Look at Me Leadership originally posted at “The Winner’s Edge“ What makes an individual great — is it their work ethic, their natural talent, or their unwillingness to relent to adversity or failure? Could be one, could be all, could be a combination. When the individual is called upon to lead, whether by hiring, vote, or…
The Key to Creating High Performing Teams
At the What Drives Winning Conference a few years ago Florida softball coach, Tim Walton, referenced a TED Talk by business leader, Margaret Heffernan. In it, she cites research by evolutionary biologist who studied productivity using chickens. William Muir devised an experiment to find out what would make chickens produce more eggs. Chickens live in groups, so…
Another 5 Team Themes to Help Develop Your Culture
In my last post, I wrote about 5 team themes that I have used with my teams through the years to help develop our program’s culture. If you missed that post click here to read it. Today, I am going to talk about five more of the themes I have used through the years. Also, if…
5 Themes to Help Develop Your Culture
For quite a few years now, I have established and taught team themes with my teams. Whether it be our team’s core covenants, John Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success,” or just random life lessons that I believe are important to discuss with our kids, we have had some kind of focus each week throughout the season.…
5 Ways to Lead Players Who Don’t Want to Be Led
Recently I helped facilitate a Captains’ Academy for college women’s basketball team leaders. Some of their questions dealt with how to lead teammates who don’t want to be led. Teammates with bad attitudes, poor effort or both. A few days after the Academy, I read a terrific article—7 Ways to Lead People Who Don’t Want to…
One Easy Way to Empower Student-Athletes
Coach Robyn Fralick took over the Ashland Eagles program a few years ago after seven years as an assistant for long-time coach, Sue Ramsey. She lost two games during her first season as a head coach and went undefeated in her second year, winning the 2017 NCAA Division II National Championship. Not bad, huh? I’ve written before about the…
The Lynchpin to Team Cohesion
Player leadership is crucial to creating a winning team culture. We know this. Coaches long to have a few players on the team with the courage to step up and lead on the court and in the locker room. But there’s another role that may be even more important to team cohesion and creating a…
Championship Team Culture
Today I am suspending my series of posts on coaches being teachers to talk a bit about the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship game last week. I am not going to be breaking down plays or going into any specifics on basketball. I just want to talk a bit about the beauty of watching two…
4 Keys to Oregon State’s Team Culture
So many vivid pictures of March Madness history play in my mind: Villanova upsetting Georgetown, La Tech’s short sleeve uniforms, Jimmy V looking for someone to hug, Pat Summitt’s orange suit, Laettner’s turn-around jumper and Charlotte Smith’s shot that lifted UNC to the title. It’s still one of my favorite times of the year, but…
From Worst to World Series
From Worst to World Series: Dayton Moore’s Process You may or may not have heard of Dayton Moore, but if you follow professional baseball, you have heard of the Kansas City Royals. Once the laughing stock of Major League Baseball, the Royals have gone from baseball’s worst team to one of baseball’s hottest teams, fresh…