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It occurs to me, Jim, that you spend too much time trying to be interesting.  Why don’t you invest more time being interested. - John Gardner (said to Jim Collins, author "Good To Great")

This fall I ran a series on how the book "Good To Great" can be adapted to youth coaching.  I really enjoyed the book and writing the posts caused me to think the book through in greater detail.  Out of the series I picked three posts to share the #4 position.

Who Are Those Guys

By : Coach Bigs 

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quite a bit about what a Level 5 leader isn't.  In fact, I'm pretty sure my membership in the Mike Ditka fan club has been revoked.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 .

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Big Hairy and Focused

By : Coach Bigs 

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.

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You Have Your Who

By : Coach Bigs

Managing is getting paid for home runs someone else hits. - Casey Stengel

You're a rec league coach.  When you volunteered you knew one kid who would be on your team — yours.  Otherwise your roster is a combination of kids whose parents knew to ask for you, some geographical coincidences and random placements.  In short, you're not Tex Schramm looking to build through the draft, you built your team by picking up a packet at league headquarters.  You have very little choice or input on who is on your team, so how can you follow the second principle of Good To Great, First Who, then Where.

Well, I have some ideas — after all it's my website and if I didn't have some ideas on the subject I'd be writing about something else…

Collins uses a bus analogy to describe running a company.  He says the great companies first decide who should be on the bus before deciding where the bus should go. 

They said, in essence, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”

Obviously, in a rec league environment you can't shape your roster, but you do have more control over your coaches and other helpers.  It's up to you to set the tone for the team. 

You may have an assistant assigned to you and he may have different ideas about how to run the team, but you are the coach and you set the culture.  Because if you don't, you're still setting the culture, and it won't be one you like.

You want people helping you who understand the course you are taking and will help you move forward.  You don't want people who are working at cross purposes with you.  Be sure your team, your coaches and - especially - the parents understand your core values.

Don't confuse this with a "my way or the highway" approach.  Core values are only the most basic needs for running a team.  My core values are:

1. Coaching is teaching
2. Players improve when they understand what they are doing

Take a few minutes to think about why you coach and what your core values are.  How can you apply those with your team and how can you convey them?

I'm never been a big Bo Schembechler fan.  I went to Penn State before it was in the Big 10, so I always thought the Big 10 was over-rated.  Now that Penn State is in the Big 10, I just think Michigan is over-rated…

But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a great coach.  When Bo died on the eve of the Michigan - Ohio State game this past November there were many tributes to the man.  I chose a slightly different path, I chose to highlight the impact coaches have on everyone who plays in this post from November 20th.

The Echoes of Time

By : Coach Bigs

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. - James Thurber

We coach for a lot of reasons, but I'm guessing immortality isn't one of them.  But in a way you do achieve immortality in a way.  I know I can remember nearly every coach I ever had.  From my first hockey coach at 5 years old to the raspy voiced basketball coach who always smelled like cigarettes, through the burly Bolivian soccer coach, not to mention the one armed baseball coach or the southern accented hockey coach.  They were all rec league coaches who volunteered their time to teach me and a bunch of other boys the finer points of a game.  I remember them not for anything they said or any move they taught me — the next "move" I make on the basketball court will be my first — but I remember them because they were there.

I'm thinking about these men tonight because I've been reading the many tributes to Bo Schembechler.  Bo was the head football coach at the University of Michigan from 1969-1989.  His teams were always highly ranked, winning 10 Big Ten Conference championships.  He is considered a legend in Michigan and as a truly great coach in the rest of the country.

What struck me about the response was the fact Bo hadn't coached in 16 years.  To put that in perspective, the seniors playing in Saturday's Ohio State vs. Michigan game were in Kindergarten when Bo coached his last game.  An entire generation has grown up seeing someone other than Bo Schembechler on the Michigan sidelines on Saturday afternoon.  Yet he was as revered as his last day as coach (maybe more).

One comment in the Detroit Free Press article from the son of a former player illustrates the impact a coach can have long after the games end.

My dad played for Bo 40 years ago, at Miami of Ohio. We've followed Michigan ever since he moved there and became fans almost solely because of him. My dad stayed in touch with Bo after his playing days, and we traveled to Michigan bowl games all over the country. I got to meet Bo two or three times in the locker room before or after games, one moment I'll remember all my life is when he looked me in the eyes and said, "If you grow up to be half the man your daddy is, you'll be something else". I think my dad's head almost split open with pride. It was amazing what a communicator he was, the power of commitment and confidence.

I called my dad (a successful professional) today when I found out the news, and he was pretty down. Played for him 40 years ago, and look at the impact he still has on my dad's life. It was like losing a surrogate father. Now that's something I long to get out of my own life.

God bless you, Bo. And God's peace to your family.

Indeed.

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. - George Eliot

I've really enjoyed writing for this site over the last four months.  Just looking at my post from December 20th reminds me that it's been an eventful year.  But as I wrote in that post, I'm not interested in the bad parents and coaches, I'm interested in the positive stuff that happens when kids get to play sports and parents work to teach them the right way.

With that in mind I looked back on all my posts and pulled out the top five.  I'll re-run those posts over the coming week.  I had trouble picking only five, so excuse me if you get some bonus material… 

Hope you are enjoying your New Year's Day.  See you Tomorrow.