Protect the troops and they will protect you

Roy Spence is the chairman and CEO of GSD&M, one of the top ad agencies in the country. He recently published a book titled, "It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For."

While much of the book focuses on ways marketers can build their brands, Chapter 8 is dedicated to "Purpose-Based Leadership Principles."

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Purpose-based leaders have a tendency to live by certain principles.

1. Protect The Troops: Protect the troops and they will win the war. If your people feel like you've got their back, they'll go the distance for you in return. Protect the troops. They will protect you.

2. Be Curious. Norman Brinker is the father of the modern casual sit-down restaurant. He brought Chili's, Romano's Macaroni Grill, and a variety of other concepts to middle-class America searching for a place to eat with their families.

He taught me what curiousity looks like in action. He would personally check out every competitor on every corner of the earth. He taught us to look beyond the obvious, to learn and question everything about the competition.

The Art of War teaches us to reward the "scouts" -- those individuals who are sent out on the front lines to evaluate the terrain, assess the threats and opportunities, and help the generals create a plan based on the situation on the ground. The scouts are the ones who will help you and your team win. The scouts are the curious ones seeking to find out the truth. As a leader, it's your job to encourage, recognize, and reward acts of curiousity throughout your organization.

One last thought on curiousity: Process can be the killer of curiousity. There is a time and a place for process. But when process becomes too prescriptive, bureaucratic, or inflexible, it actually undermines curiousity. It essentially says to your people, don't think about new ways to do something. The great leaders we've worked with know when to apply process and when to let go of the reins and give people the freedom to be curious, question the status quo, and take the organization to new and greater heights.

3. Focus on the Journey. [Wal-Mart founder] Sam Walton used to say that destinations are a blink on the timeline of life. No doubt that setting destination goals motivates an organization to go faster, harder, and higher. But, as important, once that goal was achieved, Mr. Sam always set another impossible goal and challenged the organization to achieve that new goal as quickly as it could.

4. Practice the Golden Rule ("Treat Others as You Want to be Treated"). Great leaders tend to be practitioners of the Golden Rule. Their application of the Golden Rule goes far beyond just being nice to one another. The Golden Rule can be an amazing catalyst for change -- righting injustices and moving the entire organization forward.

The more the Golden Rule is applied at the personal level, the happier life you're bound to have. If you trample over too many people on your way up, you're going to find yourself awfully lonely, alienated, and rightfully paranoid when you arrive. It's a lot more fun to get there with alliances that will hold you steady and friends that will make it all worthwhile.

So when you think about the Golden Rule, please don't dismiss it as a trivial ditty you heard in Sunday school that means saying please and thank you. All the world religions wouldn't have agreed on it and held it up as a central tenet of a life well lived if it wasn't a powerful idea that could be used for something as lofty as the transformation of the individual.

5. Obsess Over the Details. Does your organization obsess over the details? Why not? Do you think it doesn't matter as long as you take care of the big stuff? Obsession over the details is what separates the great companies from the not-so-great.

6. Fess Up When You Mess Up. Purpose requires accountability. When mistakes happen or bad decisions are made and the troops are placed in jeopardy, people will stay the course if their leaders fess up to the situation and outline a course to correct the errors. In the absence of a mea culpa, a feeling of betrayal and cynicism can quickly erase any feeling of loyalty the troops may have had before the episode. And once loyalty is lost, it is very difficult to get it back.

The leaders who we have seem make mistakes usually make errors of the mind, not the heart. And there's a big difference. We have all made mistakes when we had the best of intentions. In those instances, it's time to assess what went wrong, learn from it, share the lesson with your people, and move forward.

7. Dump the Garbage. Leaders of purpose have garbage to dump: grudges, guilt, greed, mistakes, losses, remorse. Holding on to those feelings will only create more of it. Whatever is on your mind will show up in your organization and in your life. Dump the garbage. Do it early and often.

8. Help People Believe in Themselves. My last observation of great leaders is how they enable other people to live up to their potential and fulfill their own dreams -- without seeking acknowledgment in return.

A candid admission of fault

In the NYK's one-point road loss to POR on Sunday evening, "Brandon Roy was allowed to drive 35 feet to the basket, untouched, for a winning scoop shot at the buzzer."

What NY coach Mike D'Antoni didn't realize was that his team "had a foul to give with 4.3 seconds left against the Trail Blazers."

With reporters after the game, and again on the team's flight that night, Coach D'Antoni pulled no punches:

"I screwed up, period. That’s my responsibility. I made a mistake. I’m the guy. It’s my fault. So I should know. Probably won’t happen again. Can’t swear to it. But I messed up."

According to this article in the NY Times, "It was a candid admission, given the deep aversion of recent Knicks coaches and executives to acknowledging mistakes, on or off the court. But D’Antoni came to New York with a reputation for straight talk, and it was on full display..."

Knicks forward David Lee, who had 29 points and 11 rebounds in the loss, was quick to take up for his coach:

"He didn’t lose the game for us. The last play never loses the game, to be honest with you. There were a lot of things we could do, and a lot of improvements we can make, that we should have won the game in the first place."

Basketball's Benjamin Button

How good is Brandon Roy?

He's so good that BOS coach Doc Rivers has put together highlight videos of Roy that he gives to his sons to study.

"He's one of my favorite players in the league," says Coach Rivers. "He plays under control, he plays unselfishly, and he plays at gears that young players don't play at. Most young players play fast and out of control, and for them it's all about getting 'my shots.' But his whole attitude is based on team play."

As Ian Thomsen describes him in his story today on SI.com, "the 6'6" Roy plays like an aging vet who takes pride in outsmarting the rim-scrapers while conserving energy to extend his career. In fact, he is a 24-year-old blessed with a 41-inch vertical leap, which he uses only when necessary. He wears neither tattoos nor jewelry. In this era of unparalleled athleticism and style over substance, Brandon Roy is the NBA's curious version of Benjamin Button—a young body driven by an old-school mind."

Says Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard: "He absolutely changed the direction of our team."

According to Roy, many mistake his style of play for a lack of intensity:

"I would get so mad because I would be trying to run harder, but my game would never let me get out of control," says Roy. "When I went to college, right away coach [Lorenzo] Romar was like, This guy just doesn't go hard. He was just hammering me, hammering me, hammering me, and I would say, 'Coach, I am playing hard.'"

So, asks Thomsen, "how does he make the spectacular look so effortless?"

The answer is fundamental: Roy can dribble so well that you can't tell which is his weak hand, and at 211 pounds he has the size to shield the ball as he reads the defense and waits for a play to develop. He has a coach's mind, an intuitive understanding of teammates and opponents swirling around him as if they were X's and O's diagrammed on a whiteboard.

Teammate Steve Blake contends that Roy is "always on balance, so if someone reaches in, he's able to spin and he's not falling over."

POR coach Nate McMillan says Roy has "three moves that will get you... a crossover, a pump, a spin."

According to Chris Paul, it's a matter of angles and efficiency:

"He goes in straight lines. Anybody who knows basketball knows if you go around a guy, you need to go right by him. He takes a minimal amount of steps, and then he's at the rim."

To improve, Roy says he needs "to make some mistakes."

"I think that's where my potential lies — taking more risks, trying to play with more flair and having more fun out there."

Experience: That most brutal of teachers

How "young" are the 2-13 KC Chiefs?

Half of the players on the 53-man roster have two years of pro experience or less, including the 18 rookies on the roster.

As a point of comparison, the 13-2 Titans only have six rookies on their roster.

Clearly, the team's youth is one reason for its record this season. [Going back to last year, the club has lost 22 of 24.]

But the decision to take their lumps now -- as difficult as it's been -- was the right one, according to KC coach Herm Edwards.

"This was the right thing to do for the organization. When you do something like this, you’re doing it for the right reasons. That’s something I thought about and we all thought about, but it was the correct thing to do. This is going to be a good football team. There’s no doubt about that.

The experience this team has gained will help them next year. These games we let slip away will be ones that you win.

I believe (the Chiefs are) well-coached. It’s a young team. It’s gained a lot of experience. [Despite the losses and injuries] they continued to play with tremendous effort. They don’t always do everything right, but the effort has been there for the most part, and that’s what you hope for as a coach."

Young teams, regardless of what level they're playing at, are generally at a disadvantage as they simply don't have the luxury of experience on their side.

I recently saw a talented but young group of high school kids get beat by an older, less talented team. This season, we've seen it at the college level (with Tom Crean) and the pro level (with Don Nelson), too.

In the words of C.S. Lewis:

"Experience: That most brutal of teachers. But you learn. My God do you learn."

A team plays how they're coached to play

After losing by 10 to Arizona on Saturday in the Las Vegas Bowl, BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said his team had made a number of mental errors, something for which he took full responsibility.

"Championship teams don't do that," he said. "Championship coaches don't coach a team to do that. I've never shifted responsibility to anywhere other than myself. A team plays how they're coached to play."

A player with an innate understanding of spatial relationships

Read where 12-year NBA veteran Tim Duncan recently played in his 1000th NBA game for the Spurs.

But as this writer describes, because of Duncan's fly-below-the-radar persona and focus on fundamentals, there's not much new to say about the former Wake Forest star.

"It's like figuring out something new to say about the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River or the Sphinx (at least when the great stone critter isn't whining over a referee's whistle). As in: It's, uh, still there.. And, y'know, still great."

MIN coach Kevin McHale contends that, among the NBA's current big men, Duncan is "by far the best.'' And much of his success, argues McHale, has to do with Duncan's basketball IQ.

"He's smart. He doesn't run around. No wasted energy. Things I'm trying to get our guys to do -- basketball's a game of read-and-react. Especially with young guys, they want to 'run' the offense. But the offense doesn't score -- the read inside the offense does. Things happen, Tim just stands there and goes [McHale very slowly looks left, very slowly looks right]. Then he moves into the open spot.

Believe it or not, that's how everybody played. You didn't run on top of each other. You gave everybody space. He's different because, right now, for whatever reason -- either how the game is taught or how the young guys play in AAU or whatever -- it's, 'We're going to go as fast as we can, run around as fast as we possibly can.'

He just takes his time. Let the defense make mistakes.''

Duncan, a 10-time All-Star and two-time league MVP, is the first to admit that he's not a flashy, super-athletic player who's going to make SportsCenter highlights very often.

"I'm not a quick guy. I've never been the most athletic guy. I'm not as quick, I don't jump as high, all that stuff. So [it has taken] a conscious decision about playing harder, positioning better, getting to spots, getting your feet set, giving yourself another half second to react to something, things like that. If I can slow it down, take my time and go to my own strengths, I can neutralize a lot of what people are able to do against me. You try to make people react to you more than you react to people. When you can do that, you're the one in control. You know what's going on and everyone else has to figure it out on the fly. I try to base my game around that. That's how I've always played.''

According to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, Duncan has "an innate understanding of the game and spatial relationships, what teammates are going to do and what's needed at a certain time. Never in a hurry. Always a patient, skillful player who understands the situation. He's a throwback."

Playing time is not a gift

Coach Don Nelson on why he takes young players out of the game after they make a mistake:

"Part of that is a teaching tool. I couldn't tell you I'm going to let a guy screw up too many times and not take him out of the game, but I'll put him back in, correct him. Within reason (players should be allowed to make mistakes), yeah, but also, you want to make sure that the guy is developing, and you don't hurt his chances by giving him too many gifts, he's also got to earn it. So it's kind of a delicate line. I'd say yeah, within reason, I can accept some mistakes, as long as they're not repeated too often."

A sign that you're focused and concentrating

Why is Ball State the only undefeated team in the nation?

Lots of reasons, but one key is that the Cardinals don't make "dumb penalties."

BSU is the least penalized team in the country, averaging less three than penalties per game.

The second-least penalized team? Penn State with 3.2 flags per game.

According to BSU's center, "It shows we're focused and concentrating."

It also demonstrates how disciplined coach Brady Hoke's team is. Says Coach Hoke:

"When you play smart and you don't have the bad penalties - jumping offsides, motion, formation penalties, those pre-snap penalties - I think that's a big part of [success]."