The only way you can get commitment is through trust

Continue to work through Joe Torre's book, "The Yankee Years." There's a good excerpt that ties into a post from yesterday from Jeffrey Gitomer's book about trust.

Torre took over a Yankee team that had "played under the tightly wound [Bucky] Showalter, who had played, coached, and managed so long in the Yankees organization, where Steinbrenner's divide-and-conquer style of leadership was designed to keep everyone uncomfortable, that trust did not come easily to him."

In 1996, when Torre was named manager of the team, "they had a tast of the playoffs," Torre said, "and I think they were grown up enough to know somebody has to make the decisions. Whether you like me or believe me, you have to understand that. They were at the point where they knew in order to win we have to work together. And somebody has to point us in that direction."

I pulled the following from page 10 of the book:

~~~~~~~~~~

Torre provided a complete contrast to Showalter's micromanagement style. He gave his coaches and players a wide berth. One word kept coming up over and over again in the application of his management philosophy: trust.

"What I try to do is treat everybody fairly," Torre said. "It doesn't mean I treat everybody the same. But everybody deserves a fair shake. That's the only right thing to do. I'd rather be wrong trusting somebody than never trusting them."

"I'm of the belief that the game belongs to the players, and you have to facilitate that the best you can. I want them to use their natural ability. If they're doing something wrong, you tell them, but I'd like it to be instructive, rather than robotic. The only thing I want them all to think about is what our goal is and what the at-bats are supposed to represent. And that simply is this: 'What can I do to help us win a game?'"

Players quickly bought into Torre's management-by-trust style, and they did so because its abiding principle was honesty.

"Honesty is important to me. Where does it come from? I don't know, but even when I think back it was always something that was ingrained in me. Even now I may have trouble when I have to tell someone the truth if it's not a pleasant thing, but I won't lie to them. I can't do that. The only way you can get commitment is through trust, and you've got to earn that trust."

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."

Leadership used to be about certainty; now it's about leading in uncertainty

Just finished reading the book "Just Enough Anxiety" by psychologist Robert Rosen.

As I read it, it became clear how many of the leaders and coaches featured on this blog over the last year fit Rosen's description of today's "successful leaders."

As I read the following excerpt, I thought about how coaching and the business of basketball has changed over the 20 years that I've been a coach and for the 40 years I watched my father coach.

As the author describes, there's considerably more uncertainty in basketball today than ever before, which makes his model relevant for coaches and GMs.

~~~~~~~~~~

Fear has been with us since the beginning of time -- the guardian of our survival. Fear kept our ancestors from becoming some predator's dinner. It alerted generation after generation to situations that threatened their survival. It keeps us from walking down dark alleys at night. Sometimes fear propels us forward; sometimes it freezes us in our tracks.

Your relationship with fear -- and its cousin, anxiety -- has a profound effect on your life. It shapes how you see yourself and others, and how others see you. It influences how you think about problems and make decisions. It affects how you view and manage change.

It's a key factor in how you lead teams.

Fear and anxiety are what we experience when we go through life on autopilot. But we can no longer allow ourselves to operate this way. Leadership used to be about certainty. Now it's about leading in uncertainty.

Successful leaders stay ahead of the game by either shaping their world to suit themselves or quickly adapting to the world around them. Leading people through change is every leader's job. It's about taking people from where they are to where they need to be. And it's about the courage and commitment to drive and sustain change.

Following are the five characteristics of today's successful leaders.

1. Successful leaders willingly travel into the unknown. They take uncertainty in stride. In fact, they enjoy the challenge that constant change provides.

2. Successful leaders set an evolving course through ambiguity, complexity, and change. They turn uncertainty and adversity into advantages. They are willing to change their minds and their course of action when necessary. They steer and support others through change after change with a sense of urgency. Simultaneously optimistic and realistic, they risk failure in pursuit of success.

3. Successful leaders inspire and challenge people to perform beyond their own expectations. They are relationship builders. They align people around a shared vision -- with honest and open dialogue -- and open hearts. Comfortable with conflict and disagreement, these leaders foster dynamic debate and constructive impatience. They get people involved by earning their confidence and trust. Their empathy and compassion for others allows them to stretch people into their discomfort zones, while igniting their passion to win. Their ability to motivate, coach, and develop leaders at all levels enables them to build a culture of accountability and execution.

4. Successful leaders learn and re-learn in real time. They are willing to reinvent themselves and their organizations to adapt to change. They see lifelong learning as a priority and themselves as teachers and learners. They see both success and failure as good teachers.

5. Successful leaders imagine possibilities, discover opportunities, and release creative energies inside their organizations. They refuse to accept the status quo. There's always a new goal to reach or a new opportunity to grab. These leaders are masterful at accessing and channeling energy, in themselves and others. They push boundaries. They create excitement.

One capability makes it possible for leaders to succeed at these key tasks. It is the capability to live with and create just enough anxiety within themselves and others. More than any other leadership quality, this ability propels great leaders to the top.

It enables them to embrace uncertainty and manage the ups and downs of a crazy world. It brings out their best performance, enables them to build great teams, and inspires and challenges their organizations. It is the hidden driver of success.

Setting the bar high

Forty wins.

That's the goal coach Mike D'Antoni has set for his Knicks team, which is 24-33 heading into tonight's home game against the Sixers.

According to an article in Newsday this morning, "During the All-Star break, D'Antoni sat down and decided that 40 wins - what it would take to earn a trip to the playoffs - should be a realistic goal. So he started preaching about the power of 40."

In truth, D'Antoni said there really isn't anything magical or mathematical about his goal of 40; he just wanted to set the bar high.

Said D'Antoni: "If we win 36 and make the playoffs, I'll be happy. I just thought that 40 is pretty good. There's no reason why we can't win close to 40. It's tough. We got some hard teams, but we just have to try to play better and win some when we can."

Setting a goal that's ambitious, but achievable, seems to have galvanized Knicks players.

David Lee: "I think it's a legitimate goal for us. We've been 3-2 since the break. More than anything, it will keep us concentrated as we move forward."

Chris Duhon (pictured above with Coach D'Antoni): "It's realistic to think that it's possible. We have the chemistry here that will be able to do that."

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."

The result should never overshadow the process

When Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel wanted to talk coaching and philosophies, he turned not to another football coach, but to a D-III swimming coach at tiny Kenyon College by the name of Jim Steen.

Last spring, the 60-year-old Coach Steen, whose swimmers have won 47 D-III team titles in his 33 years at Kenyon, spent an afternoon with Coach Tressel, who "sat in Steen’s office and scribbled pages of notes one afternoon as Steen shared his philosophies."

A NY Times article today describes Coach Steen this way:

[He] bears a resemblance to the actor John Lithgow and stars as Kenyon’s version of the absentminded professor. He is 6 feet 5 inches but walks with a slouch, as if he cannot bear to tower over others. His work attire is shorts and flip-flops, but he exudes a formality that is rooted in good manners. During the season, which runs from September through March, Steen frequently misplaces his cellphone or his eyeglasses, and he often forgets to eat. But his focus on his swimmers is so keen, it cuts through the chlorine haze of their lives.

According to one Kenyon professor, "it’s the intangibles that set Coach Steen apart. He has this ability to connect with people, to figure out what makes them tick. He’s a genius when it comes to that."

Though swimming is an individual pursuit, Steen treats it as a team sport. He preaches to his athletes that everybody has a redeeming quality; as teammates, their job is to find the positive in one another and let go of the rest.

“We need to be ready,” Steen said. “You guys as much as anybody will set the tone when we go into the conference meet.” He added, “We could not win it.”

Then he reiterated one of his simple truths: “Not winning the war is not nearly as bad as not winning the battles.”

As you might tell from that quote, Coach Steen "is a big believer that the result should never overshadow the process. It is why he rarely mentions his 29 consecutive national men’s team championships or his 22 overall women’s crowns in his 33 years at Kenyon. (He arrived in 1975, and has taken two one-year sabbaticals.)"

It's his belief that "the pursuit of a single goal often inhibits the risk-taking and creative thinking necessary for personal growth."

The NY Times article tells of how, "in one mass e-mail message" to his swimmers recently, "he wrote, 'Find a place within yourself where success and failure don’t matter, a place where you can engage in battle without compromise.'"

Another of Steen’s simple truths comes from the Bible: The exalted will be humbled and the humble will be exalted. The road to success, he will tell you, has no neon signs to herald your arrival.

One of Coach Steen's swimmers talks about one lesson her coach taught her that's impacted her the most:

“The one that’s really stuck with me,” she said, is, “you can approach anything two ways: under a threat or for the challenge.”

What did Coach Tressel take away from his meeting with Coach Steen?

“One of the things that jumped out at me was Jim’s passion for working to be certain that his young people reach their potential,” Tressel said. “It’s even agonizing for him the thought of that not occurring.”

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.

A vision is something that consumes you like a fire

From Gwen Knapp's column yesterday comes this quote from Niners coach Mike Singletary:

"When I look around the NFL, I'm amazed by how many people have a dream and how few have a vision."

The difference, he said, is that a dream ends up being passive, accommodating disappointment.

A vision, he said, "captures the imagination. A vision is something that consumes you like a fire, won't let you eat, won't let you sleep until that vision comes to pass."

[Thanks, Ken!]

Not much happens without a dream

The following is an excerpt from Robert Greenleaf's book "Servant Leadership," a concept that "encourages leaders to serve others while staying focused on achieving results in line with the organization's values and integrity."

~~~~~~~~~~

The very essence of leadership, going out ahead to show the way, derives from more than usual openness to inspiration. But the leader needs more than inspiration.

A leader ventures to say, "I will go; come with me!" A leader initiates, provides the ideas and structure, and takes the risk of failure along with the chance 0f success.

A leaders says, "I will go; follow me!" while knowing that the path is uncertain, even dangerous. One then trust those who go with one's leadership.

A mark of leaders, an attribute that puts them in a position to show the way for others, is that they are better than most at pointing the direction. As long as one is leading, one always has a goal. It may be a goal arrived at by a group consensus, or the leader, acting on inspiration, may simply have said, "Let's go this way." But the leader always knows what it is and can articulate it for any who are unsure.

By clearly stating and restating the goal the leader gives certainty to others who may have difficulty in achieving it for themselves.

The word "goal" is used here in the special sense of the overarching purpose, the big dream, the visionary concept, the ultimate consummation that one approaches but never really achieves. It is something presently out of reach; it is something to strive for, to move toward, to become.

It is so stated that it excites the imagination and challenges people to work for something they do not yet know how to do, something they can be proud of as they move toward it.

Any achievement starts with a goal -- but not just any goal and not just anybody stating it. The one who states the goal must elicit trust, especially if it is a high risk or visionary goal, because those who follow are asked to accept the risk along with the leader.

Leaders do not elicit trust unless one has confidence in their values and competence (including judgment) and unless they have a sustaining spirit that will support the tenacious pursuit of a goal.

Not much happens without a dream. And for something great to happen, there must be a great dream. Behind every great achievement is a dreamer of great dreams. Much more than a dreamer is required to bring it to reality, but the dream must be there first.

The way it is

My sister, who studied literature at SMU, sent me this poem by William Stafford titled "The Way It Is." It has a good message about sticking to it and following your path.






The Way It Is

There's a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn't change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can't get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of that thread.

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."

We are all writing the story of our own life

Yesterday, my sister forwarded a good article she'd read in Fast Company magazine.

If you've not read Fast Company before, it's described as the magazine that "sets the agenda, charting the evolution of business through a unique focus on the most creative individuals sparking change in the marketplace. Fast Company empowers innovators to challenge convention and create the future of business."

Written by Po Bronson (pictured below), author of the book "What Should I Do with My Life? The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question," the article contends that "instead of focusing on what's next, let's get back to what's first."

Bronson believes "there are far too many smart, educated, talented people operating at quarter speed, unsure of their place in the world, contributing far too little to the productive engine of modern civilization."

There are far too many people who look like they have their act together but have yet to make an impact. You know who you are. It comes down to a simple gut check: You either love what you do or you don't. Period.

According to the author, "those who are lit by that passion are the object of envy among their peers and the subject of intense curiosity. They are the source of good ideas. They make the extra effort. They demonstrate the commitment. They are the ones who, day by day, will rescue this drifting ship. And they will be rewarded. With money, sure, and responsibility, undoubtedly."

Bronson writes that "most of us are blessed with the ultimate privilege: We get to be true to our individual nature. Our economy is so vast that we don't have to grind it out forever at jobs we hate. For the most part, we get to choose. That choice isn't about a career search so much as an identity quest."

Asking The Question aspires to end the conflict between who you are and what you do. There is nothing more brave than filtering out the chatter that tells you to be someone you're not. There is nothing more genuine than breaking away from the chorus to learn the sound of your own voice. Asking The Question is nothing short of an act of courage: It requires a level of commitment and clarity that is almost foreign to our working lives.

In researching his book, Bronson spoke to nearly 1000 people who "have dared to be honest with themselves." He spent "considerable time"with less than 10 percent of those people "in order to learn how they did it."

These are ordinary people. People of all ages, classes, and professions... These people don't have any resources or character traits that give them an edge in pursuing their dream. Only two are so smart that they would succeed at anything they chose (though having more choices makes answering The Question that much harder). They're just people who faced up to it, armed with only their weaknesses, equipped with only their fears.

Many of the people Bronson spent time with worked in what he considered to be "boring" office jobs. And yet, they "were absolutely committed to their work."

That commitment sustained them through slow stretches and setbacks. They never watched the clock, never dreaded Mondays, never worried about the years passing by. They didn't wonder where they belonged in life. They were phenomenally productive and confident in their value. In places unusual and unexpected, they had found their calling, and those callings were as idiosyncratic as each individual.

What he found is that "your calling isn't something you inherently 'know,' some kind of destiny. Far from it. Almost all of the people I interviewed found their calling after great difficulty. They had made mistakes before getting it right."

He writes of a catfish farmer who started out as an investment banker and a truck driver who had been an entertainment lawyer. Then there was the Harvard MBA who ended up as a police officer. In every case, they'd "discovered latent talents that weren't in their skill sets at age 25."

Most of us don't get epiphanies. We only get a whisper -- a faint urge. That's it. That's the call. It's up to you to do the work of discovery, to connect it to an answer.

The truth is, most of us have know deep inside of us where we "belong," but, unfortunately, we "make poor choices and waste productive years on the wrong work."

Bronson outlines four reasons why we get caught up in the wrong line of work -- many of us failing to recover before we retire:

1. Money
2. Smarts
3. Place
4. Attitude

MONEY: "Shouldn't I make money first -- to fund my dream?" Bronson says most of us believe we should pay our dues, then tend to our dreams. As he puts it: "Put your calling in a lockbox, go out and make a ton of money, and then come back to the lockbox to pick up your calling where you left it."

It turns out that having the financial independence to walk away rarely triggers people to do just that. The reality is, making money is such hard work that it changes you. It takes twice as long as anyone plans for. It requires more sacrifices than anyone expects. You become so emotionally invested in that world -- and psychologically adapted to it -- that you don't really want to ditch it.

According to Bronson, "the ruling assumption is that money is the shortest route to freedom. Absurdly, that strategy is cast as the 'practical approach.'

In truth, the opposite is true. The shortest route to the good life involves building the confidence that you can live happily within your means (whatever the means provided by the choices that are truly acceptable to you turn out to be)."

This is an extremely threatening conclusion. It suggests that the vast majority of us aren't just putting our dreams on ice -- we're killing them.

SMARTS: "Being smarter doesn't make answering The Question easier." Bronson writes that asking the question, "What am I good at?" is not the right way to go about it.

"People who attempt to deduce an answer usually end up mistaking intensity for passion. To the heart, they are vastly different. Intensity comes across as a pale busyness , while passion is meaningful and fulfilling. A simple test: Is your choice something that will stimulate you for a year or something that you can be passionate about for 10 years?"

He argues that "work should be like life: sometimes fun, sometimes moving, often frustrating, and defined by meaningful events." [Sounds a lot like coaching.]

PLACE: "Every industry has a culture. And every culture is driven by a value system. Once you're rooted in a particular system -- whether it's medicine, New York City, Microsoft, or a startup -- it's often agonizingly difficult to unravel yourself from its values, practices, and rewards. You'll be a lot happier if you aren't fighting the value system around you. Find one that enforces a set of beliefs that you can really get behind. There's a powerful transformative effect when you surround yourself with like-minded people. Peer pressure is a great thing when it helps you accomplish your goals instead of distracting you from them."

ATTITUDE: Bronson believes that this is the biggest obstacle. "Environment matters, but in the end, when it comes to tackling the question, 'What should I do with my life?' it really is all in your head."

The first psychological stumbling block that keeps people from finding themselves is that they feel guilty for simply taking the quest seriously. They think that it's a self-indulgent privilege of the educated upper class. Working-class people manage to be happy without trying to "find themselves," or so the myth goes.

I've posted on this blog about the downside of having too many options. Bronson contends that "probably the most debilitating obstacle to taking on The Question is the fear that making a choice is a one-way ride, that starting down a path means closing a door forever. 'Keeping your doors open' is a trap. It's an excuse to stay uninvolved."

Bronson (pictured here) concludes with this:

We are all writing the story of our own life. It's not a story of conquest. It's a story of discovery. Through trial and error, we learn what gifts we have to offer the world and are pushed to greater recognition about what we really need. The Big Bold Leap turns out to be only the first step.

Both an architect and a plumber

Came across Reverend Richard Stazesky's 2000 presentation about the leadership ability of President George Washington.

In it, he describes how "visionary leaders" like President Washington are able to focus "simultaneously on two seemingly different configurations, yet to such a leader they are always inextricably related."

According to Rev. Stazesky, effective leaders not only see the "big picture," but also see the little deals. They're able to lay out the strategy, but can also develop the tactics.

They not only set goals, but outline the objectives necessary to reach those goals. They understand theory, but also know how to apply the theory.

As Reverend Stazesky puts it, these leaders are at once the architect and the plumber.

In a time when some preach the "coach as CEO" model, Rev. Stazesky makes a strong argument for balancing a hands-off and hands-on approach to coaching.

In fact, just last month, in an effort to shore up his team's defense, Bears coach Lovie Smith pledged to take "a more hands-on approach."

Clearly, the head coach can't do it all. Having a talented, trustworthy staff is critical. But it's possible (and important) for the head coach to be involved and engaged without micromanaging.

A belief that when the team flourishes, the individual flourishes

How many times have you read where a veteran player -- a former All-Pro -- is benched late in his career and becomes a distraction from the team's goals?

Now, consider Cardinals RB Edgerrin James, a guy who has had more than 300 carries in seven of his 10 seasons in the league, rushing for more than 1,100 yards in each of those seasons.

When he was benched for rookie RB Tim Hightower, James wasn't happy about it, but he "never sulked, never pouted. He worked hard and practiced as if he were starting."

As this story from the NY Times puts it, "James is especially compelling at a time when we have become used to seeing sports stars complain about playing time and statistics, team be damned."

This article contends that "if James had chosen to become a negative influence in the locker room, he might have done irreparable damage to the Cardinals' postseason hopes. Instead, he helped drive them to the franchise's first division title since 1975 by showing how much he cared about the team."

In a situation where some players would have held contempt for the player who replaced them, "James turned his attention to helping Hightower through a complex situation for both of them."

"Our relationship got even better, and that's the funny part of it. The more I played, the more he was talking to me," Hightower says. "Every single time I'd come to the sideline, he'd point out things that he saw. He showed me how to watch film. He was calling me every day to make sure I was putting the right things in my body. It just blows my mind away that somebody could be so selfless."

James' team-first attitude is unusual in today's pro game, and it shows that he takes seriously "the core values that carried him from Immokalee, Fla., to the Super Bowl: hard work and a dedication to doing what is required to help the team, a belief that when the team flourishes, the individual flourishes."

“Some guys focus on the business side more than the football side, and it doesn’t work out,” James said Tuesday. “Whenever I talk to a young guy, I always say: ‘Make sure you put football first, do everything the right way, as far as being a football player. Everything else is going to come.’ You understand that it’s not personal, it’s business,” he said. “This is business, regardless of what anyone may say or think, the N.F.L. is a business, and that’s the approach I’ve always taken.”

The most important hire a coach can make

As you settle in to watch the OU-UF title game tonight, you'll have to appreciate how physically strong both teams are.

That's a credit to Jerry Schmidt (photo below) and Mickey Marotti (photo at left), the strength and conditioning coaches at Oklahoma and Florida, respectively.

According to this story in today's NY Times, "ask Sooners Coach Bob Stoops or Florida’s Urban Meyer to name the most valuable person in his program, and each would immediately point to his head strength and conditioning coach."

The increasingly important roles of Schmidt and Marotti are part of a booming trend in college football. N.C.A.A. rules do not allow position coaches to work with players in the off-season, so strength coaches become de facto head coaches.

Their booming voices are essentially the soundtracks of players’ collegiate lives, from predawn off-season workouts to the dog days of summer. Find a successful program like Florida or Oklahoma, and there is inevitably a strength coach serving as its backbone.

“He’s my first lieutenant,” Stoops said of Schmidt.

Meyer said his hiring of Marotti was “the most important hire that you can make.”

Marotti’s "unorthodox drills" have included "pushing tires and old maintenance vans around the football field" and pushing "wheelbarrows in sand pits."

Gators QB Tim Tebow says that Marotti "may be the most valuable coach on our team."

The article includes a story about how, during one workout, Schmidt "became upset because players did not run their warm-up lap fast enough. So he made the group run another and another and another. Finally, after seven unacceptable warm-up laps, Schmidt kicked the entire group out of the workout. When kicked out, players have to return later in the day and redo the entire workout."

Says one OU player (who passed out after his initial workout with Schmidt): "Everybody gets kicked out at least one time."

This article from the Palm Beach paper describes how Marotti "sets weight goals for players in the off-season, and helps them achieve the goals through tough love and positive reinforcement."

The 43-year-old Marotti, who Coach Meyer calls the "head coach of the first floor" (where the Gators' weight room is located), "is one of Meyer's top motivators, giving fiery speeches after practices and before games. Meyer calls him a 'master' of motivation and mental preparation."

"The biggest thing we do is hold the players accountable," Marotti said. "We basically try to suffocate them as much as we can, and stay on them 24-7."

In this article on ESPN.com, Coach Stoops describes why Coach Schmidt has a bigger influence on Sooner players than any other coach:

"He's with them every single day this time of year. We're not allowed to coach them. He's teaching them to be a better athlete. He gets more time with them. He isn't offense or defense. They look at him different. He works with everybody. He's my first lieutenant to the guys. They know I feel that's one of the strength points of the program. They know he's the guy. I don't have to be hands-on. He is."

Allowing a team to take ownership of its goals

Last week, a friend sent me a copy of Tom Osborne's book "Faith in the Game."

I've had a chance to get through the first five chapters of the book, including Chapter 5, in which Coach Osborne discusses goals and goal setting.

The following is an excerpt from that chapter:

Goals create a sense of focus and direction. A team without goals often is interested only in getting the season over with. There is no excitement or anticipation.

A team with a strong desire to achieve specific goals generates a sense of purpose, mission, and energy.

Until the early 1990s, our team goals were generally set by the coaching staff. We assumed that the coaches knew better than the players what our team was capable of accomplishing and what our priorities should be.

After three consecutive disappointing seasons in 1989, 1990, and 1991, I decided that major adjustments were necessary. It wasn't so much that our record was bad in those seasons; we finished 10-2 in 1989, and won nine games in each of the 1990 and 1991 seasons.

The disturbing thing was that we tailed off at the end of each season and did not display the drive and focus in bowl games that we needed.

As a staff, we decided that part of the problem might be related to our goal-setting procedures. We recognized that having the coaching staff set team goals gave the players the impression they were being asked to accomplish objectives that were important to the coaching staff but had little to do with what the athletes wanted to achieve.

As a result, there was less accountability on the part of players.

In 1992, in an effort to have the players take ownership of their objectives, we let the players set team goals. As the season began, we asked each player to list in order of importance five goals he felt were critical to the success of the team. We then compiled the goals listed and ranked them according to the frequency each goal was mentioned.

This discussion of goals relates to most organizations involved in competitive endeavors. The objectives and approaches presented may serve as a model for incorporating both long-term and short-term goals.

Experience taught our organization the importance of empowering the individuals who must accomplish goals by involving them in the goal-setting process. Having clearly stated this, specific goals contribute to effective performance.

It is important to have short-term goals broken down into components that enable one to see a clear relationship between daily activities and organizational objectives.

As we reviewed our goals each Monday, our players could see what they specifically needed to work on during... practice. The more players took ownership of short-term and long-term goals, the more effective our team became.

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.

Judging games on performance rather than wins and losses

Sounds like the SJ Sharks, who've won an NHL-leading 25 games this season, have borrowed one of John Wooden's core principles:  "Focus on effort, not winning."

After a rare recent loss to Columbus, in which SJ outshot the Blue Jackets, 48-32, Sharks center Joe Thornton (pictured here) said he was pleased with his team's play, despite the outcome:

"We said from the start of the year, we're not going to judge the games on wins and losses. We're going to judge them on how we played and I think we played well."

Optimism and the "persistence instinct"

The CBS "60 Minutes" piece on USC coach Pete Carroll this past Sunday described him as someone who is "upbeat, optimistic, and seems to have a permanent smile on his face."

[Click here for the blog posting from yesterday about the "60 Minutes" story.]

That description got me thinking about the role optimism plays in success. Does a more optimistic coach or player have a better chance of succeeding than one who is pessimistic?

A book titled "Breaking Murphy's Law" by a professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky examines this very question. The author isn't a motivational speaker; she's a scientist.

According to the author, if you're "optimistic" you "can easily envision yourself accomplishing what you want and, although you can recognize the possibility that not everything will turn out well, you think the odds are in your favor." It's just the opposite for a pessimist.

Her research has found that optimism isn't about "being a positive person" as much as it's about "motivation and persistence."

As an example, early in the book, she describes two law school students from a long-term study she conducted on "how optimism affects psychological well-being." One student was found to be in the top 10% of optimistic students. The other was in the bottom 10%.

"The... pessimistic one didn't seem horribly depressed, and the... optimistic one didn't seem happy-go-lucky. Still, there were dramatic differences in their approaches to law school that had to do with how they tackled the difficulties they encountered.

The pessimistic student dealt with difficulty by withdrawing, ruminating, disengaging, and eventually underachieving. The optimistic student dealt with difficulty by setting goals, planning, engaging, and eventually reaping the rewards.

The essential difference was NOT between positivity and negativity, but between trying harder and trying less.

Positive expectancies -- optimism -- increase motivation and effort, whereas negative expectancies -- pessimism -- decrease motivation and effort. Optimism leads to increased well-being because it increases engagement with life's goals, not because of some miracle happy juice that optimists have and others don't."

She calls this willingness to work longer at tasks as the "persistence instinct." In her words, "optimism makes you push ahead."

Based on the author's research, it's when things get difficult -- when there are obstacles and roadblocks on the path to your goal -- that "you see the biggest differences between optimists and pessimists."

"Difficult tasks create different dynamics. There are natural responses to difficulties and roadblocks. First, emotions turn to irritability, dejection, or anxiety. Second, preoccupation with, and attention to... this problem increases. Roadblocks threaten goals, and any kind of threat results in negative feelings."

Think about when a team hits a losing streak or has one of its key players go down with an injury. The team's goal -- of winning the division, reaching the playoffs, or repeating as champions -- is threatened.

When this happens, some people simply give up. Of course, "keeping at a goal is no guarantee that you will reach it. On the other hand, rejecting it almost ensures that you will not."

"This is where optimism comes in. Optimism helps people see beyond the immediate roadblock to a potentially positive future, whereas pessimists see only more roadblocks, problems, and failures.

For optimistic people, it makes sense to incur the costs of trying to get past a roadblock because they expect rewards in the end. Positive expectancies keep people working on difficult tasks... when it would be easier to just give up. Pessimistic people have no such inspiration and therefore fail to see the point of putting effort toward the negative future they envision."

Armed with this information, it would seem to make sense to gauge a recruit's or potential draft pick's level of optimism. After all, based on research, it's a good indicator of how hard someone will work to reach a goal, especially when faced with distractions and obstacles.

Near the end of the book, the author outlines three simple steps for "increasing intrinsic motivation" (i.e., motivation that comes from within us rather than some kind of external reward) that may be helpful for leaders, coaches, and teams:

1. Own the goal.
2. Make if fun.
3. Remember the big picture.