Dirty Harry must have been the first one to understand the latest Good To Great principle.  "A man's gotta know his limitations".  That's not just good advice when you are looking down the barrel of a .45 Magnum, it's pretty good anytime.

Understanding what your team can and — very important — can't do is the only way to work on the right things.  Collins calls this Confronting the Brutal Facts.  

When you start with an honest and dillegent effort to determine the truth of the situation, the right decisions often become self-evident.

In the book Collins relates a powerful story from Admiral James Stockdale.  Stockdale was the highest ranking American Naval POW in Vietnam.  He was shot down in 1965 and held captive until 1973.  Collins asked him the type of people who didn't make it as POW's.  He said it was the optimists who couldn't handle it.  He said the optimists were hoping they would be released soon, they didn't accept the fact that they were POWs and likely to stay that way for a long time.

This doesn't mean that Stockdale gave up on his situation.  He never gave up believing he would be released, but he "retained faith that he would prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties."

What does this mean for coaching kids?  Remember the Hedgehog?  Figure out what your team can be the best at and work towards that goal.  How can you become a hedgehog if you don't confront the brutal reality?  But then how brutal is the reality when you're talking about coaching kids?

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?

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!

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.

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 .

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? 

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.