Coaches Toolbox

The following is a listing of all posts in the category of Leadership for our site.

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Being and Developing Mentor Leaders

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I just finished reading “The Mentor Leader” by Tony Dungy. I have listed some of my takeaways in this post.

If you are interested in finding out more about the book or reading a sample, you can do so on the Amazon web site by clicking on the book cover on the left.

  • The Colts placed character at the forefront of the player-selection process. They eliminated players—even talented “difference-makers”—from consideration in the draft if they possessed questionable character flaws.
  • The team is committed to purposeful, effective communication.
  • Dungy rarely displays a visible reaction to uncomfortable situations.
  • Assistant Jim Caldwell asked him whether he was inclined to demonstrate a show of force in response to a discipline incident. Dungy’s reply – “It is not about me” – Caldwell stated that Dungy’s response “Resonated with my spirit, and it is one of the most profound lessons I learned from him.”
  • Tony was more interested in what was most important for the team and the franchise than himself.
  • According to Caldwell The Level 5 leadership concept from Jim Collins Book “Good to Great” sums up Dungy’s DNA as a leader: The qualities of a level 5 leaders are: Embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will, Display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated. Attribute success to factors other than themselves., Display a workmanlike diligence—more plow horse than show horse. Set up their successors for even greater success.
  • Dungy was an active participant in the development of the players and assistant coaches, He checked his ego at the door each day.
  • Coach Dungy nurtured and cultivated both players and coaches, molding without pressing, nudging without pushing, and leading without dragging.
  • Don’t be fearful of empowering those around you.
  • “If all you’re about is winning, it’s really not worth it. I’m after things that last.” – Keli McGregor
  • It isn’t a structured program that makes the difference. The difference is made moment by moment by leaders who care for others,
  • Positive, life-changing leadership is an acquired trait, learned from interaction with others who know how to lead and lead well.
  • Leadership is not an innate, mystical gift; rather, it’s a learned ability to influence the attitudes and behavior of others.
  • Mentor leaders seek to have a direct, intentional, and positive impact on those they lead. Mentoring is about building character into the lives of others, modeling and teaching attitudes and behaviors, and creating a constructive legacy to be passed along to future generations of leaders.,
  • Its not possible to be an accidental mentor.
  • The primary focus of mentor leadership is to shape the lives of people right in front of them, as they lead, guide, inspire, and encourage those people.
  • Coaches often model the behavior of successful coaches—sometimes with detrimental results.
  • Mentor leadership focuses on developing the strengths of individuals.
  • People are watching us and learning from us whether we’re aware of it or not.
  • Mentor leadership is about shaping, nurturing, empowering, growing, relationships, integrity, and perpetual learning. Success is measured in changed lives, strong character, and eternal values rather than in material gain, temporal achievement, or status.
  • It is primarily concerned with building and adding value to the lives of people in the process.
  • Unity of purpose and a desire to make other people better must start at the top if these goals are going to ripple through an entire organization.
  • After a while, people see through the talk when it doesn’t line up with the walk.
  • Shortsighted leadership focuses primarily on the bottom line.
  • Influence, involvement, improvement, and impact are core principles of mentor leadership.
  • Simply stated, leadership is influence. By influencing another person, we lead that person.
  • When it comes to effective leadership, it’s not about you and what makes you comfortable or helps you get ahead. It’s about other people.
  • Mentor leaders look beyond themselves, focusing on the people they lead and where they should be going together.
  • Keep the vision out front. Don’t let your team – wherever it is – quit early.
  • Craft a mission to the best of your ability, encapsulating the items that make your family or team unique, and then run with it.
  • Values tell us and others what is important to us – as leaders, as an organization, and as individuals.
  • Truly serving others requires putting ourselves and our desires aside while looking for ways and opportunities to do what is best for others.
  • Mentor leaders desire to help those they are privileged to lead to be better in whatever roles and responsibilities they have.
  • Servant leadership flips the world’s model upside down: leaders who serve – not just when it’s convenient, neat, and acceptable, but when it’s timely, needed, and right.

Leadership Nuggets for Coaches

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Kevin Eastman is a Worldwide Speaker on Leadership & Team Building. The lessons he teaches are applicable everywhere. These area few of his tweets. You can follow him at https://twitter.com/#!/kevineastman

  • Part of leadership is motivating those you lead. So you must know what actually motivates each person. The critical part is tapping into that!
  • What you “expect” is not often what you get. What you “earn” is certainly more apt to get you going in that direction. Earning trumps expecting!
  • DO you ever think: why him or her? My thought is “if them; then why not me”. Put it on yourself to make it YOU – not THEM (or anyone else)!
  • What you do; how you do it; and who you associate with on a daily basis will determine your image and your impact!
  • The most important list you need to make: the list of things you need to do to become what you want to become…. Get the paper out now!

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  • It’s ok to be at a loss of words, but we should never be at a loss of ideas or vision of ourselves!
  • Decisions to make on your problems: make excuses for them; feel sorry for yourself; or work to solve them????
  • A great weekend personal assignment: read as much as you can this weekend. See how much you can learn. Then apply it in this upcoming week!
  • The most successful people in life control the controllable things in their life. Those that stay on top of these have a chance to be on top!
  • Learn from life by evaluating backwards (what happened); progress with life by living life forward (what can happen)! Don’t live in past!

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  • Today is always a great day to get something done that you DO NOT FEEL LIKE DOING. Usually this leads to great momentum on other things!
  • Observing & absorbing: so important to be a keen observer. But equally important to absorb what you learn. Need both steps to succeed!
  • One of the best qualities we can possess is the ability to “bring energy” every day. Energy is a multiplier – it pulls others in.
  • Looking for excuses is easy because there are lots of them out there. Fighting through challenges is hard — BUT: it usually leads to success!
  • Successful people have a willingness to dig in when times are tough. The alternative is to give in-definitely much easier but never successful!

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  • Do what you do best; do it that way all the time; continue to learn–and accept nothing less of yourself. This is how you continue to climb.
  • Everyone need to understand that talent is a “gift”; but attitude, focus, spirit, discipline, and character are “choices”!
  • Potential or production? Best teams & companies love potential but value & need production. Potential must become production at some point!
  • Best organizations in sports or business have: the resources needed; the environment that fosters success; people w/ character/team mindset!
  • Seeking counsel from those who came before you is on of the most intelligent things you can do for your future success. Find those people!

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  • Leadership begins as a title but the best leaders turn it into a position of nurturing, guiding, helping, encouraging, changing, & creating!
  • Two groups you must pay 100% attention to: 1) the group of people (your circle) you travel in; 2) the group of thoughts you allow into your mind!
  • An important question I as myself: what do I want to become? My answer drives me each day. “Becoming”, to me, is very, very powerful!
  • What if you said: I’m going to do this religiously for 10 days & begin the habit forming process. Think how many habits you could create in a year!
  • Mistakes are always going to be made. It’s simply a part of many things we are trying to do. The key is to make “new” mistakes.

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  • What you say as a leader has the power to strengthen or weaken those you lead. There is power in words. Leaders must use them wisely!
  • When times are most tough and your self doubt may be kicking in: that is when you have to rely on your mind/work/spirit–knowing you have invested all 3!
  • People ask me all the time what’s the single most important thing I do every day. It’s actually 2 things: 1) I read —- 2) I think. A must!
  • Introspection is the key ingredient of growth, development, and improvement. But true introspection takes well thought out questions!
  • So often we all come to a point where we can’t seem to make a final decision. That is the time where we have to get away & just think.
  • What you put on paper is most powerful when you put it in front of you on a daily basis. Seeing it makes it become a part of you everyday.

Action Steps for Team Leaders

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Some good thoughts to share with your team’s leaders or with the entire team.

These two handouts were taken from Ryan Renquist’s “The Notebook of Champions” Building Success One Victory at a Time (Sixth Edition)

What is a Leader?

A LEADER, LEADS BY EXAMPLE: A leader must be a positive role model at all times. Every word spoken has to be a positive word. Every act he does must be a positive act. A leader can never be negative. He must be a shining example of what it takes to be great.

A LEADER BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN OTHERS: A leader must be the type of person that others want to be like. He has to inspire his teammates to be their very best.

A LEADER IS AN EXTENSION OF THE COACH: Most players are well behaved when the coach is around. However, when the coach is not around, negative things can occur. Any type of negative talk, about the team or another player, is detrimental to the team. A leader does not try to cut corners in any way. He knows what the team and school rules are and does not break them himself, or allow others to break them.

A LEADER IS A HARD WORKER: A leader must enjoy serving others. He must want to do the things that are necessary for a team to have success. A leader is always trying to think of ways he can help improve the team.

A LEADER PUTS THE TEAM FIRST: It is easy to come up with excuses why we can’t get a task done. I hear those excuses all the time. If you want to do something, you can almost always do it. If you don’t want to do something, you can almost always find an excuse so that you don’t have to do it. I want people who I can count on to be there. I want people who are committed to basketball all year – not just during the season.

A LEADER TRULY WANTS TO BE A SERVANT: You can’t fake it, you either want to be a positive servant to your team, or you don’t. The leaders of this team do not have to be the best players. In fact, I think it is neat when someone who isn’t a great player steps up and takes on a leadership role. Your job as a member of this team is to find some way to make a positive contribution to the team. For some that contribution may be providing leadership.

Leading by Helping Others:

If you think it ever was about you as a leader, you are wrong. Leadership is about others. Great leaders love and care about others more than themselves.

Here are four tips to help you love and care about those you lead. However, let me preface these tips by saying that the most important thing you need to do is not fake caring. Either you really love those you lead or you don’t. If don’t feel it, don’t fake it. Faking it will erode your trust as a leader very quickly. People know when leaders are genuine and when they are not.

1. Serve. There is a positive correlation between serving others and love. The more you serve others, the more you will care for and love them. The more you care and love, the greater desire you will have to serve. It can be as easy as sending a heartfelt card during a tender time in an employee’s life, or doing something nice for their family. There are many opportunities to serve those we lead, we just need to be aware and look for them.

2. Be empathetic. See those you lead as people with needs just like you. I was talking to a colleague of mine the other day who has an employee with a very sick father who lives clear across the country. She can’t afford an airline ticket to see him. This kind and generous leader is going to buy her a ticket so she can see her father, and he is doing it anonymously. He has truly seen those he leads as people just like him that he can reach out and serve.

3. See the positive. Everybody has good in them. The more you think and speak positively of others the more you will care. If you are always seeing the negative; it is difficult to care because those feelings are in direct conflict with caring. Some of you might be saying, “well, that is fine and dandy, but there is negative, and I have to address that too.” And I agree. But look for the positive first and then address the negative because you love that person, not because you are upset or angry.

4. Express it. Now, you don’t need to say “I love you.” That could be construed as something different than what you are trying convey. But telling those you lead that you really do care about them; that you appreciate them, and feeling it as you say it, will increase your love for them. There is a real connection that occurs when you express how you feel genuinely to others.


10 Tips for Leaders Making Tough Decisions

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Editor’s Note from Brian. As coaches, we have many tough decisions. In some ways, we are similar to being the CEO of our programs. Here are some business lessons that can be applied to coaching as well.

by Kevin Dee

Any Leader needs to make tough decisions. CEOs tend to have the unique additional challenge of making such decisions as the final decision maker. It is a subtle, yet sometimes daunting, difference.

At any other level within an organization there is someone else to challenge/stop/change or just agree with the tough calls. The buck stops with the CEO which means she/he is ultimately responsible for all company decisions.

Experienced CEOs will generally get the calls right and know that, because they are not infallible, there will sometimes be mistakes. He/she knows that ultimately making a decision is always better than a “no decision” and most mistakes can be fixed if necessary.

Some leaders run into trouble, by making poor decisions, or by avoiding making decisions. In my experience there are a number of reasons for this:

  • They are unwilling to get/listen to the right input before making a decision.
  • They think they have all the answers themselves.
  • They become paralyzed by the amount of input to the situation requiring a decision.
  • They lack confidence in their ability to make the right call.
  • They are worried about upsetting some people with their decision.

If the leader having a problem is not the CEO, then the problem can be solved quickly by a decision made by a more senior executive.

If the leader having a problem is the CEO, the impact on the organization is significant. CEOs MUST be willing to make tough calls, and be seen to act on decisions. The majority of those decisions should be sound decisions. This builds confidence and trust, which in turn creates a healthy leadership team.

Here are some thoughts on my experiences as a CEO making tough calls.

  1. Get all of the input that you need, from whatever source. NOT just from your executive team.
  2. Truly listen. Some leaders “listen to talk”, you must “listen to understand”.
  3. Understand that you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
  4. Be sensitive to those who will not like your decision.
  5. When it is a big decision, give yourself enough time, but don’t go beyond the “right amount of time”. If you have all the facts, and nothing is going to change, it is time to make your call.
  6. Make sure you are making a business decision and not an emotional decision.
  7. When the decision is complex I like to get outside of the office to think it through. My ideal is to get on my motorbike and let everything else go, it is amazing how often this brings clarity!
  8. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Listen before and explain after!
  9. Some people will need more time to understand and absorb your decision, if possible take the time to explain it to them.
  10. Know your own weaknesses, and get the right advisors to help you with those. I am not a detail guy, but I have detail people I trust implicitly.

“Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.” John C. Maxwell

Tough decisions will define you as a leader, do not shy away from them!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/leadership-articles/ten-tips-for-leaders-making-tough-decisions-7105697.html
About the Author: http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/kevin-dee/1595305

5 Signs of Toxic Leadership on Your Team

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This article was submitted by Quinn McDowell, founder of Arete Hoops.
You can read more of his articles at this link: AreteHoops

I hope you can use some of these thoughts as a different voice to share with your players.

5 Signs of Toxic Leadership

The well known author John Maxwell defines leadership as nothing more than one person influencing another. This definition gives us a singular focus when thinking about leadership in the context of a team dynamic. The idea that leadership is primarily influence, forces us to accept the notion that no one is exempt from the responsibilities that leadership requires.

Although certain players will exert more influence than others, every person on a team contributes to the culture of their program. If the entire team buys into a common vision of leadership that exerts a positive influence on those around them, the results can be amazing. On the other hand, if players decide to use their influence for selfish ends, the results can be toxic. Bad leadership spreads quickly and has devastating potential; but if you recognize the warning signs early enough, you can help save your team from self-destruction. Leadership is contagious whether positive or negative, so here are 5 signs that your team could be experiencing a turn for the worse…

1. Gossip

Gossip destroys trust and undermines team cohesiveness and togetherness. One of the most important strengths of great teams is their ability to insulate themselves against negativity. The only way teams shield themselves from outside influences is draw close and lean on each other during the inevitable ups and downs of a season. This “drawing close” process becomes difficult when players gossip about fellow teammates or coaching decisions. If a player has a problem with another player or is unsure of their role on the team, the mature way to handle these kind of doubts is to speak directly with the coach. Once the coach is involved, everyone can get on the same page and figure out a solution. Gossip is the cowardly way to handle tough situations and gossip destroys team chemistry.

2. Pouting

One of the signs of great leaders is their ability to celebrate team success despite how they perform individually. Of course it is easy to be happy about a victory when you score a lot of points, grab a bunch of rebounds, or dish out a number of assists. But the true test of great leadership is the ability to be genuinely excited about team accomplishments when you didn’t have your best game. Toxic leadership can start in the locker room after a big win when a player starts to pout because of a poor individual performance. This kind of pouting sends the message that MY
performance on the floor is what really matters and team success is secondary.

3. Poor Body Language

Your non-verbal communication as a leader is incredibly important. It communicates you’re feelings and shows the value of your priorities. For example, poor body language on the court after a teammate makes a mistake communicates a message of disgust and annoyance with that person. You are essentially telling that teammate, “I wish I had another player on the court with me who could play the right way”. This kind of communication coming from a prominent leader makes other teammates feel insecure and unsure of themselves on the court. Uncertainty leads to hesitancy which compounds mistakes and leads to poor team chemistry.

4. Negative Reaction to Adversity

There will come a point in every season when your team will have to respond to adversity. How these moments are handled by your leaders will set the tone for how the rest of the team responds in difficult circumstances. Your team might be losing to an inferior opponent and your leaders will have a choice to either blame the poor performance on someone (usually a coach or teammate), or take responsibility and figure out a way to improve the situation. Another example could be when the coach subs out a player during a tense moment in the game; how that player reacts to the coaches decision is important. The player can either sulk to the end of the bench consumed with selfish thoughts, or they can turn their frustration into positive energy and cheer their teammates on. Both reactions communicate specific messages to teammates and coaches. Toxic leaders tend to be consumed with their own predicaments are prone to have negative reactions to adversity.

5. Martyr Complex

The last sign of toxic leadership, is when players start believing (and telling anyone else who will listen) they are martyrs or victims. Whether it is coaching decisions, bad calls by the referees, unfair playing time, injuries, or incompetent teammates, leaders that adopt the martyr complex bring a dangerous presence to team dynamics. If players start to believe that someone else is the primary source of their problems, this creates a culture of entitlement and laziness. Rather than looking in the mirror and figuring out how to improve, martyrs look at their circumstances and blame others. Martyrs will never put up a fight in the heated battles of competition; but instead will take the path of least resistance.

Quinn played basketball at Archbishop Moeller High School (Cincinnati, OH), 4 years at the College of William and Mary, 1 season in the NBA D-League, and 2 years as a professional in Australia. Arete Hoops is dedicated to helping people of various ages, backgrounds, skill levels, and athletic goals pursue excellence in and through the game of Basketball.

You can read more articles by Quinn McDowell at this link: AreteHoops