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These Books May Open The Door To Your Team’s Success

27 Jan

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I’m the first person to acknowledge that there are lots of folks who know a lot more about success, leadership, goal setting…or whatever thing it is that we try to impart on our teams.  Because of that, I read…a lot.  As a matter of fact, I just finished up a couple of books that blew my mind and I’m sure I’ll be writing about them on the blog soon.  Before I get to that, read about some books that I love and believe have made me a better coach.

Books + Coaches = Successful Teams

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The Talent Code
What would you think if you heard these three sentences:  “Greatness isn’t born.  It’s grown.  Here’s how.”?  You’d think:  I’ve got to find out how!  And that’s what I did.  Those sentences form the tagline for a great book, The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle.  In his book, Coyle talks about three elements to creating greatness:  deep practice, ignition, and master coaching.

Put Your Dream To The Test
Every team starts out the year with high goals…things they’d like to have accomplished by season’s end.  What every team does not have is the desire, tenacity, and motivation to keep pursuing the goal when (cliché alert!) the going gets tough.  John Maxwell is a well-known speaker on leadership and goal setting, so I figured his book would be a great place to start.  Becoming a coaching sherpa and guiding our teams through the goal setting process can help them to accomplish individual and team goals put them on the path to having a successful season.

Coach Dawn’s Guide To Motivating Female Athletes
This is my book!  It’s a 56-page guide that will give you specific steps to increase the competitiveness of your female team.  It will show you why battling “girl drama” should be at the top of your list in order to dominate the competition.  Also, it has example after example from my coaching life, on how I’ve handled tough situations in the past.  If I know one thing about coaches, it’s that we want to be good at what we do.  And I know you want your athletes to be winners and have fun with the sport, this book could be just what you need to go to the next level.

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Gender & Competition—How Men and Women Approach Work and Play Differently
In 2000, I took my first collegiate head coaching job.  While I was fired up about coaching and volleyball…I was pretty clueless about what it took to be successful as a leader of young women.  That same year, I went to my coaches convention where Kathy DeBoer was the keynote speaker and it was an eye opening experience to say the least.   Her topic was “Improving the Competitiveness of Your Female Team” and she’s expanded that two-day seminar into this great book.

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B Is For Books: 5 Books That Made Me A Better Coach
I’m a book nerd…I love ‘em!  So much so that I put a summer reading list together every year to make sure that I get my reading fix in.  This post is from my A to Z series about books that have helped me over the years and I’m sure you’ll find them helpful as well.  There are so many books out there that will make us better coaches…these are my top five, but certainly not the only ones that have impacted my coaching life.

Let’s all agree to keep reading and keep learning so that we can be the best possible coach for our teams.

 
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Posted in Books

 

I Believe It Is Possible: Work-Life Balance

25 Jan

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The other day, my eyes were really heavy while driving…like I could have fallen asleep right at that moment if there were a bed handy.  The only problem is?  I was on my way to work!  Is work/life balance possible?  I think so!  Here are some of my thoughts on work/life balance, which is a hot button topic these days.

5 problems and 5 solutions to the work/life balance conundrum

I have a good friend, let’s call her Patricia, who is always lamenting why her career isn’t where she wants it to be.  She’s got a lot going for her…smart, beautiful, well-liked by others.  But if you hang out with her, she’s talking to you, texting people on her phone, listening to a webinar…all while trying to figure out what’s happening on Dr. Phil.  Besides feeling a little slighted that you can’t be the focus of her attention, you can understand why she’s not where she wants to be.  She’s all over the place all the time!  If you know a Patricia (or if you happen to be a Patricia), you should read You Think You Can But You Can’t: On The Evils Of Multitasking.  It gives five ways to combat technology and regain control of your life.  Speaking of technology…

So what do you have?  A work cell phone?  A personal cell phone?  And iPad?  An iPod?  A notebook?  A laptop?  And are they all sitting on your desk surrounding you?  Coaching is stressful…our jobs are a bit ridiculous when you really sit down and think about it.  So we’ve got to be intentional about creating time for ourselves and for our family and friends.  Step Away From The Computer: Why Unplugging Will Keep You Sane talks about some ways we can decrease our stress and create some great relationships as a result.  Speaking of making time for ourselves…

The issue of work/life balance is a hot topic amongst employers all over.  In my mind, true balance isn’t an option while I’m in season (I’m a Division III coach, we don’t get “help” with stuff), but I look at the year as a whole and strive for balance over the long haul.  I believe there are some things I can do for myself and others that will make each part of my life more enjoyable, in season or not.  The Great American Hoax: Work/Life Balance gives us four things we can do in order to achieve balance.  Speaking of making my life more enjoyable…

Do you think that sleep is more important than food?  If you asked me that question, I’d probably say, “it depends on what the food is!”, but check out What’s The 1 Thing You Need To Be Exceptional?.  I learned that lack of sleep lowers our ability to function so much so that Amnesty International has deemed sleep deprivation as torture.  Lack of sleep is so entrenched in the coaching culture that we accept it as normal.  But is it?  Check out this post to find out what burning the candle at both ends can do to us.  Speaking of not getting enough sleep…

5 Signs You’re Burned Out…And How To Turn It Around gives us five examples of what burnout looks like, but also three ways to beat it.  I think it’s always a good idea to take an honest look at how we’re going about our business and figure out how long we can operate like that without losing our love of the game.  The coaching profession is inherently tough, let’s do what we can to insure that we last as long as we can!  Speaking of lasting in the profession…

Women are able to lead Fortune 500 companies, but it’s still a commonly held belief in athletics that once a female coach gets married and has kids, that that’ll be the death of her career.  A great article, found on Harvard Business Review’s website, asserts that women must choose “a partner in part on the basis of whether that individual will be supportive of their power quest.”  In this case, the power quest is being successful in athletics…which is possible for the woman who has a supportive home base.  Read 3 Ways To Keep Females In Coaching and Athletics Administration to find out more.

Hopefully that will get us all thinking about how we can balance our multiple responsibilities in a healthier way.

 
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Posted in Time management, Work/Life balance

 

7 Important Questions For Coaches

23 Jan

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Let me tell you what I think about coaches: we’re crazy in our preparation and dedication, we work long hours and love it, we give up our nights and weekends, we mentor our student-athletes, we demand big things from them and even more from ourselves, we’re passionate in our belief in our team and our love for our sport, we believe in the power of sport to have a positive and long-lasting impact in our athlete’s lives.  I also believe we should always assess ourselves and our careers.  So here are:

7 questions we should ask ourselves to make sure we’re on the right track

Yell or self-control?
A yeller isn’t necessarily more passionate than a non-yeller…we non-yellers have the quiet confidence that comes from knowing our stuff and believing in our approach.  To Yell Or Not To Yell, That Is The Question.  I think there is a time and place for all coaching techniques, but before you start hollering at your team, read this post.

Great or average?
I don’t know about you, but I want to be great.  I certainly don’t think I’ve achieved greatness, but I’m going to do everything within my power to get there!  I would assume that’s why most of us do what we do…because we want to leave our mark.  10 Things Great Coaches Do talks about the hallmarks of greatness that we should all be striving for.

Crushed or bounce back?
This is the very obvious pink elephant in the room that no coach likes to talk about:  losing.  The post Losing Is Lonely: Encouraging Yourself In Tough Times is about what we can do once our team falls to losing ways.  I’ve had seasons when success eluded me.  Those are frustrating times, but more powerfully, they are lonely times.  Most folks are afraid to broach the subject of losing with a loser.  So what’s a winner to do when she’s losing?  Check out this post to find out.

Accept or ask?
My sister-in-law is a corporate big shot in charge of handling raises and salary negotiations and she let me know that women rarely ask for more salary than they’re offered, while men always do.  Often we hear that there’s a glass ceiling and women just can’t get ahead, but what if we females aren’t helping our own cause?  Here’s a quote from my post:  “If women were to negotiate on behalf of themselves as much as men do, they would advance as quickly as men and eliminate the under-representation of women in the top ranks of the organization.”  If you’d like to read more, check out What Are You Worth? How To Negotiate Salary.

Free or charge?
The next one is along the lines of the previous point.  When folks ask to pick your brain, what they’re really asking is for you to give them something freely…even though you paid a high price for it!  I think it’s hard for coaches to think in this manner, but we charge for lessons, camps, clinics, etc.  They may have different names, but they all come down to our knowledge and we seem to be okay charging for that knowledge.  Check out What Are You Worth? Valuing What You Know for a link to a great article that will challenge you to truly value yourself.

Head or assistant?
Being a head coach is fun, it’s awesome, and it’s fulfilling…it’s also a lot of work!  I’ve always said that each coach in an athletic department is like the CEO of their sport, responsible for all aspects of the program.  If you’d like to know exactly what that would entail, check out 11 Things You Should Be Doing If You Are The Head Honcho for more info.

Introvert or extrovert?
I used to think that all coaches were naturally out-going with big, huge personalities…then I became a coach.  I am most definitely an introvert who enjoys time by myself.  I’ve made it work with my teams and in my athletic department, but what about those schmoozy events where we’ve got to chat and make small talk?  Check out this post that I wanted to call “4 reasons that networking is better than a hot poker in the eye”, but settled on Networking For Introverts: It’s Not As Bad As You Think.

One more question: visit or subscribe?  Click here and you can get Coach Dawn Writes articles emailed directly to your inbox!  It’s free and easy…and I promise I won’t give your email to anyone else.

 
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Posted in Coaching career

 

Mastering Leadership And Training Leaders

20 Jan

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“Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.” –John Maxwell

Everyone’s got an opinion on leadership…and I love it!  I hope I never get to the point where I think I’ve got all of the answers.  As long as I’m living, I plan to be a coaching nerd that is always seeking to learn from those who’ve been in the game longer than I have.

Team basics 101: leadership, leadership, leadership

If we believe that coaching is more than the X’s and O’s, the wins and losses…then we’ve got to be intentional about creating a respectful environment that is conducive to leadership.  L Is For L.E.A.D.E.R.S.H.I.P. talks about how each of us can train our captains and team leaders to hold their positions successfully and wield their power responsibly.

One of these days (keep your eyes peeled), I’m going to write a coach’s manifesto…all about things that I believe are essential for folks who want to be coaches.  10 Things I Believe About Leadership would be the basis of one of those chapters.  Unlike the post above, this one is about how coaches can be wonderful leaders and model effective leadership for their players.

Building on the previous post is How To Become A Leader That People Follow.  Whenever one of my team captains comes up to me complaining about other people on the team not following or listening to them, I always ask them what they’re doing to be easy to follow.  Captains that are tough to follow are gossipers, complainers, and sometimes…just plain mean.  We’ve got to show them what leadership really means (helping others achieve) and guide them through that process.

The 3 Levels Of Leadership is based on a book by John Adair who is a leadership expert.  Many times, coaches talk about “born leaders” and I believe that those people are out there…but I also believe that it’s a skill that can be taught.  I also believe it’s the job of the coaching staff to give the athletes the tools they need in order to lead their teammates effectively.  Check out this post for the three levels of leadership…they each progress nicely into the next.

This is another post based on the John Adair book called, 7 Qualities Every Leader Must Have.  I really enjoy reading different perspectives on leadership…from those in the business world to fellow coaches.  According to Adair, a world-renowned leadership trainer, “leadership is both a role and attribute.”  Using that as a jumping off point, let’s look at what we need to give to our team leaders…beyond just a “C” on their shirt.

Leading, coaching…it’s not easy, but it’s the best job ever!  We can learn from those folks who’ve not only been successful, but who’ve been continuously successful over a long period of time.  Find a coach you respect and ask them to chat with you, there are so many coaches out there who are doing great things!

 
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Posted in Leadership

 

How To Be Successful

18 Jan

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We’re all looking for success.  Of course we want to have winning seasons, but beyond that, we want to cultivate a desire for success in our athletes that they take with them after their time with us is finished.  Here are five TEDtalks that discuss things our teams will need in order to be successful: communication, sleep, and significance.

Steps to success
I’m sure you know by now that I can’t talk about success without talking about John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success.  I believe if our teams truly embrace its tenets, success is all but a forgone conclusion.  When I read other people’s thoughts on success, I try to see how it lines up with what the Pyramid says and that’s what I did with Your Path To Success Begins Here.  Richard St. John gave a great TEDtalk called, “8 Secrets of Success” and I found that they correlated very closely with the Pyramid of Success.

Communication is key
In order to Find Out Why Better Listeners Are Better Players, check out this post based on Julian Treasure’s TEDtalk, “5 Ways To Listen Better”.  I’m sure we’d all agree that communication is hugely important in athletics, and I’m sure we’d also agree that our teams could get better at it.  You can find out three ways to teach our teams how to listen more effectively…and become better teammates because of it.

Help your team to understand coaching decisions
Speaking of communication, Why Information Can Prevent Misunderstandings On Teams talks about how we have a part of our brain that is solely devoted to thinking about other people’s thoughts.  On the surface it sounds a bit strange, but when you really think about it, Rebecca Saxe’s TEDtalk (“How We Read Other People’s Minds”) makes good sense.  We react differently based on varying levels of knowledge…the more we have, the more we can make sense of things.  Think about the coach who’s got to bench a senior player…how can they make sure that the team doesn’t implode?  Read this post to find out!

Go to sleep!
Undervalued and underutilized, sleep can help us, our players, and our teams achieve a high level of success.  Rediscovering The Value Of Sleep (based on the TEDtalk, “How To Succeed? Get More Sleep” by Ariana Huffington) gives us three reasons why getting more sleep will make us better at what we do.  Lack of sleep makes us grumpy, less tolerant of other people’s mistakes and missteps, and less focused on the task at hand…none of those things will help our team’s function at a higher level.  Taking time to get some good sleep can help us all live healthier and be more creative.

Goals of significance
Can we be successful without a set of goals to propel us forward?  How will we define success if we don’t have a goals written down at the beginning of the season?  3 Criteria For Goals That Will Truly Motivate Your Team is based on a Tony Robbins TEDtalk called “Why We Do What We Do”.  He gives us three things that we can do over the course of our season in order to motivate our players and teams.  The post breaks down how we can give our player’s goals more significance than just some tangible thing, it can also help meet the need all of us have to make a difference in other people’s lives.

Success isn’t some pie-in-the-sky thing that we can’t capture on our team…read these posts and listen to these talks and your team will be well on their way to many successful teams.

 
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Posted in TEDtalk

 

Why Teamwork Works

16 Jan

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Teamwork and team chemistry can seem like difficult topics to wrap our brains around.  Partially because it differs person to person and team to team, but also because there isn’t tons of information out there about building great teams. Sure there are team building exercises and workshops, but what about the day to day work of building teams?  Not much out there.  But for you faithful readers, you know that this is a topic near and dear to my heart.  Here are five posts I wrote based on TEDtalks that should help all of us manage our teams and build great chemistry among them.

Increase your teamwork and team chemistry by listening to these TEDtalks

I’m all about cheesy team building ideas, I think they’re a great way to quickly build bonds between folks who may not know each other well.  If we believe that team chemistry is important to our team’s success (and I know we do!), then we’ve got to believe in building those bridges.  In a TEDtalk titled “Try Something New For 30 Days”, Matt Cutts talks about the benefits of personal 30 day challenges.  I propose in Building Team Chemistry Through 30 Day Challenges that our teams receive all sorts of benefits from the shared experience of going through a challenge together.

Try as we might, every team (the good ones and the bad) will go through the normal ups and downs of a season.  Dealing with those changes is part of our jobs as coaches and I’d hazard a guess that “happiness” isn’t too high on our list of goals for our teams.  Afterall, we know from experience that we can’t make everyone happy, so we stop trying.  But what if we focused on team, rather than individual, happiness?  This is the idea behind The Secrets Of Happy Teams, based on a TEDtalk by Dan Gilbert.  Perhaps we can manage our team’s expectation of what happiness in a group setting should look like, to show them that it’s a possibility.  In The Evolution Of Happy Teams, I talked about the idea that there can be tangible steps to a group’s feeling of happiness.  In a TEDtalk by Martin Seligman, called “Positive Psychology”, he shows us how true happiness is about a person evolving from being self-focused to others-focused…something all of our teams could use, I’m sure!  And in Why Having Less Options Will Make Your Team Happier, I talk about why less is sometimes more.

I opened up this teamwork post talking about team chemistry because I think it’s hugely important.  In my opinion, I think more problems occur on teams because of personality conflicts or misinformation than people who truly have a problem with one another.  As a card-carrying member of the “I always think I’m right” club, Why Being Wrong Feels So Right was a good one for me and I figure I can’t be the only coach out there who feels this way…we’re coaches after all!  Based on one of my favorite TEDtalks (“On Being Wrong” by Kathryn Schultz), this post talks about the many ways we (coaches and players) can feel we’re right, but really end up being very wrong.  Being able to open our teams up to the possibility of being wrong is a key coaching skill in my opinion.  If everyone on the team is in a battle to be right, our team chemistry will suffer.

I hope you take out some time to listen to these TEDtalks, they’re well worth your time.  It’s great to listen to folks outside of the coaching industry talk about this sort of thing and figure out how to bring it into our world.

 
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Posted in Team chemistry, TEDtalk

 

Leadership 5 Ways

13 Jan

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I’m not sure how I heard about TEDtalks, but I’m sure glad I found them!  TED stands for technology, entertainment, design and they have these amazing (and expensive) conferences which have innovators and thought leaders as speakers.  They’re all smarter than me and that’s why I love listening to them.  You can go to their website and browse through their archives, but hopefully you’ll start here with a few that I’ve put my coach spin on.

Leadership through TED’s eyes

4 Steps To Creating Bold Leaders And Followers  Based on a video by Derek Sivers, this post talks about the value of the first follower and I really enjoyed it.  Can our leaders be leaders if they’ve got no one to follow them?  This post details how we can teach our leaders to cultivate followers and become stronger leaders.

The 1 Sure-fire Way Great Leaders Can Inspire Action  The video “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” by Simon Sinek has been very popular and I’ve seen it passed around quite a bit.  My post breaks this long video down into four areas that require a coach to inspire action.

3 Things Women Should Do In Order To Be An Effective Leader  Another great video, this time from a woman.  Sheryl Sandberg is the COO of Facebook and has seen many women succeed and fail in the business world.  In “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders”, she talks about ways that women can set themselves up for success.  I think a lot of it translates over to how women can be successful in athletics.

How To Equip Our Female Athletes To Be Leaders  Another female presenter, Hannah Rosin, talked about “New Data On The Rise Of Women”.  Her presentation was full of stats, but what I came away with was a overwhelming desire to tell my players that they’re going to be able to take over the world…as long as they’re ready.  It’s our jobs as coaches to help prepare them for that role…check out this post!

Why Weakness Unlocks The Strength Within Teams  In my opinion, a lot of leadership is helping our players, teammates, whomever to look past limits and achieve something they didn’t think was possible.  In a similarly titled video (“Looking Past Limits”), Caroline Casey talks about belief and vision.  I’d loved the story because that’s what teams are all about!  This is a great post, I hope you have time to check it out.

There’s so much out there on leadership, why not go to the folks who are already successful leaders and hear what they have to say about it?

Click here and you can get Coach Dawn Writes articles emailed directly to your inbox!  It’s free and easy…and I promise this is a “no spam” zone.

 
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Posted in Leadership, TEDtalk

 

6 Reasons I Love Coaching Sports

11 Jan

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I’m often amazed at how much I can write about coaching and never talk about a drill or an offensive scheme or a defensive strategy…there’s just so much to our wonderful profession.  To the point, there’s leadership and learning how to be great when greatness is required.  There’s also a place for coaches to practice what we preach and learn a little balance.  That’s just a bit of what the end of the A to Z series was all about.  Click away to read some of the alphabetical goodness!

The A to Z series: Letters U thru Z

It’s not often that I get to use the word “ubiquitous” and The 3 U’s Of Leadership was one of those times.  Leadership is a big topic and there are many thought leaders out there on the topic…this is one of my entries into the fray.

The Pyramid of Success and I are tight…we go way back.  The pyramid is designed to be a team’s road map to success.  While the peak isn’t competitive greatness (it’s success, silly), it’s certainly a strong measure of success.  I’d be hard-pressed to think of a team as successful if they weren’t also competitively great.  V Is For Victory: Cultivating Competitive Greatness talks about the three steps needed in order to be great when greatness is required.

As coaches, we’re all high achievers and think that we can do it all…but we can’t.  There are only so many hours in the day and only so many things that are truly high priority each day, we’ve just got to figure out what those are.  W Is For Work/Life Balance: How To Stay Sane In Season is a good reminder for all of us to remember that some stuff is going to get done while other stuff doesn’t…and that’s okay.

There’s a talent show on television that’s searching for the person with that “it” quality…something beyond just having ability.   That’s what the X Is For X-Factor: The Secret Of Success was all about.  We often know it when we see it, but what is the x-factor?  Read this post to find out!

I believe that sports are great for all kids.  The kids who are super athletic and love sports, as well as the artsy kids who think they’re not good at sports.  Why?  Because I believe in the lessons that sport teaches and they’re beyond just winning and losing…though that’s part of it.  Y Is For Youth Sports: 5 Reasons Kids Should Play Sports gives us five solid reasons why sports should be a part of every kid’s life.

As the title suggests, Z Is For Zenith: 8 Top Posts Of 2011 is about the articles that received the most love from the readers this year.  I won’t write a review of a review, you’ll just have to check it out to see for yourself!

That was the A to Z series, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  There’s so much to love about being a coach, I’m just happy I get to write about it here.

 
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Posted in Leadership, Pyramid of success, Work/Life balance, Youth sports

 

Success, Passion, And Knowledge: How To Become A Better Coach

09 Jan

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We’re all trying to get better, that’s why we go to clinics and conferences and seminars.  And it’s probably why you check in with this blog.  The intent behind starting Coach Dawn Writes was to make it like a conversation between coaching friends where we hash out all of the things we love about what we do.  Hopefully that’s what it feels like to you!  Here’s a continuation of my A to Z series recap.

The A to Z series: Letters P thru T

P Is For Passion: An Enthusiasm RSVP is one of my favorites, because I believe that enthusiasm (one of the cornerstones of the Pyramid of Success) is a must for everyone involved with a team.  I’ve never seen a lukewarm player or coach achieve to the highest levels.  But those people who are fired up about what they’re doing?  They’re winners!

I’m a coach watcher.  I don’t care if it’s my sport (volleyball) or another sport, I enjoy watching other coaches.  I like seeing how they interact with their team, what drills they use in their warmups, how they progress their practice along, if their team is engaged in the practice…all sorts of things.  Q Is For Quality: 7 Characteristics Of Successful Coaches is what I noticed that a lot of these coaches share in common…check it out!

I’m sure by now you all know that I love coaching female athletes…especially considering I’ve written an ebook about it.  Check out this post if you want to see how I connected my love of the video game Mortal Combat and my love of coaching female athletes.  It’s called The 3 R’s Of Coaching Female Athletes.

When I first started coaching, I thought all I had to do was coach…boy was I wrong!  I was all of a sudden responsible for balancing budgets, connecting with alumni, and reaching out to faculty.  While I certainly wouldn’t call myself accomplished, I’ve learned a few things along the way that may help me get there one day.  Check out S Is For Success: 4 Requirements For The Accomplished Coach for more info.  11 Things You Should Be Doing If You Are The Head Honcho is also a good one.

I had a Biology professor who was a former student-athlete come and talk to my team about connecting athletics and academics…he was great.  He talked about how his sisters were more athletically talented than he was, but because they were girls, they never got the opportunities that he did.  So while he got a Division I basketball scholarship, his two sisters (who were both well over six feet tall) got poor coaches, shoddy equipment, and inadequate facilities.  Check out my post T Is For Title IX: The History, The Myth, The Reality to find out how things were and where we are now.

We’re almost to the end of the A to Z recap, hopefully you’ve gone back to check out some of the articles you may have missed.

 
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Posted in Coaching career, Female athletes, Title IX

 

An Intangibles Of Coaching Quiz

06 Jan

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I had a lot of fun writing the A to Z series and I hope you liked reading it.  I’ve gotten a lot of new readers lately and I wanted to make sure that you got a chance to enjoy the alphabetical goodness too!

The A to Z series: Letters K thru O

Back in the day, I was a teacher and I came up with my fair share of quizzes and tests.  Now it’s your turn.  Your task is to match the post title to the appropriate snippet from the actual post.  The only reward for you is the inner knowledge that you’re a smarty pants.

A.   The 3 K’s Of Coaching Philosophy
B.   L Is For L.E.A.D.E.R.S.H.I.P.
C.  M Is For Mistakes: The Value Of Taking Risks
D.  The 3 N’s Of Time Management
E.  5 O’s That Make Up The Pyramid Of Success

 

  1. Go to sleep people!  I know coaches “get after it” and work crazy hours and whatnot…but we still have to go to bed at some point.  Lack of sleep lowers our ability to function so much so that Amnesty International has deemed sleep deprivation as torture.
  2. I believe that God created me to coach.  Not because I think I’m some sort of baller coach, but because I believe in what sport teaches young people.  I feel privileged to be able to teach life lessons (disguised as athletics) that these young ladies will be able to use out in the real world.
  3. As Wooden says, “success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.”  I’m sure all of us, players and coaches, want to feel that kind of peace of mind.
  4. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” –Albert Einstein
  5. My philosophy is based on the cornerstones of John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success:  work hard, have fun.  That philosophy is omnipresent…as I scout opponents, recruit new players, chat with alums, develop new teams, and even as I cultivate solid work relationships.  I don’t mind working hard, because I get to do something fun: coach volleyball!


Answer key: A-5, B-2, C-4, D-1, E-3

Now you’ve got some homework…go read those articles and be a learning leader for your team!

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Posted in Leadership, Pyramid of success, Time management

 
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