10 QUESTIONS GREAT LEADERS ASK THEMSELVES

Great article from http://www.OneCoach.com:

Leader, manager, business coach, or consultant; whatever your title, if you are in a position that requires you to motivate and inspire others, there are certain attitudes, behaviors and personal attributes that you need to make your endeavors successful. Here are 10 questions any good leader must be able to answer in a positive way.

Am I able to recognize differences among my staff or team members in order to work effectively with each one? Being able to see these differences and respond accordingly, allows a leader to motivate on an individual level for better results.

Do I encourage suggestions and input on procedures from everyone? In order for people to feel motivated to make change or improve, they have to have some ownership of the process and believe their contributions are important.

Am I able to allow individuals to solve their own problems? A leader’s job is not to do everything but to impart the necessary knowledge, tools, and skills to others so they can do what needs to be done.

Do I understand the personal goals of each of the people on my team or in my employ? Everyone has their own motivations for doing things. By understanding what makes people work, we are better able to find ways to keep them moving ahead.

Do I provide consistent and appropriate rewards and praise where deserved? Everyone needs to be recognized for their efforts and contributions.

Am I able to identify slackers or non believers and take necessary actions to either bring them on board or find other areas for them? It is almost impossible to reach a goal when some team members just don’t want to participate.

Do I consistently try to find ways for people to grow, learn, and develop on the job? Success breeds success. The more people learn, the more they are inspired to learn, and the more they accomplish, the harder they will work toward future goals.

Do I make being available to individuals, management, and other team members a priority? It’s impossible for a leader to be invisible and make progress. The more approachable you are, the more comfortable your team and employees will be with asking questions and making suggestions. Good communication is vital to the success of any project.

Can I motivate the team as a whole towards a goal while at the same time recognizing individual efforts and contributions? While each individual’s efforts are invaluable, the team as a whole must learn to work together to make effective change.

Am I successful at promoting communication, understanding, respect, and support among the people I work with? In order to achieve success and accomplish desired goals, both team members and individuals need a leader who can create a working environment that encompasses these skills.

More articles on areas such as leadership, goal development and much more. It's worth the time to check them out.

GET COACHING DONE PRIOR TO, NOT DURING THE GAME

Thanks to Coach Shane Dreiling for passing this great article on to me from Ernie Woods. Shane was quick to make sure we all know about Ernie's website:
http://bit.ly/cLYoLx

Practices should be designed with the objective of preparing a team physically, technically, and mentally for game competition. Emphasis should be focused on execution and effort. Players must learn and develop the habit of working and playing hard at all times. Great teams are a result of the best players being the hardest workers. Motor learning and timing requires practicing at game speed. Get rid of the non-workers. No one steps on the floor without full hustle attitude. Insist on a team effort at all times.

- It is imperative that any time a coach talks everyone listens including other coaches. Demand and get eye contact of all players prior to speaking. Make sure that the coaching staff is well coordinated and uses the same offensive and defensive terminology.

- Clarify rather than confuse. Do not over coach. Keep instructions simple. Tell players what you are going to teach them, teach them, and tell them what you taught them.

- Be sure to teach when and why as well as how. There are certain fundamentals every player must master, and in addition each position also has specific fundamentals to learn.

-Coach players not the system. It's not what you run, but how you run it that counts. Basketball is not a game of offenses and defenses, but a game of effort and execution. If you are experiencing problems during games, go back and work on basic fundamentals and execution. Do not change or add new plays.

- Establish season master plan, weekly and daily practice schedules. Don’t expect players to know or execute anything that has not been covered in practice. During a game if a situation arises that you are not prepared, take note and include it in the next workout.

- Develop all of your players to the best of their capabilities. Coaching great players is easy. Where great coaches excel is in getting the most out of every player on the squad regardless to physical abilities and skills.

Make up detailed practice schedules. Post and give copies to assistant coaches. If at all possible hold a pre-practice coaches meeting, Carry a note card to refer to during practices. Every drill must have value or purpose otherwise throw it out. Alternate physically tough drills and less strenuous ones. Be sure to include individual defensive skill development in each practice.

- Whenever possible introduce and demonstrate a drill or activity one day, and then practice and make correct on the next day. Review (analyze) and reinforce skills and techniques as needed.

- Pay attention to detail. Precise execution and footwork are vital. Make precise corrections. On first time mistakes, stop action and make everyone aware of correction. On repeated mistakes substitute or wait for break in action to correct. Do not waste other players’ time to correct one individual. Do not get caught up with lengthy explanations.

- Use positive reinforcement and point out successful performances rather than negative ones. Find reasons to praise and encourage rather than condemn. Use constructive criticism when appropriate, but never yell. Have you ever heard of a successful teacher that yells at their students?

- If a drill is going poorly, stop it and go onto something else. Come back to it later or next practice. End all practices on high note or successful achievement (made pressure free throw, make ten consecutive free throws (make 10 for younger players), shooting contest, half court shot, etc.).

Some very useful scrimmage ideas. During practice have assistant coaches referee. For intersquad scrimmages bring in regualar officials.

- Have players make ten consecutive free throws before substituting. In lieu of just standing around. On jump balls, first player to dive on a loose ball gets it or give it to the defense.

- Eliminate the dribble. Especially at the start of preseason practices. During full court scrimmages make it a violation when a player dribbles. Players may struggle a little at the start, but they will soon adapt and start playing with their heads up and making cuts away from the ball. This is great for team play.

- When working half court on offense, have the defense make four or five defensive stops (combination of turnovers & defensive rebounds) before going to offense. This will provide incentive to play tougher defense which will improve the offense.

- Defense and break. During offensive half court work, allow defense to fast break on turnovers and missed shots. This will not only give the defense incentive to play harder, but it will also check and insure the defensive balance responsibilities.

- Free throw and press. When practicing full court presses or attacking full court presses, start with a made free throw.

Practice Preparation

-Starting a strenuous physical activity, such as basketball, without proper warm-up is detrimental to athletic performance and health. The purpose of a warm-up is to prepare for muscular activity, and is not an exhausting activity to bring on fatigue.

- It should be composed mainly of stretching and light running exercises. It should be of sufficient duration and intensity to adequately prepare players for the physical demands of the game or work-out.

- Cooling down and/or stretching after practice can be more beneficial to injury prevention than stretching at the start of practice. Think about ending workouts and practices by having players make 10 consecutive free throws. For younger players make 10 free throws. This will allow the players to cool down along as practice shooting free throws when tired.

CELEBRATE SUCCESS

The following comes from Jon Gordon's blog...check it out: http://www.jongordon.com/blog/

Each night before my children go to bed I ask them what their success of the day is. The idea came from a story I read about the Olympic gymnast, Bart Connor. Turns out 9 months before the 1984 Olympics he tore his bicep muscle. They said he would never make it back in time to compete in the Olympics. But not only did he make it back, he won two gold medals.

When Charlie Jones, the television broadcaster, was interviewing him, he asked Bart how he did it. Bart thanked his parents. Charlie Jones said, “Come on Bart, everyone thanks their parents when they win a gold medal.” Bart told Charlie that this was different. He said, “Every night before bed my parents would ask me what my success was. So I went to bed a success every night of my life. I woke up every morning a success. When I was injured before the Olympics, I knew I was going to make it back because I was a success every day of my life.” Talk about a confidence booster.

Since engaging in this practice with my children I can attest it works. I also know it works because I share this story in my keynotes and hear great stories from people all the time who are doing this with their children.

I also know it works for adults in businesses, schools, and organizations because when we focus on what people are doing right, they do more things right. It’s the simple, powerful message in the classic book The One Minute Manager and it’s an important part of the work I do with organizations.

Teams and organizations that focus on and celebrate success create more success. Success becomes ingrained in the culture and people naturally look for it, focus on it and expect it. That’s why certain football coaches and business leaders are always successful. They implement systems and principles that create a culture that celebrates and expects success and this drives behavior and habits that create successful outcomes.

So how do we put this into practice? The ideas are endless but here are few: If you are in sales have a sales meeting each week (in person or by phone) and share success stories. If you are in management recognize people and their success throughout the year. Not just during annual meetings. Celebrate the small wins as much as the big wins. Celebrate successful projects and implementations. As a leader you’ll want to praise people and reinforce successes that shine a spotlight on important goals and growth initiatives. For your own personal growth, keep a daily and weekly success journal. Write down your success of the day. Do this for 30 days and you’ll see amazing results. What we focus on shows up more in our life. If we look for and celebrate success we’ll see more of it. It works for Olympic athletes, children and us.

CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES

Another great article by Brian Tracy and one that hits home with our team. After a tough stretch of poor play our staff had a meeting and came to the conclusion that we had done a poor job of holding our players accountable for various phases of our play. This included most importantly our practice play. Our non-conference schedule failed short in preparing us for the challenges ahead and lured us into putting up with certain things in our play simply because we winning. We have spend the better part of the past 10 days creating consequences for individuals as well as our team and it has so far meant an increased amount of focus and execution. Here is what Tracy has to say:

The mark of the superior thinker is his or her ability to accurately predict the consequences of doing or not doing something. The potential consequences of any task or activity are the key determinants of how important it really is to you and to your company. This way of evaluating the significance of a task is how you determine what your next frog really is.

Long Time Perspective
Doctor Edward Banfield of Harvard University, after more than 50 years of research, concluded that "long-time perspective" is the most accurate single predictor of upward social and economic mobility in America. Long time perspective turns out to be more important than family background, education, race, intelligence, connections or virtually any other single factor in determining your success in life and at work.

Your attitude toward time, your "time horizon," has an enormous impact on your behavior and your choices. People who take the long view of their lives and careers always seem to make much better decisions about their time and activities than people who give very little thought to the future.

Think About Your Future
Successful people have a clear future orientation. They think five, ten and twenty years out into the future. They analyze their choices and behaviors in the present to make sure that they are consistent with the long-term future that they desire.

In your work, having a clear idea of what is really important to you in the long-term makes it much easier for you to make better decisions about your priorities in the short-term.

Determine the Consequences
By definition, something that is important has long-term potential consequences. Something that is unimportant has few or no long-term potential consequences. Before starting on anything, you should always ask yourself, "What are the potential consequences of doing or not doing this task?"

The clearer you are about your future intentions, the greater influence that clarity will have on what you do in the moment. With a clear long-term vision, you are much more capable of evaluating an activity in the present and to assure that it is consistent with where you truly want to end up.

Make It A Top Priority
If there is a task or activity with large potential positive consequences, make it a top priority and get started on it immediately. If there is something that can have large potential negative consequences if it is not done quickly and well, that becomes a top priority as well. Whatever your frog is, resolve to gulp it down first thing.

Keep Motivated
Motivation requires motive. The greater the positive potential impact that an action or behavior of yours can have on your life, once you define it clearly, the more motivated you will be to overcome procrastination and get it done quickly.

Thinking continually about the potential consequences of your choices, decisions and behaviors is one of the very best ways to determine you true priorities in your work and personal life.

Action Exercises
Review your list of tasks, activities and projects regularly. Continually ask yourself, "Which one project or activity, if I did it in an excellent and timely fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my life?"

Whatever it is that can help you the most, set it as a goal, make a plan to achieve it and go to work on your plan immediately. Remember the wonderful words of Goethe, "Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed!"

DON MEYER'S THINGS I WISHED I HAD BEEN TAUGHT

If you don't already, you need to make sure you check Coach Don Meyer's website from time to time for the wealth of information on it. The following comes from "Things I Wish An Older, More Experienced Coach Would've Told Me When I Was Younger."

BE WHAT YOU IS BECAUSE IF YOU BE WHAT YOU AIN'T, YOU AIN'T WHAT YOU IS
Kids can spot a phony or con man a mile away. Try to adapt the good ideas of coaches you study rather than adopting the whole ball of wax.

GET ALL THE GOOD IDEAS BUT YOU CAN NOT USE ALL THE GOOD IDEAS
Your personality, your personnel, your league, your school, your geographic region, resources available and many other things will impact just what you can use in your program.

PROMISE LESS AND DELIVER MORE
Never promise wins and always provide attitude and effort.

SEE THE PICTURE, SELL THE PICTURE, PAINT THE PICTURE
Dick Bennett authored this one. You must be visionary, sell the vision to your people, and then everyone paints the picture.

ALL THE GREATS KNOW HOW TO KEEP IT SIMPLE (Jack Whitaker)

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF PAIN; THE PAIN OF DISCIPLINE AND THE PAIN OF REGRET
The pain of regret is experienced in March for most teams and at the end of careers for most coaches.

MOST PARENTS WOULD RATHER SEE THEIR CHILD MAKE ALL-STATE RATHER THAN THE TEAM WIN THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

BUILD YOUR OWN ARMY.
Keep a low profile when you do this. Don't be obvious. Give something without expecting something in return.A hamburger feast, Wolfdog Festival, or some other event to show appreciation to those who support the program and kids.Daily acts of kindness and doing the right thing are the key to building a loyal army.

I NEVER ALLOWED MYSELF, MY STAFF, OR OUR PLAYERS TO GET SATISFIED (John Wooden)
There is always something that can be done better.

THE LEAST USED RESOURCE IN THE UNITED STATES IS TEAMWORK

DON'T WRESTLE WITH A PIG BECAUSE YOU BOTH GET MUDDY AND THE PIG LIKES IT
My uncle on administrators

USE ONE MINUTE ASSESSMENTS
One thing YOU did well and why.
One thing WE can do better and how.

TEACH, TEACH, TEACH
You better have good practices.(Al McGuire)

The complete list has a total of 50 things (all outstanding). To get your complete copy go to: http://www.coachmeyer.com/. Scroll down to "Newsletters for Coaches (New)" and click. Then click on "Wish I Had Been Taught" newsletter. You'll see a lot of other great coaching newsletters there as well.

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Toward the end of Mohandas Gandhi’s extraordinary life, he listed the seven deadly sins he had encountered along the way:

1. Wealth without work
2. Pleasure without conscience
3. Knowledge without character
4. Business without morality
5. Science without humanity
6. Worship without sacrifice
7. Politics without principles

From "The Winners Manual" by Jim Tressel

DEAN SMITH ON CAROLINA SHOT SELECTION

We try to promote opportunities which lend themselves to the percentage shot. We believe in getting the ball inside for the shot whenever possible. Outside shots are always available. We have no reservations about shooting from the outside. However, we prefer doing so after the ball has gone inside or to the baseline initially. We then can be more confident about our offensive rebounding. Also, we will have placed pressure on the the defense to foul us while we moved the ball inside. This is vitally important. Some teams tend to overlook the importance of setting up conditions which make the defense more prone to fouling. At North Carolina, we consider this a major part of our offensive strategy.

Since we believe it is essential to move the defense before it can be penetrated, we emphasize the importance of passing several times before a shot is take against a set defend.

How do we define a good shot? The amount of defensive pressure, length of the shot, and individual player characteristics are each factors which determine what is or is not a good shot. Much depends on the shooting skill of the the individual player. Each man must be aware of his percentages from various positions on the court. For some players, a lightly guarded twenty-foot jumper will be a higher percentage shot than on taken at close range among a number of defensive players. The shooter must have confidence that his shot will go in. The other four men must assume it will not go through the net in order to provide good offensive rebounding protection and defensive balance.

Although good board coverage is designed into all our offensive plans, I would not consider rebounding a major factor responsible for our overall high field-goal percentage. I would be more inclined to attribute it to good shot selection and our pressure defense, which gives us some easy scoring opportunities off the fast break.

From "Basketball Multiple Offense and Defense" by Dean Smith

COMMUNICATION = TRUST

There’s something inside the great ones that enables you to trust them more. Most often, however, winning depends on off-the-field communication.

1. Identify individual needs.
2. Time your talks.
3. Acknowledge emotions.
4. Get issues out on the table.
5. Use team talk to ventilate and motivate.

From "Ground Rules for Winners" by Joe Torre

COACH SABAN: COACHING TODAY'S ATHLETE (PART III)

The following is the 3rd of four parts of notes taking from a Coach Nick Saban clinic talk while he was coaching at LSU:

I think the one thing we need to do differently in motivating players and helping them be successful is not to talk about results. Our goal next year is to be a dominant football team that is a nationally recognized program. It doesn’t have anything to do with winning the SEC championship, going to bowls, or how many games we are going to win. All the expectations will be made up by that little fat guy, who never played a down and writes for some newspaper.

If you don’t get result-oriented with the kids, you can focus on the things in the process that are important to them being successful. That is the only way they are going to compete the way you want them to. It is hard to create a relentless competitor. To get a player to play every down, play hard, with toughness and responsibility, and do a good job is the most difficult part of coaching. There are three intangibles that take no athletic ability that aids a player in being responsible for this own self-determination. Those three intangibles take the most time in coaching in my opinion. Those intangibles are effort, toughness, and assignment.

When I talk bout toughness, I’m talking about mental and physical toughness. The player’s ability to make the play when the game is on the line is mental toughness. The assignment part of those intangibles is to know what your job is. Every time we don’t have a successful play, it goes back to a mental error, missed assignment, or lack of technique trying to carry out that assignment.

When you talk about results, you create problems for yourself. If you can focus on intangible things, your players will compete better for you. They will overcome adversity better for you. Everybody wants to win a national championship. But why would you put that as one of your goals? What happens when you lose the first game? Are you going to change the goal board? The personality of your team should be what you try to get them to define, not the results.

How do you make players believe in themselves? I ask my players what they think everyone in the room thinks of them. Forget about yourself; it’s about how you affected anybody in this room. I know players today are self-absorbed. That doesn’t mean they are selfish. If you are self-absorbed all you think about is how it affects you. If you are selfish you want it for yourself. When you are self-absorbed, you have a hard time thinking about how what you do effects someone else.

They have to take ownership for something big. I ask our players how big their frying pan is. That comes from a story about a fisherman in West Virginia catching catfish. He was throwing the big fish back. He said he had only a nine-inch frying pan at home. His whole deal as a fisherman was based on how he could cook them. That’s what I ask our team/ How much capacity do you have for success? How much do you believe in yourself? What do you expect to accomplish? The answer is not in wins and losses and championships. I think it is how you play the game. That point seems to have lost its importance in today’s game.

BRIAN TRACY'S ABC METHOD OF PRIORITIZING

Another great article from Brian Tracy to help us stay organized:

"The first law of success is concentration - to bend all the energies to one point, and to go directly to that point, looking neither to the right or to the left." --William Mathews

The more thought you invest in planning and setting priorities before you begin, the more important things you will do and the faster you will get them done once you get started.

The more important and valuable the task is to you, the more you will be motivated to overcome procrastination and launch yourself into the job.

A Simple and Powerful Technique
The ABC Method is a powerful priority setting technique that you can use every single day. This technique is so simple and effective that it can, all by itself, make you one of the most efficient and effective people in your field.

The power of this technique lies in its simplicity. Here's how it works: You start with a list of everything you have to do for the coming day. Think on paper. You then place an A, B, or C before each item on your list before you begin the first task.

Determine Your Top Priorities
An "A" item is defined as something that is very important. This is something that you must do. This is a task for which there can be serious consequences if you do it or fail to do it, like visiting a key customer or finishing a report for your boss that she needs for an upcoming board meeting. These are the frogs of your life.

If you have more than one "A" task, you prioritize these tasks by writing A-1, A-2, A-3, and so on in front of each item. Your A-1 task is your biggest, ugliest frog of all.

Decide on Your Secondary Tasks
A "B" item is defined as a task that you should do. But it only has mild consequences. These are the tadpoles of your work life. This means that someone may be unhappy or inconvenienced if you don't do it, but it is nowhere as important as an "A" task. Returning an unimportant telephone message or reviewing your email would be a "B" task. The rule is that you should never do a "B" task when there is an "A" task left undone. You should never be distracted by a tadpole when there is a big frog sitting there waiting to be eaten.

Analyze the Consequences of Doing It
A "C" task is defined as something that would be nice to do, but for which there are no consequences at all, whether you do it or not. "C" tasks include phoning a friend, having coffee or lunch with a coworker or completing some personal business during work hours. This sort of activity has no affect at all on your work life.

After you have applied the ABC Method to your list, you will now be completely organized and ready to get more important things done faster.

Start on Your A-1 Task
The key to making this ABC Method work is for you to now discipline yourself to start immediately on your "A-1" task and then stay at it until it is complete. Use your willpower to get going and stay going on this one job, the most important single task you could possibly be doing. Eat the whole frog and don't stop until its finished completely.

Your ability to think through, analyze your work list and determine your "A-1" task is the springboard to higher levels of accomplishment, and greater self-esteem, self-respect and personal pride.

When you develop the habit of concentrating on your "A-1," most important activity, you will start getting more done than any two or three people around you.

Action Exercises
Review you work list right now and put an A, B, or C next to each task or activity. Select your A-1 job or project and begin on it immediately. Discipline yourself to do nothing else until this one job is complete.

Practice this ABC Method every day and on every work or project list, before you begin work, for the next month. By that time, you will have developed the habit of setting and working on your highest priority tasks and your future will be assured!