Teach Them To Love The Game

GREAT READ FOR YOUTH COACHES.  THIS WAS COPIED FROM A BASKETBALL PAGE ON FACEBOOK AND WAS WRITTEN BY A HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL COACH.

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I know a lot of you ask about the specifics of strategy and ask about plays and drills and what not. But allow me to make a plea from us high school coaches who will get these young players you are currently coaching.

PLEASE HELP THEM LOVE THE GAME.

Whatever that means, at the end of the day, and by the time they move on to high school they still love the game, then from our (high school coaches) perspective you have done your job. 

I say this because I cant tell you how many freshman we get who come into our school who played in junior high but didn't have a good experience or didn't like it and are not excited to play high school.

Dont get me wrong its nice when incoming freshman have been taught to play ball and know the game, but more often times than not we need kids who are eager to play and grow their knowledge of the game. We need more girls playing basketball. The amount of girls trying out, (even at big major schools) are dropping big time.

So that is why I plead for you to make their basketball experience as good as possible. regardless of how they played or how many wins they got. Did they genuinely enjoy the game enough to want to continue to play?

Thank you for your time. 

Wake Up, Grind and Get Better | Sabrina Ionescu Fulla Kobe Speech

Sabrina Ionescu has been smashing all kinds of records in the women’s college basketball world and has become a great ambassador for the women’s game.  She recently spoke at Kobe Bryant’s memorial and her speech was moving and inspirational.  Here is a video of the speech, and below is the transcript from the speech.

“Growing up, I only knew one way to play the game of basketball: fierce, with obsessive focus. I was unapologetically competitive. I wanted to be the best. I loved the work, even when it was hard, especially if it was hard.

“I knew I was different, that my drive was different. I grew up watching Kobe Bryant game after game, ring after ring, living his greatness without apology. I wanted to be just like him, to love every part of the competition, to be the first to show up and the last to leave, to love the grind, to be your best when you don’t feel your best and make other people around you the best version of themselves. And to wake up and do it again the next day.

“So that’s what I did: Wake up, grind and get better. Wake up, grind and get better.

The Grind

Once you get to the competitive level, you realize that continued sports success is as much of a grind as anything.  It's a grind on the athlete, the parents, and the family as a whole.  The second you stop working or slow down, somebody who is working harder will catch up and pass you by.

There is a top 5 high school girls basketball player who said, 'There are a lot of girls who were good when we first started playing on the circuit who aren't as good now.  You could tell who was working and who wasn't.  The ones who were working hard are still going strong.'

I know there is a range of people who follow us here, from younger athletes and parents to those in the middle of this grind.  It is important to pace yourselves early but to understand that to make it to college, the pros, and to the elite of the elites, it is a grind and that takes talent, effort, mental toughness, grit, and some luck.

There is nothing easy about being great at anything, and there is no substitute for putting in the work. 

There are different reasons why we play and we have different finish lines.  Know what race you are running.  Know what you value.  Know why you are playing the game.

What Do Your Daughters Get Out of Sports?

I am a girl dad, and I coach all of my young daughters in multiple sports.  Someone once asked me why I thought playing sports were so important for girls.  I said there are so many things that I love about sports personally and I love the many life lessons that my girls learn by playing sports.

Discipline - Doing what you are supposed to do when and how you are supposed to do it.

Preparation - Showing up every practice prepared and ready to work.

Grit - The ability to deal with adversity and keep going.

Focus - Being able to stay in the moment at practice and at games.

Teamwork - Being able to work with others toward a common goal.

Making friends - We call our teammates our friends.  When we get a new teammate, we say we have a new friend.

Public speaking - Every first practice and every time my young team gets a new teammate, we go around the room and tell our name and where we go to school.  We learn how to speak up snd use our voice in front of people. 

Listening - Being able to listen and apply instruction.

Adversity - They will face it every practice, every game and in every facet of life.

Competition - They have to be able to compete, in a healthy way, with themselves and others.

I could point to one of many articles full of stats showing how girls who play sports are happier and more confident teens, and how sports translates to success as adults, but I have enough personal experience to be able to speak from the heart.

I work with kids for a living as a coach and as a school administrator.  I told her that I can tell instantly the girls who play sports, and especially the ones who play competitively.  They just carry themselves differently.  They walk differently.  They talk differently.  They seem to hold their heads higher and they have a quiet confidence about them.

Sports teach you so many life lessons, and I see those lessons on display every day.  But it's important that your kid has a coach that values those things because coaches can take away a kids confidence, toughness and love for the game just as fast as they can help build them.

I encourage all parents and coaches to be intentional with the messages that they send.  We are teaching the same things at home, at school, and at practice.  Try to make these connections with our kids so that they see the lessons that we are teaching will be used everywhere they go.  The more prepared they are at practice and the more prepared they are at school, the more success they will have in both.  The same can be said for every aspect listed above.  

And honestly, I want all of my girls to be able to out-shoot, out-run and out-throw their husbands one day, and to out-pick them when it comes to making brackets for the NCAA Tournament.

🤷🏿‍♂️❤🤷🏿‍♂️❤.

The Little Girl and Her Dad

I was at the gym when a group of girls, had to be 3rd or 4th grade, were getting ready to play in what I found out be their championship game.

On one end, 6 girls from one team were there.  They were playing around.  Practicing their dribbling and playing keep-away.  They were smiling and they were happy.  'This is what youth sports should be about,' is what I thought to myself.

On the other end was one girl from the other team.  She was shooting layups.  She wasn't really smiling; she wasn't smiling at all.  She had a different look; she had a focused look.  Her dad came up and started rebounding for her.  She did some layups on one side, then he pointed to the other side and she started doing lay-ups on the other side.

It was funny because then I saw the other parents start to slowly look down at their daughters' competition.  They stopped smiling so much and their conversations started to slow.  You could see it in their eyes; they knew that their team was going to be in trouble.

The girl and her dad just kept shooting.  It looked like a little routine that you hear the pros talk about.  They started in close and they moved further and further out.  They both looked focused.  They both looked ready to play.

The coach from the other team looked over and noticed the girl and her dad too.  He quickly put his iPhone down and yelled at his girls to huddle up.  He talked to them, and they stopped smiling and got serious.  They took off their jackets and they got in their lines and did layups.  But something told me that it was too late for them and their championship hopes.

The girl and her dad just kept going with their routine.  They were still the only ones from their team on the court.

This only lasted for a couple more minutes.  The girl's coach came in, said high to the dad and gave the girl one of those secret handshakes that you see on TV.  Then a few of her teammates showed up.  She smiled and gave her teammates hugs.  Her dad smiled and slowly walked to the side to sit with his wife and other kids.

Watching this scene unfold gave me a few different emotions.  I became a fan.  I became an immediate fan of this girl and her dad.  I became so much of a fan that I stayed and watched the whole game, and I was impressed with what I saw.

The game started, and it didn't take long to see that the girl was the best player on the court.  She was a solid ball-handler, she was a tough, tenacious defender, and though she didn't make a lot of her shots, you could tell that she ha spent a lot of time working on her shot and her game.

What first impressed me was when during the first possession, she didn't just try to go one on one.  Most girls who were that good would just try to take her girl t I heard her coach yell, 'Move the ball,' and she did so willingly.  She moved the ball side to side trying to find the open girl.  When her teammates missed, she didn't frown, she just tried to get the rebound or get back on defense and tried to get a steal to get her ball back.  And when they got the ball back and her coach yelled again, 'Move the ball,' she did so again without hesitation.

What impressed me second was that she never tried to do too much.  She went and made plays when she was supposed to, passed when her teammates were open and cut when it was time for her to cut. 

The little girl was everywhere on the court.  She would find who the ball-handler was from the other team, and she would point and tell her teammates, 'I have her; you go get her.'  She knew her role was to stop the other point guard.  Then when another girl from the other team made a couple of shots, she went to go guard her.  She made it her mission to guard and stop the other team's best player.

As the young kids say today, 'She didn't run from the smoke.  She ran to it.'

She didn't play great.  She had some turnovers and some missed shots.  With every play, I would look at her dad to see his reaction to her and I would look at her reaction to him.  I saw him give her 'that look' three times.  The first time was in the first half when she tried to force it through a triple-team and was called for a travel.  This is something that every other girl on the court did, and her being the best player on the court, it would have been understood by every parent in the gym for her to force it.  But not for her dad.  When most parents would yell, 'Keep shooting,' he mouthed very seriously to her, 'Don't force it.'  Then she went back to making the right plays and her team continued to pull away.

The second time was when she gave up an open jump shot.  She wasn't playing close enough to her goal on defense, and her girl made a shot.  Her dad stood up and gave her the look.  I guess for him, the offense was one thing, but the defense was much more serious.  He didn't say anything, but she just nodded her head and tapped her chest to say, 'I know.  My bad.'  She then got three steals in a row, the last one leading to a lay-up, a timeout from the other team, and her yelling out, 'Let's go' in way that everybody in the gym felt it.

The third time she tried to shoot the ball from too far out.  She wasn't the only girl out there shooting out of her range, but when the other's would shoot it, you could hear moms and dads yell, 'Good try' or 'Keep shooting.'  I hear her day yell, 'Get closer!  That is not your range.'  Instead, her dad pointed at the rim and mouthed, 'Get closer to the basket.'

The girl's team ended up winning by 10-15 points.  She probably wasn't the leading scorer on her team, but she was the best player, and her attitude and her skillset can follow with her and will allow her to continue to excel as she grows and gets older.

This experience opened my eyes up to a lot.  It taught me about the value of preparation.  I saw firsthand what championship preparation looked like from a young athlete.  It wasn't what I see in the videos with two and three balls and a million cones and dribble moves.  It was shooting the same layups and short jump shots over and over again.  It was shooting game shots.  It was being focused.  It was getting there early and getting ready to play.

I saw what the power of a dad (or any parent) can do for an athlete.  Showing her how to prepare.  Making sure that she was there early.  Teaching her what it looks like to get ready to perform.

As I wrote earlier, when I saw the girls from other team laughing and playing before the game, smiling and happy,  'This is what youth sports should be about,' is what I thought to myself.  I meant that.  But after the game, they weren't smiling and laughing anymore.  Most of them were crying.  They were crying because they lost their championship game.  

Then I thought back to the work the little girl was doing before the game started.  The focused look she had, getting there early, doing her work early, and then smiling with her friends, and I thought, 'This is also what youth sports are about.  Learning how to show up early, learning how to prepare to perform, then going out and doing the little things the right way all game.  Having a support system around you to help you prepare, help you stay focused, to celebrate your success, correct your mistakes, and support you through your struggles.'

This was fun to watch.  Congratulations to that little girl and her dad.

Confidence Comes From The Work

Confidence in the game comes from putting the work in during practice and on your own.  If you put the time in doing something over and over again in practice, you will feel more comfortable performing that skill in the game.

But if you really want to get ahead, don't wait until practice to work on your game.  Work on your game BEFORE practice and OUTSIDE of practice so that when practice starts, you are better and more ready to perform the drills and more ready to compete.

Change how you look at practice.  It is a chance to work on your game, it is a chance to improve how you play as a team, but it is also a chance to COMPETE, and anytime that there is a chance to compete, you want to make sure that you are ready and prepared to perform.

NBA legend Kevin Garnett recently said that he would get to practice 30-45 minutes early to work on stuff on his own.  Then he would practice with the team.  During practice, they would COMPETE with each other.  Then after practice he would spend another 30-45 minutes on his own working on the things that he would need to perform in the game.  He said that his team counted on him to do certain things during the game, and he had to make sure that he was ready to perform, so he had to put in the work to master those things before, during, and after practice.

To be ready to perform, work on your game BEFORE you start practice and BEFORE you leave practice.

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

ATHLETES: When your coach is pushing you and is demanding more from you and you don't know why, just understand that your coach is trying to help you get to a new level and to play at a new level.

Coach Cal said that his job is to make his athletes uncomfortable.  That means not coaching them where they are now; it means coaching them to where he sees they need to go and where they are capable of being.  This means that they have not been there, which means they will be uncomfortable all of the time.  

He says that their job is to learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.  

He sets up situations where they struggle so that they learn how to deal with it.  

He sets up situations where they are feeling pain, whether its through conditioning or anything else that takes them to their limits, because it's how they learn about themselves.

They just continue to raise the bar, and it doesn't mean kicking, punching and swearing.  It just means raising the bar and letting them know, "This is where we are coaching you.  That is not acceptable down here.  I know that you are comfortable playing that easy because that is how you have been playing your whole life.  Now we need you to go up into 'this' area.

Sometimes You Just Have to Battle

During a 2004 game, Alex Cora of the Dodgers fouled fourteen straight pitches before hitting s homerun.  

That took determination, concentration, and grit.

Sometimes you have to battle through the tough pitches to get the pitch that you want.

Life is full of situations where it seems easier to give in than to battle it out, pitch after pitch, after pitch.

Sometimes you have to wait your turn, but you don't wait passively; you wait by working as hard as you can do that when your opportunity comes, you are prepared and ready to take full advantage.

Shaq told a story that he told his son, a college basketball player, about the ups and downs of sports.  He said that your sports career is full of peaks and valleys.  Some practices, games, and seasons are full of peaks; great moments where you are leading the team and dominating practices and games.  Some practices, games, and season are full of valleys; the tough times where we struggle to make plays, or we aren't starting, or when our team goes through a lot of adversity on and/or off the court.

The things that has to be consistent are our grit, our positive energy and positive self-talk, and our hope.  We have to have the hope and belief that something good is going to happen if we believe and keep working hard for it.

When you are at the plate, or the free-throw line, or on the mat, or at the 50 yard line, or whatever you field of action is, and you are facing adversity, don't allow yourself to get too down.  

The Bible says, "So truly be glad.  There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.  These trials will show you that your faith is genuine.  It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold - though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.  So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world."

Don't muddle through life swinging only at the easy pitches.  Have faith and keep working and keep believing that something good is going to happen.

I believe in you.

Bring In GREAT People

Great coaches do everything they can to bring in and retain the BEST PEOPLE.

It's hard to replace your best players and its especially hard replacing your best leaders, but author and school leader Todd Whitaker wrote that one of single most precious commodities on a team is an open spot, and this is especially precious for a new coach to a new team who is trying to change a culture.  That open spot could be an opening for a player, a coach, a manager, or a trainer, and the quickest way to raise team expectations, morale and your culture is to bring in GREAT people every chance you get.

When we bring in new people, its important to keep them enthusiastic by spreading their energy and their excitement to the other members of the team.  When a new player first comes on, they are eager to please and eager to show what they can do.  They come in early, they work hard, and they stay late.  They have to do what they have to do to earn their spot.  Use that energy and momentum to better the entire team and to reset expectations and work ethic for the whole team.  If you can help these new athletes sustain their drive, you can raise the level of our team instantly and set a new normal.

Look for great players, and GREATER people.  Look for exceptionally hard workers, and look for leaders.  Look for people who will bring a positive influence to your team.

Look for 'talent,' people who have the total package - love of the game, quick and active learners, a positive attitude, congenial personalities, great work ethic, leadership skills, and charisma.  Everybody doesn't have everything, but know and memorize some of the few things that you need to look for when bringing on new people so that you can spot it when you see it.  We can teach athletes how to execute, dribble, pass, shoot, and throw better just like we can teach coaches new plays.  But many of the 'talent' skills are inherent and harder to teach, so it's important to seek out 'talent.'

Find people who have high standards for themselves.  Find people that you know will work hard to get better.  Find people with a growth mindset.

When you bring in talented people, value them.  Recognize and appreciate the people that have been there.  If you bring in new people and cater to them at the expense of the people who have been there, you risk losing the entire team, but make decisions based on who is doing the right thing, making the right plays, with the right attitude, the right energy, and the right enthusiasm.

One of the best times and places to establish the the right attitude is during the tryout, recruiting, or interview process.  Before bringing someone new on the team, state what you are looking for and your expectations CLEARLY.  "I am looking to bring someone on who wants to be a part of the best ___________ in the United States."  This is what we are looking for:  [insert expectations at the highest level].

Set the stage early for new team members to do the right thing, especially if you know they are going to be walking into an environment where they might recieve or see and hear some negativity around them.

If you know that you have some members of your team who are negative and don't have the best work ethic and energy, ask them how they handle themselves when around negative teammates; this is important to know upfront.  You want them to commit to raising the culture of your team, not succumb to it.  They also need to know what you expect from them coming in, then as the year goes on, you can remind them of these initial conversations and expectations as needed.

Set expectations early and follow through.  The game is much more fun to play if the rules are clear from the start and the rules don't change in the middle of it.  Great coaches bring in great people to help the team achieve their goals.

A Coach's Job Is Never Done

A lot of coaches don't really sleep. When they finally stop watching film, stop analyzing the last practice, stop preparing for the next practice, and stop looking at their budgets, and grades, and fundraising, they close their eyes and that is when the thoughts just don't stop.

- I should have done this ...
- I should have done that ...
- Could I have done this better?
- I should have done that better ...
- I hope __________ knows I love them and just want what's best for them ...
- I hope that _________ knows that I care about their son/daughter and I just want what's best for their kid ...

We close our eyes at night, but it's hard to get to sleep and to stay asleep. We never stop thinking about the game and our kids.

And the crazy part is, we never stop thinking about them and caring about them and worrying about them when they are gone.

If you have a coach that cares for your athlete and invests in them, thank them and appreciate them. If they can help your child grow as a person and an athlete, hold on to them. The special ones just aren't everywhere.

Sherri Coal Part 1 | Ask The Right Questions

Sherri Coale was a high school coach at Norman High School in Oklahoma before becoming a very successful coach at Oklahoma University.  Here she talks about your influences when you begin coaching, how to measure success, how do you want your athletes to feel when they are coached by you, how to ask the right questions, and how to get teammates to buy-into each other.

You Are Most Like Your Loudest Influence Starting Out
She talked about the evolution of her coaching career.  Coach Coale said at the beginning of your career, you are most like your loudest influence.  It could be your high school coach, your college coach, or the coach next door.  You have an idea of what you want to do and what kind of coach that you want to be, but you tend to lean more towards the style of the loudest or the most impactful coach around you.

You have to find who you are and you have to find your own voice.  You are a little of a lot of different influences, but you have to find your lane and how you are going to do things.

How Do You Measure Success?
When you start to find your voice and you start to win, you start feeling the pressure to continue to succeed.  It is important to know how YOU will measure success.  Coach Coale says that her approach to coaching is to try to win a national championship with every desire and to strive for excellence daily, but her measurement of achievement was going to be, 'Am I a better coach today than I was yesterday.'  If at the end of every year we can say that I did a better job this year than I did last year, then we can be proud of the job that we have done.  This keeps the focus on the most important thing, which is getting better and doing the best that we can do every practice, every game, and every season.

How Does It Feel To Be Coached By Me?
She asks every day or after every practice, 'How does it feel to be coached by me?'  We all have good days and bad days, and being aware of this question forces us to treat every interaction with your athletes differently and intentionally because you are always cognizant of 'how does this feel.'

Be A Better Asker
As coaches, we want to tell players what to do all of the time and tell everybody what to do, but they really learn when we ask them questions and they answer.

- What were you thinking there?
- Why did you go there?
- Why did you shoot that shot?
- Did you like that shot?

Asking questions allows you to get to know them better, it allows you to know what motivates and drives them, what their fears are, what their insecurities are, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Using questions instead of statements helps teams form deeper relationships with each other.  That is how you get teammates to buy-into each other.

How Do You Get Them To Like Each Other
In women's sports, it's a big challenge because female athletes are fierce in choosing their friends.  They have very high standards and they are judgemental, so it is an arduous task getting them to buy-into each other.  The best process for doing so is to ask the right questions to get them to open up and get to know each other.

The Principals Behind Growth and Success | Steve Jacobson and Jon Gordon

This is one of the best podcasts that I have listened to in terms of leadership.  Jon Gordon interviews Steve Jacobson (@Fairwaysteve1), the founder and CEO of Fairway Mortgage.

It is full of takeaways, as Steve shares a lot of real-world, practical lessons.  He says that mortgages is what they do but not who they are.  He talks about creating an environment where his team is encouraged to win each day by being humble, aggressive, and willing to make mistakes and learn and grow from their mistakes.  He talks a lot about serving and helping others, focusing on today, and competing and growing every day. 

He says the two things that he loves the most about the mortgage business is the pressure that you are under to perform, and that he gets to help and serve people.

Below are my notes from the podcast.

The Precious Present

You are going to make mistakes if you are trying to do something great.  If somebody steals the ball from you and you pout, you better get your head out of your backside right now because the dude (or dudette) will steal it again.  If you take a shot, make it and think you are a big deal – who cares – you still have to get back and play defense.

If you miss a shot and pout, you are going to miss the next one.

If somebody says something good about us, it is already gone by the time that they say it.  Learn from what you did, but focus on what you are doing right now by:

Staying humble.
Winning the day.
Everyday.
Competing.
Everyday.

There is nothing fancy.  It is all about consistent discipline, every day, over the course of years and years.

It’s all about daily discipline, consistencies, and the precious present.

It won’t be easy, and you will have late nights and early mornings.  You have to hustle, scrap, and find a way to get better and get the job done.

Embrace being the underdog.  Scrap.  Fight.  Work hard.  It’s nothing fancy. 

What’s Next – Keep Shooting

People need something ‘next.’ 

"It didn’t come to stay, it came to pass." 

They need something to look forward to and opportunities to grow and the new, next challenge.  They need something to grow in to.  You need to give people stuff, you have to give them room to grow, and you have to give them canvases to paint and opportunities that will let and make them grow.

You have to always continue to look forward.  Whatever happens, happens.  You will make mistakes, and you have to learn from mistakes and keep getting better.

If you miss a shot, you can’t pout, you just have to keep shooting.  You’re going to miss shots as a player, and you are going to miss shots as a leader.  You are going to miss plenty.  But you have to keep playing and you have to keep shooting.

Good coaching is creating an environment where you can make mistakes, where you can learn from them, and where you won’t get beat up because of them.  You have to play, you have to be aggressive, and when you are playing and you are aggressive, you are going to make mistakes.  

As long as the people learn from the mistakes and make the adjustments that they need to make, then they can keep playing as aggressive as they did before but smarter because of the lessons that they learned.

Play every day.  Play aggressive every day.  Have fun. 

Before Every Meeting, They Have A Saying ... 

"Before destruction, the heart of a man is haughty.  Before honor, the heart of a man is humility."  

Help and serve others, but whatever we have done in the past is old news.  We have to play today.  We have to keep trying to get better and improving.  We have to have a consistent discipline.  We can’t think that we have made it.  If someone says something nice, it’s great to hear, but someone can say something not nice just as quick.  None of what they say really matters because we have heard or will hear them all.  We just have to keep playing aggressively every day and keeping trying to win the day.

What Are Your Keys To Making Customers Happy?

Perform each time and make sure you take care of stuff.  If you make a mistake, raise your hand and own it.  What’s the worst that can happen?  If you make a mistake, raise your hand and admit it – even if you didn’t make the mistake.  Create a culture where mistakes are okay as long as we are aggressive and learn from them.

The beauty of teams and coaching is the relationships.  Relationships can last a lifetime.  You can call a teammate decades from now, share stories, and pick up like you never left off.  So make sure that you invest in the people around you.

Pressure Makes It Fun

You want something that has pressure in it.  The pressure makes things fun.  Take the focus off of yourself and return it back to the people that you are serving.  It makes it less of a big deal.  It becomes, ‘Who can you be helpful to today?’  ‘Who is it today?’  When you focus on other people, it makes it more fun.  Who needs your love, support, your words, or your encouragement today?

5 Keys to Leadership

1 – It can’t be about you.  Who
2 – Have a core group of people that you trust and can bounce ideas off of.
3 – Be a good listener
4 – Be in front of all issues and take a stance.  Be willing to take the blame and protect your teammates.  You can’t hide when the adversity hits.  You have to be in front.
5 – 90% of the time that you have to make a decision, you will only have 10% of the information.  As a leader, you are not going to get the time and information that you need to make a decision.  90% of the time, you are only going to have 10% of the information and you have to be ready to roll.  Trust your instincts, reach to and consult with your people.  You won’t make every shot, but you have to keep playing.
6 – Just know that 80% - 90% of the time, people are not going to be happy with what you do.  There is always going to be somebody who is not going to be happy with what you do.  You can’t please everybody.  This is not a popularity contest.  You have to trust your instincts, trust your heart, trust your core group, and stand in the face of making tough decisions knowing that 30% of the people will never be on your side no matter what you do as a leader.  The discipline is being able to rest knowing that it isn’t a popularity contest.  If you want to be popular, maybe don’t be a leader.

Do You Coach Your Leaders?

You learn by doing.  Let’s play and let’s talk about it later.  There is practice and there is playing.  I think you learn a lot by doing.  You learn by doing and by taking action.  You don’t always know if every decision is the right decision, but you can always look back and see what made sense, what didn’t make sense, and make adjustments from there.  The worse thing is the paralysis thing where you don’t make any decision.  Take action, you will make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, then grow from those mistakes.  Repeat.  You are going to make mistakes.  But you have to play.

What Do You Do If Somebody Isn’t Part of Your Culture?

You have to be able to respectfully tell people that this isn’t the right culture for them.  Sometimes you have to raise your hand and tell them, ‘Maybe it is US.’ 

How you treat people and your teammates is important.  If you don’t treat people nice, then you need to suggest that this isn’t the place for them and that they need to go somewhere else.

And it starts during the hiring process.  If it’s not a 10, don’t do it.  The fit has to be right.  Look for humility.  Ask questions and listen.  Ask them about their successes and failures, and by listening, you will hear how they handle their good and their past.  Listen to them talk about their past.  You can see the production on paper; that is easy.  The questions are, what is their character like, how do they treat their families, and listen to their stories.

How Do You Get Through the Hard Times?

Be a giver, not a taker.  Get out of your comfort zone and play aggressive.  Be scrappy, fight hard, and be faster than the competition.  It’s not going to be easy or fun.  It’s going to be hard.  But you have to be scrappy, you have to outperform people, and you have to be quicker at stuff than your competition.  Win the day because of your quickness.  Take all of the little disciplines that other people might not recognize as a big deal, and do them every day.