Thoughts & tweets of the week

DrRonBradley Certainly leadership involves some specific skills, but ultimately leadership is more about BEING than about DOING." (H. Blackaby)
Sports_Greats Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't. - Jerry Rice  
coachdeforest Navy SEALS - "The only EASY day was YESTERDAY"

CoachKeathley The best way early on to determine a players character is to place responsibilty on them---see how they respond!

The price of success is dedication, deprivation, lots of sustained effort and plenty of doubt and loneliness mixed in to test your resolve

The expression & ultimate evidence of a person's level of commitment is seen in a constant striving to become exceptional in performance

TomCrean "Winning is not complicated, people complicate it." Dick Vermiel  


ZigZiglarQuotes "Your chances of success are directly proportional to the degree of pleasure you derive from what you do." - Michael Korda

The gap between vision and current reality is also a source of energy.If there were no gap, there would be no need for any action to move towards the vision. We call this gap creative tension. Peter Senge

Two sources of energy motivate organizations: fear and aspiration. Fear, the energy source behind negative visions, can produce extraordinary changes in short periods, but aspiration endures as a source of learning and growth

Its getting so everyone wants to harvest, but nobody wants to plow 

.Positive Attitude Quotes

Florence Scovel Shinn:
We cannot always control our thoughts, but we can control our words, and repetition impresses the subconscious, and we are then master of the situation.
T. S. Eliot:
We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.
Eleanor Roosevelt:
We must want for others, not ourselves alone.
Abraham Lincoln:
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.
Earl Nightingale:
We tend to live up to our expectations.
Albert Einstein:
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
Japanese proverb:
We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.
Nick Saban:
What happened yesterday is history. What happens tomorrow is a mystery. What we do today makes a difference - the precious present moment.
Thaddeus Golas:
What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Dale Brown Art of Coaching

Another great blog by Coach Dale Brown.  I have included the link below
http://coachdalebrown.blogspot.com/2010/09/art-of-coaching.html

THE ART OF COACHING

"You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him find it within himself."

– Galileo Galilei

Effective Coaching

By: Vadim Kotelnikov

Coaching Defined

Coaching is the art and practice of inspiring, energizing, and facilitating the performance, learning and development of  the player. (Myles Downey)7

Each word in this definition is a key word:

• art – though there is science to coaching, coaching is an art in the sense that "when practiced with excellence, there is no attention on the technique: the coach is fully engaged with the player and the process of coaching becomes a dance between two people, conversationally moving in complete harmony and partnership. At this point the intelligence,intuition and imagination of the coach become a valuable contribution - rather than being interference for the player."⁷

• inspiring – coaching is about helping the player to unlock his or her true potential through raising awareness, inspiring new ideas and encouraging creativity

• energizing – coaching is about energizing the player through effective communication, soliciting suggestions, and building a can-do attitude

• facilitating – implies that the player has the capacity to have an insight or creative idea and to think something through for himself

• performance – anything a coach says or does should be driven by the intention to improve performance, i.e. to achieve greater effectiveness or efficiency of the player

• learning – refers to a broader domain, how to approach a task or master a new technology; looking beyond immediate objectives, the future performance of the organization depends on learning

• development – refers to personal growth and greater self-awareness.⁷

The Goal of Coaching

The goal of coaching is to guide vision, urge excellence, and empower the one being coached – the player – through establishing a firmer connection with his or her inner authority.

What Motivates People

I stole this post from thelabb.blogspot.com

He has some great stuff.  This video is about 11 minutes long and is well worth the time to watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

10 thoughts on Leadership--Dale Brown

Notes From Dale Brown’s Readings On Leadership
1. No leader is exempt from criticism, and his humility will nowhere be seen more clearly than in the
manner in which he accepts and reacts to it.
2. Anyone who steps into the arena of leadership must be prepared to pay a price. True leadership
exacts a heavy toll on the whole person and the more effective the leadership, the higher the price! The
leader must soon face the fact that he will be the target of critical darts. Unpleasant though it may
sound, you haven’t really led until you have become familiar with the stinging barbs of the critic. Good
leaders must have the thick skin.
3. Every leader must develop the ability to measure the value or worth of criticism. He has to
determine the source and the motive, and he has to listen with discernment. Sometimes the best
course of action is to respond to criticism and learn from it. Other times, he must be completely
ignored.
4. It is impossible to lead anyone without facing opposition.
5. It is essential to face opposition in prayer.
6. Few people can live in the lap of luxury and maintain their spiritual, emotional, and moral
equilibrium. Sudden elevation often disturbs balance, which leads to pride and a sense of selfsufficiency
and then, a fall. It’s ironic, but more of us can hang tough through a demotion than through
a promotion.
7. The man who is impatient with weakness will be defective in his leadership. The evidence of our
strength lies not in streaking ahead but in a willingness to adapt our stride to the slower pace of our
weaker brethren, while not forfeiting our lead. If we run too far ahead, we lose our power to influence.
8. No matter how strong a leader you are, you will experience times when the cutting remarks really
hurt.
9. You must be determined to apply massive common sense in solving complex problems.
10. You must be willing to accept the simple fact that you have flaws and will need to work every day
to become a better leader than you were yesterday.

Preseason Checklist

This is something that I found from the People at Point Guard College.  I changed some things in it and tailored it to our team.

PRESEASON CHECK LIST:

HAVE YOU?????

         GOTTEN IN SHAPE

 

      BEEN A LEADER/ A GREAT TEAMMATE

 

IDENTIFIED 2-3 AREAS OF WEAKNESS TO WORK ON?

GROWN IN MENTAL TOUGHNESS

PREPARED YOURSELF FOR THE SEASON

 

 

This is "players time" of the year; the best will come together as one; push themselves; not need a coach everyday; be accountable for success!

  

A culture of greatness creates an expectation that everyone in the organization (team) be committed to excellence. “ Jon Gordon

Eric Musselman Thoughts

Work for super stars in the business
Chuck Daly helped him get the job in Golden State
Jerry West helped him get the job in Sacramento
Work for multiple people
Coach Daly “You better know where your next job is coming
from”
Pre game warm ups is a great audition for assistant coach’s
Other coaches, front office people & TV broadcasters are
watching
It’s your players when you win…

Philosophy when coaching in the CBA was to get every player he
could from great college coaches (Indiana – Bobby Knight)
Those players provide
-Practice habits
-Execution
-Professionalism
Get an identity
Good coaches have an identity
Bad coaches have no identity

Create a balance sheet after training camp
How much time are you spending on offense & defense
After training camp it should be close to equal
Make sure you cover special situations
Jump balls
Who’s defending the in- bounder late game situation
Who’s taking the ball out, full court / half court end of game

Sean Miller on Defensive Checks

5 stats that Miller feels are good indicators of the defense
1. Opponent Field Goal Percentage
2. Opponent 3 Point Field Goal Percentage (just as important: how many have they
taken? Are they attempting a lot because we’re not pressuring the ball enough?)
3. Fouls (fouling negates a lot of good things we do defensively)
4. Turnovers (we don’t want them to be able to pass, pass, pass. We will create some
turnovers, but that is not the objective of the defense.
5. Defensive Rebounding Percentage (be weary of the Total Rebounds stat—can be very
misleading. What percentage of missed shots are they rebounding?)

Leadership Lessons from the Carolina Leadership Academy-Jeff Jannsen

The groundbreaking Carolina Leadership Academy has proven to be a tremendous win/win/win experience for student-athletes, coaches, and administrators. Here are some important lessons we have learned at Carolina that you can use as you look to build a program at your school.

1. Captains and Coaches Must Create a Leadership Team

If you want your leaders to be an extension of you, you must extend yourself to them. Coaches and captains must work together to forge a formidable leadership team to truly be effective. You must invest the time to teach your captains what it means to be a leader, help them understand your philosophy, and how to hold their teammates accountable. Invest the time on a regular basis to communicate with your captains so that you are all on the same page. The vast majority of captains in all sports want their coaches to invest more time with them.

2. Evaluation and Feedback are Critical for
    Development and Measurement

You must help your captains gain a better understanding of themselves as leaders. Invest the time to have them evaluate their leadership strengths and areas to improve using the Team Leadership Evaluation.

Most captains (74%) have an inflated view of their leadership skills. Thus, it is critical that you provide them with feedback from yourself as a coach as well as their teammates. By helping captains have a more objective view of their leadership, you can focus them on maximizing their strengths and shoring up their areas to improve.

With this systematic approach to leadership, we found that 96% of the student-athletes who graduated from the Carolina Leadership Academy rated themselves as better leaders following the program. Similarly, 88% of the coaches also rated their captains as better leaders following their training in the Academy.

3. Athletic Administrators Need to Champion and
    Model the Cause

Without question, one of the biggest keys to the Carolina Leadership Academy is that it was initiated, embraced, and reinforced from the top down. UNC athletic director Dick Baddour envisioned developing a state of the art leadership program and has been an active and visible champion of the program from day one. His strong support sends a clear message to everyone in the department how important the leadership initiative is for everyone. Further, by targeting all levels of the athletic department (student-athletes, coaches, and staff) a common language and understanding of leadership permeates the department. Leadership is now being discussed and modeled on all levels.

Pat Summitt Thoughts

On Character
I think as a coach it’s vital that you lead by example. I’m a teacher and if I want them to understand our philosophy then it’s up to me. If I want them to be on time, I’m on time. If I want them to have good communication skills, I have to have good communication skills.

I think you have to establish your philosophy. I don’t think you can try and be four different coaches. You have to arrive at what’s really important to you.

The players need you to be real. And I am very real. I always tell them that winning doesn’t give you the right to think that you’re better than someone else and losing doesn’t make you a bad person. You have to keep life in perspective and it’s never as bad as it seems, nor is it as good as it seems.

You have to surround yourself with good people and people who are on the same page as you. They’re not going to undermine you; they’re going to be incredibly loyal to you and committed no matter what your philosophy might be. You have to have that loyalty and support.

On Commitment
I expect our teams to work just like I do. They know I’m here early and I stay late. I watch film with them. Whatever it takes. If they want to shoot extra, I’m here.

On Caring
I really think first and foremost you generally have to care about the people you work with. I don’t think you can fake that. I think it’s got to be real and the reason I love so much what I do is that I get the opportunity to work with people. You develop those relationships and if I didn’t care then I wouldn’t be doing this.

On Consistency
Our philosophy is to be firm, be fair, but be consistent. Players really watch for coaches who favor their best players. I’ve never really had a problem with that. I like people. I’m not about titles; whereas a lot of people are about titles. I’m friends with the custodian and the president of the university. It’s just people and there’s a right way and a wrong way to treat people and that’s true with discipline.

Coach K Thoughts

We aren’t coaching X’s and O’s, we are coaching people. So the more we learn about people the better. I really think it is one of the secrets to our success. We spend a lot more time on the relationships.

On Character
The most fundamental thing about being a good leader is the ability to communicate in a trustworthy manner. If you do that on a consistent basis, the element of trust is developed, which is the cornerstone on which every coach-athlete relationship should be built.

Coaching is about relationships. It goes way beyond X’s and O’s. You have to create an environment of trust among your staff and athletes. Without trust, you have nothing. If you do have trust, you will be able to accomplish great things.

On Commitment
A leader can’t ask anything of those he or she is leading that he or she is not willing to do as well. As a leader you have to do it really well - at a much higher level than anyone else.

On Caring
I think you show someone you care about them by being willing to listen to them. There is no better way to show you care than to give them time. Certainly if you develop programs that will help them academically, you talk to them about their personal lives, you handle their training properly, you handle their nutrition properly, you remember their birthdays, you know their parent’s names, you know their girlfriend’s name, you will show that you care.

The key word for all of this is empathy, not sympathy. On a day-to-day basis we all have pressures we have to deal with. You have to try to understand their world. Basically having empathy shows that you care.

On Confidence-Building
If an athlete knows you believe in him or her, then when that kid goes through dark moments, he or she will know they are not alone. We all have those moments and it is important to know that others are with you. Our guys know that they are never alone because we develop relationships and let them know we believe in them.

Do you get on them for mistakes of omission or commission? We get on guys for mistakes of omission. I will really get on people who don’t concentrate or those people who don’t play hard. You have to create an environment where people can make mistakes without worrying about it so much. If they are concentrating and playing hard and make a mistake that is different than if their heads are in the clouds.

On Communication
A good leader listens-and more so than that, gives time to listen. The bigger the leader, the busier the leader, the harder it is to take the time to listen. You have to get it in your mind that you have to listen-that there couldn’t be any time better spent than listening.

Buzz Williams Video

Buzz Williams has 2 great videos out on the Marquette basketball website.  He is giving an inside look into the program.  The 1st clip is about "Character Revealed" and has some great lessons.  The second video talks about Marquettes depth chart.  Although the second video is not as good as the first, I think it is interesting to listen to him talk about his system and his verbage for certain aspects.
http://www.gomarquette.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/083110aaa.html

http://www.gomarquette.com/sports/m-baskbl/marq-m-baskbl-body.html#

Harvard Basketball Studies

I came across 2 awesome studies that are both big debates for coaches.  Enjoy!

The 1st is Up 3 do you foul?
http://harvardsportsanalysis.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/intentionally-fouling-up-3-points-the-first-comprehensive-cbb-analysis/

2nd study is on if you should call a timeout late in games
http://harvardsportsanalysis.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/how-to-draw-fouls-and-win-close-basketball-games-dont-call-timeout/

Thoughts & tweets of the week

Like the Articles, I wanted to share some of the best tweets and thoughts from the week.  Remember on Twitter everything is @ and then there name.
LSUCoachStarkey

  

Doc Rivers: "You cannot ask your players to fill roles unless you let your staff fulfill their roles.

Kevin Eastman
kevineastman The best teams in the nation at all levels "do the difficult things together"; great text I got from Brad Stevens (Butler); learn ever day! 


The best teams are usually the ones that are the best at the little things!

JoeyBurton

  

Blog Post: Kevin Eastman's Success Checks....http://bit.ly/92Ugg9 

  

You're never as organized in your head as you can be on paper. Herm Edwards 

A strong foundation of my coaching philosophy is the when preparation is complete, the right results will follow. @HermEdwardsESPN

CoachMcMahon

  

"Successful people do ordinary things with extraordinary consistency, commitment, and focus." - Jon Gordon

coachsmartvcu

  

"First, we make our habits. Then, our habits make us." - Charles Noble

  

Great teammates constantly find ways to uplift those around them, thereby affecting winning without even taking a shot. 
   
AlanStein: "“Winning is the science of being totally prepared.”"
SefuBernard

  

My latest blog: HOW THE SHOT CLOCK IMPROVES PLAYER DEVELOPMENT - http://ht.ly/2tYl3 #thellabb
UCFCoachBrown

  

3 Non-negotiables as a team: 1.)Defend 2.)Give up no second shots 3.)Take good shots--Larry Brown
NYC_CoachO

  

A culture of greatness creates an expectation that everyone in the organization (team) be committed to excellence. /via @JonGordon11 's blog

CoachTurgeon

  

It's important not to confuse talent with production...often times the difference is having the right "approach". 
CoachKellyWells

  

EINSTEIN'S 3 RULES OF WORK 1)Out of clutter, find simplicity. 2)From discord, find harmony. 3)In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
HeadHokie

  

This years theme will be I'm IN All IN! Everyone needs to have both feet in for our seasons goals to be realized!

Articles

A new thing I wan to do every week, is to put the best articles of the previous week into my blog.








Pete Carroll on Turning around a program
http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/01/pete-carroll-turnaround-entrepreneurs-management-kramer-growth-lessons-10.html

Brad Stevens likes acronyms - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN http://es.pn/90I8Uy

Team USA and Communication
http://bit.ly/amR4gX


Great read on the UCONN football coach! http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview10/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=5497647

11 keys to maximizing productivity--Brian Tracy

Eleven Keys to Increasing your Productivity
By Brian Tracy

• Develop clear goals and write them down.
  Because higher productivity begins with clear goals, goal setting is a key component of our coaching program. As you know, a goal must be specific and measurable to be effective in guiding your behavior. It must reflect your beliefs and be within your power to achieve.
• Write a clear action plan.
  Next, if you want to turbo-charge your productivity, make sure you have a clear, written plan of action. Every minute you spend in careful planning will save you as many as ten minutes in execution.
• Set your priorities.
  The third step is to prioritize your list. Analyze your list before you take action. Identify and start with the high-value tasks on your list.
• Concentrate and eliminate distractions.
  In this step, choose a high-value activity or task, start on it immediately, and stay with it until it is done. Focusing single-minded attention on one task allows you to complete it far more quickly than starting and stopping.

• Lengthen your workday but increase your time off.
  By starting your workday a little earlier, working through lunchtime, and staying a little later, you can become one of the most productive people in your field.
• Work harder at what you do.
  When you are at work, concentrate on work all the time you are there. Don't squander your time or fall into the habit of treating the workplace as a community where socializing is acceptable.
• Pick up the pace. At work, develop a sense of urgency and maintain a quicker tempo in all your activities. Get on with the job. Dedicate yourself to moving quickly from task to task.
• Work smarter.
  Focus on the value of the tasks you complete. While the number of hours you put in is important, what matters most is the quality and quantity of results you achieve.
• Align your work with your skills.
  Skill and experience count. You achieve more in less time when you work on tasks at which you are especially skilled or experienced.
• Bunch your tasks.
  Group similar activities and do them all at the same time. Making all your calls, completing all your estimates, or preparing all your presentation slides at the same time allows you to develop speed and skill at each activity.
• Cut out steps.
  Pull several parts of the job together into a single task and eliminate several steps. Where you can, cut lower-value activities completely.

Anson Dorrance Quotes

“ We don't want people to think the way to happiness in sport is to have these careers where they never lose a game and you're the best player in the world,”  “ A lot of what happens in sport challenges your character. And the way you negotiate these difficult environments, in our
opinion, is a measure of who you are. You get to express who you are through the victories and defeats of your game.”
Usually a championship team is built on a strong defense. That's something you can bring to every game. A great attack is always going to be inconsistent - at least on the scoreboard - that's the nature of the game." Anson Dorrance in "The Vision of a Champion. 

Competition is the key to developing players

EXCELLENCE IS ACTUALLY MUNDANE
Excellence is accomplished through deliberate actions, ordinary in themselves, performed consistently and carefully, made into habits, compounded together, added up over time. Since it is mundane, it is within reach of everyone, all the time. Please don't confuse this with success. In competitive athletics success is mutually exclusive...there are winners and losers..one team finishes first and another one last.
So this is your challenge:

• through deliberate actions (the things players do in training)
• ordinary in themselves (everyone is doing them, there are no real secrets).
• performed consistently (done on a regular basis).
• and carefully (with high standards and consummate focus)
• made into habits (coached into your technical, tactical, psychological and physical fabric)
• compounded together (with an understanding of harnessing all the elements)
• added up over time (done when appropriate on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis).

Focus & Discipline

•  Your margin of success is based on your inner drive. 
• This focus and self-discipline is also a great element of your character.

Commitment & Courage

• You can see examples of commitment and courage in athletics every day. We talk about these traits with our UNC players.

• One of the crucial aspects when we play with defensive presence is getting "stuck in," a common British expression for an aggressive player who gets in tackles, or sticks her face in where the ball is going, risking taking a knock or getting whacked. 
• We describe those without this all-out physical courage as humming birds.

Taking Responsibility

• Do you know the kind of player who always finds an excuse when she fails? When something isn't going well, she whines or blames someone else. 
• . When faced with challenges, or problems, look within yourself and decide what you can do to make things better.

The Winning Mentality

• This mentality is a description of the strength of your psychological dimension. 
• It involves your capacity to reach down inside and find your inner hardness. It's what happens when you emerge triumphant from any physical duel or combative situation. The winning mentality is partly optimism, but mostly it's a combination of focus, pride, competitive anger, relentlessness, hardness, fitness and courage -
• This type of mentality is not about your skills or tactics. What it comes down to is intense desire. To get this winning edge, you need to build an indomitable will. This means you must be relentless; you must never give up.

Transcending Ordinary Effort

• Ordinary effort is when you're comfortable. That's mediocrity. A lot of athletes work within their comfort zone, physically and technically. They don't feel like they're going to lose control, or pass out from fatigue. 
• In a game situation, the other team is trying to take you out of your comfort zone. So, as soon as they do, you're in unfamiliar territory. You panic. You make a mistake, or lose the ball.
• The challenge for you as an individual athlete is to find a way to elevate your environment. This is not easy. You likely have to set your own standards of practice performance. You are part of a team sport, in which coaches and your teammates are critical for motivation.

Vision

Vision is a mental journey from the known to the unknown, creating the future from a montage of current facts, hopes, dreams, dangers and opportunities." Hickman & Silva

"Vision comes mostly through preparation.  Leaders acquire vision by seeking sources from any appropriate source-- from history, books, reports, observation, and especially from other people."

Vision comes from intelligence and intelligence comes from preparation.

We are limited not by our abilities, but by our vision." unknown

“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.” Joel Barker

RIng the Bell

While working on my grad school I came across a great concept. 
The concept of "Jidoka"
What does jidoka mean? A common answer to this question is "autonomation" or "automation with a human touch." This is usually illustrated by example of a machine that will detect a problem and stop production automatically rather than continue to run and produce bad output.
The principle's origin goes back to 1902 when Sakichi Toyoda invented a simple but ingenious mechanism that detected a broken thread and shut off an automatic loom. That invention allowed one operator to oversee the operation of up to a dozen looms while maintaining perfect quality. But the system goes much further.
The jidoka pillar is often labeled "stop and respond to every abnormality." This is obviously much more than having a machine shut down. Toyota refers to every process, whether human or automatic, being enabled or empowered to autonomously detect abnormal conditions and stop. The team member pulling an andon cord on the assembly line is jidoka as much as an automatic machine.
  jidoka as a four-step process that engages when abnormalities occur.

Detect the abnormality.

Stop.

Fix or correct the immediate condition.

Investigate the root cause and install a countermeasure.

Jidoka, as applied to manned operations, refers to the practice of stopping the entire line or process when something goes amiss. This has important psychological and practical effects that contribute greatly to "continuous Improvement."

Now how does this apply to leadership???  In Japanese car manufactures they work in a assembly line.  Each station or part in the assembly line has a very important part in the ability to put together a car.  In a manufacturing plant, their is a bell that any one person can ring if they feel their is a problem with the car and completely stop the entire process.  This helps to create a level of quality control as well as an enormous buy in for the workers.  It gives the workers an increased responsibility and pride in their work. 

Every time the bell is rung, the workers stop and must fix the problem.  Putting this into a sports sense, if you give your staff the ability to "ring the bell", then they will have an increased value for you.  It will cause you as a leader to stop and examine how you do things as a coaching staff.  Constantly re-examining and looking at how to improve will lead to greater results when working with your players.

Thoughts on Leadership

a leader is 1 who commits people to action, converts followers to leaders, and who may convert leaders into agents of change." warren bennis

WHAT DO LEADERS DO?

• Leaders provide direction: they set goals by having a vision of the future.
• Leaders build a psychological and social environment that is conducive to achieving the teams goals.  The "Corporate culture"
• Instill values, in part of sharing their philosophy of life.  
• Motivate members of their group to pursue the goals of the group.
• Confront members  of the organization when problems arise and they resolve conflicts.
• Leaders communicate.