Live Above the Line

Before the first practice when Coach K took over team USA basketball, he sat down with all members of the team and they created team standards that they were committed to living by and playing by.

Those standards included things like how to show to up on time, the effort that they expected everyday from each other, and the type of teammates that they would need to be to each other.

One of the first things a coach or leader needs to establish are the standards that they team would live by.

One smart thing that Coach K did was meet with his team leaders before practice, ran the idea by them first, and asked them to bring one standard each to lead the conversation. After this, everybody else just fell in line.

Setting clear standards draws a line of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. We want to live above the line. 

1 - Set clear standards.

2 - Catch above the line behavior.

3 - Manage below the line behavior.

4 - Be the example of the standards.

The hardest thing about standards are that we are the standard. We have to live above the line in everything that we do.