Coaches dispense advice. Listening and experience inform good advice. If we don't listen, we can't know our players and their strengths, weaknesses, goals, and dreams. Sometimes coaches kill dreams. I knew someone in training to be a Navy pilot. He crashed during a carrier landing and was advised to quit...ten of the hundred pilots in his class died.
Key advice rules:
1. "Never give advice that you couldn't take."
2. "Consider the source." - Jim Bouton, Ball Four
3. "There is nothing cheaper than free advice."
What's the best advice you ever got? As a third year medical student at Boston City Hospital, I got great advice from intern Anne Knowlton, "If you don't speak up, then nobody knows what you know."
The best advice is timely, insightful, and given with good intent. We can share general or specific advice. General wisdom is widely distributed.
Dean Smith is known for supporting Michael Jordan's decision to leave Carolina early for the NBA. What was good for Jordan clearly wasn't best interest for Coach Smith or the Tarheels.
In How to Win at the Game of Life, Christian Klemash explains how John Chaney emphasizes the difference between the MEANING of advice and the EFFECT. We can't know what advice Duke's Coach Krzyzewski gave to Grayson Allen last season. But Allen cleaned up his act after the advice...and one game suspension.
Never underestimate the value of good advice. During World War II, President Roosevelt relied so heavily upon General George C. Marshall that he selected General Eisenhower to command US forces in Europe. Roosevelt wanted to keep Marshall in Washington for advice and logistical support.
Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. He selected multiple political rivals for his Cabinet. He benefited from their political wisdom but also kept enemies close. Some have spoken (coarsely) that it is better to have enemies "inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in."
The twenty-four hour rule often applies. When we want to respond harshly, it's usually better to cool off for twenty-four hours. Stay positive. Remember Jon Gordon's The Positive Dog. We control our happiness with our thoughts and actions. Shawn Achor reminds us to finish each day with gratitude. Read. Kevin Eastman's two hours of reading a day affords 180 hours a quarter of extra knowledge.
Dispensing better advice begins with taking our own.
