Coaches Toolbox

  • Home
  • Mental Toughness
  • Leadership
  • Motivation
  • Staff Development
  • Program Building
  • Archives
  • Sport Specific Sites
    • Athletic Performance Coaching
    • Basketball Coaching
    • Football Coaching
    • Soccer Coaching
    • Track and Field Coaching
    • Volleyball Coaching

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

Click on the links to read the individual posts.

Thankful for Teachers, Coaches, and Leaders in Our Lives

by

Thankful for Teachers, Coaches, and Leaders in Our Lives

by Scott Rosberg

Editor’s note from Brian: This is being posted at Thanksgiving, but I believe the message is significant year round

The posts I am writing this month when we celebrate Thanksgiving revolve around the concept of things we have to be thankful for. Last week I wrote a more personal post about things and people for which I am thankful. Today I want to ask you to consider a group of people in your life who I believe you should be thankful for. I want you to consider the teachers, coaches, and leaders who you have studied or followed and the mentors who have guided you. Are you thankful for the contributions that they made in your life?  Have you told them?

We tell our students, athletes, and their parents how teachers and coaches play such an important role in kids’ lives. They provide knowledge, guidance, counseling, and nurturing for so many young people every day. They are selfless. Their whole professional life is about serving others. Teachers and coaches are there for you when you need them. So we tell our kids to thank their teachers and coaches for all that they do.

Today I want you to consider, as a coach/leader yourself, who has done the same kinds of things for you in your professional life. Who has taught you strategies, tactics, and the fine points of how to coach/lead? Who has helped guide you at times when you were struggling? Who has helped you with your coaching/leadership style? Who has been an ear for you when you needed to bounce ideas off someone, had questions about a certain situation, or had a tough problem that you were dealing with? Who sparked something in you that you didn’t even know you had in you? Who has helped you become the best you are capable of becoming?

For most of you, there are many people who have had that kind of impact on you. Of course, there will be some people’s faces that will quickly jump into your mind. These are the people who have had the greatest impact on your career, the job you do, and how you do what you do. These are the “life-changers” that so many of us point to as being the most influential people in our lives. Certainly, our parents will fall into this category. But who are the other people in your life who have had the greatest impact on you becoming the coach/leader you are today?

As you contemplate who has had a huge impact on you, you will probably realize that there are others who have also contributed to who you have become as a coach/leader. These may be people who played a smaller role in your growth as a coach/leader, but who, nonetheless, have been influential in some way in you becoming the person you are today. They may have offered a tip, may have been an example of a certain way to deal with a situation, or may have been someone from back when you were younger who you realize has always been a part of how you live your life. While their role may not seem as large and influential as the people who immediately stand out as impactful to you, the accumulation of all of their contributions has ended up having a huge impact on who you have become.

I am going to issue two challenges to you to try to accomplish by the end of this upcoming holiday season. First, make sure you thank the people who have been so impactful in your life. Of course, this starts with those people who immediately came to mind when you were asked to think of the people who have had the greatest influence for you. But this challenge also includes reaching out to the other people who have had what may seem like minor influences on you, but when you add them all together, you realize their impact has been huge. Do not put this challenge off. The people who have had an impact on your life will be so grateful that you have recognized them and thanked them for all that they have done for you.

The second challenge could be even more important than the first. I want to challenge you to become one of the people that other people will point to as having great influence and impact on their lives. Become a catalyst for growth, development, and inspiration to help others become all that they are capable of becoming. Do all that you can to pay forward the concepts that so many others have done for you. Be the inspiration to become one’s best the same way someone else was an inspiration for you. And do this for a variety of people in a variety of circumstances. Be the coach who inspires kids to stretch themselves beyond what they thought they were capable of. Be the coach who works hard to create a positive experience for everyone in the program.  Be the leader who helps other coaches, teachers, and supervisors feel the confidence to try something new or handle some situation that they may have struggled with before. Be the friend who is there for someone who is facing a struggle that they are not sure how to get through.

True leadership is about serving. When you help others get what they want, overcome obstacles, and develop the ability to become all they are capable of becoming, you help yourself and your teams do the same. Gandhi put it so well – “Be the change you want to see in the world.” You have a great opportunity to change so many lives for the better because of your leadership role in people’s lives. Lead and inspire with honor, dignity, and compassion, and others will follow your example. By doing so, you will soon be the answer that someone gives when they are asked the question, “Who are you thankful for?” Go to the Coach with Character Facebook Page and let us know who you are thankful for in your professional life.

About the Author of this Article

Scott Rosberg has been a coach (basketball, soccer, & football) at the high school level for 30 years, an English teacher for 18 years, and an athletic director for 12 years. He has published seven booklets on coaching and youth/school athletics, two books of inspirational messages and quotes for graduates, and a newsletter for athletic directors and coaches. He also speaks to schools, teams, and businesses on a variety of team-building, leadership, and coaching topics. Scott has a blog and a variety of other materials about coaching and athletic topics on his website – www.coachwithcharacter.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Scott is also a member of the Proactive Coaching speaking team. Proactive Coaching is dedicated to helping organizations create character and education-based team cultures, while providing a blueprint for team leadership. They help develop confident, tough-minded, fearless competitors and train coaches and leaders for excellence and significance. Proactive Coaching can be found on the web at www.proactivecoaching.info. Also, you can join the 200,000+ people who have “Liked” Proactive Coaching’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/proactivecoach. Scott can also be reached through Proactive Coaching at [email protected].


Filed Under: Leadership

Being and Developing Mentor Leaders

by

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.

Filed Under: Archives, Leadership

Leadership Nuggets for Coaches

by

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!
  •  

  • 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!
  •  

  • 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!
  •  

  • 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!
  •  

  • 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.
  •  

  • 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.

Filed Under: Archives, Leadership

Action Steps for Team Leaders

by

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.


Filed Under: Leadership, Program Building

10 Tips for Leaders Making Tough Decisions

by

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

Filed Under: Leadership

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • Next Page »
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • linkedin

© Copyright 2025 Athletic Performance Toolbox

Design by BuzzworthyBasketballMarketing.com

Privacy Policy