A Coach's Diary

In his book Uncommon Leadership, Ben Newman says, "Leadership is not for everybody." He also says, "Leadership, uncommon or otherwise, is not easy. It requires honesty, accepting reality, telling the truth to others as well as yourself, and setting your ego aside. Some people can do this, and some people cannot." In leadership, like in most things, the right mindset is everything, and it is rooted in mental toughness. We all experience adversity and having the right mindset and mental toughness will help us power through adversity and learn from our experiences. Ben continued to write, "Adversity can lead to introspection, and introspection can lead to action if you exercise the POWER of PERSPECTIVE. We can put things into the proper perspective by finding the good in the bad. There will always be things that we can't control, and there will be times when frustration and anger will make you want to quit. Adversity visits everyone, and some people are not wi...

Doc Rivers is a professional basketball coach for the LA Clippers. In a recent podcast, he talked about leadership and how he is keeping his team ready for when the NBA resumes.  When asked how he is keeping his team ready, he said: "I am telling my team that when it all starts back, it's not going to be the same, and it may not even be fair. You have to be okay with that. It's not going to be fair, but we are still going to win. It's not going to be fair, but we aren't going to use that as an excuse. It's not going to be fair, but its very fair because everybody is doing the same thing. Let's not let this be the reason that we don't win. Right now we have to make the most of it and find a way forward." He went on to talk about a conversation that he had with a high school graduate about how to keep this year in proper perspective and how we all should look at everything that has happened in the year 2020: I was talking to a high scho...