First, a digression as Simon Sinek shares his thoughts on leadership in Leaders Eat Last
Key points:
1) Cultivate a culture of safety
2) Neurobiology drives behavior
3) Short-term leadership and long-term leadership are not the same
"Create an environment of trust." Organizations get more through collaboration. We cannot work together unless we trust each other.
Endorphins mask pain. Dopamine moves us forward. Serotonin produces pride and significance. Oxytocin drives connection.
Fear-based motivation doesn't work as well as growth mindsets and collaborative cultures. "When you put people before profit, results follow."
Back to our coach that made a difference. My coach, Ellis "Sonny" Lane took a perennial cellar dweller and turned it into sectional champions and later a state champion. How?
1. Establish a success culture. Team manager John Hunneman described the origins,
"In the summer before his first season (1970-71), Lane had gathered the players on the playground behind the Woodville School for an initial meeting.
There he pulled paint cans and brushes from his car and instructed the team to get to work sprucing up the playground court and painting the wooden backboards that were nailed to telephone polls. On one of those polls Lane painted in red, “Tech Tourney ‘73'” which is what the state high school basketball tournament was called in 1970.
That was the goal he told the players and Lane began to install the offense, defense and the attitude he said would take them there."
2. Attention to detail.
From the article, “Sonny was ahead of his time. We had shot charts, statistics, and scouts and used film. Back then others didn’t know much about the other teams they were playing but we did.” Coach Lane used analytics believing that rebounds and assists were the key statistics of the day.
3. Instill confidence.
Bill Parcells said, "confidence comes from proven success." We hadn't experienced much success previously. The turning point came after a crushing overtime defeat at home to the three-time consecutive champion Lexington Minutemen, previously coached by Rollie Massimino. A 45-minute post-game team meeting followed. "The only reason we lost was because it said LEXINGTON on their jerseys. We won't lose to them again, because we're better than they are."
4. Make corrections.
We struggled against Lexington's man-to-man full court pressure. Every day in practice we'd go 5 against 7, no dribbling allowed. Player and ball movement improved and thirteen consecutive wins, the last against Lexington in Boston Garden followed.
I still regularly have players practice 5 on 7 and 4 on 4 half court without dribbling.
5. Find what your players need.
Don Meyer noted, "what is unacceptable in defeat is unacceptable in victory." It's more productive to criticize play after victory than defeat. The girls already are frustrated and a little sad, because they were outmanned or outgunned. The most powerful words in basketball are "I believe in you." When I hear coaches describing players as "a disgrace" or "not worth living", I wonder what kind of person does that. "Never be a child's last coach." When players ask for letters of recommendation for college, private school, or special programs like STEM, I feel blessed and challenged to present them well enough.
Before someone tells me about their beliefs, show me how you live. The coaches who made a difference in our lives have their legacy extended through us. We owe them our better version.