The breakdown of individual egos and the reassembly into a team

As the U of Washington closes in on a Pac-10 title, Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar says the most satisfying thing is seeing how "everyone can somehow be on the same page."

"One of the most difficult things to do as a staff is to get everyone on the same page, because everyone has their own agenda. To get players to think of others, and to think of others in the same one way, is difficult. I feel like this team is what every coaching staff would aspire to. So it is very, very gratifying.""

As a side note, columnist Art Thiel, who's written for the Seattle paper for almost 30 years, contends that "the breakdown of individual egos and the reassembly into a team is about 90 percent of game coaching at the college level."

Nearly every blue-chip recruit who comes to a school in a big-time conference thinks he's an NBA prospect. Nope. Nearly all of them are wrong. Over the past 15 or so years, the influx of talent from around the world has significantly reduced the already small chance of making it in the NBA, although a good living can now be made in many other countries.

Everyone is on one page

The first time Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury played together was in 1996 with the T-wolves and Flip Saunders.

KG was 20 years old; Marbury was still a teenager.

Now, 13 years later, what did Garnett tell Marbury about what to expect in Boston?

"He spoke about how much fun it’s been and how much fun I’m going to have and how basketball is fun again and you feel that. You feel it when you come into the locker room. Just everything about the organization – everyone is on one page, there’s no division, everybody is trying to do one thing and that’s win a basketball game to win a championship."

BOS coach Doc Rivers "explained to Marbury that being a Celtic means putting the team first and the individual second, and he believes that Marbury has bought into that team concept."

"This whole Steph thing is not about Steph," Rivers said. "It’s not about Rajon [Rondo]. This whole thing is more of a statement on our team. It really is and whether or not we have the type of team that is about zero [individual identity] and that is all about winning. To me, it’s more a testimony on that."

To get into shape after not playing for more than a year, Marbury trained in Manhattan Beach (just south of LAX) with Aim Sports Medicine.

Marbury, who "lost more than 10 pounds over the course of his training," worked on his core, ran and hiked the Runyan Mountains, and did a number of nontraditional exercises.

"I was lifting 100-pound boulders. I was doing things that I’ve never done before like swinging sledge hammers, using kettlebells. It changed the structure of my body. I lost a lot of weight and I got stronger."

The best coaches create the conditions for the team to motivate itself

Dean Smith, who coached UNC to two national titles in the '80s and '90s, once said that coaches are hired to teach execution, not effort. Effort, according to Coach Smith, is the responsibility of each player.

Of course, that doesn't stop coaches at every level from not only demanding excellent effort, but trying to motivate their players to produce a better effort.

Nets coach Lawrence Frank recently spoke of working to get his guys to "compete harder."

Effort is defined as "the use of physical or mental energy to do something." Things like playing with a sense of urgency, focus, intensity, energy, passion -- all of these go in the "effort bucket."

Often, when teams lose, you'll hear words like "lethargic," "uninspired," or "lackadaisical" used to describe the losing team's effort. Similarly, teams that manage to stage upsets are described as "scrappy," "overachieving," or "spirited."

Unfortunately, as coaches know, there's not a magic formula for inspiring every player on a team to put forth their best effort throughout a game.

According to the book "Coaching Matters," Tom Landry, like Paul Brown before him, believed that emotion had "a limited effect... on the outcome of a game."

"Thought passion could be beneficial, Brown knew that it was simply a state of mind. It was not going to make a dramatic difference during a game and certainly wouldn't sustain a club throughout the course of a season. To depend on players to consistently achieve a higher emotional level than that of their opponents would surely be foolhardy, and sometimes counterproductive, Brown concluded."

Coach Landry learned from Coach Brown that it's not about "the most spirited, toughest, or strongest players." To him, it was about "systems, technique, and teamwork."

Mike Pelino, an assistant for the NY Rangers and Canada's National Hockey Team, believes a coach's job is two fold:

First, he has a responsibility to help each player develop to their full potential. Second is to bring a team's players together to form "a cohesive, successful unit."

To achieve these goals, a coach must be able to motivate players and encourage them to strive for levels they may not believe they are capable of reaching. Every player is unique and may need to be motivated in a different way. A coach must find out what motivates a specific individual and assist that player in drawing out this energy. The more personal attention and individual time spent with each player, the greater the opportunity for the coach to recognize how to develop that person’s passion.

So how does a coach "draw out" that energy in his players?

In 2004, Dr. Josè Maria Buceta, a psychology professor and the former head coach of the Spanish Women's National Team, wrote a story for FIBA's Assist magazine titled "The Motivation of Elite Players."

According to Dr. Buceta, while goal-setting is critical to success, "motivation that comes from within really makes the difference. If your players are not motivated to achieve goals, they won’t get far."

Think about this analogy. You have a car with a full tank of gas, a well-tuned engine, a good set of tires, and a sleek, polished exterior. The car sits by the roadway, ready to be used. This car has incredible potential. However, until a driver puts the key in the ignition, and starts up the engine, the car doesn’t function or move forward.

He suggests balancing team goals with individual ones, writing that "players must perceive enough individual benefit related to ambitious team goals, and then be an integral part of the decision-making process involved in setting goals."

This helps to ensure ownership. If that's missing, "their motivation to achieve the goals will be very weak, and, at some point during the season, any motivation efforts will become insufficient."

The professor concludes with this statement:

A good coach can be a catalyst for motivation in the short term, but the best coaches create the conditions for the team to motivate itself.

There's not a letter you can put on your chest that makes you a leader

David Wright has spent five seasons with the NY Mets, earning All-Star honors the last three. Now 26, Wright says that even though he's a relatively young guy, he's happy to step into a leadership role this year.

"I think that I can be more of a leader by what I bring to the field, not necessarily yelling and screaming. I think that if you lead by example and play the game hard and play the game the right way, guys will follow you. Those are the guys that I follow. I've said all along that leadership is earned. There's not a title or letter you can put on your chest that makes you a leader.

Obviously, there are guys that have been around for quite some time and they've got more experience than I do. But by no means do I feel intimidated or not feel comfortable going up and talking to those guys if I see something. I understand how the game is where you have to put your time in, but I want to win. And if it takes me taking a bigger leadership role, then I'll do that.

You're going to find 30 teams with great players on them, but very few do you have everybody that buys in and will give themselves up for the good of the team."

Winning isn't about luck

The Falcons aren't the only team in ATL that's playing well. The Hawks have won nine of 10.

According to Hawks players, there's no secret to success.

"It’s just determination,” said Joe Johnson. "Just going out and trying to work harder than the opponent. We’ve been doing that. In the second halves we’ve clamped down [on the defensive end], got stops and made big plays offensively. It’s really been as simple as that."

"There certainly isn’t any Harry Potter stuff going on," said Marvin Williams. "We don’t have any lucky charms or anything crazy like that. We’re just grinding, scrapping our way to every win we can."

"It’s not anything complicated," said Al Horford. "I think if you watch us play, no matter who is out there, we’re at our best when we’re defending and rebounding on defense and sharing the ball on offense. When we stick to who we are, the defense and rebounding, I think we’re capable of playing with anybody."

Says ATL coach Mike Woodson:

"I think you have to credit all the guys in that locker room for coming to work every single day and doing whatever it takes to help this team win games. I think guys have bought into what we’re doing and that’s translated into what you see from us on the floor every night. And it’s good to see, because we’ve struggled to get here. We’ve had to go through some tough times to get here. Now the key is to continue climbing and make sure we’re moving forward. We have a lot of season left to play and a lot of goals we still have to reach."

Assessing problems, considering solutions, and implementing them

To my surprise, there were "below-the-surface murmurings before the season about whether Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy still had his team's attention," according to this story.

I also didn't realize that Coach Dungy had "contemplated retiring a year ago."

But one thing wasn't surprising. After starting the season at 3-4, Coach Dungy turned things around. With Sunday's win over DET, IND has won seven straight.

As this article contends, after the slow start, there were "no fiery coaching clichés about backs against the wall, or us vs. them, or being disrespected, or finding out what this team is made of, men. Dungy assessed the problems. He mulled over solutions. He implemented them."

“At 3-4, we knew what the problems were,” Dungy said. “A lot of it was ourselves and our execution and that's what we focused on more so than pointing the finger at someone or figuring out who's to blame. I think a lot of that goes back to the players really listening to the coaches.”

The ability to stay the course, and get his players to buy in and listen is a credit to Coach Dungy, who is close to leading an NFL team to the playoffs for the 10th consecutive season, which would set a new NFL record.

It's about getting the right fit, getting the right players

When asked recently whether he'll coach again, Ty Willingham replied candidly, "Something could be out there for me and something could not."

Coach Willingham, fired as coach at the University of Washington in late October, was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year twice during his time at Stanford, where the school's former AD called the match between the university and Coach Willingham as a "perfect fit."

Todd Husak, who played for Coach Willingham at Stanford "said he believes that... Washington was a bad match from the start."

At Notre Dame, Coach Willigham went 21-15 and played in two bowl games in three seasons. In comparison, current ND coach Charlie Weis is 28-21 in four seasons, though just 9-15 the last two seasons since replacing Willingham.

Tara VanDerveer, the women's hoops coach at Stanford and a friend of Coach Willingham, agreed with Husak about finding a good match.

"I think it's about getting the right fit, getting the right players, being at a place that appreciates what you do. It is all about fit."

According to Roy Lewis, who played for Coach Willingham at Washington (and is now on the Steelers' practice squad), says that, for some reason, the coach's message wasn't getting through.

"I don't think he got across to enough players, and sometimes that could lead to a lot of different opinions as far as players are concerned. The whole thing when you're coaching a team is to make sure everybody is buying into what's going on, and if you don't have guys buying in, that definitely makes the job tough. It doesn't matter how great of a coach you are, if you don't have guys who want to believe and buy in to a program, then ultimately the program won't do so well."

No priority is more important than building confidence

One of my former college roommates forwarded me an excellent article that has real relevance for coaches, especially those who are taking over a team or program.

As I read the article, I kept thinking about coaches at all levels who've been hired and achieved success immediately. Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech (pictured here), for example, comes to mind.

According to the authors, one "essential element that must exist before any process change can show significant results." That element is confidence.

"Leaders who inspire confidence find that [players] become partners, and invest time, energy and effort toward the desired end result."

The following is an excerpt from the article [which is here]:

Ultimately, what determines whether a new leader will be able to meet expectations is the motivation and effort of the [team]. While a great reputation may give the new leader a brief advantage, it’s the ability to inspire the willing contribution of [his players] that enable him or her to deliver results rapidly and sustain these results over time.

When people have confidence, they willingly invest their time, effort, and energy toward the end result. New leaders can get better results, and get them more quickly, by making confidence-building a central focus of their transition plan.

But this doesn’t mean they start out with a pep rally. The kind of confidence people need doesn’t come from impassioned speeches or from patting people on the back and letting them know you have faith in them, but from a carefully crafted plan that guides people toward early successes and inspires them to ever higher levels of performance.

As Rosabeth Moss Kanter found in her research for her book, CONFIDENCE, once an organization is on a “winning streak,” it takes relatively little effort to sustain performance. So it makes sense for new leaders to focus their initial efforts on early successes. These successes inspire people in the organization to have confidence in the leader, in each other and in their own ability to win.

So how do new leaders rapidly build confidence?

While every organization is different, and every new leader will face unique circumstances, the good news is that any leader in a new role can rapidly encourage confidence by implementing the five building blocks:

1. Building trust through frequent, candid, and consistent communication.
2. Getting buy-in for one overriding and inspiring objective.
3. Creating a plan with input from the organization.
4. Ensuring that people are in the right roles.
5. Achieving early successes that inspire.

COMMUNICATION: As a new leader, know that everything you do communicates something. The messages people get from your early actions impact the confidence they will have in your leadership.

A great way to build credibility and mark the beginning of your leadership is by solving simple problems that get in people’s way.

The best way to determine which small changes will have the biggest impact is to get out and talk to people. When you decide on the changes to make, make them quickly and publicly.

People need to trust your motivations and feel confident that you’ll keep your word. The more exposure they have to you and the more you show interest in their concerns, the more likely you are to build trust.

INSPIRING VISION: Far too many leaders are great at giving specific directions, but neglect to remind everyone on the team of the greater direction and vision of the company.

But offering a strategy without a meaningful goal is like providing a map, pointing out a direction and telling people to “just get started” and you’ll fill them in later on the destination. The journey quickly becomes meaningless, and if the travelers encounter any roadblocks or detours, they’re likely to just give up, since they don’t know the greater purpose.

People are goal-directed organisms. Providing a meaningful objective taps into people’s natural motivation to succeed. As a new leader, you need to rapidly identify your prime objective for the first part of your tenure and get buy-in from all stakeholders. For any goal to inspire team confidence, it must truly be shared by everyone.

When people are confident of the clear, overriding purpose for their activities, they can respond flexibly, rapidly and confidently to unanticipated obstacles, changing circumstances and new
opportunities.

As a leader, you need to take responsibility for keeping people connected to the direction and vision on a regular basis. This keeps people from getting lost in daily activities and losing momentum.

STRATEGIC PLAN: No coach who wants to inspire the confidence of the team is going to suggest they can win without a clear game plan. In the same way, you can’t expect your players to get out on the field without a strategy.

Can the plan change along the way? Of course. But it’s having a plan – a roadmap for action – that inspires players to get out on the field and get started.

It’s important to engage people in developing the strategy. Not only will you gain valuable information, but you’ll increase people’s feeling of ownership in the plan. When people participate in creating a plan, they feel more invested in bringing it to a successful outcome.

Every milestone, program, and initiative needs to move the organization in the direction you want it to go. And everyone in the organization needs to be aware of how his or her role fits into the larger objective.

CLEARLY-DEFINED ROLES: By ensuring that the right people are in the right roles, you, as a leader, can feel more confident in them. Putting people in roles that fit their competencies also increases their self-confidence and the confidence of others on the team.

In order to do this, you need to:

-- Evaluate: See that the right people are in the right jobs. Support those who are, move those who are not.

-- Coach: Guide, critique, and assist people to improve their performance.

-- Build: Encourage and recognize people regularly. Specific encouragement and reward gives your people the courage to stretch, take risks and achieve new levels of performance.

Don’t wait for scheduled meetings, reviews, or ceremonies to give people feedback and recognition. Every interaction you have with your team is an opportunity to energize people and encourage them to move them in the right direction.

EARLY VICTORIES: It’s important that people feel momentum building during the transition period. The best way to accomplish this is to focus people on achieving early wins. It’s important to avoid initial challenges that carry the risk of failure and instead identify goals that can be achieved within a short time frame.

Seeing tangible results boosts motivation and encourages further effort. Leaders need to identify milestones that lead the organization in the direction of the overriding objective. Achieving these milestones constitutes early wins and gives the organization and leadership team something to celebrate. Achieving these early victories builds the leader’s credibility, the organization’s motivation, and the team’s confidence in its own ability to win.

Not only do you need to identify milestones and create a path to achieve them, you also need to celebrate victories, even the small ones, from the very beginning. Celebrating not only creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy, it bonds your team members together in the spirit of shared accomplishment. This inspires further confidence in their ability to collaborate and to win.

In any transition, getting the beginning right is critical to achieving the end results you want. As you move into a new leadership position, you’ll have many things to do. You’ll find yourself pulled in multiple directions, needing to respond to multiple stakeholders and outside observers, often at the same time.

Keep in mind, however, that confidence is the driving force enabling you to deliver on expectations. No priority is more important than building that confidence. The sooner you master this, the sooner your strategic plans are likely to deliver on their promise.

When players become an extension of the coaching staff

With Saturday's loss to rival Ohio State, Rich Rodriguez and his U of Michigan team finished 3-9 in Coach Rodriguez's first season in Ann Arbor.

But according to Coach Rod, the first couple of years are the toughest.

"By the time you get to the third and fourth year, your players become an extension of your staff and they help coach."

The good news is, from listening to Michigan's players, they understand what Coach Rod is trying to build.

Said one UM underclassman:

"Everybody on the team didn't buy in like they're supposed to. We've got a couple guys not going hard, but we'll correct that. Most definitely. It ain't happening on my watch next year."

Getting players to take ownership

A story in the Plain Dealer describes how CLE coach Mike Brown "has spent years focusing and honing skills not just in basketball management but also in people management, and his success speaks in his record."

Coach Brown is careful about "passing off credit and absorbing as much criticism as possible," which has "remarkably endeared him to the players."

As Coach Brown, a USD alum, puts it: "From a young age, I had to figure out how to impose my will and get guys to understand without jumping on them or forcing it."

He started in the NBA as a video coordinator for the Nuggets when he was 22. Four years later, he moved to the Bullets as an assistant. Because he was just 26, "he started working on learning as much as he could about his players, not just from film and by reading, but by talking to them not about just about basketball but their lives in general. It was high-level bonding from someone who by job title is supposed to carry authority."

He also made it a point to understand what the players' were feeling. According to Gregg Popovich, for whom Brown coached in San Antonio:

"Michael's always had a great ability to show empathy with a player's situation. One guy may need to be jumped on because he's got a tough spirit, but maybe another guy is more sensitive and you need to handle him one-on-one in the film room. Mike has a great sense of how to handle personalities and knowing what would make that person to allow themselves to be taught."

The following is an excerpt from the article:

A significant facet of Brown's technique is to get players invested in decisions. Often, whether in a practice setting or even in the heat of a timeout in a close game, he will allow the players to make decisions on plays or strategy. To some, this would be considered risky logic and could lead to ruinous anarchy. But Brown sees it as a chance for his players to take ownership in decisions.

In the same vein, Brown almost never passes off blame when speaking publicly or challenges players through the media. When mistakes are made and the press comes looking for a villain, Brown usually steps into the firing line. When praise is in order, he often deflects it.

[Once], when a late-game adjustment solved some issues on offense, Brown said one of the players had suggested the change. When asked later, the player shook his head and said it was Brown who came up with the idea.

"I try to empower my players as much as possible - if you do, it is going to reflect in their effort level," Brown said. "The reality of it is, everybody on this level can play - it is about who plays harder and who plays better together. If you have two people who think they are working together and not a boss telling an employee, it is going to work better."

He is devout when it comes to preparation, which includes vast amounts of film. He has numerous meetings with players, always making sure to keep the lines of communication open in the hope of never surprising anyone with decisions, whether it is good or bad news.

"He sold me as a person even before I knew him as a coach," Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said. "You cannot fool players for a long time, maybe a few weeks, but not forever. We found out pretty quick that it didn't matter that he didn't play in the league because his basketball IQ was so high."