Turning the Ship Around
Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.

A maxim of team building is that the biggest wins start small.  This too is true of the biggest losses.  Recently, I was called in by a successful coach to help him save his season from becoming a complete disaster.  At the time of the call the team was five and fifteen.  And four of the five wins came from beating perennial losers. Essentially this team won only one competitive match.

No matter how hard you try it takes the greater part of a season to pull together a group of young student-athletes. Cohesion is never a given.  Unfortunately for the distressed coach who called me for help, the pulling together had yet to take place.  Rather, bit-by-bit the players built relationships that pushed them apart, a gap emerged from player to player.  Conflict avoidance and superficial harmony were the unwritten rules of relationship building.  The result was a downward relational spiral in which morale deteriorated gradually at first, then a tsunami of ill-will permeated interpersonal interactions.

Finally, the team woke up and realized that there was no sense of unity or authentic camaraderie on the team, which translated into a team of selfish and uncommitted players.  Luckily for the coach, most of the players admitted fault (as did the coach) and willingly accepted working side-by-side with the coach to create an engaging and inspiring environment.

Over the years I’ve come face-to-face with the reality that something big always comes from something small.  Small causes are so often the start of something big—both on the positive and negative side of the ledger.  Yet too often we only attend to something after it has already become a hefty problem requiring a massive undertaking.

For the coach and the player to recover the season they realized change was necessary for survival.  The time had come for all team members, coaches included, to shed the illusion that they were building right relationships that would take them where they wanted to go.

COURSE CORRECTION

To inspire the team to quickly adopt changes—those the players proposed and others put forward by the coaching staff—they decided to look to Hollywood.  Yes, tinsel town!

Screen writers tell us that there is really only seven or so master plots from which all stories are developed.  These story structures are called archetypes.  An archetype offers the audience a relatable back-story with a familiar pattern that taps into the mental models of the viewer.  The classic archetypes include: rags to riches, overcoming adversity, the quest, comedy, tragedy, voyage and return, and rebirth.

The idea was for the team’s members to create a story that they wanted to “write.”  All participants agreed that to transform the team required a story that would fit the team today and acknowledge its current realities.  The goal was for the team to agree to adopt, enact, and live the story daily.  The team agreed to undertake the challenge of change by employing the archetype of Disastrous Voyage and Fortunate Return.  This was fitting because this archetype is about progression from naivete to wisdom, from disparity to triumph.  In typical Hollywood movies the protagonist stumbles across obstacles and challenges with the mistaken notion that they know where they are going.  In this real-life voyage the players sadly were heading in the wrong direction to creating a competitive team with a sense of well-being for its participants.

Beginning with the team’s current realities it seemed fitting to “title” the change story Turning the Ship Around.  The student-athletes discussed together their story with candor and enthusiasm—how they got to where they were and how they wanted to go about changing their course.  By agreeing to the archetype they went about living a shape-shifting story of resurgence and resurrection based on building durable and enduring relationships.

Fortunately, the path to turning the season (the ship if you will) around began with small victories.  Not victories on the playing field, rather small wins in building right relationships.  Day-by-day living the narrative of Turning the Ship Around the team did come to experience a successful change of course.  After one more loss the dedicated team lived to tell the tale of a seven-game win streak to finish out the season. By righting the course the team is now ready to set sail for an exceptional season next year.

To find out more about and order Sport Leadership Books authored by Dr. Dobbs including Coaching for Leadership, click this link: The Academy for Sport Leadership Books

About The Academy for Sport Leadership

The Academy for Sport Leadership is a leading educational leadership training firm that uses sound educational principles, research, and learning theories to create leadership resources.  The academy has developed a coherent leadership development framework and programs covering the cognitive, psycho-motor, emotional and social dimensions of learning, thus addressing the dimensions necessary for healthy development and growth of student-athletes.

The Academy for Sport Leadership’s underlying convictions are as follows: 1) the most important lessons of leadership are learned in real-life situations, 2) team leaders develop best through active practice, structured reflection, and feedback, 3) learning to lead is an on-going process in which guidance from a mentor coach helps facilitate learning and growth, and 4) leadership lessons learned in sport should transcend the game and assist student-athletes in developing the capacity to lead in today’s changing environment.

Editor’s Note from Brian: I have had this in my files for around 20 years and feel that it is definitely worth sharing.  I think it is good advice for all of us, regardless of our age!

Written by Beverly Heirich.

We all have the same questions: Why is life so tough? Well, there’s an answer to that:

When my husband and I were raising our five children, we taught them everything we knew. Now we know that was not much

If we could do it over, here are some critical facts about human nature that I would start teaching them before they were old enough to brush their teeth without help.

Bad is easy. Good is hard.
Losing is easy. Winning is hard.
Talking is easy. Listening is hard.
Watching TV is easy. Reading is hard.
Giving advice is easy. Taking advice is hard.
Flab is easy. Muscle is hard.
Stop is easy. Go is hard.
Dirty is easy. Clean is hard.
Take is easy. Give is hard.
Dream is easy. Think is hard.
Lying is easy. Truth is hard.
Sleeping is easy. Waking is hard.
Holding a grudge is easy. Forgiving is hard.
Telling a secret is easy. Keeping a secret is hard.
Play is easy. Work is hard.
Falling is easy. Getting up is hard.
Spending is easy. Saving is hard.
Doubt is easy. Faith is hard.
Laughter is easy. Tears are hard.
Criticizing is easy. Taking criticism is hard.
Letting go is easy. Hanging on is hard.
Secret sin is easy. Confession is hard.
Pride is easy. Humility is hard.
Excusing oneself is easy. Excusing others is hard.
Borrowing is easy. Paying back is hard.
Sex is easy. Love is hard.
Argument is easy. Negotiation is hard.
Naughty is easy. Nice is hard.
Going alone is easy. Walking alone is hard.
Dumb is easy. Smart is hard.
Messy is easy. Neat is hard.
Cowardice is easy. Bravery is hard.
War is easy. Peace is hard.
Poor is easy. Rich is hard.
Sarcasm is easy. Sincerity is hard.
An F is easy. An A is hard.
Growing weeds is easy. Growing flowers is hard.
Reaction is easy. Action is hard.
Can’t do is easy. Can do is hard.
Feasting is easy. Fasting is hard.
Following is easy. Leading is hard.
Having friends is easy. Being a friend is hard.
Dying is easy. Living is hard.

If you ask why all this is so, why is life so hard, I’ll tell you, “It just is. Nothing in life that is good and worthwhile comes without effort.

We are born, all of us, with a nature that is drawn to the easy rather than the hard.
Knowing this about one self and others softens the heart and builds iron into the will, keeps us going when all around is crumbling, when friends forsake, when the heart breaks, and the courage and confidence shatter.

Knowing that such experiences are part of the deal gives us opportunities to choose to do hard things. Constant challenges make our journery exhilarating, wonderfully fulfilling, never, never boring. As the Arabs put it, “All sunshine makes a desert.”

And here’s a small secret that most sad and lonely people never learn: Deep down inside we are all asking the question. No matter who you are, life is hard, and we all ask why it should be so.

But there is comfort in knowing we’re not alone. So maybe your child – or the person sitting over there – needs to hear from you right this minute that sometimes you question too.

Easy is its own reward. Hard is much finer!

These notes are from the Don Meyer Leadership seminar and were sent to me by Steve Smiley.

-You can do anything you want, just not everything you want.
-Learn who you are and what your game is.  Biggest turnoff is being fake.
-Effective better than Efficient.
-Your example isn’t the main way in leading others, it is the only way.
-Your example screams so loudly that they can’t hear what you are saying.

-“Leadership starts at the top.” Morgan Wooten
-Leadership: Like pornography, can’t explain it or describe it, but I know what it is when I see it.
-Pat Summitt: “Got to have guts to make the big decisions.”
-We are all free agents.
-TEAMS: Tough, Effort, Attitude, Motives, Servant Leaders

-Find the need, fill the need. (Where you want to be minus what is = need assessment)
-Positive Leadership: Pessimist: “Things can’t get any worse.”   Optimist: “Oh, yes they can.”
-2 types of people, energy givers and energy takers
-Be Sound: teach fundamentals
-Be Solid: integrity, authenticity
-Be Simple: the more you think, the slower your feet get

-Not everyone can work the cash register, somebody has to sweep out the backroom. Sam Walton Story
-Study your opposition, but don’t be obsessed about your opposition.
-Humility precedes Honor
-Make up your own mission statement.

-As a coach, you get both praised and criticized when you shouldn’t.

-Simple Truths, 212 extra degree–Here is a link to the video that Coach Meyer is referring to:
(when you click the link, make sure that your speakers are on)
212 Degrees The Extra Effort
-Got to win when the ball doesn’t bounce our way.

-Start to watch the way successful coaches deal with people.
-If the vaccine doesn’t work, quit applying the ointment to the infected area.
-You can whip a horse to run, but sometimes they will run faster if you whisper in their ear.
-Get mad, cool down, then act mad.

-“I don’t make decisions because they are convenient, easy, or popular, I make them because they are right.”
Cancer Player:       Malignant-cut it off
Benign-treat it and decide at end of season
Can’t decide-treat it as malignant (cut it off)
-Respond with wisdom, love, firmness and positive self-control when dissatisfied with the behavior, performance or response of others.

-Discipline and Demand without being Demeaning.
-an arrogant leader who never thinks they are wrong / “and let me make this clear”  / very difficult to play for
-Hurts me to leave a task undone.
-Selfishness will kill your team.
-Just because you are elected doesn’t mean you can lead.

-You can elect your team captains, but your players will pick your leaders.
-Internal Control: whoever controls the locker room, controls the team.
-Leadership: you have to let go of your ego, be a follower first, influence others
-You must meet someone in your life that expects greatness from you.
-Expect Greatness, Inspect for Greatness, Accept only Greatness.

-Your legacy: never have a legacy if you don’t give your power away
-Inspect Supervision: be there physically, be there mentally
-Internal Leadership (characteristics of Leaders)
1) Hardest Worker  2) Take of care of stuff off the floor  3) Let the coaches take care of everything else
-everyday need a soft rain (reign) of leadership, like an irrigation system, can’t be too hard, will break the corn stalks off, need a slow and steady drizzle everyday

The Head Coach needs to have a great practice every day.
-A coach needs credibility to confront.
-Building a positive culture takes a long time, doesn’t take long to lose it.
-Handle wins/loses the same way.

-Cause / Self      (must have a cause bigger than yourself)
-Process / Results   (can’t be a scoreboard watcher)
-Nothing more harmful to a team than the lack of discipline.
-Dick Bennett Badger Basketball, 1)see the picture  2)sell the picture  3)everyone has to help paint the picture
-Don’t set long term goals, we have to be the very best we can be today.

-Word of mouth – best selling practice, but the hardest to accomplish
-Read the book “Art of War” Sun Tzu
Need proper disciple, Can’t fear losing, Must face it together, Prepare for the worst, expect the best.
-The teacher always learns more than the students.

Important Situations
Good Businesses (time spent on problems) Urgent Matters 20-25%, Non Urgent Matters 65-80%
Bad Businesses Urgent Matters 25-30%, Non Urgent Matters 15%

Non-important Situations
Good Businesses Urgent Matters 15%, Non Urgent Matters 1%
Urgent Matters 50-60%, Non Urgent Matters 2-3%

*Be efficient by planning / prepare
McCormack’s Rules
1) get a system , any system
2) stick to it
3) write everything down

Meyer’s Rule’s
1) Plan the week on Sunday
2) plan the next day the night before
3) exercise
4) Say No
5) Take mini-vacations (long lunch, early leave)
6) keep a journal, not what you did, but what you learned

Click here to read: Part 2