Walking The Talk

Greetings,

Eric Harvey, founder and president of WALK THE TALK will join me on the next edition of Hard Court Lessons Radio.


WALK THE TALK has been providing individuals and organizations with high-impact resources for personal and professional success for over 30 years. Its resources are designed to inspire, inform and, most importantly, help individuals and organizations reach new levels of skills and confidence.

WALK THE TALK offers inspirational videos like:

212 - the Extra Degree

211° water is hot. At 212°, it boils. And with boiling water, comes steam. And steam can power a locomotive. The one extra degree makes the difference.

Finish Strong

Finish Strong is a powerful platform for leading your team to success. You will share in the triumphs a variety of individuals who all shared a common value – the desire to overcome their obstacle and ultimately Finish Strong.

Plus a variety of books and other resources.

Eric will share his thoughts on the impact of the company, changes in today's workforce and the importance of sticking to your stated objectives and beliefs.


In addition...

For a limited time, WALK THE TALK has offered a special promotion to fans of Hard Court Lessons Radio.

Starting from August 3rd - 7th, Eric and WALK THE TALK will be offering a 20% discount towards the purchase of its leadership products.

Taking full advantage of this special offer is easy.

When you place your order during the checkout process you'll see a Redeem coupon code field and that’s where you'll enter the key word:

"hardcourtlessons"

To see their full catalogue or to subscribe to any of their newsletters, visit WALK THE TALK

Note: Free show reminders are available by visiting the show page and clicking on the "Remind Me" button.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Hard Court Lessons Radio - Where developing leaders is more than a game.

Thanks for reading!

Audley

Weekly Hard Court Question

There are all sorts of terms and phrases that speak to the importance of having integrity in your actions.

"Practice What You Preach" and "Walking theTalk" are two great examples.

One of the dictionary definitions of the word integrity speaks to having moral soundness.

Having integrity in leadership is essentially doing what you say and putting your principles in practice.

It's something that individuals, leaders and organizations can all do.

So bearing this in mind, this week's Hard Court Question asks:


How can leaders demonstrate walking the talk?


Audley

I Got Drafted - So Now What?

The road to becoming a professional basketball player is a long one filled with hard work, sacrifice and commitment.

Every year, a handful of players have their dreams fulfilled when their names are announced on draft day.

In some cases, playing basketball professionally has been a life long goal. So you could just imagine the sense of relief to finally make it.

So you've made it, now what?

The "now what" part is important because while it's really easy to get caught up in the excitement of the moment, it doesn't stop there.

Life doesn't stop and nor should any of us. Being selected is one thing but staying there requires heart, effort and skill.

This could turn out to be just as hard if not harder than your original goal.

This is part of the reason why it's so important to continually set new goals once the old ones have been reached.

Setting new goals helps us to organize ourselves, maintain our focus and motivates us by providing a target to works towards.

So remember the next time you achieve a goal. - It doesn't stop there

Give yourself credit by celebrating but don't pat yourself on the back too long.

When you reach a goal, set a new one and continue to push forward.

Thanks for reading!

Audley

You Don't Need to be a Point Guard to be a Leader

The point guard position is often times considered to be the on-court general out on the basketball court.

They're seen naturally as the leader of the team because of the huge burden of responsibilities they have.

The point guard controls the pace of the game, takes care of the basketball and makes sure the right players are in the right spots just to name a few of their duties.

It's a tough job and in a lot of ways, it makes sense why many anoint the title of leader on their shoulders.

As true as all this may be, Hard Court Lessons Radio is here to say that You Don't Need To Be A Point Guard To Be A Leader.

At the end of the day, we establish ourselves as leaders through our actions as opposed to the titles we hold.

This week's special guest is leadership expert, best selling author and internationally acclaimed speaker, Mark Sanborn.

Mark will speak to the importance of titles, their significance to leadership and why anyone can be a leader.

Mark said, "the title that one gets in an organization should confirm their leadership ability but never bestow it.'

He'll also let us in on why we should always strive to deliver remarkable performances every opportunity we get.

Mark is the author of You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader and The Encore Effect plus several others.

It'll be a great show and I encourage you to join us on Monday July 27, @ 10pm.

Tune in live and you'll also have an opportunity to contribute to the chat room discusssion for this week's Hard Court Question.

Hard Court Lessons Radio - Where Leadership Development is More Than Just A Game.

Note: Free show reminders are available by visiting the show page and clicking on the "Remind Me" button.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Thanks for reading!

Audley

Introducing...The Weekly Hard Court Question

Here's your chance to contribute and be a part of the show!

Effective immediately, I'll be throwing out a weekly Hard Court Question related to the upcoming show and I'll be looking to the loyal audience and followers of Hard Court Lessons for answers.

Responses can be left as comments to this post.

As well, weekly questions will also be posted to my Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Make your answers good because the best ones will be read on the air!

So without further delay - Here is this week's Hard Court Question:

What normal everyday things can people do to demonstrate leadership skills in their lives?

Thanks for reading!

Audley

Attitude is Everything

In his book, "Make Today Count", John Maxwell re-tells a story from his high school days when his basketball coach took him aside at the beginning of his senior year and told him that he wanted him to be the captain of the team.

He was excited but a bit surprised at the same time because he knew that he wasn't the best player on the team.

His coach went on to explain that he may not have been the most skilled player on the team but he had the best attitude and that influenced the other players.

It's important to understand that we choose the attitude we have and if it's our intent to have a great day then we have to have a great attitude to match.

Individuals who possess a positive attitude are able to better focus on the positive aspects of a relationship, as opposed to the negative things. In fact, the negative may even improve - simply because the attitude remains positive.

Hard Court Tip

Personal and business relationships can improve and benefit simply by adopting a positive attitude, thinking positive thoughts, and reacting to situations in a positive way.

Thanks for reading!

Audley

Coulda Woulda Shoulda

We've all had to deal with the feeling of regret at one time or another. I know I've had more than my fair share as a coach for my daughter's juvenile basketball team.




I recall one game when our team was down by two points and there was enough time on the clock for one more play.

We had the ball so I called a time-out and brought the team in to explain what we were trying to do collectively.

Not very many of the girls had a lot of experience in high pressure packed games so I wanted to make sure that we were all on the same page.


I was purposeful and thorough in my explanation but unfortunately, I forgot to give instruction to one of the players in terms of where I wanted her positioned on the floor.

When the play started she was too close to the ball and as a result her defender was able to jump in the passing lane and steal the inbounds pass which sealed the game.

We lost!

I immediately realized what happened and I knew that I should have explained in greater detail what I wanted everyone to do.

Hard Court Tip

We have two clear choices when we make mistakes. We can dwell on our mistakes and live in regret or learn from the experience and move on.

Part of learning from the experience is accepting the circumstances and taking responsibility for anything that you could have better handled.

Regrets can easily turn into burdens if we dwell on them for too long, burdens can impact our present happiness and even interfere with your future, or motivation to move forward.

"I don't have to wait until the next morning to regret something I did that was kinda dumb" Bobby Knight

Thanks for reading!

Audley

HCL Radio Hits the Airwaves

Hard Court Lessons Radio makes its debut appearance on Monday July 20, 2009.

The blog has expanded into a talk radio program and will feature expert guests and discussion on the topic of leadership and leadership development.

The first episode is entitled, "The Wooden Way" and best selling author Steve Jamison will join the program.

Steve is America’s preeminent authority on the leadership philosophy of UCLA’s legendary Coach John Wooden whose basketball dynasty won ten March Madness national championships in a 12 year span.

But it just wasn't the championships that made him successful. Coach Wooden took young men and developed them into more than just winning players.

He built leaders.

The two have worked together for more than 15 years and Steve now shares what made this extraordinary man so successful.

Tune in to HCL Radio on Monday July, 20 2009 and hear about a man who believed that if you take care of the process, "everything else will take care of itself".

Hard Court Lessons Radio - where developing leaders is more than just a game!

Note: Free show reminders are available by visiting the show page and clicking on the "Remind Me" button.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Thanks for reading!

Audley

Put Your Socks on Right

There's a video on John Wooden's website in which NBA great Bill Walton retells a story about the importance of paying attention to detail involving his legendary UCLA college coach.

In case you didn't know.

Coach Wooden is considered by many to be one of the most successful coaches across all professional sports.

Why you ask?

• He won 10 NCAA National Championships in 12 years while at UCLA
• Seven championships wins in a row
• Four undefeated seasons
• In his 40 years of coaching, he only had one losing season, his first year.
  

He's translated his success off the court in the form several business books focussed on leadership and a corporate leadership program at UCLA.

Anyhow, Coach Wooden gathered a young Bill Walton and several of his teammates and explained the importance of paying attention to detail through the example of socks.

The man known as the Wizard of Westwood believed that success came from paying attention to all the fine details.

You see, to John Wooden's rationale was pretty simple.

If you don't put your socks on properly:

they could lead to blisters;
blisters could lead to irritation;
irritation could lead to distraction;
distraction could lead to turnovers.

And in the closing seconds of a championship game, a turnover could be catastrophic.

The key is understanding the things that fall within the scope of your control regardless how minor, still can make a difference.

Listen to the Fast Break Podcast by clicking here.

Thanks for reading!

Audley