“At this moment I feel this is the right place for me to be to develop as a coach.” - Xabi Alonso

“It was really a reflective time for me,” Otzelberger says. “I felt like a hypocrite and that I needed to change more than our team did.”

“If you’re going to lead… you better have someone who is dying to follow you.”

“Stone cold,” one witness told me. “It was so cool.”

Great teams are made up of great teammates. How much are you willing to put your team ahead of your own best interests?

“Knowing what must be done does away with fear.” - Rosa Parks

“Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel.”

“Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.”

I’ve always said this and believe it to be vital to effective leadership - coaching is not about what you feel, it’s about what your team needs. Very often, those two things are diametrically opposed.

“You cannot stop growing and developing as players in the middle of the season.”

If leadership is important to your team, then you have to teach and develop it. Wherever your team lacks leadership, you have to fill the void.

To get the most out of your players, they need to know that they are appreciated - and they need to hear it from you.

The best way to handle producers? Let them produce. Stop trying to get more out of them from an approach or leadership standpoint. You are only going to frustrate yourself, and probably get less out of them as players. Just tell them to produce.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers…

A clearly defined mission for all is an integral part of elite, sustainable success.

“The opposite of fear is not fearlessness, but commitment. The highest form of commitment is an unparalleled focus on action rather than emotion.”

Between the player and the coach, the question of trust might come down to “Are you making the same commitment you are asking of me?”