A Coach's Diary

In a TEDx Talk , author Patrick Lencioni says life is a team sport, and we are in the era of teamwork. If we want to be the best we can be for ourselves and others, we have to strive to be ideal teammates. He says there are 3 areas that you have to master to be a great teammate: Humble , Hungry , Smart (Emotionally and Socially Intelligent) While hitting 1 out of 3 is good in baseball, and making 2 out of 3 of your shots is good in basketball, you have to go 3 out of 3 to be an ideal teammate. Here Is How Lencioni Defines The Big 3 1 - Humility - Humility is putting others ahead of ourselves while still shining our light and being the best we can be. C.S. Lewis said, “Humility isn’t thinking less of ourselves, it’s thinking about ourselves less.” 2 - Hungry - You have to develop an innate sense to do good work and to get things done. People who are hungry want to go above and beyond in everything they do, they have a high standard for what they do and never do the bare minimum. Be hu...

Kim Scott is a leadership coach and former executive at companies like Google and Apple. She is best known for her book Radical Candor, which focuses on how great teams communicate and give feedback. Scott argues that strong cultures are built on two simple behaviors: caring personally and challenging directly . Caring personally means people know you value them as a person, not just as a performer. It means building relationships, listening, and showing genuine respect. Challenging directly means being honest when something needs to improve. Instead of avoiding difficult conversations, strong teammates address issues clearly and quickly. When one of these behaviors is missing, teams struggle. If people challenge directly without caring personally, feedback feels harsh or disrespectful. If people care personally but avoid challenging directly, problems go unaddressed and performance suffers. Scott summarizes this balance with a simple definition: “Radical Candor is caring personally w...

Jim Taylor is a well-known sports psychologist who has worked with athletes across Olympic, collegiate, and professional sports. His work focuses on helping performers develop the mental habits that lead to consistent performance under pressure. One of Taylor’s core ideas is simple but powerful: “Focus on the process, not the outcome.” Athletes often become distracted by results — winning, rankings, statistics, or what other people expect. When attention shifts to the outcome, anxiety increases and performance usually drops. Taylor teaches athletes to bring their attention back to controllable actions — preparation, effort, focus, and execution. When athletes concentrate on doing the next thing well — the next swing, the next play, the next possession — they stay present and perform closer to their ability. The best performers don’t ignore goals. They just understand that goals are achieved by winning the small moments that lead to them. For teams, this mindset is powerful. Instead of ...

Do you consider yourself a “bad” communicator, a “better” communicator, or the “best” kind of communicator — someone author Charles Duhigg calls a “Supercommunicator”? Charles is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author of books about habits, productivity, and communication. In his best-selling book, “Supercommunicators,” Charles defines a Supercommunicator as someone who is exceptionally skilled at connecting with others — not because they talk more, but because they understand how conversations really work. He believes most conversations don’t break down because people are bad communicators, but because people are having different conversations at the same time . Duhigg says there are three types of conversations happening in most interactions: Practical – What are we doing? What’s the plan? Emotional – How do we feel about this? Social – Who are we? What does this say about me or us? If someone is sharing feelings and we respond with solutions, we miss them, and...

Patrick Lencioni is a leadership consultant and the author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. His work focuses on a simple truth: the biggest barriers to team success are usually behavioral, not technical . Lencioni explains that struggling teams often suffer from five common dysfunctions that build on each other. At the base is absence of trust . When people don’t trust each other, they hide mistakes, avoid asking for help, and protect themselves instead of supporting the team. Without trust, teams avoid healthy conflict . Instead of debating ideas openly, people stay quiet or talk about issues outside the room. When teams avoid conflict, they struggle to reach real commitment . People may agree publicly but privately remain unconvinced. Without commitment, accountability becomes difficult. Teammates hesitate to challenge each other when standards slip. And when accountability is weak, teams lose focus on collective results , often prioritizing individual success instead. Lencioni s...

Gio Valiante is a performance consultant who has worked with elite athletes, especially in golf. His core message is simple but powerful: Performance improves when you obsess over the process — not the result. Valiante once wrote, “A golfer's greatest enemy is fear, but playing our greatest golf begins by making fearless swings at specific targets, regardless of the circumstances.” We can sabotage ourselves by chasing outcomes and save ourselves — and perform better or more confidently — when we anchor ourselves to behaviors we can control. Focus more on execution than the result. Valiante’s Framework: Control the Controllables Valiante emphasizes three core ideas: 1 - Have a Clear Intention: Before every practice or performance, define what you want to do, why, and how. 2 - Detach from Outcome: You cannot control the scoreboard, other competitors, or external conditions. You can control preparation, decisions, and response. 3 - Evaluate Based on Process: After competition, ask: “...

The most valuable lesson I learned this week is that one of the keys to being a better communicator is to speak slower, less, and with more confidence. In the video above, Codie Sanchez talks about how we can be a better speaker or communicator. She says there are 7 speaking patterns that quietly sabotage us. Trap 1: Excessive Hedging You are graded on your competency and confidence. Excessive qualifiers — too much talk and qualifiers — limits your credibility. Say less and say it more confidently. If you’re going to hedge, be smart and strategic about it. Trap 2: Over Explaining Smart people love clarity, and they hate being misunderstood, so they talk too much trying to avoid both. Keep it short and simple. Easy. Meaningful. Compelling. Deliver the correct idea precisely and pause and let the silence do the work. Shorter sentences. Concrete nouns. No jargon. White space. Speak slower. Remove filler words. Trap 3: Talking Too Fast When we get anxious, our heart rate rises and our brea...

Daniel Denison is a leading researcher on organizational culture and founder of Denison Consulting. His work focuses on a simple but powerful idea: culture is not soft — it drives measurable performance. Denison’s research identifies four traits of high-performing cultures: Mission – Do we know where we’re going? Consistency – Do we have shared values and systems? Involvement – Are our people empowered and engaged? Adaptability – Can we learn and adjust quickly? One line that captures his philosophy is: “Organizational culture is a powerful driver of performance — and it can be managed.” That’s important because it communicates that culture isn’t accidental. It’s shaped by what leaders clarify, reinforce, and model every day. High-performing teams are clear about their purpose (Mission), aligned in how they operate (Consistency), empowered at every level (Involvement), and willing to adjust when needed (Adaptability). When one of those areas is weak, performance suffers. For teams, thi...

Dan Gould is a highly respected American sport psychologist who challenges coaches and leaders by asking: “How do we develop better people through sport?” Winning and performance matters, but Gould’s research shows that sport is most powerful when it intentionally develops life skills — not accidentally. One life skill that he emphasizes that also helps with performance is this: Performance is not just about the pressure you face. It’s about how you interpret it. Two athletes can enter the same championship game. One thinks: “If I mess this up, everything falls apart.” That’s a threat mindset. The other thinks: “This is what I’ve trained for.” That’s a challenge mindset. The situation is identical, but how they see it is completely different. The performance outcome often follows how you perceive it. When athletes see pressure as a threat, heart rate spikes, muscles tighten, thinking narrows, and mistakes increase. When they see it as a challenge, energy becomes fuel, focus sharpens, a...