THE COMMON THREAD BETWEEN NICK SABAN AND PETE CARROLL -- BELIEF IN WHAT THEY DO

There's an excellent article on Bleacher Report written by Jason Cole in which he interviews new Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn.  Cole asked Quinn, who has worked for both Nick Saban and Pete Carroll about their differences and Quinn responded with the one thing they both had in common:
 
Bleacher Report: You worked for Nick Saban and you worked for Pete Carroll. I can't imagine two guys being much more different than those two.

Dan Quinn: That's true...HOWEVER, I've told this story a few times before. Personality-wise, they are so different. But there is a common thread. I think they both totally know how they want to do it, how they want to run their program. They are both so committed to their beliefs in how they wanted to do things that they were actually very similar. As head coaches, they both coach a lot, like literally get in there and work with the players. That said to me that if I ever had this opportunity, I didn't want to be someone who didn't coach.

That left a real impression on me. I remember that, and I remember that they had a deep belief in the philosophy they had in place. Though one was engaging from a personality standpoint and wanted the players in with him and the other was more polarizing and on the players...that way was different. But having an organized vision of how they wanted their programs run was really similar. The programs weren't run in the same fashion, but the attention to detail was.
 
B/R: Was there ever a time the program got off track for either of them and they had to do something to get it back on track?

Quinn: I think, in a good way, when things got off track they were both totally true to their principles.

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE ARMY

In honor of the Army's 239th birthday, here are some of the top leadership lessons Bill Murphy, Jr. learned from serving in and reporting on the United States Army. The list has 23 total -- and it's an outstanding list.  I hope you will click here to read the entire article from Murphy -- guaranteed to be worth your time.  But here are few that stood out to me (with some additional comments by me in Bold-Italics):

 

4. Scrounge for resources

If you have every necessary asset to accomplish a goal when you first set out, either you're incredibly fortunate or you haven't set your sights high enough. Truly great leaders know that pursuing worthy goals means pushing teams beyond their abilities and assets. It's why we say that true entrepreneurship is "the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled."  This reminds me of the book Coach Don Meyer would encourage all to read -- "Make The Big Time Where You're At" by Frosty Westering.  It's about finding a way to get the job done regardless of what you may or may not have to work with.  As Bob Knight would say, "the greatest thing a coach can have is an imagination.

7. Correct when wrong

Leadership isn't about being liked. It's about acting in a way that engenders respect, which also means holding your team accountable. When individual team members fall short, it's up to you as a great leader to correct them. Doing so in a constructive manner sends the message that you care about both your mission and your people.  As coaches our ability to correct is critical to teaching the habits we need our players to develop to be successful.  And please understand that there is a correct way to correct.  It doesn't need to be demeaning.  You don't want the corrective instruction lost in your tone.

9. Mentor your people
Being a true leader means thinking long term and committing to your people even after they're no longer part of your effort. That means offering mentorship and opportunities for them to grow.  As a coach, I would tell our student-athletes that I was going to be their coach for four years but for the rest of their lives.  I take great pride in my relationships with my players after college and I think it makes our relationships better during.

13. Review and adapt
As a leader, you don't just set a goal, devise a plan, give an order, and sit back. Instead, it's up to you to check progress continually. If things aren't working, figure out why, and make a change. You've probably heard the Albert Einstein quote: Insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." So don't do that!  To me, the one word that has grown in importance during my coaching career is flexibility.  The ability to have a set plan of action but to be able to adjust when necessary.  Rigid will get you beat.

16. Find reasons to praise
It's remarkable how just a few good words from someone you respect can inspire you to work harder and achieve more. Great leaders know this, so they're always on the lookout for opportunities to offer words of praise and encouragement. The caveat is that these have to be sincere remarks, which in turn means you have to know your people well and care about them.  Once again a Coach Don Meyer phrase comes to mind: "Catch 'em doing something right."  And just as with correcting, there is a right way and a wrong way to praise.  As a coach I think it needs to be immediate as well as detailed.  You don't just say, "Good pass."  You say "Good job of passing away from the direction."  The second one tells them WHY it was good creating a better opportunity to that to be repeated.

17. Take time away
This came home to me when I was in Iraq as a reporter, and I wanted to interview a high-ranking officer, only to be told that he had gone home on leave--basically the military word for vacation. I'm sorry, a general on vacation in the middle of a war? The theory was that if the top commanders didn't take leave, then nobody below them would, either. You need time away from your work and your team in order to see things clearly and lead better.  Stephen Covey referred to it as "sharpening the saw."  You've got to recharge the batteries to keep things energized.

18. Thank and appreciate
Thanking people is different from simply offering encouragement. It means pointing out the connection between their individual effort and how it affects the ultimate objective. It's a basic human need to want to do good work that means something. Show people that you see their work and value it.  The value of a sincere thank you can not be overstated.  It can be done in a variety of ways...a personal handwritten note...acknowledgement in front of peers...but it goes a long way in creating a culture of appreciation.

23. Leap out of bed
See Rule No. 21 and Rule No. 22. If you don't leap out of bed each morning eager to get to work and lead your team, it probably deserves a better leader.  My wife will tell you that I get out of bed excited to work. I'm blessed to be passionate about what I do, where I do it, and whom I do it with -- and I wish the same for you!

HOOSIERS UTILIZE BLOCKING PADS TO WORK ON FINISHING

I remember a few decades ago listening to Bob Knight speak at a coaching clinic and he spoke of the importance of coaches having an imagination.  He said there was nothing more in the game he enjoyed than creating a drill to help his team develop.  It has certainly been one of the parts of the game that I have developed as well.  Which is why I enjoyed an article written by Pete DiPrimio of the Fort Wayne Sentinel who speaks of Indiana coach Tom Crean and his ideas for working on finishing shots against contact.  You can read the entire story here but here are some excerpts that I took away:

Tom Crean has so had it with Indiana's missed layups and 1-foot shots, he's broken out the practice pads and gone against his don't-foul nature.

Will it make a difference? The first test comes Sunday against Illinois.

The Hoosiers (12-7 overall, 2-4 in the Big Ten) lost to Northwestern and Michigan State in the last week, missing nearly 30 layups in the process. They went a combined 21-for-58 on layups and tip-ins.

Yes, that gets you beat. So Crean has ramped up the practice intensity, having players try to make layups while teammates hammer them with pads.

“We worked on all the different ways to make layups,” he said. “We're working against pads and contact. I'm not big about practicing fouling, but for a couple of minutes there was some of that, that they have to play through.”

Layups come easy against non-conference opponents, but that ended like a fist to the jaw once Big Ten play started. Defenses concede nothing, and despite the rules changes designed to create more free-flowing offense, contact remains significant.

“There's a lot of contact at the basket,” Crean said. “You have to keep your concentration high, your fundamentals high. You've got to use the backboard. And, for us, it's taking one more dribble.

“What you can't do is throw the ball at the backboard or the rim and hope it goes in. We had a couple of those moves at Michigan State. Our intention of getting to the basket was good. The fundamentals of making the next pass wasn't as good. We have to out-grow that. It's youth and inexperience.”

MACK BROWN'S LOCKER ROOM MESSAGE TO HIS TEAM FOLLOWING THIER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

The following comes from a blog post by Chris Hill, a former Texas Longhorn football player who played under Mack Brown.  This is an excerpt of his post and I truly hope you will take the time to read the entire post here because it is lengthy and incredibly well written. It is something that only coaches and players could know about and appreciate.  Here is a great passage on how Coach Brown felt about his players by discussing their future after a National Championship victory -- raising the bar for the rest of their life:

On the night of January 4th, 2006, I watched the most incredible athletic performance I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. I was a redshirted scout-team offensive lineman for the #2 team in the country. I had done all I could to prepare our first-team defense for what many considered to be the best college football team to ever play, the 2005 USC Trojans. You would have thought we were a 6-6 team they way ESPN talked about our matchup… Of all the talking heads I only know of 1 person that actually picked us to win the game, Lee Corso. 

That night I watched our team play their hearts out. Never give up. And fight like they had a slugger’s chance the whole 60 minutes. Vince Young played the best game of football I’ve ever witnessed. Seriously. That game is what every Texas fan remembers… Who could forget such an extraordinary sight?!? If those same story lines were played out in a movie, no one would believe it could happen in real life.

But I’m writing this to tell you that what happened on the field that night is not what made an impact on an 18-year-old Chris Hall. It wasn’t the last second touchdown Vince Young scored or the celebration in the stadium after… What has stayed with me these 8 years were the words Coach Brown spoke to us in the the locker room:

“Don’t let this be the greatest thing that ever happened to you.”

Coach Brown could have told us many things… Of course he congratulated us. Of course he was proud of us. He told us we were champions and that nobody could ever take that away from us. All those things were true. But he emphasized what was important. He knew the men in that locker room wouldn’t always be football players. So he told us to not let this be the best thing that ever happened to us. But to go on to be great fathers, great husbands, and great citizens.

Coaching football, in real sense, is not about winning games. It’s about investing into and shaping the character of young men.

ANTHONY GRANT 5 V's OF SUCCESS

What are your Values: You determine your values before you determine your vision.

What is your Vision: Set by the leader. Inspire, Influence, Impact the lives of your players.

“I can help you achieve by making you do things you don’t want to do.”

What are your Virtues: We have to know strengths of team and coaching staff. Players want to know are you competent, sincere, trustworthy, reliable.

What Vehicles do we employ? Where do you want to go? How do you develop the people in your organization? How do you add people to your organization?

What are our Vices? What are we going to have to overcome.

ON VISIONS AND MENTORING

Last night I read an outstanding article on goal setting and the use of mentors by Sylvia Ann Hewlett of the Harvard Business Review.  She spoke about the importance of creating the vision before laying the ground work utilizing Walt Disney as an example:

As the story goes, Walt Disney had a key piece of advice to the executives planning the Magic Kingdom: Build the castle first. Disney understood that everyone involved in achieving his vision — from the Madison Avenue advertisers selling it to the guys hacking their way through the mosquito-infested Florida swamp — needed literally to see the beauty of this vision to remind them what they were working toward. So the first thing to rear up out of the swamp was, in fact, Cinderella's Castle, which, with its fluttering flats and whimsical turrets, was the very embodiment of the magic he intended to make.

Building a successful career is equally arduous. No matter what you bring to the undertaking, you need a vision: not just a destination but an inspiration. Direction and drive will serve you well but you've got to see where you're headed to push forward and progress toward your goal.

Start by performing a diagnostic on your dream. Consider these questions: What place would feel magical? With whom would you like to share that space? What sort of conversation would you like to have with them? What sort of transformation do you most like to drive? This blue-sky thinking will serve to sketch out your career castle construction strategy.

The most important part of the article came about as Hewlett spoke of the importance and the process of developing your mentors:

Success is never a solo endeavor. You need to find the right people to support you, advise you, and stretch you to realize your dream. Mentors and sponsors are vital, and each brings special strengths and attributes to your cause.

Mentors shine as you start to define your dream. They can see and put into words for you what you may not see about yourself or be able to articulate. They can help you determine your strengths: what you do exceptionally well and what sets you apart. In addition, they can help narrow your focus as you tackle such amorphous topics as what accomplishments have given you joy and won you accolades, what gives you satisfaction, and whether the mission or mandate of your organization overlap with your own set of values. This is heavy lifting, so don't be surprised if your mentor doesn't have the time or ability to assist in all of these areas, but can only provide some advice and wisdom.

A well-chosen mentor will also know the lay of the land in your firm and help you learn to navigate the corporate ladder. Research from the Center for Talent Innovation shows that the vast majority of women (85%) and multicultural professionals (81%) need navigational help. Mentors can help you understand the unwritten rules, provide a map for the uncharted corridors to power, and reveal "the business behind the business." Most important, by assisting you with this essential assessment, they prepare you to attract sponsors.

If mentors help define the dream, sponsors are the dream-enablers. Sponsors deliver: They make you visible to leaders within the company — and to top people outside as well. They connect you to career opportunities and provide air cover when you encounter trouble. When it comes to opening doors, they don't stop with one promotion: They'll see you to the threshold of power. They will make sure your castle gets constructed.

It's an outstanding article and you can read it in it's entirety here.

THE POWER OF THE MIND

Here is an absolute great story about the power of our mind and how the power of our thoughts can control our body. 

Nick Sitzman was a strong, healthy, and ambitious young railroad yardman. He had a reputation as a diligent hard worker and had a loving wife and two children and many friends.

One midsummer day, the train crews were informed that they could quit an hour early in honor of the foreman’s birthday. While performing one last check on some of the railroad cars, Nick was accidentally locked in a refrigerator boxcar. When he realized that the rest of the workmen had left the site, Nick began to panic.

He banged and shouted until his fists were bloody and his voice was hoarse, but no one heard him. With his knowledge of “the numbers and the facts,” he predicted the temperature to be zero degrees. Nick’s thought was If I can’t get out, I’ll freeze to death in here. Wanting to let his wife and family know exactly what had happened to him, Nick found a knife and began to etch words on the wooden floor. He wrote, “It’s so cold, my body is getting numb. If I could just go to sleep. These may be my last words.”

The next morning, the crew slid open the heavy doors of the boxcar and found Nick dead. An autopsy revealed that every physical sign of his body indicated he had frozen to death. And yet the refrigeration unit of the car was inoperative, and the temperature inside indicated 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Nick had killed himself by the power of his own thoughts.

You, too, if you’re not careful, can kill yourself with your limiting thoughts—not all at once like Nick Sitzman, but little by little, day after day, until you have slowly deadened your natural ability to achieve your dreams.

 

From "The Success Principles" by Jack Canfield

KNOW THE FINE PRINT OF YOUR DREAMS

Columnist Ann Landers wrote, "Rose-colored glasses are never made in bifocals.  Nobody wants to read the small print in dreams."  What is the fine print when it comes to your dreams?  The fine print is reality.  If you want to achieve you dream, you need to read the proverbial fine print.  When you do, here are a few of the things you will find.

The journey will take longer than you hoped.

The obstacles will be more numerous than you believed

The disappointments will be greater than you expected

The lows will be lower than you imagined

The price will be higher than you anticipated


From "Put Your Dream to the Test" by John Maxwell

LESSON FROM THE OLYMPICS

The following was written by Harvey Mackay on his wonderful website: http://www.harveymackay.com/

There are few things left to be said about the spectacular Olympics we just witnessed in London.

The 10,000 athletes all had Olympic dreams. Some were realized, while others had their hopes dashed as they fell short of their goals.

As Americans, we had overwhelming reasons to be proud of our top-flight athletes, even when they didn’t bring home medals. Anyone who viewed the events, either at home or in person, couldn’t help but be impressed.

As a delighted spectator, I can say that I also had Olympic dreams. And mine came true. Again.
  I have been attending every summer Olympics for 40 years. And I think the 17 days my wife and I spent in London were probably the most electrifying of all. I have watched athletes young and old exhibit a level of concentration and dedication that astonishes me. And I always learn a thing or two, frequently not related to sports.
For me, the Olympics are a metaphor for how to succeed in life and business. Of the 40 events we attended, these were my favorites:

1.Persistence will win the day. When 15-year-old Katie Ledecky dove in for the 800-meter freestyle race, she was hardly the favorite. Commentators feared she had too fast a start and wouldn’t be able to sustain her lead. All she knew was that she was swimming the race of her young life. The youngest member of the American Olympic delegation had to swim for a half-mile and maintain an exhausting pace to beat the crowd favorite, Great Britain’s Rebecca Adlington. And she looked fabulous with a gold medal draped around her neck.

2.Teamwork is essential for success. The USA men’s basketball team of elite all-stars are accustomed to being the center of attention on their NBA teams. They spend their regular seasons trying to beat each other on their opposing teams. In order to defeat Spain for the gold, they had to contain their egos and deliver their best efforts – together. As they mounted the awards platform with arms linked, they demonstrated their commitment to teamwork and to their country.

3.Follow your passion. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings had already won gold at the last two Olympics in beach volleyball, and contemplated whether the London games were in their future. But despite the other plans each pursued, the Olympics were never far away from their thoughts.

4.Work as hard as you can, then work harder. The games are full of stories of athletes who defied all odds to be able to compete. What could be more inspiring than watching South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, whose lower legs were amputated before his first birthday? To me, this was without question the most amazing event to watch.

5.You are the only one who can limit your potential. Michael Phelps got off to a disappointing start, finishing fourth in an event that he should have dominated. Was that a wakeup call for the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time? He came shining through, medaling in the rest of his events. He is the proud owner of a record 22 Olympic medals, 18 of them gold.

6.Set goals. Usain Bolt was defeated in Jamaica’s Olympic finals in June, so he rededicated himself and became the greatest sprinter in Olympic history. He won the 100 meter and 200 meter races and anchored the men’s 4 x 100 meter relay, which set a world record.

7.Visualize your dreams. The Fab Five of women’s gymnastics had a huge challenge against the Russian team. They knew that a single misstep could end their dreams. These athletes are too young to remember when the USA last won women’s gymnastics gold in 1996. But they all spoke of being inspired by the 2004 games – when they were about 8 years old – and their dreams of Olympic gymnastic success.

8.You’ve gotta have a little fun. The pageantry of the opening and closing ceremonies was magnificent, but is it really necessary? Absolutely! These celebrations are gigantic, larger-than-life events that are meticulously choreographed and executed to make sure everyone is having a great time. As much as I love the athletic competitions, I wouldn’t miss these two extravaganzas.

Mackay’s Moral: Maybe you can’t win a gold medal for your job, but you can still be a champion.

A UNIFYING VISION STATEMENT

Five characteristics for a unifying vision statement from Jon Gordon's tremendous book "Soup."

1. It had to be a vision everyone could rally around.

2. It needed to capture the essence and spirit of the business and to be something the organization could share with words and reinforce through actions.

3. It needed to remind everyone what Soup, Inc., stood for and to serve as the North Star that kept everyone on track.

4. It needed to be easy to remember by leaders and employees so they could live and breathe it every day. It couldn’t exist only on a piece of paper in a filing cabinet. It needed to come alive in the hearts, minds, and actions of everyone at Soup, Inc.

5. It had to be clear, simple, energizing, and compelling.

RANDOM COACHING THOUGHTS (PART VIII)

TEAM

HUBIE BROWN: "X & O's aren't worth a damn without a team. If your team isn't with you it doesn't matter what you draw up. The team must respect what the coach is asking them to do."

TEAMWORK

PAT RILEY: “My driving belief is this: great teamwork is the only way to reach our ultimate moments, to create the breakthroughs that define our careers, to fulfill our lives with sense of lasting significance.”

TECHNOLOGY

BILL PARCELLS: "If the competition has laptop computers and you're still using yellow legal pads, it won't matter how long and hard you work -- they're going to pass you by."

THINKING

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: “Thinking is one of the toughest things a leader has to teach. To be able to think on the run has been a key to Duke basketball success.”

TIME

LOU HOLTZ: "There are certain things in this world we all have in common such as time. Everybody has sixty seconds to a minute, sixty minutes to an hour, twenty-four hours to a day. The difference is what we do with that time and how we use it."

TOUGHNESS

DON MEYER: “Let me say at the outset that a team will never be tough when they are coached by a staff of coaches who are not.”

TRUST

DALE BROWN: “To live by relying on one another implies a risk, but without some trust in humanity, life would be unlivable."

VISION

ARA PARSEGHIAN: "A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are."

WINNING

JOE TORRE: “I do love the feeling of a big win. But you don’t have to have a World Series ring to be a winner. A winner is somebody who goes out there every day and exhausts himself trying to get something accomplished. Being able to get the most from their ability. That’s what characterizes a winner.”

WORK ETHIC

WOODY HAYES: "I've had smarter people around me all my life, but haven't run into one yet that can outwork me. And if they can't outwork you, then smarts aren't going to do them much good. That's just the way it is. And if you believe that and live by it, you'd be surprised at how much you can have."

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON COACHING (PART III)

FAILURE

SPARKY ANDERSON: "I think my whole career, the thing that drove me to try to do things right, was the fear that I would fail, not only myself, but fail a player."

FAMILY

PETE NEWELL: “Regard your team as a family. Give the same attention to the bottom guy as you do the top guy. You have a responsibility to all of your players."

FLEXIBILITY

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: “I have a plan of action, but the game is a game of adjustments.”

FUNDAMENTALS

BOB KNIGHT: “There are some fundamentals that have to be adhered to and mastered in any business. Some people grasp those fundamentals, and teach them or learn them, and others don't. And those who don't are never as successful as those who do.”

GOALS

PAT SUMMITT: “We always make sure that our plans for the season can be achieved. Setting goals is incredibly important to success. But if you set a goal that seems impossible to achieve— if you go into a year saying your goal is to win the national championship—then you risk losing morale, self-discipline and chemistry if you falter early.”

HABITS

PETE NEWELL: "I believe you can never change a habit, or create one, with a word or a piece of chalk. You can talk all day, put all sorts of diagrams on the board, but a habit is not going to change. It's a conditional reflex, created by a repetitive act. Habits are created through physical acts."

HUMILITY

JOHN WOODEN: "Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."

IMAGINATION

BOB KNIGHT: "Imagination is one of the most important things a basketball player can have. If you don't have an imagination, then it's very difficult to recognize and anticipate."

INTEGRITY

DICK BENNETT: “I can’t sacrifice integrity for talent.”

INTELLIGENCE

PETE CARRIL: “Whenever two players or teams of equal ability play, the one with the greater courage and intelligence will win.”

COVEY: ALL THINGS CREATED TWICE

The following is a major concept from Stephen Covey that speaks toward the importance of having a vision -- an imagination -- the ability to see the invisible.  For a coach, it is critical in seeing the potential of a player, a team and a program.  Here is how Covey explains it:

All things are created twice.  All things.  vision is the first creation.  For a house it's called the blueprint.  For a life it's called a mission.  For a day it's called a goal and a plan.  For a parent it's called a belief in the unseen potential of a child.  For all, it is the mental creation which always precedes the physical, or second, creation.

Here are some more thoughts on vision:

“Determine that the thing can and shall be cone and then we shall find the way.”
-Abraham Lincoln

“Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you can imagine it.”
-George Lucas

“Peak performers want more than merely to win the next game. They see all the way to the championship. They have a long-range goal that inspires commitment and action.”
-Charles A. Garfield

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

I have been re-reading "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey -- what an amazing book!  Habit #2 is "Begin with the end in mind."  In other words, you must have a detailed vision of what you want before you can start building it.  The best coaches are the ones that have a specific vision of their program and share that vision with those on their team.  Having the vision is critical but you must be able to help those involved see and believe in that same vision.  It is true with coaching each individual.  You must have a vision as to what you see here becoming as a player and than articulate it to her and help her see the same vision.  Only then, can special things start to grow.

Here is a wonderful, short video from Covey talking about the 2nd Habit:

CREATING A CULTURE OF GREATNESS

The following comes from Jon Gordon's blog.  Click to read the entire post: http://bit.ly/tGp8tg

During the last two weeks I've spoken to the University of Texas football team, Northwestern Mutual and a conference of school principals. Very different audiences indeed, yet, the message I shared was the same:

"To build a winning a team and a successful organization you must create a culture of greatness."

It’s the most important thing a leader can do because culture drives behavior, behavior drives habits and habits create results. In the words of leaders at Apple, “Culture beats strategy all day long."

When you create a culture of greatness you create a collective mindset in your organization that expects great things to happen—even during challenging times. You expect your people to be their best, you make it a priority to coach them to be their best and most of all you create a work environment that allows them to be their best.

A culture of greatness creates an expectation that everyone in the organization be committed to excellence. It requires leaders and managers to put the right people in the right positions where they are humble and hungry and willing to work harder than everyone else. A culture of greatness dictates that each person use their gifts and strengths to serve the purpose and mission of the organization. And it means that you don’t just bring in the best people, but you also bring out the best in your people.

If you are thinking that this sounds like common sense, it is. But unfortunately far too many organizations expect their people to be their best but they don't invest their time and energy to help them be their best nor do they create an environment that is conducive to success. They want great results but they are not willing to do what it takes to create a culture of greatness.

A culture of greatness requires that you find the right people that fit your culture. Then you coach them, develop them, mentor them, train them and empower them to do what they do best. As part of this process you develop positive leaders who share positive energy throughout the organization because positive energy flows from the top down. You also don’t allow negativity to sabotage the moral, performance and success or your organization. You deal with negativity at the cultural level so your people can spend their time focusing on their work instead of fighting energy vampires. And you find countless ways to enhance communication, build trust and relationships that are the foundation upon which winning teams are built.

If creating a culture of greatness sounds like a lot of work, it is, but not as much work as dealing with the crises, problems and challenges associated with negative, dysfunctional and sub-par cultures. While most organizations waste a lot of time putting out fires you can spend your time building a great organization that rises above the competition.

HELPING YOUR PLAYERS/CHILDREN ACHIEVE THEIR DREAMS (MAYBE YOUR OWN)

1. Envision your dreams. Having a vivid, specific picture of your dream is vital in beginning a plan to get there. Tell your teen to make his dream as specific a goal as possible. The more specific and detailed it is, the more real it becomes. Write it down in the present tense. For example, “I graduate college with honors in four years.” Setting a timeline to accomplish a goal is also important and gives your teen an even more specific target.

2. Look at it every day. When you’re driving a car, it’s necessary to constantly make small adjustments to stay on the road. It’s the same when achieving your goals. It’s not about making giant leaps, but making small, positive choices every day that will keep you on the path to achieving your dreams. Have your teen post his written dream in a place where he can easily see it every day.

3. Start with a game plan. Every goal has to start somewhere. Help your teen realize that everyone starts in a different place and that, as far away as a goal may seem, where he starts from doesn’t really matter. Staying on course by making positive, daily decisions is what’s important. And having a plan will help him do that. A plan maps out the small steps needed to stay on course. It also lets him set smaller, more attainable goals along the way to reaching his bigger goal. Help your teen write out a game plan for reaching his goal, breaking it down into smaller milestones along the way.

4. Never quit. If achieving your dream was easy, your dream wouldn’t be worth achieving. Make sure your teen understands that there will be setbacks along the journey to success. But, just like the principle in physics, an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Momentum is the key. When you stop, it’s really hard to get going again. But when you maintain momentum, it’s much easier to take the next step. Teach your teen to never quit on his dreams.

The following comes from an article at www.successmagazine.com written by David Lee.  Click here to read the entire article: http://bit.ly/rZz5YH

PUZZLES, VISION AND A ROSEBOWL PROMISE

The following comes from "High Hopes: Taking the Purple to Pasadena" by Gary Barnett with Vahe Gregorian.  It is a book that details Coach Barnett's turnaround at Northwestern in the 1990's.  It's a book that I would recommend to anyone trying to turnaround or rebuild a program:



People think that there’s one or two or three things that you do to make a change or a difference in a negative environment, or that there’s some type of master blueprint you can draw up and use as a guide. Frankly, I don’t think there’s any one thing I can put my finger on. But the closest analogy I have for our situation is a jigsaw puzzle.

When you buy a jigsaw puzzle, the only way you know what that puzzle is supposed to look like is by looking at the picture on the top of the box, the vision of what the puzzle should ultimately be. But when you open the box, the first thing you see is chaos.

What a jigsaw puzzle represents, though, is a system for turning chaos into order. That’s what we set out to do, just like we used to do on our card table at home when I was growing up.

Before we could do anything else, we had to figure our precisely what the cover—our vision—was going to be. At the first staff meeting, I said, “If you can’t see the invisible, you can’t do the impossible.” Invisible and impossible as it might have seemed, what I saw was the Rose Bowl.

At our basketball arena later that night, January 11, 1992, I was introduced to our student body. When I was handed the microphone, I blurted our, “We’re going to take the Purple to Pasadena”—to the Rose Bowl. The student all went nuts, and as I left the court I sort of wished I hadn’t said it. But once I made that statement, which came from a sentiment of former Northwestern player John Yale, it became the top of the jigsaw puzzle. We had committed ourselves to that vision.

When I make a commitment it’s like what Cortez did when he conquered Mexico. He left no way out for his men—he burned the boats. There was no turning back; there was only the rest ot Mexico. Now there was no turning back at Northwestern. When I made that statement, I burned the boats. Every decision from then on was going to be based on whether it would ultimately get us to the Rose Bowl.

We immediately got a Rose Bowl banner and hung it in the entryway to the Nicolet Center. I put a 1949 Rose Bowl ticket on display on one of my desks. I got a Rose Bowl poster from 1949 and put that up. My high school baseball coach, Don Sparks, had sent me a nylon rose that I put in a bowl in my office. We staggered our recruiting mailings with pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that came together with a picture of the Rose Bowl.

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

Thoughts from John Maxwell's "Teamwork Makes The Dream Work"

Are you dreaming big enough?

I find that many people are afraid to dream big.

Teams are incredible things. No task is to great, no accomplishment too grand, no dream too far-fetched for a team. It takes teamwork to make the dream work.

The question is not, “Will you participate in something that involves others?” The question is, “Will your involvement with others be successful.”

No problem is insurmountable. With a little courage, teamwork, and determination a person can overcome anything.

“You do not climb a mountain like Everest by trying to race ahead on your own, or by competing with your comrades. You do it slowly and carefully, by unselfish teamwork.”
-Tenzing Norgay (renowned mountain climber)

Teamwork gives you the best opportunity to turn vision into reality.

COACH BROWN UTILZIES GPS ANALOGY FOR RESULTS ORIENTED EXAMPLE

Yesterday in our fall workouts, Associate Head Coach Greg Brown spoke to our team about the importance of the "process."   He talked about not getting caught up in results but in taking it step by step.  He then went on to utilize the example of a GPS as "process related" -- taking one street and one turn at a time.  His anaolgy was outstanding and I told him he should blog about it.  Here is what he had to say in his blog:

To begin our individual workouts we discussed "process oriented thinking" vs "results oriented thinking".

This battle between "process" and "results" is a constant battle for coaches and players, because we live and work in a result oriented society and work in a result oriented industry.

To make our teaching point, we used the analogy of a GPS. We empasize the next best action. Just as a GPS gives "turn by turn" directions, one at a time, to lead you to a destination.

In our team meeting we set our Vision and Goals for the pre-season, non-conference and season. However, we must focus on the "turn by turn" process to reach our "destination".

Life, just as in driving, offers detours and many times we have to "recalculate", re-route and continue the process to our destination. Some times these detours are because of choices we make, clutter that we allow to interfere with our process and often the detours result from things outside our control.

If you are not checking out Coach Brown's blog, you are missing out on some great stuff:

http://ucfwbbthoughts.blogspot.com/

THE IMPORTANCE OF IMAGINATION/VISION

I once heard Coach Bob Knight at a clinic say that the greatest thing a player can have is an imagination.  I've always extended that to coaches as well.  An imagination quite simply is a wonderful tool to help you solve problems.  Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.  It is frightening to think where we would be be without men and women with imagination -- it is solution oriented thinking.  Without the ability to see what we have never seen before, technology would not exist, we would not have walked on the moon or cure various illnesses.

An imagination in coaching is about handling problems such as:

...no or little staff
...facility issues
...budget problems
...personnel matters (team is to small, to slow, not deep, etc)
...team situations (lack of chemistry or ability to shoot)

It will be your imagination that will allow you to envision where you want to be -- and then your determination and persistence that will allow you to get there.

Here some thoughts on imagination:

"Imagination is everything.  It is the preview of life's coming attractions." -Albert Einstein

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers." -Orison Swett Marden

"All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose." -Brian Tracy

"I am imagination. I can see what the eyes cannot see. I can hear what the ears cannot hear. I can feel what the heart cannot feel." -Peter Nivio Zarlenga

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." -Michelangelo

"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking." -George S. Patton

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever." -George Orwell

"Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life." -Simone Weil

"Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young." -W. Somerset Maugham

"Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity." -L. Frank Baum

"Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything." -Henry Miller

"Imagination rules the world." -Napoleon Bonaparte

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." -Carl Sagan