Change The Way You Change Minds

As we prepare for the 2009-10 season, we are putting toghether various ways to develop leadership on our staff, and on our team. We know that one of the things we must do is to change minds.

In the book "Influencer-The Power To Change Anything", chapter three is titled "Change The Way You Change Minds".

The chapter discusses Dr. Albert Bandura, he set out to create a theory of why people do what they do so that he and his colleagues could then come up with a method for getting them to act differently. As you know, that's our busines, constantly working to change and shape behaviors.




Here's what Dr. Bandura learned:

1. People choose their behaviors based on that they think will happen as a result. If you want to change a behavior, you have to change maps of cause and effect.
2. Many thoughts are incomplete or inaccurate. People's interpretations of events often trump the facts of any situation.
3. The factors influencing whether people choose to enact a vital behavior are based on two essential expectations. First: Is it worth it? (If not, why waste the effort?) Second: Can they do this thing? (If not, why try?) If you want to change behavior, change one or both of these expectations.
4. The most common tool we use to change others' expectations is the use of verbal persuasion.
5. When it comes to resistant problems, verbal persuasion rarely works. People aren't about to give up what gives them intense pleasure because of a well-turned phrase.
6. The great persuader is personal experience. Nothing changes a mind like the cold, hard world hitting it with actual real-life data.
7. Create a surrogate for actual experience. Create a vicarious experience. By watching what happened to other people. Examples from other teams.

Defining Your Own Brand of Success

In Og Mandino's book, The University of Success, he uses Howard Whitman's article, "How To Fashion Your Own Brand of Success" to help us define success.

1. Two main criteria of success: Do others think you are a success? Do you think so?
2. Success must be a personal thing.
3. Ghandi's possessions when he died: eye glasses, sandals, few simple garments, spinning wheel and a book.
4. Henry David Thoreau, "A man is rich in the proportions of things he can let alone."
5. Ghandi spoke of reduction of needs.
6. Five Factors of Success:

A. Purpose--whatever you do move toward a goal.

B. Batting Average--there are upturns i success separated by valleys of failure.

C. Price--no success is free. Joy of success must be counter-balanced by the effort to achieve it.

D. Satisfaction--success must be enjoyed. "It may be won with tears but it must be crowned with laughter."

E. Spirituality--can't feel success without also feeling related to the greater purposes of life and to the author of those purposes.

George Will On Excellence

"Americans are fascinated by excellence, not only as a product but a process.

How do you achieve it?

How do you sustain it?

What's the edge and what makes them special?"

Teaching The Game

Pete Newell said that the game of basketball is, "overcoached and undertaught." The philosophy we take here at UCF is to gain as many advantages as we can. We believe that our players understanding of the game will give our players an advantage on our opponents. I have been going through some teaching notes and wanted to pass these along.

• Simplicity and clarity in teaching are essential in getting kids to understand what you want.
• There are fundamentals that have to be adhered to and mastered in any business. Some people grasp those fundamentals and teach or learn them and others don't. And those who don't are never as successful as those who do.
• An intriguing part of coaching is that those fundamentals are there for everybody. They apply to both teams and they can be utilized by one as well as another.
• A primary goal of teaching anything is the advantage that learning gives to people over their competitors who haven't been well taught.
• In any walk of life, the best prepared person creates advantages that help him be the most successful.

"Without the ability to teach, it is really difficult to perform the responsibilities of a coach."--Lou Holtz

Teaching The Pursuit of Excellence

Bob Ladouceur began coaching the De La Salle High Spartans in Concord, California in 1979, when he was twenty-five years old. He took over a team that had never enjoyed a winning season since the school's founding in 1965 and turned it into a perennial winner. From 1992 to 2003, he guided the team to 12-consecutive undefeated seasons, setting a national winning streak record for high school football of 151 consecutive wins – a record matched in amateur sports only by the 159 game winning streak of Passaic High School in men's basketball. Ladouceur was enshrined to the National High School Hall of Fame in 2001. His team has topped the USA Today rankings five times and he is a three time coach of the year. Entering 2008, his career record was 343-22-3. His .936 winning percentage is a record among coaches with 200 or more wins.
The following notes are from his book, "When The Game Stands Tall", it is a must read for all coaches.

• It's a game of technique, repetition and getting it right in practice before you run it in a game. Discipline. The game is played aggressively; it's hard, and it's tough.
• It's getting all the guys doing their jobs at one time.
• Quickness and precision instead of size and athleticism.
• We wanted to train kids to play at a level of excellence that satisfied us. We wanted to take the spirit of the game and infuse it in the kids. He wanted them to play with pure joy and abandonment. Winning was secondary to that. It was a by-product of playing at that level.
• Everybody is at De La Salle for the same reason. They want to be the best.
• We don't count wins. We count on them improving every week. We just work day to day and keep plugging away. Wins are the outcomes.
• Teach them what it takes to play at the highest level: Aggressiveness, Eliminating mental mistakes and a Love of the game.
• Are we going to do this right or are we going to accept mediocrity?

Jerry Krause--Top 10 Ways To Inspire & Motivate Myself & Others

The following list is from assistant coach Jerry Krause, Gonzaga University, who has authored 24 books on coaching basketball, produced 30 instructional videos and serves as a consultant to many athletic organization. Coach Krause's list is applicable to not only coaching, but any leadership role.

As a staff, this summer, we are concentrating on developing our leadership skills in order to develop the leadership of our team in 2009-10.

1. Read for inspiration and information

• "All readers are not leaders, but all leaders are readers."
• Need a reading List

2. Listen and learn

• "You are green and growing or ripe and rotten."
• Hear and listen, take notes for success.

3. Challenge others

• Careful and caring confrontation
• Honor Code—don’t lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those that do

4. Communicate better

• What you say and how you say it
• Speak, listen, read and write

5. Tell Stories

• " Facts tell, stories sell"
• Deep bag of tricks (methods)

6. Share experience (gained from life)

• "Know self, develop talents and serve others"
• Share successes, failures, wisdom

7. Become inspired yourself

• "Enthusiasm is caught and taught"
• People, ideas and knowledge

8. Encourage others

• "Tough times never last, tough people do"--Schuller
• Control attitude, action, reactions

9. Care for others

• "They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care"
• Serve others, be a servant leader (when you feel insignificant, serve others)

10. Model and Mentor

• 24/7--"Say what you do and do what you say.. be a person of integrity"They watch more than they listen to you"
• Greatest gift you can give
• Who are the mentors?

Mike Shanahan,"Think Like A Champion"

One of my favorite books is by former Denver Broncos head coach, Mike Shanahan, "Think Like A Champion".

During a lunch at the Nike Clinic with Coach Meyer and Herb Sendek, they both spoke about how too many of us do not want to take the time to learn, gain knowledge and pay our dues. Too many of us want the quick and easy way to "the top". That's why I found this chapter from Shanahan's book titled, "Learning To Follow The Leaders" insightful. Here are a few of his thoughts:

• To succeed, you absolutely need to gain more knowledge in your selected field.


• Learn from those who have become winners themselves.


• If you want to stay in this game, if you really want to stay in it for the long haul, learn the game better than anybody else in the profession--Bill Walsh.


• The one thing that keeps you in the game and gives you a chance to be the best, is if you know your profession inside and out--Bill Walsh.


• You must have a degree in experience.


• Learn from others successes as well as their failures.


• Working for Bill Walsh was a laboratory for greatness.


• True commitment to excellence was the standard.


• He learned things should be done in a classy, professional way.


• "Can we still win a championship with that attitude?"

Belichick On Respnsibility & Ownership

I was just flipping through the book, "The Management Secrets of the New England Patriots", by James Lavin and came across a chapter titled "Ownership & Responsibility". Just wanted to share a few of the things I underlined from that section.

"We're highly competitive people here. And we don't have patience for high maintenance people or people who do dumb things. Belichick can't waste time cajoling and threatening people to do what they don't want to. So he built his New England team around competitive, self-disciplined players, and this gives the team a huge advantage."

Belichick knows that self-discipline and peer pressure are more effective than screaming coaches, so he signs disciplined players and leverages the power of peer pressure to get players to cajole and encourage one another.

The Patriots search for disciplined players who are their own worst critics and do the right thing even when no one's watching. He says he looks first and foremost for players that are low-maintenance.

John Schuerholz On Building A Winning Organization

Atlanta Braves GM, John Schuerholz, in his book, "Built To Win" discusses the tasks of building a winning team, company or organization--as follows:

1. Create a new vision.

2. Establish organizational goals.

3. Develop a roadmap, or game plan, for success.

4. Inspire the staff.

5. Provide the leadership.

In the book, he says he came to Atlanta and had to somehow get rid of the losing mentality that the organization suffered from. First he had to defeat and eradicate apathy. Then next thing, he said he had to be able to convince people that they had the ability within themselves, individually and as a group, to be better and to achieve more.

Winners make commitments, losers make excuses. That was the theme and principal theory he utilized throughout the transformation. He had to create an environment in which new and higher goals were set, expectations raised, and, of course, the necessary work ethic and commitment were put into place.

Bruce Weber On Achieving Continued Success

Illinois Men's Basketball Coach Bruce Weber's Ideas for Achieving Continued Success:

1. Everyone Has Problems

1. -->Motivation, parents, daily issues

2. You Must Care

-->Daily part of your life

-->Care about your kids

3. Get Them To Believe In Team's Success

-->Buy in

-->Difficult to do now

-->Olympics--last year the best players bought into the system and winning.

-->Your best player has to be your hardest worker, and have the best attitude.

4. Skill Development

-->Repeat daily basketball games

-->Players must put time into it.

-->Skill development must be challenging and competitive

Herb Sendek on Communication

I recently had the opportunity to listen to Herb Sendek at the Nike Clinic in Las Vegas. He said he was fascinated with the art of communication. Here are a few of his thoughts:

1. We have to understand how it impacts our lives.

2. We are always communicating.

3. If we are always communicating, we must live our lives in a state of awareness.

4. We can speak loudly through a whisper.

5. To communicate with our team, we must know the "pulse of the moment."

6. To be aware--we must listen and see.

7. Information can come from unconventional sources.

8. Information can come from anywhere, if you're listening.

9. What are your players hearing from other people.

10. Make sure everybody is singing the same song.

11. Listen to what someone doesn't say.

12. Often, the less we say, the better we sound.