How goal-setting can spark a turnaround

On January 24, nearly 20 games into the season, Kent State had an 8-11 record, losers of five of six.

So first-year coach Geno Ford brought his team together for a "major" meeting. As this article tells it, "something needed to be done or a season would disintegrate."

Coach Ford, who had his seniors run the meeting (there are four on the roster), asked the team to outline five "specific goals." He wanted goals that were quantifiable.

Not things like 'win the MAC' or 'win every road game.' He wanted the team to tell him how they were going to accomplish the big picture, what it would take in each game to win. Things dealing with opposing field-goal percentage, rebounding, turnovers.

''I didn't want to see 'win the MAC' because that really has no meaning,'' he said. ''That's a fine thing to say, but I felt this group spent all their time talking about winning 20 games, winning a championship, going to the NCAA. That's not going to happen unless we have an idea of how the hell that's going to go down. What's it going to take?''

The final product of the meeting was a list, "written on poster board." It's always nearby: In the team's huddle during timeouts, on the floor at practice, and in the locker room.

Since creating "the list" (which is confidential), the Golden Flashes have won eight straight heading into tonight's game at Bowling Green.

Coach Ford gives credit to his team for the turnaround.

"I'm certainly not going to insinuate we're on a winning streak because of anything I'm doing."

If you can out-prepare them, you can outperform them

Ron Shapiro, perhaps best known as Cal Ripken Jr.'s agent, is a consultant and special advisor to team owners, coaches, CEOs, and GMs.

According to this article in the Baltimore Sun, those who know him well "say Shapiro, 65, teaches them about preparing correctly...."

One of Shapiro's clients/friends is Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, who says Shapiro has helped him refine his decision-making process.

"I always kind of prided myself on making quick decisions," Bisciotti said. "I think what Ron has taught me, really, in our personal meetings is that quick reactions are not always good reactions. I am working hard to learn how to not react to people in as controversial or adversarial a way. It's all about suppression of ego."

Shapiro also happens to be the father-in-law of new Cleveland Browns coach Eric Mangini, who says that Shapiro "has taken preparation - for a football game, a negotiation, a job interview - and turned it into a science."

According to Coach Mangini: "He has a way to prepare to prepare. He's put a process in place to make sure you're systematic."

As Shapiro puts it:

"If you can out-prepare them, you can outperform them."

An example of why you play the game, not the score

If you've not read it yet, there's a story in today's USA Today about Belmont's remarkable come-from-behind win over Campbell last Friday night in which Belmont scored "30 points in the last 3:27, a pace that would have had them post 348 points in a 40-minute game."

With 3:27 remaining, Belmont trailed, 75-57, only to win the game, 87-84.

Rick Byrd (pictured here0 admits there's no magic potion to apply when a team is down, apparently hopelessly, and time is running out on a chance for a comeback.

"Sometimes," the Belmont coach says, "it's just fate. The mentality of the two teams in a situation like that is entirely different. When you've got the lead, you don't want to shoot quickly, and you don't want to foul. You almost have to play conservatively with a big lead. It's a sense of protectionism and conservatism against a sense of urgency. We had nothing to lose."

According to Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg, whose Hokies came back from 18 points down to beat NC State in overtime recently, convincing your players it's possible to comeback -- and having a plan to do so -- is the key.

"You try to paint a picture (for the players) of how you're going to get back in the game," Greenberg says. "You try to show them a scenario where you can get it from 16 to 10, then from 10 to five with four or five minutes to go. Getting stops is the big thing. If you trade baskets, you're not going to come back." [The Hokies held the Wolfpack to one field goal in the final 9:51 of regulation.]

In the Belmont-Campbell game, Campbell certainly had a hand in letting the Bruins back in the game. According to the USA Today story, "Campbell missed 11 of 20 free throws after taking the 18-point lead."

[Here's a detailed description of how Belmont rallied to beat Campbell.]

The four pillars of a successful team

Here's a good excerpt from Phil Martelli's book, "Don't Call Me Coach."

Coach Martelli is in his 14th season as head coach at St. Joe's, where he's won 18-plus games for eight consecutive seasons. This season, the Hawks are 13-8 and have won 9 of 10.

~~~~~~~~~~

To me it's never been about a system. It's about building on foundations. It's absolutely essential that our players be willing to compete. That's the first pillar. We set up a competitive atmosphere throughout -- in practice, in our scheduling, and our game opportunities.

Yet, it's also essential to learn to share the basketball. To me, sharing the ball is the ultimate sign of respect on the court. That's the second pillar in building a team.

I think it's really important that you take your shot, the third pillar. Everyone's worked hard to get you that opportunity, and if you don't take it, that's worse than taking a bad shot. It sounds ironic, but teamwork is based on competition.

To relate that to the wider world of work, suppose someone has prepared you for a promotion, to take a position in your company, and you decline to accept it. Your not taking the shot others set up for you is harmful to the whole organization. They thought you were ready, and put their effort behind you. You let them down, as well as yourself.

The fourth thing we ask every player is to know your abilities, the key final pillar that holds the structure up. There's nothing harder than being realistic about yourself, but we all have to do it.

Go to your strengths, stay away from your weaknesses. We will try to analyze both, as we've seen them, practice after practice. We will explain both to you, and then plan around your strengths, in combination with those of your teammates. But then you have to do the rest.

If life is a competition, stressing your strengths is the way to be a winner. I don't want to make basketball bigger than it is, but it's the same lesson you'll need in life.

I know it sounds simplistic -- to compete, to share, to take your shot when it comes, to really know your strengths and weaknesses -- but that's what builds a team. Nobody does it alone. Look into the stories of great statesmen, great generals, great entrepreneurs, great leaders in any field, and see how they achieved success. It won't be a waste of your time.

You keep hammering away

John Pelphrey's Arkansas team won 12 of its first 13 games of the season before losing their first three games in SEC play.

But Coach Pelphrey hasn't changed his approach:

"Whether we're in the middle of something great like going 12-1 or in the middle of something difficult like being 0-3, you try to be consistent and keep hammering way. You never know what swing it's going to be that shatters that boulder. You just keep hammering away."

The difference between collecting talent and building a team

Scott Pioli, the former VP of Player Personnel for the Patriots, had some interesting things to say at his press conference yesterday introducing him as the new GM of the KC Chiefs.

Pioli, who worked closely with Bill Belichick "to turn the Patriots into consistent winners" described how the two worked together.

"Bill had the final say in everything," Pioli said. "However, it was a collaboration. I'm not sure I can think of many players that ever came into the program that Bill and I didn't completely agree on. The amount of respect that he and I had for one another, if there was a disagreement, the respect for the other person led us away from that player. It was never a battle over ego with Bill and me. We were more honed in on coming up with the right answer, rather than his answer or my answer. It was more about the right answer. It was a true collaboration."

As for his role and vision with the Chiefs, Pioli talked about what he'd learned in New England:

"My job is not to collect talent, it's to build a team. Individuals go to Pro Bowls, teams win championships. That's our goal here - to build this team with the right kind of people and the right kind of players, and consistently compete for championships. The 'Patriots Way' starts with hard work, discipline, and creating a culture where everyone is on the same page, everyone knows their role, everyone believes in the system, and everyone does their job."

The players are the medium through which a coach expresses his philosophy

Dr. Jack Ramsay's 1978 book "The Coach's Art" is 30 years old, but it's as relevant as ever.

Here's a good excerpt:

Coaching is a private act sometimes performed in public places. Coaching in a game is only part of the job, but it's the part that finally counts the most. A losing coach is, sooner than not, a former coach. If the team goes badly, the coach is responsible. But if the team wins, the players deserve and get the bulk of the credit.

I like it that way. I know when I've done my job well, and savor the satisfaction it brings. No one can ever take that away.

But coaching is an insecure profession, requiring of its practitioners a capacity to withstand external pressures while leading a team through a long, demanding season.

A coach has to have a firm sense of himself, sustained by intense powers of concentration. I hate to lose, but I know that once a game is over I have to put it out of my mind in order to prepare for the next one. I have to minimize the depth of my disappointment, disguising it from my players because it's infectious. Maintaining my ability to concentrate, to focus all of my attention on the task at hand, is part of my own responsibility as a coach.

The philosophy [of coaching] determines every aspect of practice, the objectives of meetings, and finally the game plan. It is the cement which binds every activity of a coach and his team, linking practice drills to game performance.

The preparation of a team begins with planning practices, for it is on the practice floor that teaching the game occurs. The importance of planning practices can't be overstated. A practice session's objectives, expressed in a practice plan, must be determined in advance -- and in detail.

The players need to know the point of what they will be doing. Posting the practice schedule in the locker room, I've found, is a good technique. It informs the players both about what we will be doing and how long we will take doing it.

Players like organization, they like order, they will work hard when they see the purpose of what they're doing. When every player knows what's expected of him and why, practices will be productive. And then even hard, physically demanding sessions will be fun, building the sense of common purpose and collective affection every good team has.

When players and coaches feel good about what's happening in practice, they will carry that spirit with them into games. I want every practice well organized, productive, and conducted with the same intensity and commitment as a game is played.

A coach who allows players to depart from his plan at practice can expect the same thing in a game. If it is his team, it must perform the way he expects it to. The players are the medium through which a coach expresses his philosophy.

Approaching a season in stages

Don't usually quote Shakespeare, but he once wrote:

“To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.”

Based on this quote in today's LA Times, it's something that Kobe Bryant has taken to heart:

"I've always approached the season like the Tour de France. I've approached it in stages," said Bryant, now in his 13th season. "I'm not going to sprint the hill every time. I'm going to let my teammates pull me up, and then I'm going to wait for a certain part of the race and start kind of picking it up. That's how I approach the season. I kind of pace it."

Taking pride in putting players in the best position to do their job

One of the best stories of the NFL season has been the turnaround in San Diego where the Chargers, who were 4-8 on November 30, ticked off four consecutive wins to end the season, then beat IND in the wildcard game last weekend.

After 12 games, critics were calling for SD coach Norv Turner to be fired.

But according to this article, "Turner's players have praised the way he spends time in the locker room with them, how he seems more approachable than other head coaches and how his refusal to panic, even at 4-8, helped prepare them for this latest run."

According to Chargers GM A.J. Smith, Coach Turner is a great decision-maker:

"Game day, in the playoffs, when it's turned up a notch big-time, there are critical, critical [coaching] decisions that must be made. I'll just say four, five or six decisions that take place in a game, critical decisions made by the head coach. Consult with the coordinators, yes, but you still have to make the call. The strategies, the chess game, it's all very important. You have to make the right call. I think Norv has this."

As for Coach Turner, he says he never thought about making wholesale changes to his plan:

"To have dramatic changes that completely try to change who you are or what you are, or how you react to things, [the players] see right through that and they know what's going on," he said. "You just have to make sure that you don't try to do something that you are not capable of doing when you are struggling. That tends to be what gets you in trouble.

It's part of what this profession is and it's part of this business," he said of the criticism. "If you're affected by it and you let it keep you from doing your job or doing a good job then I think that would be the biggest error you could make. I've got strong beliefs. I've been fortunate to be around great coaches and great players. I do believe our staff knows how to coach and we know how to get some things done.

Are we perfect? No. No one is perfect in this league. We had a great plan. This game is still about players competing and players making plays. We take a great deal of pride in putting those guys in the best position to do their job."

A blueprint for a first-time head coach

Second post of the day about the Ravens, but this was too good to pass up.

John Harbaugh has provided a blueprint for first-time head coaches. As this article puts it, "everything about the Ravens' surprising season has carried the Harbaugh touch."

After reading the article, I'll culled a few key points:

1. Build a strong staff. Coach Harbaugh's staff includes offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, a former head coach in college and in the pros; defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, a favorite among the players and a member of Brian Billick's coaching staff when the Ravens won the 2001 Super Bowl; Wilbert Montgomery, the former Eagles RB who won a Super Bowl as a coach with the Rams; and offensive line coach John Matsko, a 35-year coaching veteran who was on the Rams' staff (along with Wilbert Montgomery) that won a Super Bowl in 2000.

2. Have a plan and stick to it. According to one BAL player: "He didn't blink once, not once, from the things he wanted to do. He had a plan and he stuck with his plan. You have to respect a coach that win, lose or draw he says, 'This is what we're going to do,' and not, 'Let's change this or that.' The great thing about John once he set a path, he wasn't going to deviate from it. His path was that he wanted to do the right thing for his team."

3. Make the rules clear and enforce them. "Harbaugh has definitely had the courage of his convictions and has been a strong disciplinarian whenever it's been called for. Although injuries were also a factor, Harbaugh benched McAlister for violating team rules, including showing up late for meetings prior to a 31-3 loss to the Colts."

4. Let your team know you that you respect and care for them. "When Harbaugh took over the Ravens, he had large signs that say, 'Team, Team, Team,' emblazoned all over the training complex. Harbaugh continually has called the players 'mighty men,' which draws amused smiles from reporters, but his praise has paid off with mutual respect.

"He tells us all the time that he's proud to stand with us as our coach on Sundays," said one Ravens player. "How could you not want to play for someone who is proud to be your coach? You play hard because it's your job, but he makes it more fun to do it."

According to the article, "Besides instilling toughness through more physical practices, Harbaugh has also demonstrated a capacity to care. He didn't rush cornerback Samari Rolle back to work when his father, Harry Rolle, died of a sudden heart attack, encouraging him to take as much time as he needed to grieve."

One BAL player described Coach Harbaugh as "humble," saying "He treats everybody with respect. You have no choice but to play hard for a coach like that."

5. Allow the players to take some ownership. "Harbaugh gave veteran players ages 30 and over every third day off during a grueling training camp... and gradually built in more time off into the practice schedule when the Ravens were forced to have their bye in the second week of the season when Hurricane Ike caused the postponement of their game against the Houston Texans. Plus, he gave the entire team Christmas off prior to a pivotal regular-season finale against the Jacksonville Jaguars."

"I think really what's most impressive about coach is just his flexibility with his players," said [LB Ray] Lewis, who has championed Harbaugh's team concept and even cancelled his radio show at team officials' suggestion prior to the season. "He's very interactive with his players. There's really no decision he makes without coming to us to really figure out what's best for the team. That's a great thing to have when you have a first-year coach and you're trying to adapt to things. You realize that he's not just trying to run you into a program and say, 'Do what I do, do what I say.' It's about what makes us better as a team, that's what you appreciate about him just from a man's perspective."

As the article describes, "Harbaugh allowed the players to vote on what to do about Christmas before suggesting an even more inviting schedule change. He said they could practice on Tuesday, which is usually their normal day off, and take Thursday off for Christmas Day to be with their families."

"He asked, 'Well, what do you want to do?' We were arguing about whether it should be Christmas morning, after Christmas morning," [DE Trevor] Pryce said. "He said, 'Why don't we try this? And we said, 'Yeah, that's it.' That's the kind of guy he is. The Christmas thing was a big thing. That was his idea. He doesn't want to be out on an island by himself."

6. Focus on the little things, but don't be afraid to delegate. "More than anything, Harbaugh has demanded attention to detail and timeliness while delegating authority to his coordinators. Harbaugh has straddled the line between being a so-called players' coach and instilling a harder edge for a team that was known for complaining about officiating a year ago and drawing costly personal fouls. Now, the Ravens run a tighter ship under Harbaugh."

What do you plan on doing in 10 years?

In the book "Cane Mutiny" about the University of Miami's college football program, there's a passage describing something that UM coach Jimmy Johnson, who led Miami to a 1987 national title, would do each week during the football season:

Johnson created weekly 9 p.m. Thursday-night meetings, when he would go around the room to each player and make him tell Johnson what he planned on doing in 10 years.

Some guys would do imitations. Some guys would crack jokes. Johnson's only caveat was the the player wasn't allowed to just say, "Football."

Then Johnson would press them about what they were doing to work toward that goal.

A strong belief in fundamentals

The SLC paper had a good interview recently with Frank Layden, the former Jazz coach whom Jerry Sloan replaced after Coach Layden retired and moved into the front office.

-- On the high level of turnover among NBA coaches: "The way the contracts are structured nowadays, you can't fire the players, so you fire the coach and you hope for the best. Usually, the results don't change very much - - occasionally, they do - - but not very often is the coach really at fault."

-- On Jerry Sloan: "In my mind, Jerry is the best coach, maybe in any sport, not just the basketball. I think he sometimes, because of the market we're in, he doesn't get the credit. He'd already be in the Hall of Fame if he was coaching New York or Chicago or Los Angeles."

-- On Utah's commitment to teaching and the basics: "We believe in fundamentals. We teach fundamentals. We do a lot of teaching. If you look at practice, you'll see the assistant coaches play an active role - - that's not true with a lot of teams, in any sport - - the head coach a lot of times is dominant."

-- On how the Jazz have remained consistent winners: "A lot of times people say, 'Well, how do the Jazz do it?' and I say, 'They're conservative, they're very loyal and they have a plan and they stick to it and they don't vary from it.' They don't panic, which a lot of teams do."

-- On the "best coaches he'd ever seen": John Wooden, Morgan Wooten, Dean Smith and Jerry Sloan.

Comebacks begin with positive energy

Rick Pitino has a new book out titled "Rebound Rules."

I've not read it yet (though I plan to over the holiday weekend), but found some excerpts online, including this one in which Coach Pitino describes how his UK team came back from a 31-point deficit at LSU in 1994:

"One thing you must do in the face of adversity is to be honest with yourself, and with the people you're trying to lead. Acknowledge the difficult spot you're in and commence digging out of it. Don't point fingers, don't recriminate, and don't make excuses. Stay positive and get to work.

The grand scheme at that very moment wasn't to emerge with a victory at night's end; looking that far ahead would have blurred our focus on the gradual progress that comprises every comeback.

The goal was to get within 20 points as quickly as possible. To do that, we concentrated on three things: using our press to create turnovers, fouling the two shaky free throw shooters LSU had on the floor, and getting high-percentage shots.

All three worked, and the turnaround actually happened faster than expected. In about five minutes of clock time, we'd shockingly chopped the deficit from 31 to 14. Our frantic style of play helped -- speeding up the game and increasing the possessions for both teams gave us more chances to rally.

Stubbornly, we kept whittling away at LSU's lead, as the celebrating crowd turned more and more nervous. Every timeout Tigers' coach Dale Brown called in an attempt to slow our momentum actually raised our spirits. We knew we had them rattled; we knew we had a chance.

Walter McCarty dropped in a three-point shot with 19 seconds left and we took the lead, 96-95, and went on to win 99-95. To this day, it remains the biggest comeback in college basketball history on the road.

The game quickly became known nationwide as the Mardi Gras Miracle. It was certainly memorable, but it was no miracle. It didn't take divine intervention to win that game; it took an unbreakable optimism, and a plan for coming back.

[Comebacks begin] with positive energy on the floor, on the bench, and in the team huddles.

They began with a belief that things would get better if we persevered through adversity, trusted each other and worked together.

They began with a conviction that consistent effort, even against long odds, inevitably would turn the tide. They began with a reliance on the fundamentals that made us a successful team to begin with, and we didn't desert them in a crisis.

They began with a single good play, and a certainty that one good play would lead to another and another and another until the deficit was gone and the game was won.

The most important thing I did in the course of those comebacks was to build my players' self- esteem. Don't tear them down for the mistakes that got the team in those holes to begin with; build them up to the point where they felt capable of making the plays that would result in victory.

There have been times when I've not been as positive with my teams during games. I have succumbed to the frustration of the moment and filled the huddle with negative energy, telling them, 'This is what you deserve because you practiced poorly.'

There certainly is a time for constructive criticism and even an outright tail chewing, but it's generally not when you're trying to rally people to redouble their efforts and perform at a higher level. That deprives your team of the hope that it can come back in adverse situations.

When it comes to team dynamics -- on a basketball court or in a corporate setting -- maintaining a positive atmosphere is crucial. Being relentlessly positive can be the only way to come back and defeat towering negativity.

Nobody goes through life without setbacks and struggles, some of them significant enough to cause you to doubt everything you believe in. You might be fired. You might face serious illness for you or your family. You might have a major financial setback, face an ethical dilemma, or find yourself starting over later in life. You might see a lifetime goal disintegrate, leaving you in a place you never imagined when plotting out your career path.

Will you have a gameplan in place to make your comeback?

You should, because the comeback is a classic American trait: We are a second-chance people. The story of the United States was not written by people who were handed everything. It was written by people reinventing their lives after encountering adversity -- by immigrants and cast-offs from foreign lands who took a leap of faith to make a new start in a new land.

After my job ended with the Celtics, I had to pull myself out of a crater by rediscovering what I call my PHD -- my passion, my hunger, and my drive. I had to quit beating up on myself and elevate the self-esteem that I always have tried to keep so high in my players. It was time for me to coach myself.

As difficult as it was going through those things, I've emerged as a wiser and happier person. I wouldn't wish some of those moments on anyone, but they've been learning experiences that will shape the later stages of my career and my life after basketball.

My perspective now is totally different. Basketball is my passion, but not my life. Helping my players, family members, and friends achieve happiness counts more than the final score of any game.

Being confronted with adversity -- in sports, in business, in any walk of life -- can happen more often than anyone wants to admit. It will test you in ways most of us have never contemplated. Having a plan to deal with it can make your comeback a great one."

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.

You can't perform at the highest level if you have fear

Question: Who's playing in the CFL's title game this Sunday?

One of the coaches in this year's Grey Cup is Marc Trestman, a rookie CFL coach who's guided a team to the finals that went 8-10 last season.

The name "Trestman" might be familiar. He worked as an NFL offensive coach/coordinator for 20 years with the Bucs, Browns, Vikings, Cards, Lions, Niners, Raiders, and Dolphins.

So when he landed his first head coaching job in Montreal last December, a reporter asked Trestman if he was nervous.

"Not one fear," said Trestman, who backed up QB Tony Dungy at the University of Minnesota and, after graduating from college, earned a law degree. "You can't put yourself out there unless you're fearless. That doesn't mean you won't feel (fear) along the way. You'll have your moments, because you're human. You can't perform at the highest level as a player or do anything if you have fear. You can't perform at the highest level as a player or do anything if you have fear."

According to Montreal president Larry Smith, it was Trestman's "depth of people skills" that put him over the top when the club was interviewing coaching candidates:

"What impressed me ... was his great listening skills and values. Those were two things that jumped out at us. He didn't tell us how to run or manage a team. He's humble and asked a lot of questions, and he was well-prepared. He makes an impression when he talks to you. Competing against others, that was important. First impressions are made in the initial 30 seconds."

Trestman's first coaching job came in 1981, while still a law student at the University of Miami. (Says Trestman of his future as a lawyer: "I didn't think I would ever compete against some of the minds that were going to law school, no matter how hard I worked at it. But I worked at it and got through it. I knew early on that I didn't want to be a lawyer. But I didn't want to quit.")

As a 25-year-old volunteer coach on Howard Schnellenberger's Hurricanes staff, "Trestman prepared a three-page outline detailing why he should be allowed to coach freshmen pivots Kosar and Vinny Testaverde." [see photo here]

Two years later, after earning his law degree and passing the Florida bar exam, he was named Miami's QB coach.

"Coaching never crossed my mind for a minute," he said. "I never had a great relationship with my coaches, to my recollection. I always tell coach Schnellenberger he saw something in me I never saw in myself. To hire me as the quarterback coach ... as young as I was. And I really coached them. The quarterback's the center of the game. I was just winging it. I had no experience, no criteria, no mentorship, no training. Nothing. I'm just grateful he saw that in me."

According to Coach Trestman, coaching is more than how guys perform on the field:

"It's not only about how they can play. I want to know what they're all about. That's this game. It's taking a diverse group of people and bringing them together. You can't unless you know what they're about. I'll just be as honest with the players as I can ... as direct as I can."

[Answer: Calgary and Montreal]

Building your own pyramid of success

A friend forwarded me a copy of the Boise State football program's "pyramid" -- which is their version of John Wooden's classic "Pyramid of Success."

I've uploaded the PDF here. You can also click on the image at the left to enlarge it.

At the top of the BSU pyramid is the ultimate objective: Win a bowl game.

Just below that on the pyramid are the goals the team needs to achieve in order to reach their primary objective.

The next level includes a list of "behaviors" (accountability, work ethic, etc.).

The foundational level of the pyramid lists the team's values: Trust, unity, integrity, and leadership.

It's about slowing down to go fast

A lot of my friends who aren't in coaching have talked about the number of meetings on their schedules each day. One of them said he has 8-10 meetings during a typical work day.

So this past summer, he said he picked up a copy of the book "Death by Meeting," in which the author makes a case not for fewer meetings, but for better ones.

While the typical coach won't have 10 meetings a day, we have our share of them, though most coaches are generally efficient with their meeting time.

In an interview last year, the author of the book, Patrick Lencioni, argued that "bad meetings are the most painful problem in business."

According to Lencioni (who lives in No. Cal):

"If they're boring, that's a good sign that they're problematic. If people dread going to them, that's a pretty good sign. People should look forward to going to meetings and they should not be bored when they're there.

Lencioni compares a good meeting to a good movie, saying: "A great movie hooks its audience early – within the first 10 minutes – and has enough drama to hold their attention. There should be real conflict taking place with something worth caring about at stake. And in the end, there should be some sort of resolution."

He also encourages those running meetings to engage in a candid discussion, one that can sometimes be uncomfortable:

"The truth is meetings aren't supposed to be easy and comfortable. They're supposed to be places where difficult decisions are made. If you take the drama and the conflict out, you're not going to be talking about the right things or getting to the heart of the issue. You're not going to engage people and get the best from them either."

The author describes four types of meetings: The daily check-in, the weekly tactical, the monthly strategic, and the quarterly offsite review. Here's how he defines each one:

1. The daily check-in: "A quick huddle to find out what everybody is doing. There's no agenda and no problem solving, just a basic social check-in so people know what their team members are doing."

2. The weekly tactical: "Where people talk about how the team is doing against near-term goals. This is the place they can discuss the problems they need to resolve to accomplish those goals. It's not about strategy or brainstorming – it's about solving problems that are holding the team back."

3. The monthly strategic or topical meeting: "You take one big topic that will have an impact on your future and spend two hours or more wrestling it to the ground. These meetings are fun because they're focused on solving a big problem. People brainstorm, push each other, and really draw on their unique perspectives and various levels of experience."

4. The quarterly off-site review: "This sort of meeting has often become a boondoggle – with exotic locations and too many social activities. These meetings are costly and rarely provide a lasting benefit. For me, the quarterly offsite lets people step back from the business, take a breath, and re-assess where they stand.

The topic can be anything – competitors, the market, what your best employees are doing – anything. The function is to help people regain perspective and view the business in a more holistic, long-term manner. It's about slowing down to go fast."

Chuck Daly used to say that coaches are "forced " to make more meetings than almost any leader:

-- Practices leading up to game
-- Shootaround
-- Walkthroughs
-- Film sessions
-- Pregame meeting
-- Timeouts (your own timeouts, opponent's timeouts, TV timeouts )
-- Halftime meeting, halftime film edit, halftime chalk talk
-- Post game meeting
-- Practice the day after the game
-- Meeting to watch the film from the game the night before
-- A brief pre-practice on-court meeting, followed by a full practice
-- And after every practice, the team comes together for a brief meeting

On second thought, coaches do have a lot of meetings.