"Inspire people to give all they have to give simply because they love where they work." - Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last
Basketball enjoys a certain irony; our spring arrives in the fall. We might return the 'same' players but they change physically and mentally. They transform through age, new relationships, and changing situations. Caterpillars become butterflies.
I love practice, seeing different personalities blend to become more than the sum of the parts. At their best, effort and high performance make us coaches look smarter than we are.
CULTURE = COLLABORATION x CONNECTION
Every team seeks positive culture. We've all seen the same coach blessed or cursed with more or less collaboration (working together) and connection (caring for and about each other).
Sam Walker shares an excellent review of how leadership impacts champions in The Captain Class. He argues that elite dynasties emerged from elite leaders.
For example, he writes of Tim Duncan, "Duncan wasn’t just another psychology major at Wake Forest. He was the star of the basketball team.
From the moment he arrived in San Antonio, Duncan seemed determined to abide by the conclusions of his undergraduate thesis. He never asked for special privileges, never skipped practices, never bristled at being dressed down after poor performances.
It’s as if Duncan had used his Wake Forest thesis as a blueprint for how to be an effective teammate in a league where “narcissists” and “blowhards” were the lords of the realm."
How do we plant and nurture a winning culture? Model excellence.
- Practice communication from the moment a player enters the building.
- Praise teamwork.
- Redirect ME attitudes: "This is who we are; that is not."
- Mentor a mindset of WE.
- Engage the families.
At the high school level, we've heard families chirp about minutes, shots, and media. It's the height of vanity to believe that doesn't breach the locker room and the dinner table. "Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale shared a story from her team about girls confronting a player, "you're not happy unless you're scoring." The girl broke down and said that her father wouldn't talk to her unless she was playing well, including scoring. Relationships come first. We need to be able to see inside players' lives and that can be impossible."
Each player has a different skill set, mind set, and psychology. But all want to be part of something more than themselves.
On one of our best teams, a player blamed herself after a narrow defeat. A great teammate immediately gave her a hug and said, "we win together, we lose together." Capture those moments and a season becomes a success.
Lagniappe: from Jon Gordon, The Hard Hat (based on a true story)
Lagniappe 2: How do they hide in plain sight?
