Thursday, January 3, 2019

Basketball: Own the Excellence of Tom Peters


Werner Herzog, MasterClass

Tom Peters @tom_peters sells excellence. He also gives it away. Whether we're basketball part-time or full-time, we own excellence in our programs and in our 'regular' jobs. 

Peters has 25 rules here. Here are ten important ones with sport corollaries: 

1. "EXCELLENCE IS THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES." It's what we're doing now. (Excellence is the next email.) Be in the moment

2. "Execution is the job of the business leader." Dean Smith said that he coached execution not effort

3. Listen. Be an aggressive listener. Remember how Steve Kerr listened to videographer Nick U'ren and went small with Andre Iguodala, replacing Andrew Bogut. All he got was a championship.

4. THANK YOU. Give credit to those around us who make it happen. Good coaches like Shaka Smart live appreciation and gratitude.

5. Relationships. "Everything always depends on the quality of relationships." Think back to the relationships we've had with our coaches and our best teams.

6. "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." - Ed Schein  Steve Kerr focused on mindset, mentors, and culture for the Warriors. 

7. Go after underserved markets, WOMEN and OLD people. Net worth age 65+ is over 47 times that of people under 35. Some of our best fans have been older fans. 

8. Celebrate failure. "Reward excellent failures." - Jeff Bezos  Our players achieve 'escape velocity' by leaving their comfort zones. 

9. TRAINING = INVESTMENT #1 (distinguish investment from cost) Leadership matters


During a competitive boat race in Navy SEALs BUDS training, six teams competed for victory. After the first five races, there was a clear split: Team A placed first after every single race, and Team F had finished dead last. Jocko and the other instructors wanted to try something: what would happen if they took the group leader from Team A and put him in Team F’s boat?
Guess what? Team F won the next race. And the next. And the next. See, it wasn’t because the crew weren’t good enough. It’s because the new leader in Team F’s boat wouldn’t tolerate anything but the best. He set a new performance standard through his action and lifted the achievements of those around him.

They said of Bear Bryant, "he can take his'n and beat your'n or your'n and beat his'n." 
10.People FIRST. DiJulius: “Your customers will never be happier than your employees.” If we want to understand how a team feels about the coaching, ask the bottom of the roster not just the top. 

Lagniappe: McHale found blue sky