Thoughts from The Gold Standard

Mike Krzyzewski wrote this as kind of a memoir/leadership book telling the story of the rebuilding of USA Basketball. It is still one of my favorite books. It is packed with leadership principles while it also discusses the building of the 2008 USA Basketball gold-medal winning team.

On what Team USA emphasized...On our team, there were two things that we talked about every single day: the gold medal and defense, our goal and our competitive edge. Those are two pretty important things for your team to always have on their mind.

I was struck with Krzyzewski's positive impression of LeBron James as a leader. This is a great example of LeBron's leadership...
The first practice (for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team that summer) also helped our players get reacquainted with LeBron’s voice after having been apart for an NBA season. He communicated throughout. When going from one segment of practice to another, LeBron would announce the transition to the team. This is the type of communication you want from the bench to the court during a game. When a coach says something to a player on the court, you want that player to echo your message. LeBron did that naturally in practice. We may have just finished doing some work on our inbounds plays and I would say, “Okay, let’s get going on some shooting drills off of our sets. Divide up into two groups and each go to a basket.”

LeBron would immediately take control: “Shooting off sets, guys. White over there and blue over here. Let’s go.” This echoing of instruction is something that makes a practice run much more smoothly and is essential in games.

You have to be a family first to be a team. – LeBron James

On developing his systems...

On my basketball teams, I try to instill three systems. Our offensive and defensive systems comprise those X and O strategies that we implement on the court. But most important of all is our system of communication.

What teams need...
Every team needs an ultimate goal, a purpose for which it unites and prepares. Thinking about the goal that lies ahead is what gives your team energy. It’s what you get excited about. It’s why you practice hard. No matter what intermediate steps you take, your team should always have your ultimate goal in mind and allow its pursuit to invigorate.

On Legacies...
Legacy asks the question, “Who were you? Did you win? Did you lose? Did you do something special?”

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.

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."

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."

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.

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.