Buzz WIlliams - Love Tough and Building a Winning Team

Buzz Williams, the head men's basketball coach at Texas A&M, was recently a guest on Jon Gordon's podcast, and he left some very good gems.

Coach Williams talked about how he got his start in coaching, and there are lessons in his climb and how he became a Division 1 head coach.  He said that when he was first getting started as a team manager at the junior college and NAIA, anytime he met a person/coach with a business card, he would send them a handwritten letter once a week.  He also worked basketball camp every week of every summer.  By his senior year of college, he was writing 420 coaches a week.  He slowly worked his way up the coaching ranks.  He spent 13 years as an assistant coach, and he has spent 13 years as a head coach.

God Gives Us What We Can Handle

Coach Williams said that his focus throughout his career was to be the best that he could be for the job that he has, that he has been blessed way more than he deserves and that he knew just enough to know when and how to take the next right step.  Internally, Coach Williams said that he is wired to see if tomorrow he could do just a little bit more, be a little more efficient, and a little better than he was yesterday.

Tomorrow, how can I do a little more, be a little more efficient, and be a little better than I was yesterday?

He said that there were a lot of people on his path that helped him, shared with him, and taught him.  Coach Williams said that, "God only gave him enough that he could handle," and, "each step of the way, it got just big enough for him to understand a little bit more."

View Everyone You Meet As A Teacher

When Jon asked Coach Williams why he wrote so many letters to so many coaches, he said that the way that he was raised taught him that relationships were of the utmost importance.  He also said that he "You should view everyone as a teacher. You should view the janitor at the school as a teacher; you should view the cafeteria worker as a teacher. Everyone that you come in contact with has something that they can teach you.

How Do You Have Success Everywhere That You Go

Coach Williams's response when asked why success has followed him everywhere he goes included quotes about relationships and investing in people over athletes. He said that investment equals expectations. Coach said to remind your people of who they are becoming. Try to find ways to invest in each person's life. When you are reminding them who they are becoming, and when you are investing in them daily, that changes the expectations, not only for what you expect of them but more importantly of what they expect from themselves. When you invest in the lives of other people and they know that you truly love them, you can help them overachieve. True love doesn't have an agenda, so we have to spend more time investing in helping them grow in all parts of their lives.

"Invest more in who your athletes are as people and help them be successful as people. Invest in their lives. The way to overachieve consistently is when they know you love them as people and not with an agenda."

Culture

Culture is just habits. 

You get what you repeat. 

It's important for your athletes to know that your culture, your habits, and what you repeat are an investment in their lives. They have to see how it all adds value to their lives.

Search For Wisdom vs Information

As he gets older, Coach Williams says that he has learned how important it is to seek wisdom and to look back at what he has done and its effect on the players that he has coached. He said, "There is so much information out there, & we spend so much time searching for information. It helps to slow down our search for information and increases our search for wisdom. See what you have done, what has worked, and how we can get better for the guys that he coaches now."

How Have You Changed

When asked specifically how he has changed as a coach as he has gotten older, Coach Williams said, "I don't make long-term decisions over short-term circumstances." Coach said that he has tried to move his validation meters to the inside and to stay away from outside influences. We have to be careful that we don't do things for the wrong reasons and that we aren't paying to much attention to the opinions of others, and that the intent of our hearts are for others."

What Do You Tell Young Leaders and Young Coaches?

The blessings you see are many times from the sacrifices that you don't see.

1 - Read way more than you think you should. He reads a book a week. "It's the best and most efficient way to accumulate wisdom."

2 - Write down everything about everything. All of the time.

3 - Build trustful relationships for 10 years from now, but learn to connect the dots between now and then.

4 - Never turn down an opportunity to work or to learn.  You have to learn at a rate that is greater than or equal to the rate of change.  Your rate of learning has to be ahead of the generation that you are leading.

The Gift of Belief

"The greatest gift that I can give to someone is my belief in them."  Coach Williams gave Jon Gordon a note that said, "Nobody will love you like I will love you."  He writes 120 people a month and 60 thank you notes per month.  We all want others to believe in us, and he says that the biggest sign in their practice facility is a picture of their team, and above the picture, it says, "I Believe In You," because he feels that belief in someone is the greatest gift that he can give them.  

He says to his people, "Nobody is cheering for you as much as I am, and nobody loves you like I love you."  Coach says that he wants to be a dealer in hope, and he wants to give a gift of belief.

What Do You Tell Players When They Join Your Program
When asked what he tells his players when they join the program, Coach Williams said that the most important moment in the recruiting process is meeting the people around them.  Knowing their game and how they will fit on the team is important, but knowing who they are and what's important to them and what their dreams and their hopes are what he really wants to know.

Coach Williams went on to say that he wants to coach potential recruits in front of their parents so that he can see how their parents will respond to him coaching their child.  That is an indicator of if the athlete will have success in their program.  He said that they say no to more athletes than the number of athletes who say yes to them.  They value their development process, and they can't do that if players are leaving at the first sign of adversity or if they can't handle coaching.  As soon as he can get in front of the parent of a recruit and coach them in front of their parents and how their parent responds to his is a huge indicator on if this is going to work.

On Holding Players Accountable

Coach Williams said this when talking about holding his players accountable: "

"I have the energy to hold you accountable to what you say you want to become.  The path to what you want to become is not as easy as you think it is.  We will hold you to our level of expectations, standards and accountability everyday, and it is more off the court than it is on the court.  Off the floor, being on time, sitting in the first three rows of class, doing the hours required of study hall and tutoring - we want to be teachers of life.  

Your life mirrors your game, and if you life is trending in a positive direction, so is your game.  It doesn't usually work the other way around, so we make sure that their life is going in the right direction.

We are going about our work with a high level of energy, and we are going to constantly remind them of where they want to go and what it takes to get there."

Leading Through The Shut Down
When asked how he is handling the shutdown, Coach Williams said that there are three ways that you can lead:

1 - You can lead from the front.

2 - You can lead from the side, holding someone's hand.

3 - You can lead from the back and push them forward.

Discerning which position to be in is really important.

There are two types of leaders: Those that are self-serving, and those who are serving others.  

The last thing that he told his team was that they will be the best, most communicative program in the country.  I don't know what this is going to be, but I know what we are going to be in this time.