Everything You Have To Give

In Jon Gruden's book, "Do You Love Football?" He spends a lot of time talking about the culture of a program/ franchise in his case.  He talks about Coach Knight a lot and also what he learned from former Pittsburg coach Walt Harris.  The following from Harris sets the tone for culture of a program.  As coach Meyer constantly notes, you get what you "expect, inspect and accept".

          From Walt Harris: "Everything you have to give, that's what we expect here.  Don't let that be your claim to fame.  We expect that.  That's part of the program."

Dale Brown--Man In The Glass Movie

Last week while traveling on a recruiting trip I had the opportunity to watch "Man In The Glass--The Dale Brown Story".  Not only enjoyed learning more about Coach Brown but grabbed several great thoughts and ideas noted below:

1. If the door for opportunity doesn't open, then knock it down.
2. Try to be a person that tries to do good.
3. Emotionally invest yourself in others.
4. Seek opportunities to make things better for others.
5. Greatest discovery we go on is the discovery of ourselves.
6. If we spend too much time polishing our image, we'll tarnish our character.
7. Create a challenge of your own.

Developing Leaders--Teach Them To Lead Themselves

When a season ends we always conduct what Coach Meyer calls a "Needs Assessment" on each area of our program.  The formula is "What Should Be - What Is = Needs".

Generally, you can hear coaches all over the country and at all levels talk abou the lack of leadership on their teams.

One of the areas we are looking at is the process of how we work to develop leadership on our team.  Too often we focus on developing our player's leadership in terms of leading others before they consistently lead themselves.

We want to evaluate the process of teaching them to lead themselves collectively as a group and work for carryover throughout our team.

5 Lessons From Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

The post season is always a time of reflection.  I came across an article about Randy Pausch's last lecture as I was filing some "inbox" items. 

The subtitle of the article was "blessings counted".  Doctors diagnosed Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch with terminal pancreatic cancer.  He responded with an inspirational "last lecture" to students and faculty that soared to the top of YouTube's most viewed clips.  (click on "last lecture above to view the video).

5 Lessons shared by Randy Pausch:

1.  THE HONEST TRUTH
He said that he wondered why millions viewed his last lecture, but context is everything.  He went on to say that people wouldn't "give a damn" if he wasn't dying.  "I'm a beautiful example of making lemonade from lemons."  Furthermore, he had no reason to be anything but honest and tell the truth.  The time for pretension is well behind.

2.  BETTING SMART
"Poker is different when you put the deed to the house in the pot" Pausch states.  It changes the game.  The point is, you can always make a situation worse by making stupid choices.  But you can make things better with intelligent choices.

3.  IMPERFECT UNION
There's no such thing as easy marriages.  People must work hard.  People shouldn't be afraid of hard work.

4.  PERSONAL STAMPS
Pausch used to ask his students, "How many of you have sent a handwritten thank-you note in the last year?"  Less than 10 percent could say they had.  Gratitude is everything.  Somebody asked him if cancer had changed his views on life, and he said, "Not really.  I've always bellieved every day is a gift, but now I'm looking for where to send the thank-you notes."

5.  SENSE OF HUMOR
Pausch said the ability to laugh is one of the greatest things about our species.  It's a huge part of the "Tigger vs Eeyore equation and you've guessed that I'm a tigger."