Daily reading is an imperative. I'm not consistently at two hours a day but I'm working at that, falling under the category of Time: Invested not spent.
I finished Cousy's "The Killer Instinct" and am working on Urban Meyer's "Above the Line". I want to share some of his ideas.
First, he believes that personal leadership to create team leadership creates great value. When he refers to "above the line" behavior, he means INTENTIONAL, PURPOSEFUL, and SKILLFUL. How does he recommend doing so?
This isn't exactly his method, but it's close enough. From a biological standpoint, it's resolving the process between two systems in the brain...the automatic (reflexive, x-system) and the conscious (reflective, c-system). We need both. If we have a speeding car approaching us, then we need an automatic, life-preserving action. But when facing many life decisions (e.g. personnel, strategy, tactics), then back-of-the-envelope calculus often won't be optimal.
He discusses an equation E + R = O
Event plus response equals outcome. We can't control the event but we can control our response, which alters the outcome. For a big 'event', we need a big response. We also should understand that our "R" creates another's "E".
Components in our "R" ultimately include:
Pause
Reflect (get your mind right)
Rise
Adjust
Make a difference
Build skill
I think important components in our R can include 'historical inputs' (what happened in previous situations), thinking out of the box, and 'cabinet-level' (trusted advisor) discussion.
Meyer also discussed avoiding BCD (blame, complain, and defend) a variation of Joshua Wooden's advice to his son, "don't whine, don't complain, and don't make excuses."
We can rearrange to embrace ABCDE (attitude, belief, commitment, discipline, effort). None of these are skill-focused, rather they belong to our internal focus).
We can modulate our process to get better personal results and train our players to develop leadership skills. That helps them individually and collectively make better decisions during adversity. Meyer gives examples where players made better decisions because they activated the "R factor" process.
He acknowledges that he lacked an adequate process in Florida which contributed to personal stress, although he doesn't discuss (for obvious reasons) some of the personal issues Florida players experienced under his previous approach.
