Explore an Uncommon
Approach to Leadership!
Selflessness
A good example of it from Alabama's John Petty, Jr. that says a lot about the culture Nate Oats has built in a short time.
Much like persuading a score-first guard to become a reliable defensive cog, Oats sold Petty on the notion that tapping the pause button was the best thing for him. Oats brought Petty’s mother into the discussion. He remained in contact with the player. Petty returned after missing one game, and he’s now Alabama’s second-leading scorer (13 points per game) and leads the team in 3-pointers (56). He watches full games, per Oats, and offers thoughts on Alabama’s keys to winning instead of waiting for the coaches to tell him. In a loss at Oklahoma, Petty was at the scorer’s table, set to check in, as the group on the floor went on a run. At the whistle, Oats couldn’t decide whom to take out. So Petty solved the issue: He told Oats to leave that group on the floor, and he returned to the bench.
Leadership In An Elite Culture
"Empower your people to be decision makers. The less control you have as a leader, the more power you give to your team, the better your chances for success. That's the real key to leadership in an elite culture. It may be set in place and directed by the leader, but it is built, maintained and nurtured by the participants."
Entitled to Nothing, p. 162
Order the book here: EntitledtoNothingbook.com
Leadership and Buy-In
"Leadership isn't getting them to buy-in to what you are selling. Leadership is getting them to buy-in to something they believe. Creating that dynamic is a difference maker."
Entitled to Nothing, p. 20
Purchase Entitled To Nothing Here
Game Speed
When I was the head coach at Maine I got to know Stump Merrill a little bit. Stump was a UMaine graduate who played baseball, and went on to play professionally before a long coaching and managing career. He managed the New York Yankees for three years when I was in high school in New York.
I got to talk to Stump a few times about coaching and building a team. Stump used to say that baseball was the only sport "where we never practiced at game speed." I had never heard that before, but it was a good point. In baseball they throw batting practice at 75-80 miles per hour and they don't hit the ball that hard when taking infield or outfield. They also play so many games during the season - usually 162 games in about 180 days - that they can't really practice that much or go that hard. It bothered Stump that they never really practiced at full speed. "Why would you want to get comfortable doing things at half-speed?" he would say.
One of the most important things we can do as coaches is to train our guys at game speed. I agree with Stump, it doesn't make any sense to get used to going half-speed. I've never liked walk-throughs or "lighter" days. I understand that the players need rest and you have to take care of their bodies over a long season. In my mind if they need a day off, give them a day off. Or you can certainly shorten practice to reduce wear and tear. But don't bring your kids in and get them used to going at less than full speed.
When you aren't going game speed, you are establishing bad habits. Whether it's during 5-0, shooting drills or a scout session, it's critical to train at game speed. We all say it a lot as coaches - "game speed," - yet I don't think we always live up to the standard or hold our teams accountable for it. In practice you are training your team in the habits they need to win a game. If you are going at a slower pace to give them a break or some rest, you are getting worse. There's no reason to get used to going half-speed.
Stump Merrill
Great Teammates
The best teammates are capable of doing their job while also having a genuine curiosity and concern for those around them. It isn't that easy to do. Many of us need to be focused on one thing, just the task at hand, to do it well. It's one of the reasons why communication on the court is more challenging than it should be - because it's hard. It's hard for a lot of people to do what they are supposed to do, especially in an intense environment, while also thinking about others.
Great teammates have that ability. They can invest fully in their own performance and invest in their teammates at the same time. The best teammate I have ever coached played for me my first two years at Rhode Island College. His name is Tony Pierlioni, and he was a 6-9 center for me who started on our elite 8 team in 2007, his senior year.
Tony showed up every day genuinely concerned about the team first. It was just in his nature. He wanted to make sure the team was alright before thinking about himself. Tony's best friend on the team was John Weir, another 6-9 center who came to RIC in the same class. John was also a terrific teammate. Tony and John never played together. They played the same position, so pretty much when one of them was playing, the other wasn't. When one of them played well, the other hardly played. Originally John was our starting center, but I made the change to Tony early in the year. I never had to think twice about one of them getting selfish about playing time. One of my best memories at RIC is seeing John Weir catch a dunk in a game, and Tony exploding off the bench to cheer for him
The best teammates are genuinely curious and concerned about those around them. They put the team (and their teammates) ahead of themselves. They just don't naturally think about themselves first, probably an uncommon trait. But they also have the ability to do their own job, handle what is coming to them, while still thinking about the rest of the team. That is what makes the best teammates really special. It's never about them, it's always about the team. But they can do their job to help the team without focusing inward.
Do you have the ability to do your job effectively while also being curious and concerned with those around you? It's not the easy. But if you can do it, you can be a great teammate.
The Brain Is Your Bitch
“The moment you have the audacity to start believing in the not-yet seen, your reality will begin to shift. THE FOLLOWING IS HUGELY IMPORTANT SO PLEASE PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION: You have to change your thinking first, and then the evidence appears. Our big mistake is that we do it the other way around. We demand to see the evidence before we believe it to be true.”
“The Brain is Your Bitch”
Gonzaga Basketball
A good inside look at the most unlikely powerhouse in college basketball history.
https://www.si.com/college/2021/02/11/how-gonzaga-zagged-daily-cover
The Rhode Show
A local interview with Brendan Kirby of The Rhode Show about leadership and the book.
https://entitledtonothingbook.com
Group Culture
Group culture is one of the most powerful forces on the planet. We sense its presence inside successful businesses, championship team, and thriving families, and we sense when it’s absent or toxic. We can measure its impact on the bottom line. (A strong culture increases net income 765 percent over ten years, according to a Harvard study of more than two hundred companies).
- Daniel Coyle, The Culture Code
Three Things Leaders Often Don't Understand
Three things that took me a while to understand as a leader.
The Less Control You Have, The Better
I always use a military phrase with my teams - "In command, without control." That is our goal. I've learned over the years that the less control I have as the head coach, the better my team will play.
It's a common leadership mistake. Traditional leadership is the boss in front of the group, in full control, telling them what needs to be done. That will create compliance. If they are good teammates, they will do what they are told. Your team has more than that in them, I promise you. But it's natural to feel like, as the leader, I have to show I'm in control. I tell them what to do. That's not the way to get the most out of them.
Leadership is about empowering your team, giving them control. They are the ones who have to make the decisions in the heat of battle. Your job is to train them to make those decisions without thinking twice.
If you feel like you have to have control as a leader, take a step back.Don't be fooled into thinking that leadership is about control. It's about empowering your team.
Listen More Than You Speak
Leaders are supposed to deliver the message. They stand in front of the group, set the tone, explain the approach and make the process clear. The leader does the talking. That's what traditional leadership models tell us.
I've learned so much more about how to coach my team by listening to them. The more I listened, the better leader I became. More importantly, the better the team became. The connection you make with your team as a group, and as individuals, comes from listening to them. It helps you understand who they are, what makes them tick and how to drive them.
Listening is the most valuable and underused leadership skill. The more you are speaking, the less effective you are as a leader. Listen to learn, listen to connect, listen to motivate. Listen to lead.
It's Not Yours, It's Theirs
Too many of us as leaders take it personally. When a team member makes a mistake, we react like they embarrassed us, as if they ruined our masterpiece. Every mistake is not a reflection on you as a leader. Get over the mistakes and make your team better. The overall culture, approach and success of the group is what reflects your ability to lead.
We care a lot, we want to have success, and we are under a lot of pressure. It's natural to hang on to it tight, squeeze it hard to get more out of it. But we have to learn to let it go. It's understandable to want total control. The problem is that's not the best path to high performance. If you are controlling everything, I guarantee you are holding your team back in some way.
Your organizational culture is simply the behavior of your group. Hopefully a shared set of beliefs guides that behavior. You help set the standards and explain the importance of what you believe in. But they own it. They are bought in to being a part of it (a requirement to be part of the team), and they make the culture work. You guide them, but your team members are really the leaders.
Trust your team. Give them room to own it. Let them make decisions. Your team can sustain a high level of elite performance when you understand it's not actually your team - it's theirs.
More Things I Believe
- If you want a tough team, get tough players
- If you want to make your team tougher, put them in tough situations in practice and hold them accountable for the result
- If your team lacks the right leadership, it has to come from you
- In late clock situations someone else is almost always open - pass the ball
- Not every point guard is good in a ball screen
- Every game being available for scout has created too much game planning - we forget to focus on what we are good at
- You can't just tell your team to communicate - you have to tell them what to say
- If your players don't know the plays in a game, it's your fault
- Feeding the post isn't that easy
- Spread out benches and coaches in golf shirts should be here to stay
- I've never had a team that was too tough
- They'll walk if you let 'em
- Paper scouting reports are essentially useless
- Over-scouting makes your team worse
- A point guard who throws a one-handed pass off the dribble with his weak hand is definitely good enough
- Shooters need to think about their feet more at a younger age
- Paint touches help get you to heaven
- The restricted arc has not had the intended effect
- We should all teach our help side defenders to jump straight up
- It's almost always a block
- If I were in high school, I'd make sure I could make two shots - standstill threes and free throws
- You can never practice time and score enough
- Missing a free throw on purpose is hard
- I'm still fouling up 3 every time
- Fouling on purpose is also hard
- The players see everything - they don't need to hear it to know it
- Players who can guard the ball one on one are extremely valuable
- There are way too many illegal screens in every game
- Officials do a great job ignoring head coaches instead of sticking them
- A head coach who says he "never" calls the director of officials actually calls him after every other game
- Indecision is a decision
- We don't spend enough time on BOB defense
- It shouldn't be illegal to foul on purpose
- We need to work on not stepping out of bounds in the corner
- Traveling remains the most inconsistent call in the game - if it looks funny, the whistle blows
- Great shooters can play at any level
- Points off turnovers doesn't mean what you think it means in the box score
- The best advantage you can have as a player is the ability to guard someone who can't guard you
- When I come back I want to be a face 4
- If you have two guards who can really guard the ball, your defense can be special
- A 5 who can drill 3s makes your offense really hard to guard
- It's easier to slow the pace down then speed the pace up
- Being older doesn't make you a leader
- Rebounding margin isn't a thing
- One elite competitor can change the tone of your practices
- I hate that you can run into an offensive player after he hands the ball off and get a whistle for an illegal screen
- They have to start calling post defenders for walking underneath a post player when he's finishing his move
- When you are trying to get open against full court pressure, keep running
- The best teams practice good habits
- When you accept anything at a lower standard, get used to it
Entitled To Nothing - What They Need Vs. How You Feel
An excerpt from my newly released book "Entitled To Nothing."
The book is available at entitledtonothingbook.com.
What They Need Vs. How You Feel
We were down 19 with about 5:00 to go in the first half when I called that third timeout. The guys came over to the huddle, and I just laughed. I couldn’t help it. I said “Wow, guys, what did you eat before the game today. We look like we’re playing with a football out there. Is everyone okay?“ I was literally laughing in disbelief at how bad we were playing. I wasn’t really sure what to do, but I knew adding more tension to the situation wouldn’t help. I wanted them to laugh at themselves. I thought back to practice and said, “Look, I know who we are, and this isn’t us. We are a lot better than this. I’ve seen it every day. So just promise me you’ll keep competing for each other no matter what the score is, and I’m sure we’ll get back to being ourselves.” I didn’t make any drastic changes or declarations.
just tried to re-center our team and get them to relax. I really trusted who we were every day, and I wanted them to do the same.
It was an essential lesson in leadership for me that day, and it really came out of necessity. I didn’t know what to do, really, but I knew the team had earned my trust with their approach. What they needed in that moment was more important than what I felt, and my leadership needed to reflect that. It’s easy to get that one back‐ wards, with our emotion ruling the message. Watching my team get worked for 15 minutes wasn’t a lot of fun, and I experienced a range of negative emotions. I wasn’t feeling very good. But my team didn’t need to know that. What they needed was something to help them get out of their funk. Something to break the tension, not add to it. They needed a reset, and a reminder that I believed in them.
Think about it when your team is struggling. You have to handle how you feel, and negative emotions in a bad situation are natural. But you have to lead based on what your team needs and put your own feelings aside. Leading with your emotions, while it might feel natural to you, is not productive. What your team needs is so much more important, and generally not tied to your emotions. It’s one of the truly great challenges of leadership. Set aside how you are feeling and figure out what your team needs, and they will respond.
Finally, after that third timeout in the first half everything started getting back to normal. We started to play a lot looser while picking up the intensity a bit, and we chipped our way back into the game. We got back to being ourselves and got more comfortable. We finished the half with a flurry, and when we hit a three at the half‐ time buzzer it cut our deficit to seven.
At halftime our locker room felt like the winning one, even though we were down a touchdown. Our guys were feeling like themselves again. I just said, “Fellas, they made a huge mistake. They never put us away. This game is ours!” I wanted to feed off the positive emotion we had built.
We went out and played great in the second half, and Coast Guard put up a good fight. It was a great college basketball game. We won a close game in the final minute, one of the more satisfying results we had all year. And a win, because of how it happened, that I’ll never forget.
The lesson that day was a great one. You want your players to trust you, but to get there you have to trust them. I trusted my team based on what I had seen us do every day, and 15 minutes of awful play wasn’t going to change that. I knew that practice every day revealed our true character. I had to trust them.
When your team struggles, figure out what they need. Remove your emotion from the situation and focus on their true character. It’s not about how you feel, it’s about what they need. It is an incredibly challenging and essential balance to find as a leader.
Indecision
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."
- Rush, Freewill
Indecision is a choice.
Indecision is also a common leadership mistake, one I think coaches make too often. Making strong decisions is not easy. You have to make sure you are informed. You want to be unemotional when you make the decision. If you have a staff, you want to get their opinion.
You also know that as a coach, your decisions carry significant weight. They will have an impact not only on your team, but your decisions can make a major difference in the lives of your players. You don't make any meaningless decisions. And the scoreboard is public. Every decision affects your team and can lead to wins and losses. There is no hiding from the pressure that comes from making decisions.
I come across many teams and coaches that suffer from indecision. A tough choice has to be made, and the most comfortable thing to do is not to make one. Let's see how it plays out. Maybe it will work itself out. Let's not do anything drastic. It's comfortable being indecisive because you don't have to own it. As long as you haven't made a decision, it's not on you. It's on the players who are in the middle of the situation. It's a go-to comfort zone for many leaders.
There is a lot of insecurity in leadership, and certainly in coaching. I've seen a lot of leaders afraid to make a tough decision because they either don't know how, or don't want to handle the consequences. To make the right decisions, you have to be well-informed, you have to have the pulse of your team, and you have to know the personalities on your team. You have to be really invested and strong in your convictions. It's not easy. But it is leadership.
One of the teams I coaches at RIC that struggled during the regular season (by our standards) had a player on the team who struggled with adversity. He was one of our best players, a starter on the team and a veteran presence. But when things didn't go his way, he struggled to handle it.
I managed the situation the entire year, thinking I was doing the right thing by the team. The situation needed a decision - either you are bought in, or you are out - but I didn't make one. My choice was indecision.
When the year was over, I realized in talking to the team that it had a significant effect on them. My indecision was clearly a choice. We were going to put up with his issues, because he was a good player. And it hurt our team. Luckily, before it was too late I made the decision to remove him from the team, and we went on to win our conference tournament and go back to the NCAAs.
Your team can be paralyzed by indecision. I'm not saying jump to conclusions or make rash decisions. But when you have a situation, deal with it. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
John Chaney
Growing up I was fascinated by how tough John Chaney was on his players, yet after they graduated they all would take a bullet for him. A true legend who made a huge impact.
Ben Horowitz on Culture
Ben Horowitz is the author of What You Do Is Who You Are. I really liked this paragraph on culture.
Your culture is how your company makes decisions when you're not there. It's the set of assumptions your employees use to resolve the problems they face every day. It's how they behave when no one is looking. If you don't methodically set your culture, then two-thirds of it will end up being accidental, and the rest will be a mistake.
Developing Your Presence
I've written before about presence. Presence is the ability to command a room. It is a confidence that you have as a leader that engages the people in front of you, and keeps them engaged while you deliver a message. Not everyone has great presence about them, and not everyone is a head coach. For some it's natural to their personality, probably forged through their experience and education. But if it doesn't come naturally to you, there are ways to work on your presence.
Presence is different for everyone. It can be based on your personality. John Belein has presence. So does John Calipari. And Steve Kerr. But I'd say the type of presence they have are all very different. Presence isn't just standing in front of a room and speaking loudly. There is much more to it.
How can you work on your presence as a leader?
Know Your Craft
Confidence is a huge part of your presence as a leader, and confidence comes from knowing your craft. You have to study the game. You have to know clearly in your own head what you are trying to do, how you want to do it and why it matters. Any moment of hesitation in front of your team cuts at your credibility as a leader.
This doesn't mean you are always going to be right. But you have to know what you are talking about and be able to explain it clearly.
Preparation
Have a specific plan in place for practice every day. Know how you want it to flow, and the key things you want your team to get out of it. Think about the message you want to send, and prepare how you want to deliver it. You don't have to speak into a mirror before practice like you might win an Oscar. But jot down the key bullet points you want to get across and rehearse in your mind how you are going to deliver them.
Eliminate Crutch Words
In your preparation, make sure your message is clean. Take note of crutch words that you use, words that give you time to think about what you want to say next. For me, it was often "Okay" or "Alright." When talking to my team in a huddle I'd say "We've got to do a better job in transition defense, okay, we need to sprint back and guard the ball, alright, make sure we are matched up..."
The crutch words take away from your message, and show some indecision in your delivery. You want the message to be as clear and concise as possible. Have someone record your huddles one day in practice or a game. Notice the crutch words that you use, and work hard to eliminate them.
Deliver The Message
The best presenters and public speakers in the world will tell you to focus on one person in the group, and deliver them one message. Look one person in the eye and say, "We have to a much better job with our half-court execution." Then focus on another person and deliver the next message. "Everyone has to know what we are running coming out of the huddle."
The way you deliver the message is important regarding the confidence your team has in that message. One person, one message keeps them all engaged, and the message has an impact. If you scan the crowd while you talk continuously, you aren't connecting with anyone, and you will lose them quicker.
Pace
The pace of your message is also really important to your presence. If you are talking 100 miles per hour you will appear scattered and unprepared. It's certainly okay to have a sense of urgency when you deliver the message. But speak at a pace where they can hear you, and absorb the message. If you deliver the message to quickly you'll miss your mark.
Connection
What is your relationship like with your team away from the court? How much time do you spend with them individually? The connection you have with your team is essential to getting the most out of them, and part of that is your presence as a coach. If they really believe in you, and feel like you have their best interests in mind, they will want to hear your message. They will engage, and give you a break if you get a little quick or confusing. Your connection to your players helps your presence in front of them.
Humility
Coaches lead the world in taking themselves too seriously. Don't do it. Great leaders are humbled, and no matter how successful they are they don't make it about themselves. Leading with an ego is a quick way to turn your team off.
Honesty
Direct truth-tellers have a natural presence about them. Great competitors want to hear the truth, even if it's difficult to hear. When they know you are going to shoot it to them straight, you'll have them at attention. It seems simple, but it's a mistake many leaders make. Speak the truth to them at all times, and they'll want to listen to what you have to say.
Are You Mentally Tough?
There are a lot of definitions of mental toughness out there. The one I prefer is simple, and comes from Jack Clark, the Rugby coach at Cal-Berkeley. Mental toughness is "the ability to move on to the next most important thing."
However you define it, mental toughness is about handling everything that is happening around you - good or bad - and still being able to perform. It's overcoming adversity. It's handling failure. Handling success. Fighting through fatigue. Executing under pressure. Staying focused. Handling the emotions that come with intense competition. Communicating properly in an intense environment. You can put 1,000 different things under the umbrella of mental toughness. But I don't think anyone would dispute one thing - it's important to be successful.
However you describe or define mental toughness for your team - and you should definitely define it - think about whether you exhibit those characteristics as a coach. I see plenty of coaches who think mental toughness is important. But when I look at the coach's behavior, it doesn't look like they are exhibiting the characteristics of mental toughness.
How do you react to a bad call, a turnover, or poor execution as a coach? Do you exhibit the behavior you want out of your players when they make a mistake? I see a lot of coaches with demonstrative emotional reactions to a bad play who then preach to their team about bad body language. If you are going to be the body language police, start with your own behavior.
How do you communicate when things aren't going well? Are you calm and composed, or are you emotional? Think about how you want your players to communicate in the heat of the action. So many coaches jump all over players for saying the wrong thing or using the wrong tone when things aren't going their way. But that isn't the behavior they see from the head coach.
I see plenty of coaches who spend the entire huddle during a time out screaming at their team, or a specific player, about the mistakes they just made. Yet their message in practice is "move on to the next play." You can't expect your team to be mentally tough and move on to the next play when you don't do it as the coach.
Mentally tough players don't make excuses. They take ownership and do not complain about the stuff they can't control. But that isn't always what you see from the coach. We harp on the bad calls in big spots. We say stuff like "we just have to make a shot." We use the phrase, "This isn't why we lost, but..." and then give an excuse as to why we lost. Coaches make plenty of excuses, because it's a way of self-preservation. When you do, expect your players to do the same.
Pick the most important elements for you and your team that define mental toughness. Then take a look at your own behavior as a coach. The "do as I say, not as I do" approach doesn't work. Rationalizing bad behavior by saying stuff like "I'm just fighting for you guys" and "I'm only trying to get the most out of you," doesn't work either. The players can see right through it.
If you want a mentally tough team, exhibit those behaviors as a coach. If you can't handle it, don't be surprised when your players can't either.
To Lead Is To Live Dangerously
To lead is to live dangerously, because when your leadership counts, when you lead people through difficult change, you challenge what people hold dear – their daily habits, tools, loyalties and ways of thinking – with nothing more to offer perhaps than possibility. Moreover, leadership often means exceeding the authority you are given to tackle the challenge at hand. People push back when you disturb the personal and institutional equilibrium they know. And people resist in all kinds of creative ways that can get you taken out of the game, pushed aside, undermined or eliminated.
- “Leadership on the Line”, Heifetz & Linsky
The Four Emotional Markers of Mental Toughness
Sports Psychologist Jim Loehr has described “the four emotional markers of mental toughness:”
Emotional Flexibility – The ability to handle different situations in a balanced or non-defensive manner. Emotional flexibility also speaks to the skill of drawing on a wide range of positive emotions–humor, fight spirit, pleasure.
Emotional Responsiveness – You are emotionally engaged in the competitive situation, not withdrawn.
Emotional Strength – The ability to handle great emotional force and sustain your fighting spirit no matter what the circumstances.
Emotional Resiliency – Being able to handle setbacks and recovering quickly from them.