - something he calls "deliberate practice."

Six Keys to Achieving Excellence:
1. Pursue what you love.
2. Do the hardest work first.
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.
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.

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."

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/

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)