Your best players need to be your decision-makers

John Tortorella, who led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the 2004 Stanley Cup, is the opposite of the coach he just replaced with the NY Rangers, Tom Renney, who was let go after a rough 12-game stretch in which the team came away with just two wins.

According to this article, "In terms of on-ice, Renney was safe-safe-safe, whereas Tortorella is a 'safe-is-death' guy."

Says Rangers veteran Scott Gomez, a former NHL All-Star, "That's normal. You're going to hire the opposite."

An article in the Minneapolis paper from May 2004 said that when Coach Tortorella was in Tampa Bay, he had three signs posted in the locker room, "each intended to remind players of [his] philosophy."

One reads: Safe is death. Another: Good is the enemy of great. The other: Don't think ... do.

In his first day on the job, Coach Tortorella, who as a minor league coach in the mid-1980s "spent a summer hammering nails and painting walls so his guys would have a better locker room," had some interesting thoughts regarding coaching and the role of the coach.

~~~~~~~~~~

On his coaching style: "I'm not going to stand behind the bench and just calmly go about it. I'm just not built that way. I think honesty is what players want. They're going to get pushed, they're going to be held accountable, and there are going to be some bumps in the road. There may be some conflict, but I don't think we should be afraid of conflict. This reputation that I just kick the hell out of people, it takes on a life of its own. As a coach you'd better understand what your team is right now as far as how they feel."

On the coach's role: "I think the coach is the guidance counselor. That's an important aspect of a head coach, getting the most out of your top people."

On regaining confidence after a losing streak: "Losing knocks you down. I'm gonna push them, but as a coach, you have to understand when you need to be with them. This is a time to get them to feel decent about themselves. They need to get a little self confidence. We're going to allow them to try to work through that and try to find a way to get a win."

On his predecessors who were fired: "There's going to be a philosophical change here, but there's a couple of good guys who are out and I just don't want them blamed."

On team leadership: "Your best players need to be your decision-makers. They're going to get every opportunity to win hockey games for us. If they're playing hard, I'm going to send them right back out there."

An enthusiastic person tends to inspire enthusiasm in others

After writing this post this morning, I went looking for a book I'd read by John Adair, a former soldier in the British Army who had a long career as a management professor and leadership consultant.

In 2004, Adair published a book titled "The Inspirational Leader," in which he explains why enthusiasm is often necessary to lead.

~~~~~~~~~~

An enthusiastic person tends to inspire enthusiasm in others. At times we all need encouragement.

"There is a point with me," wrote Gerard Manley Hopkins, "in matters of any size when I must absolutely have encouragement as much as crops need rain."

The effect of a change of leader -- an enthusiastic one in place of one lacking any powers of inspiring others -- can seem quite magical, even where the work in question is drudgery or toil.

Xenophon (pictured above), a Greek general, gives us two examples. His first comes from his observations of life aboard the Greek war galleys known as triremes, with three tiers of rowers drawn from the lowest class in Athens.

To get the best out of these oarsmen... called for the kind of uplifting yet demanding leadership that produces enthusiastic teamwork resulting in great performance. Xenophon writes of the rowing-masters who could do it as if they were conductors of a winning chorus:

On a warship, when the ship is on the high seas, and the rowers must toil all day to reach port, some rowing-masters can say and do the right thing to sharpen the men's spirits and make them work with a will. Other rowing-masters are so lacking in intelligence that it takes them more than twice the time to finish the same voyage. Here they land bathed in sweat, with mutual congratulations, rowing-master and oarsmen. There they arrive with dry skin; they hate their master and he hates them.

In the words of [conductor] Sir Georg Solti, "In my enthusiasm and intensity I will often push people to the limits of their capabilities -- and that must entail a certain degree of risk. The great thing is that the risk pays off when that person suddenly finds something in themselves they didn't know was there."

It's about making each other better

Good story in the Raleigh paper this morning about how NC State guards Javier Gonzalez (pictured here with Wolfpack coach Sid Lowe) and Farnold Degand go after each other in practice in an effort to improve one another.

Gonzalez, urged by his mother "to be 'a warrior' on the court," says that while he and Degand are friends away from practice, the battles in practice with Degand is "about making each other better."

NC State assistant Pete Strickland compares it to a Bible verse:

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

According to the article, Gonzalez has worked hard on his game, sometimes "working on his game from midnight to about 2 a.m. before falling asleep on a couch."

"He's a gym rat," Coach Strickland said. "He's always the first at practice and the last one to leave. Sometimes he drags other players with him."

The three myths of leadership

From Dayle Smith's book "The Eleven Keys of Leadership," in which the author outlines the "three myths of leadership."

~~~~~~~~~~

The process of understanding leadership in all its human diversity begins by discarding three tired myths about leaders. These myths are hazardous because they attempt to exclude ourselves for the candidate list for leaders. Worse, these leadership myths distort the nature of true leadership.

The Birthright Myth: "Leaders are born, not made."

This myth has deep and tangled cultural roots. The widespread belief that leaders either "have it" or don't from their earliest years springs in part from more than two thousand years of literature emphasizing the role of the hero.

In the great majority of these works of imagination or retold history, the hero is distinguished from fellow men or women by innate superior strength, courage, wisdom, physical attractiveness, and virtue. The present themselves as unique individuals, and essentially mysterious beings -- "above the common herd," in Byron's phrase.

This myth is dangerous when applied to leaders in businesses and other organizations. Many of the most prominent leaders reveal that far from being "naturals" for leadership positions, they had to learn to lead, often by painful lessons of trial and error.

Contrary to the "Birthright Myth," leaders turn out to be remarkably like the rest of us, but with the difference that they know the skills and techniques of leadership.

The For-All-Seasons Myth: "Once a leader, always a leader."

Allied to the Birthright Myth is the inaccurate but widely held belief that certain people are everywhere, at all times, capable of assuming the challenges of leadership, no matter what the circumstances. The Birthright Myth attributes such talent to heritage; the For-All-Seasons Myth attributes it to character and track record.

When leaders are drawn away from their areas of strength and become overcommitted with unfamiliar responsibilities, they neither serve their followers nor themselves well. Leaders can emerge from the unique circumstances of the moment. No myth about a person's past or present status as a leader should keep us from considering others, or ourselves, as potential leaders.

The Intensity Myth: "Leaders are more emotionally intense than the rest of us."

This myth is based on the notion that great leaders feel things more broadly or deeply -- and are more emotionally intense -- than the rest of us mere mortals.

Just as the range of human emotions is extensive, so too this myth takes many forms. Probably the best known or most common is the Anger Myth -- the idea that the boss is mad and we'd better watch our step. But is anger or intense emotion the generally shared characteristic of all or most leaders?

No. The Anger Myth stems from the old belief that most workers hate what they do and must be driven by the stick of anger to put in an honest day's work. In this view, workers are supposedly motivated to do what they hate (their jobs) by the ever-present threat of explosive anger and related punishments.

The adjectives used to describe these bosses are revealing: No-nonsense, hard-driving, impatient, quick-tempered, mercurial, curt, brusque, and moody.

Although jolts of fear can electrify performance in any organization over the short term, it turns out that in most cases the angry leader self-destructs (often to the relief of bruised workers) -- and often leaves considerable wreckage -- if not total destruction -- at his or her passing.

In addition, the brightest and the best want to be treated well. They don't work for long for a boss whose emotional repertoire is limited to anger, sullenness, and sarcasm.

The Intensity Myth extends to emotional intensity in many forms. One notion of leadership holds that the true leader exudes more confidence than ordinary mortals; another suggests that the leader is consistently more optimistic than others or is more passionate about opinions and beliefs.

All such "extraordinary-emotional-state" explanations have been contradicted by more than five decades of research. As a result, the many attempts to define what leaders "are" have been superseded by more objective and successful studies of what leaders "do."

Leaders should not attempt to display one emotional facade (whether anger, confidence, or optimism), as if that front alone would a leader make.

Wanting to get everything out of every possession

Good article in the Sunday LA Times about UCLA coach Ben Howland who, despite his intensity, "finds a way to give his players positive vibes."

"I guess I get pretty intense out there, I'm drenched with sweat. . . . I just want them to get everything out of every possession. One of the things that is really dear to me was last year, when Darren Collision said, 'Hey, Coach is so intense it's like he's out there with us on the floor.' I just love that they feel that way. To me that's what it is all about." 

A good offense is an offense that gets to the free throw line

After starting the season at 11-3, Doc Sadler's Nebraska team has lost four of its last five games and is 2-4 in Big 12 play.

The Huskers' lone win in that five-game stretch came against Kansas State, who Nebraska beat by 22.

After the game, KSU coach Frank Martin complemented Coach Sadler's team:

"Last year when people would want to talk about our league I'd always say: Nebraska. And people always said, 'Why do you always say Nebraska?' Because I have to prepare to play them and Doc Sadler's teams play as hard as anyone in the country."

That level of preparation is a reflection of the work Coach Sadler, his staff, and their players invest.

In 2006-07, his first season at NU after going 48-18 in two seasons at UTEP, the Huskers were 11-4 heading into a road game against Oklahoma. According to this article, "the Cornhuskers allowed the Sooners to bust open the game with a 13-0 run that included a number of easy, transition baskets." NU lost the game, 70-53.

Coach Sadler "offered his disapproval with a grueling punishment: A two-hour practice at 5:30 the next morning. In other words – the minute the Huskers got off the bus in Lincoln. Then Nebraska had its regular afternoon practice later that day."

“I’ll never forget that,” said NU guard Sek Henry, who was a true freshman on the 2006-07 team. “It woke us up to the way he wanted to play, how bad he wanted to win. He was really disappointed in us. That was a shout out to the team.”

The message? If you think you’re out of a game on the road, don’t bother playing at Nebraska. It was a turning point, Henry said. NU has been blown out a couple times since then – especially by Kansas – but not because of a lack of effort.

Coach Sadler's starting lineup is small (5-7, 5-11, 6-3, 6-5, and 6-8), so his system emphasizes getting to the basket.

"A good offense is an offense that gets to the free throw line," he said. "It's going to give us an opportunity to drive the basketball. We do have some guys that can shoot, but we've also got some guys that their strength is not necessarily the 3-point shot but driving. I will not anticipate shooting any more 3s than we normally have."

As this article points out, "Nebraska also will try to increase defensive intensity, even though it allowed a Big 12-low 60.7 points a game last season. Sadler said he'll use the press more often, with the hope of converting turnovers into easy baskets."

"It's going to give us a chance to be competitive with our size," he said.

If they're not going to bring the intensity, he's going to bring the intensity

Interesting story here about Oregon State coach Craig Robinson (whose sister Michelle is the new First Lady).

Coach Robinson has, as one of his players puts it, a "'come at you' attitude."

Assistant coach Doug Stewart describes Coach Robinson as a guy who brings "a level of discipline and a level of consequences every single day."

According to Coach Stewart:

"If they're not going to bring the intensity, he's going to bring the intensity. ... if they're not going to bring discipline, he's going to provide the discipline. As a player, that's all you can really ask for, that you know what's expected of you every day, you know the outline of what you're supposed to do, and you know the consequences as well.''

Why spacing matters

Was flipping through Ron Higgins' 2006 book "Tales from the Memphis Grizzlies Hardwood" last night and came across a good passage about Hubie Brown's return to coaching at the age of 69.

What MEM players remembered most about Coach Brown was his intensity, demand for perfection, and incredible attention to detail:

"At our first practice, no one knew how to take him," [Lorenzen] Wright recalled. "He was yelling, he was cursing. He was screaming, 'Get to this spot, get to that spot, get to this spot.' Nobody knew the reason those first few practices. Then, we started playing games. You get to those spots. You have open shots."

Griz swingman Shane Battier loved Brown's attention to detail.

"He always talked about spacing," Battier said. "On certain plays, he wanted us three feet from the free throw line -- not four feet, not two feet. If we got it wrong, he'd stop practice and correct that one foot."

His team started to believe, even guard Jason Williams, whose lousy shot selection, wild passing, and penchant for playing soft defense got him benched in Sacramento, then traded.

He and Brown came to a quick understanding.

"I don't care if a player has got a style, as long as he makes no turnovers," Brown said. "As soon as you turn the ball [over], then you've got to be accountable."

Williams responded with the lowest assist-to-turnover ratio of his career.

Gleaning confidence from a coach

I'll be at the Cal-Arizona game at Haas Pavilion tomorrow night, but read this article about Cal's 1959 NCAA title today.

As the story describes, "Cal entered the NCAA Tournament ranked 11th in the country and was the lowest-scoring of the four teams that qualified for what was not yet known as the Final Four, being played that year in Louisville, Ky."

Standing in Cal's path were two All-Americans and future Hall of Famers. First Cincinnati's Oscar Robertson, who led the nation in scoring at 32.6 points per game. Looming the next night was West Virginia's Jerry West, who averaged 26.6 points.

According to the article, Cal had one thing their opponents didn't: Coach Pete Newell.

His teams were well-conditioned, disciplined and defensive-minded. The players revere him still, but as college kids they gleaned great confidence from their coach.

Said one former Cal player: "His intensity level during the game was quite something, when he'd be chomping on that towel. He never really yelled at us. I just remember you didn't want to get that look. We didn't ever want to displease him."

Coach Newell's team -- known for "defense and teamwork" -- was also well prepared, thanks in great part to assistant coach Rene Herrerias, "who provided detailed scouting reports on each opponent." [Coach Herrerias took over for Coach Newell at Cal after Coach Newell retired.]

Some 25 years ago, Jerry West, a member of the West Virginia team that Cal defeated in the final game, was quoted as saying, "Teams today have great individuals, but Cal had a great team."

The most physical three days of basketball

In the St. Paul paper this morning, DAL coach Rick Carlisle talked about going to camp with the Timberwolves in 1989, the team's inaugural season.

"It was the most physical three days of basketball I've ever been involved with," Carlisle said of the camp, mostly made up of CBA players and fringe NBA players. "The reason was that Bill Musselman (Minnesota's first coach, pictured here) had referees come in and (he) told them basically not to call any fouls. Bill wanted to find out who really wanted to play. ... It was extremely competitive. I got through it."

Nick Saban and giving players responsibility

Ivan Maisel at ESPN.com has a good story about Alabama coach Nick Saban, who has his team atop the BCS standings.

According to Maisel, "if this team fits any mold, it is not that of the great Alabama teams of yore. No, this mold is about 5-foot-8 with swept-back hair and the kind of intensity that will peel the bark off a pine tree."

Said Saban of his team, which went 7-6 last season:

"Sometimes when you give somebody a responsibility, they will do a good job with it. If you never ask it, they don't ever do it. They don't see it as a part of their role."

As Maisel writes:

The qualities revealed by the Tide's rise to No. 1 are the building blocks of any successful football team. They are preached by Saban and his staff all the time. They are old-school verities about responsibility and discipline and doing what you should be doing when no one is looking. These qualities are preached by plenty of other staffs, too. The difference is, in Tuscaloosa, the teaching went in one ear and failed to come out the other.

Understanding the effort and intensity to play good defense

The Lakers aren't the only team in LA concentrating more on defense this season.

At UCLA, Ben Howland's team has spent the last few days of practice "step-sliding on defense, keeping your man in front of you, a lot of box-out drills, help rotation. Just a lot of basics."

According to PG Darren Collison, young players don't always comprehend "the effort and intensity required to play good defense."

Says Collison (pictured here with Coach Howland): "I know I didn't when I was a freshman."

A new level of seriousness

Last season, the SJ Sharks won their division before losing in the conference semi-finals.

This season, under new coach Todd McLellan (pictured here), the Sharks have been equally successful, winning 16 of their first 20 games.

So what's different about this season compared to last?

Says San Jose center Jeremy Roenick, who recently played in the 20th game of his 20th NHL season:

"There's more of a level of seriousness from the coaches this year. Even if we're winning, we still get some heated meetings. Like, 'You guys better pick this up, because if we let it creep in now, it's going to hurt us later.' They don't let anything slide."

Part of our identity was missing

When your team wins by 24, all must be going well, correct?

Not necessarily.

After her ninth-ranked Bears won on Friday night, Cal's women's coach Joanne Boyle gathered her players in the lockerroom and let them have it:

"I'm really disappointed with the way we started the season. I don't care what the score is. I know my team best. It was unacceptable. I think there's a lack of focus. I think there's a lack of discipline. I think there's a lack of accountability. I think our chemistry is nowhere to be found and people are on their own page right now. We have to get on the same page if we're going to do anything this year.

This team needs to attack, not be tentative. Why do we look scared?

We've talked all year long about going in and playing Cal basketball. Until they really understand what that means, we're going to have games like this. If we say these things, talk about our mission statement in the locker room and play like this, we have to re-evaluate who we are.

I don't usually come in here and be so hard when we have a 25-point win. That is not who we are. They have to decide what they want for their season. We have to regroup. Part of it is just mentally."

Coach Boyle's team responded two nights later, downing Nevada, 67-53. After the win, she explained the difference between Friday night's game and Sunday's game:

"We had talked about the things that were missing. There was a lack of passion, a lack of energy, no one was running, there was no cheering on the bench. That was part of our identity and that was missing. I think the kids came out and were much more focused. The energy and the passion from the floor and from the players on the bench were much better."

Every minute on the court was declaration of war on somebody

The Milwaukee paper recently profiled Scott Skiles, recounting how, during his playing days, he was so well prepared for the opposition, that he not only knew the plays as well as his coaches, but, in some cases, better than the guys on the opposing team:

"Since Skiles knew the opposing team's plays himself, he would merely shout out to his teammates what was coming. And then, just for good measure, maybe chide an opposing player if he was in the wrong place on the court."

As Magic SVP Pat Williams recalls:

"He was coaching both teams. Sometimes telling the opposition, 'You're supposed to be over here. Get over here. He wants you over here.' He was coaching both teams while he was playing."

A couple of highlights quotes from the story about Coach Skiles:

Pat Williams: "I remember his intensity and the fervor with which he played . . . every minute of every practice and every game. Gave no quarter, asked no quarter, never backed down. Fearless and pugnacious. Every minute on the court was a declaration of war on somebody.

I've been around two super-intense athletes in my 40 years in the NBA: Jerry Sloan and Scott Skiles. That's just how they went about their business. On the same guard line, those two guys would have been a pair for the ages. Not the most talented but just played with a ferocity and demanded it from their teammates. And would not accept anything - anything - less than maximum effort."

Jim Boylan, one of Coach Skiles' assistants: "Scott's always been very confident, and as a coach I think that's one of the attributes that you really need to have because the team can feel it. He's always had that. And he's always had a great command of his team. They respect him.

"One of his main strengths is during the game he's able to analyze and slow things down and execute his game plan. So, the one area over the years that he's continued to get better at is actual game execution. Reading situations in the game, the flow, timeouts, working the huddle, trying to motivate the guys and seeing what needs to be done. I think over the last couple seasons in Chicago, he really had a firm grasp on the pace of the game and what's going on and what needs to be done to try to get the maximum out of his team.

It's the competitive side of the game that really gets his juices flowing and I think he really likes to take a situation and put his stamp on it. We need somebody to come in here and really get us organized, give us some direction, and give us some leadership'. That's what he does best."

MIL forward Malik Allen: "He's a no-nonsense guy. Very detailed, but he's fair all the way across the board. Everybody is going to have an opportunity at some point. He has a good system. The system is hard. You have to play hard for it to work but it's proven that it does work."