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I'm off on a scouting trip — be back Wednesday — Send in those nominations!!

Don’t forget to send in your nominaton for the October Coach of the Month. I love reading about your favorite coaches, and they love the recognition. Send in your nomination today!

Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was. - Dag Hammarskjold

Last time I wrote about the Hedgehog and the Fox.  That is the Greek parable, about how the fox may know many things but he can't beat the hedgehog, because the hedgehog knows one thing - very well.

I wrote about BHAGs, Three Circles and  clarity of purpose.  But one word I didn't write - and one word I don't recall seeing in Good To Great - is Excellence.  I think excellence gets a bad rap, especially in youth sports circles.  Often it's associated with driven, overbearing coaches, out-sized expectations and grim determination. But excellence should be a source of pride and excitement. 

We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle

But giving your team the gift of excellence seems daunting.  Most of us didn't play our sport at the highest levels, so we weren't exposed to great coaching.  But that doesn't doom you to mediocrity!  You too can run a great team.

1. Follow the Hedgehog Principle (No, not the Sweathog Principal)
2. Catch the kids doing something right - especially away from the action
3. Make practice count — don't waste time, keep the kids moving in practice

Focus is key, but you have to focus on the right things.   Use the modified Three Circles I wrote about last time to help you figure out where to concentrate, then implement your ideas.  Your team will be the best in the(ir) world in no time!

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. - Archilochus (7th-century b.c.)

Foxes have to know many things to be successful, but the hedgehog only has to know one thing.  As a youth  coach with other priorities laying claim on your time, which would you rather be?   You don't have time to know everything, but you can know one thing really well.  Lucky for you, that is a part of the recipe for Good to Great

Concentrating on one thing, building your practices around that central idea provides for clarity of purpose.  I've said this before, figure out the one fundamental that is important to your team and build your practices around perfecting that fundamental.  But, there is a problem with that approach.  Doing the same thing gets boring! 

That's a problem, but it isn't insurmountable — after all, you're smart.  There are two things you need to do to make this approach work: 

1. Find several drills and games to teach the fundamental
2. Build your BHAG around the fundamental

What's a BHAG you ask? A BHAG is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.  They are the things that get people excited to work hard, even at things that might be boring.  Give your team a something to work towards and — most importantly — stretch for, and you can keep them motivated through all sorts of drills.

In Good To Great, Jim Collins says companies have to determine what it is that they can be the best in the world doing.  He gives the example of Abbott Labs.  They knew they could not be the best pharmaceutical company in the world because they didn't have the research capabilities to achieve that goal.  What they could do was be the best in the world at creating products to lower the cost of health care.  They were very specific in their focus — they knew one thing very well — which allowed them to concentrate on only those things that contribute to their primary mission.

There isn't one right answer to the question of what to focus on.  As the coach, you have to answer that question.  However, Collins does guide you to your answer with three questions.  He calls them the Three Circles.

1. What can you be the best in the world at?
2. What drives your economic engine?
3. What are you deeply passionate about?

How about if tweak the questions to apply directly to coaching…

1. What can your team be the best in your league at?
2. What will contribute to your team's performance?
3. What are you willing to keep working at?

You may not have a lot of talent on your roster so being the best goal scoring team in the league may not be realistic.  But being the best team in the league at defending corner kicks is reasonable.  Maybe your football team can't catch a pass, but they can be the best at running the trap play.  Don't have anyone who can hit a jumper?  Don't try to make the team into the best perimeter shooting team, concentrate on setting picks and hitting the cutter with a pass.

Regardless of how focused you make your BHAG, your unlikely to be the best in the world.  But you're dealing with kids, so their world doesn't extend much beyond your league.  Focus on one specific thing and regardless of your talent level your team can be the best in their world. 

Get the kids excited about becoming the best at something, show them how one practice builds upon the next.  Allow your kids the chance to see what it takes to master a skill.  That's a lesson that will last a lot longer with your kids than anything else you teach them.

Wise are they who have learned these truths: Trouble is temporary. Time is tonic. Tribulation is a test tube. - William A. Ward

The last time we got together I wrote quite a bit about what a Level 5 leader isn't.  In fact, I'm pretty sure my membership in the Mike Ditka fan club has been revoked.  I guess I'll have to find someone else…  Today, rather than write about level 4 qualities and what they don't have, let's discuss what sets a Level 5 leader apart from the rest.

The Good to Great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes.  They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons.  They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.

- Jim Collins, Good To Great (pg. 28)

This makes it sound as if these Level 5 leaders are somewhat meek or introverted.  But that's not quite right.  Collins says these people don't look to bring attention to themselves, yet they are firm in their resolve to whatever is necessary for the long term benefit of the organization.

Demonstrates an unwavering resolve to do whatever must be done to produce the best long-term results, no matter how difficult.

- Jim Collins on The Two Sides of Level 5 Leadership

Introverted, possibly, but that doesn't sound like someone who is meek.  It sounds like someone who is thinking beyond this week's practice or this season's games.  It sounds like someone who realizes teaching a level swing may be hard, but an uppercut swing will only produce easy fly outs next year.

To move your coaching from Good to Great, keep a few things in mind.

• It's not about you
• It's not about today's game
• It is about the kids
• It is about their love of the game

These are hard to remember and harder to stick to when you have two dozen parents yelling and cheering on the sidelines.  But just as the CEO's profiled in the book had their doubters but persevered, so will you.  Next I'll write about a strategy to help you persevere and move your team forward — The Hedgehog Concept .

Fun is at the core of the way I like to do business and it has been the key to everything I’ve done from the outset. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin’s success. - Richard Branson

I live outside of Chicago.  In these parts it's been 1985 for over 20 years and Mike Ditka is the patron saint of football.  The deification of Ditka is so complete that when asked to pick between Mike Ditka, who last coached the Bears in 1992 and won one Super Bowl in 1985, and Lovie Smith, the current coach who guided the Bears to a Division Championship last season and has the team off to a 6-0 start this year, my 11 year old son couldn't believe anyone wouldn't pick Ditka.

There is no arguing Mike Ditka's love for the Bears.  He had a Hall of Fame playing career for the team and was hand picked by George Halas to coach the team shortly before Halas died.  In short, Ditka wouldn't be Ditka without the Bears - and the Bears would be something less without him.

But what was Mike Ditka's legacy?  Did he create anything enduring, besides his own legend?  The numbers say no, but I'm sure he would disagree.  No doubt he would point to the countless hours he spent preparing his team.  But the leaders Jim Collins identifies in "Good To Great" as Level 5 leaders aren't measured by time spent in the film room.  Rather they show themselves through what Collins describes as a "paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will".

Regular readers will recognize this as the spot for my obligatory John Wooden homage.  Coach Wooden was a prototypical Level 5 leader, humble and willful, but I'm more interested in exploring the contrasting leaders Collins describes, the ego-centric leader.

Collins labels those leaders Level 4.  This implies they are less successful than a Level 5 leader, but that doesn't fully capture the difference.  The difference isn't their immediate success, but rather the way they lead and the type of organization they create and ultimately leave behind.  Mike Ditka was certainly successful, but he didn't leave the Bears with an enduring legacy and he didn't leave his imprint on the NFL with dozens of former assistants running teams.  Collins profiles some wildly successful Level 4 CEOs, such as Lee Iacocca.  They were all very successful, but the success didn't endure because they put the needs of their own egos in front of the enduring success of the organization.

Collins wrote an article about the Rock Star CEO.  Replace CEO with Head Coach and you are reading about many of the celebrity coaches prowling the sidelines of today's professional — and college — leagues.

There is perhaps no more corrosive trend to the health of our organizations than the rise of the celebrity CEO, the rock-star leader whose deepest ambition is first and foremost self-centric.

This trend works it's way down to kid's sports.  Level 4 coaches view the games as a personal validation and aren't willing to trust the outcome to a bunch of kids.  Rather than teach by asking questions a Level 4 coach will direct and stage manage kids.  A Level 4 coach is more likely to view the outcome of each game as the only valid measuring stick to progress, where a Level 5 coach recognizes player development leads to a better overall team and more wins.

Truth be told, most of us aren't Level 5 — or even 4s.  Most of are probably about a 3 on Collins' leadership pyramid — Competent Manager.

Organized people and resources toward the effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives.

I don't think that is a bad standard to reach.  However we can each strive to include more Level 5 thinking in our coaching.  Maintain a healthy perspective and remember your primary goal; strive to make every player better; and be firm in doing what you know is right. 

I've identified a Level 4 coach - Mike Ditka and a Level 5 coach - John Wooden.  Can you think of any other coaches that fit either type? 

Good is the enemy of Great - Jim Collins

In his best-selling book, Good To Great, Jim Collins researches eleven companies that he says went from good to great.  Those companies had years (or decades) of mediocre performance before suddenly outperforming the market for a generation.  He set out to uncover what set those companies apart from all the other companies that didn't make the leap. 

But what does that have to do with coaching kids??  Well, i think a lot.  Your Little League team may not have thousands of employees like a Fortune 500 company, but you still need to massage those dozen little egos.  Your soccer team may not face overseas competition, but you still have to confront the facts of what they can do - and what they can't.

Collins breaks his research into 5 "Idea Sets" that the great companies succeeded in and the good companies didn't.  He gave each a descriptive name which might not mean much without further explanation, but that's what you'll get for now…

• Level 5 Leadership
• First Who, then what
• Confront the brutal facts
• Hedgehog concept
• Building Your Company's Vision

In the book Collins makes the point several times that it doesn't take more work to be great, in fact it eventually takes less.  What I took from the book is that it takes the right work, done consistently, to be great.  Where companies — and coaches — fail is the "consistently" part.  We change direction before the greatness can blossom.

With clarity of purpose and constancy of direction, even a kids rec league team can become great at something.  They may not be the best U9 soccer team in the world — or their league — but they can become the best their talent will allow at whatever goal you set for the team — but "Beating Brazil" is probably unrealistic…

The next post will deal with Level 5 Leadership.  This is how Collins describes Level 5 leadership in the book:

Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company.  It's not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self interest.  Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious - but the ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.

How does that apply to you as a coach?  Think about your motivation for coaching, discover where you fit on the Leadership Hierarchy and what you can do to move toward the top.

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. - John Wooden

October 14th is John Wooden’s 96th Birthday. I don’t know what I’d get a 96 year old legend, but the people of Los Angeles do. They are naming the post office in Reseda CA after him. The ironic thing about the honor, is that Coach Wooden doesn’t live in Reseda, he lives in nearby Encino. But the post office in Encino was already named for long time LA Laker announcer Chick Hearn. I guess there are too many legends living in Southern California — or too few post offices…

I hope you will indulge me here. I went to find a quote from John Wooden to put at the top of this entry. I had trouble picking just one, so I figured it’s his birthday — I’ll let coach give us a present… Here are a few more pearls of wisdom from the Wizard of Westwood:

Ability is a poor man’s wealth. - John Wooden

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then. - John Wooden

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. - John Wooden

Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights. - John Wooden

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. - John Wooden

Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability. - John Wooden

You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. - John Wooden

You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality. - Admiral James Stockdale

Monday starts a series of posts on the book Good To Great.  I'm sure you have already read the book, I think I was the last person in the world to get a copy…  Even if you have read it, you might not have thought about how it applies to coaching — but that's why you have me.  So start thinking about your BHAG's and try to determine your Hedgehog Concept for your team.  You don't need to be a Level 5, but you must be willing to confront the brutal facts of your situation, even if it's just that the kids can't hit.

Brush up on the book and it's concepts at JimCollins.com.  There is more to the site than marketing for the book.  Twenty minutes spent exploring the site gives you a much deeper understanding of the ideas behind the book.  It's time worth spending.

You have your homework and I've given you a few extra days to get it done.  I don't want to hear any excuses on Monday if you aren't prepared…

You are remembered for the rules you break. - Douglas MacArthur

On Monday I wrote about the wonders of YouTube, later that day Google buys YouTube… conincidence??? Yeah, probably.

Well, that doesn’t diminish how beneficial YouTube is to a youth league coach. I found two more short videos to help the soccer coaches out there. One is a warm up game, the other a passing drill. Without video it would take several hundred words to describe either of these drills. But through the miracle of modern science you can understand both in less than five minutes.

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