The game really comes down to, 'Can you make that 1 play?' Whether you are struggling or playing great, can you make that one play? The next play?
⚽️ Can you get that one goal or the one stop?
🏀 Can you get that one basket, or that one steal or rebound?
⚾️ Can you get that one hit or that one out?
🏈 Can you get that one touchdown or that one tackle?
🏐 Can you get that one ace or dig?
🎾 Can you get a down the line or crosscourt shot?
🎳Can you get that one strike or spare?
That's what we are practicing for - to make that one play when we really need it. We practice MORE to make MORE of those one plays. If we practice enough, we will make that one play over and over again, and that is where greatness comes from.
That is when we become something different. But it takes a different behavior, a different level of focus, a different level of work ethic, a different level of want, grit and inspiration to be able to keep making that one play over and over again. And it doesn't start in the game when the lights are on - that is just when it happens.
While watching one of my kids playing in one of their soccer games, my father-in-law mention this interview that Jason Garrett recently did at his alma mater, Princeton Unversity. He said that Jason Garrett talked about how hard on him some of his former coaches were. He talked about how much he hated coaches that allowed him to be mediocre - coaches that just tell you that you are doing great all of the time. Garrett said that coaches can change lives by holding their athletes to high standards and by teaching them what excellence is and teaching them how to strive for it each and everyday. Be relentless and shape and mold them everyday. Don’t let them be ‘okay.’ Do everything that you can to make them the best that they can be. Believe in them enough to hold them to the highest standard everyday. Garrett talks more in the interview about football, faith, leadership, and his personal sermon - be your best. Here is the video and below the video are the notes that I took from the interview:
10:30
Life and football are all about adversity. You will get knocked down, but how can you respond and bounce back? One of his favorite quotes is the old Japanese proverb, 'Fall down 7 times, get up 8.'
12:00
Everything in life is about learning how to function as a part of a team and working together: family, school, work etc is all about learning how to work with others and being a part of a team. There are very few things in life that we do by ourselves, so we have to learn how to work with others and be great teammates.
16:00
Hate coaches who allow you to be mediocre; coaches that just tell you that you are doing great all of the time. Change their lives by holding your athletes to a high standard and teach them what excellence is and teach them how to strive for it each and everyday. Be relentless and shape and mold them everyday. Don’t let them be ‘okay.’ Do everything that you can to make them the best that they can be. Believe in them enough to hold them to the highest standard everyday.
19:00
The greatest gift that you can give in life is believing in someone more than they believe in themselves, and instill that belief in them. Life is full of new experience that can bring nervousness, anxiety and fear, so our job is to instill belief in others and give them the tools to have success.
20:00
If you hit a home run or strike out, put the bat back the right way - no matter the outcome. Fall down seven times and get back up eight. You are going to have successes and failures, but you have to keep coming back with the same spirit.
21:00
Coach the man first and player second. Even grown men playing professional football are still growing. We are all still growing and going through issues in life that we need guidance and help with. If your life isn’t right, you can’t be the best football player that you want to be. It all goes back to respect and belief.
24:00
We have to tell the same story - give the same message - about being your best every week. So we have to find new and creative ways to say the same thing over and over.
29:00
The one sermon he gives is about being your best. Pray and work to have the mental and physical strength to do your best no matter what your circumstance.
48:00
There was a boy throwing star fish in the ocean after a storm. A women came up and saw what he was doing and said that there were too many star fish for him to make a difference. He pick up one star fish, threw it into the ocean, and said that he made a difference right there.
If there are 300 kids in a camp or 800 kids in a school, if you can make a difference in one persons life, then you have done something special.
52:00
Don’t ask pro athletes for an autograph, ask them about a story about life. They were once in your shoes, so learn from their experience. Spend 5 minutes with Dak Prescott and he can have a big impact on your life.
55:00
Be your best. There is a difference between trying your best and being your best. Being your best is all about preparation and mental and physical toughness. We will fall short, we will fail, but fall down 7 times and get up 8.
It’s about character and ethics and how you show up.
Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships. - Stephen Covey I am currently reading Hacking Leadershipby Joe Sanfelippo and Tony Sinanis. These notes were taken from Hack 3 of their book, Build Relationships. The best coaches are great at being deliberate and intentional when it comes to building relationships with their athletes, their families, the school, the community and everybody associated with the program. When a new coach comes in, there is usually a honeymoon period. The new voice is exciting and refreshing and everybody works to find favor with the new coach. Great coaches use this time to build a solid foundation of where the program is going to go and they do that by starting with relationships. It's easy for the new coach to build momentum, but it is much harder to sustain it. To sustain the momentum built up, coaches have to WORK to establish trust with those they are leading and serving. Steve Kerr once said in an interview that X's and O's are only about 10%-20% of his coaching job in the NBA. The 'other' stuff makes up the bulk of what he does. We watch videos all of the time on new plays and new ways to teach different drills and skills, but we need to be intentional in finding new ways and strategies to build positive relationships as well.
Building relationships is about being intentional and being authentic and making deposits, not withdrawals.
Building and nurturing relationships cost zero dollars - it only costs time. You can look at relationships like a bank. Every time you are in the presence of someone, it's like you are at the bank, and you are either making deposits or withdrawals. Every look, every word, every gesture, every response is either a deposit or a withdrawal. The more deposits that you make over time, the more social capital that you build, the stronger the trust and the stronger the relationship. The more social capital that you have built in a certain relationship, the more grace that you might have in times of need. With each interaction or trip to the bank, make sure that you are connecting with others. You can connect in real-time and virtually, and it is best to mix it up. Technology is a great way to connect with others. Use a Facebook page or Twitter handle to communicate what is going on with the team. Setup a team app to communicate important information. Simply sending inspirational text messages and emails can go a long way as well. But, nothing beats face-to-face, authentic interactions. After your interactions, take time to reflect. We learn by doing, but we learn more by reflecting on what we have done. Everybody on your team is different. Everybody has a different 'why' for being there, and everybody is motivated by different things. Take time to reflect on what works best for each athlete so you can better reach, serve, motivate and teach them all. Some simple ways to connect and make deposits are to write notes for your athletes before big games, after great practices, or just because! Make it a goal to write 1 or 2 handwritten notes for each member of your team each season. The same idea could be applied to text messages and emails. It only takes 30 seconds to make a connection and to make a deposit in a relationship - we just have to be intentional and purposeful and authentic. Every time you are in the presence of someone who has an interest in your program, or anytime you are talking about your team or represent your team in any way, you are building your culture. With every interaction, you are affecting your culture. Be mindful of that. Be mindful that you are making daily deposits into building stronger relationships because if you are not making deposits, you are consequently making withdrawals.
If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff will just happen naturally on its own. - Tony Hsieh I am currently reading Hacking Leadershipby Joe Sanfelippo and Tony Sinanis. These notes were taken from Hack 2 of their book, Culture. Coaches must understand their impact on the culture of the team and the impact that culture has on the performance of each individual, the performance of the team and the impact it has on each person's experience. The leader sets the tone for what happens and how it happens. What the coach values and emphasizes will eventually permeate the entire team and gym and program. When the coach values the athlete, their experience and their growth, the focus is exactly where it should be. Culture is a reflection of the character of the team and the feelings and perceptions of everybody involved with the team - athletes, parents, school members, potential athletes, etc. Confident, informed and compassionate leaders can create and foster and build a positive culture with clear and consistent communication. Effective communication ensures that everybody in the team's community understands the goals of the team, where the team is at, and where the team is planning to go. Define and reflect on what the culture of the team is currently and what you want your culture to be, and talk about it explicitly with members of your team's community. Talk to your athletes, talk to your parents, and talk to anybody who is involved with the program or team in any way to do a needs assessment and to see where you all want to go and grow as a culture. Some questions to ask are: 1 - What is the culture of the team right now? 2 - What makes our team different than any other team? 3 - What feelings and emotions are evoked when you think about our team? 4 - How can we continue to shape our culture in a positive way? When there is not clear and consistent communication, members of the team - and especially those outside of the immediate team's circle (like parents and administrators) - fill that void with their own stories, thoughts, and assumptions. Don't let other people tell your story - find ways to communicate what is going on with the team. Thinking about shaping the culture of a team or program can be overwhelming because it doesn't just involve the players; it involves everybody who is connected to the team. But just thinking about culture and cultural changes will not effect change - a leader must take action. When you get a plan for how you want to shape your culture, communicate it with your parents. Let them know what is going on with the team. In today's world, parents are so much more involved in their young athlete's growth and development, and they are much more ready today to switch teams when they feel things aren't going in the direction that they would like. In schools, parents can be quick to go to administration when they aren't happy, and an easy way to create an unhappy parent (aside from playing time and shot selection) is a lack of communication. Creating high levels of transparency is more important today than it has ever been so that families have access to relevant information. Use technology and social media to communicate with parents consistently to keep all team community members informed. Be ready to communicate 'This is who we are and this is where we are going together,' in all forms of communication. Be consistent in your message and in your levels of communication. Take time to pause and reflect on how the message is being received by asking questions to your athletes and other stakeholders. When the culture and message start to 'stick,' then you will have sustainability. Once the message starts to stick and you are getting buy-in, consistently come back to asking questions about your culture - don't let it be a one-time thing. The keys to success are communication, reflection, and collaborative decision making.
Focus on culture and know that in the long run positive culture will have a positive impact on performance. We know that when athletes feel valued, confident, and happy, their brains release endorphins, which benefits their learning and performance. Create a setting of genuine joy throughout your program by intentionally focusing on culture.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Every good team has to have COALITION BUILDERS; guys who can build bridges and bring people
together and who have the respect of everybody.That’s what Steph represents for us.
Every great team needs to have one or two athletes on the court that everybody can rally around. They don't have to be the best on the team, but they are the athletes who keep everybody going through the ups and the downs of the season. Each season is a long marathon where you are constantly pushing and being pushed to be the best that you can be. Somedays are great, some are hard, some are long. You are doing the same drills over and over again in trying to perfect it. Aside from talent, the biggest separators in teams are culture and who can last the longest. On those long, boring, tough days, the team has two options: 1) Give in to your thoughts and slack off or 2) Find the energy and enthusiasm to push through with your best effort. Giving in will get you beat, and pushing through takes one or two teammates to bring it themselves and bring it out of everybody in the gym or on the field. Find ways to bring energy and enthusiasm every day to your team and you can bring value - no matter if you are the leading scorer or you never play. Find ways to encourage your teammates every minute of practice. Find something to say. Find ways to make sure that everybody is on the same page and working together. When you see issues, find ways to solve them. When you see teammates aren't getting along, try to be a mediator. If nothing else, get them to realize that you are all working for the same goal. The coach creates the culture, but the coach can't be the only culture keeper on the team. Everybody has to play their part. Bringing value is so much more than scoring. Find ways to bring value to your team and find ways to be THAT teammate.
"Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing." - Albert Schweitzer Chapter 1 of Hacking Leadership is all about getting administrators to understand the importance of being present and engaged, visible and approachable at school. It talks about the shift from principals being bosses managing the school from their office to being transformational leaders who are fully present in the school, building relationships with students, staff, families and the community. School leaders today must work on building relationships with all members of the school community that are rooted in trust and respect and compassion. Strong relationships in a school, led and modeled by the principal, can take a nice school and make it an extraordinary space where excitement and passion become palpable. Things that we can do tomorrow to become more engaged and present at school: - Just Listen - Ask Questions - Make Time For Lunch WIth Kids - Celebrate in Public (Social Media) - Get Out of Your Office A Blueprint for Full Implementation - Start every day with personal interactions - Use morning announcement to kick start community - Cover classes to give teachers planning time - Start a club during recess or after school - Blog to be transparent and reflective - Create a 'dream team' of community members to plan the perfect school As an administrative team, try to make it a plan to be in every classroom, every day. Being more present more regularly will help the campus become more familiar with you and more comfortable with you coming in and out of classrooms. In the past, the only reasons principals would come into classrooms would be for evaluations and when someone was in trouble. Transform your school by being out and being seen, by being present, and by being available. Model what a 'lead learner' looks like. A lead learner is someone who devotes a lot of his time to the learning of those around them. To do so, you have be a life long learner and someone who is learning and growing daily and facilitating the learning and the growth of those around them as well. Finally, the more effort that you put into building relationships, the more social capital that you amass. Having social capital built from meaningful relationships is like having 'Get out of jail free cards.' Any time that you work with people, you are going to make some people happy and you are going to upset people. Over the course of a school year, you are going to upset a lot of people, and having 'Get out of jail free cards' will help you in those moments because, even if you can't get everybody what they want, they will at least know your intentions and they will know that your heart is in the right place. Plus, everybody has an agenda, and the more people that you get to know, the more agendas that you get to know, the more that you can help align those agendas so that we are doing what is best for kids and what is best for the school.
"Locate a
resilient kid and you will also find a caring adult - or several- who has
guided him."
- Invincible Kids, U.S. News & World Report
The
key to achievement for students from poverty is in creating
relationships. Teachers and administration have always known that
relationships, often referred to as 'politics,' make a great deal of difference
- sometimes all of the difference - in what could or could not happen in a
building. In schools, we focus so much on achievement and effective teaching strategies, yet
the most important part of learning seems to be related to the relationship.
When
a low performing student is asked how they made the journey, the answer 9 times
out of 10 has to do with a relationship with someone who made a suggestion or
took an interest in them as individuals.
Covey
uses the idea of an emotional bank account. He indicates that in all
relationships one makes deposits to and withdrawals from the other person in
that relationship. The first step to creating relationships with
students and adults is to make the deposits that are the basis of
relationships. It always starts with one person to another.
A
successful relationship occurs when emotional deposits are made to the student,
emotional withdrawals are avoided and students are respected.
Schools
and teams create and build relationships through support systems, through
caring about students, by promoting student achievement, by being role models, and by insisting upon successful behaviors for school.
When
you look back on a teaching/coaching career, it is the relationships one
remembers. The primary motivation for most is in the relationships.
Find ways to establish natural connections that will enable this vital resource
to take root and grow by making deposits.
These notes were from chapter 9 of the book, A Framework for Understanding Situational Poverty. The main takeaways that I got from the book are that to get the most out of our kids, we have to make sure that we teach and model appropriate behaviors and expectations that will help all of our children have success in school and life while respecting the cultures from which they come from. We do that by showing and giving respect, by being consistent, and by building caring, honest and meaningful relationships.
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