What's In It For We?

Moving people past their individual thinking to a team oriented state of mind will always be one of the biggest challenges to effective team work.

Team members with their own personal agendas, concerns or fears can severely stunt the growth of the collective and make the team work process both difficult and painful.


In some cases, people are carrying around personal baggage from prior experiences which in turn prevents them from fully participating as a functioning member of the team.

This feeling of being "burned" can lead to mistrust of others or maybe it's much simpler than that. Perhaps they've never been part of a team before and have no idea or concept of what it means to be a contributing member of a group.

Whatever the reasoning is, it's important to recognize that until these matters are dealt with, they'll serve as a deterrent to becoming an effective team member.

This is where leaders and coaches come in.

Leadership in the context of team development is about moving people past this individualistic frame of thinking to a mindset where the goals, wishes and desires of the team take precedent.

By breaking down these barriers or roadblocks and creating a "we" mindset as opposed to a "me" enviroment, leaders are helping to create synergy amongst the team and putting the emphasis on the whole instead of the individual parts.


This topic will be explored in greater detail on the next edition of HCL Radio where I'll be joined by leadership expert and business consultant, John J Murphy.

John is the founder of Venture Management Consultants, a consultancy firm that specializes in helping people and organizations achieve and sustain peak performance, with one of his focuses on team training and development.

John provided some insight as to what leadership means in the context of team work.

Click here to listen to what he said.

To hear the rest of the conversation, I'd encourage you to tune into the next episode.

See you on the court!

The Great Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packer football coach is widely regarded as one of the most successful coaches of all time.


He was a master motivator and his ability to get the most out his players translated into 5 NFL championships. As a coach, he took the time to understand the people around him which helped him to determine the best way to keep motivation at its highest level.

Lombardi understood the importance of figuring out what sorts of things drove and motivated his players. He placed their needs first and helped them to achieve individual excellence which in turn helped the organization.

His leadership lessons take us well beyond the game and aren't just applicable on the football field. They are relevant in our professional and personal lives as well.


I'm pleased and honoured to be joined by his son, Vince Lombardi Jr. on the next episode of HCL Radio to discuss some of his late father's leadership practices.

As a motivational speaker and author, Vince regularly shares his father's leadership techniques with audiences worldwide.

Click here and listen to what Vince had to say about how his father motivated others.

See you on the court!

In The Spirit of Encouragement

One of the most important things we can do as leaders and individuals is to be an encourager to other people.

It's great because it has the potential to make tremendous impacts and requires minimal effort on our parts.

What we may not fully realize is that a simple kind word or a thoughtful gesture can make a positive difference, whether we're helping a colleague through a difficult period, motivating a child to reach their potential or helping a friend complete a task.

We should never underestimate the power of encouragement!

To help us gain a deeper understanding on the topic, I'm pleased to be joined by encouragement speaker and author, Derrick Hayes.

Derrick specializes in providing encouragement to others through his keynotes, daily quotes or his Derricknyms.

I asked Derrick to talk about the significance of encouragement. Click here to listen what he said.

The most effective leaders are those that recognize the power of sincere authentic encouragement.

People are naturally attracted to those who outwardly display a positive image and a desire to want to motivate others to be better through positive encouragement.

To hear more, tune in to the next edition of HCL Radio.

See you on the court!

Hard Court Lesson #2

Think Like A Scorer

The concept behind being successful at basketball is pretty straightforward.

If you score more points than your opponent, you win.

It sounds pretty simple in theory and for the most part it is however, you still need to find a way to get the ball in the basket.

A great starting point would be to adjust your mindset, adopt a scorer's mentality and understand what the concept of SCORE is all about.

If you can't SCORE then you can't be successful so take the time to Think Like A Scorer!

See you on the court!

Crunch Time Is All The Time

We've all seen the classic basketball scenario countless times. Your team is down by one and there's seconds left on the clock.

You've been fouled and now at the free throw line to shoot what could potentially be the game winners. It's quite simple. Hit your shots or your team loses the game.


How's that for pressure?

To be successful, you'll have to draw on a thing called optimism. Being optimistic allows you to see things in a positive manner and you naturally have the expectation that everything will work out in your favour.

The glass to an optimist is always half empty as opposed to being half full and there's no external factor or condition that can change that.

The ability to remain optimistic especially during tough or challenging times holds tremendous significance in the context of leadership and we'll explore this a bit deeper on the next episode of HCL Radio.

I'm joined by Kevin Touhey, a successful author, hall of fame college basketball coach, inspirational workshop facilitator and highly sought after speaker.

Kevin's best selling book, The Miracle of Optimism explains that by changing our perspective on situations, we can literally transform our lives and in the process become much more optimistic.

Taking a brighter viewpoint on things seems to be a rarity in this day and age and during our conversation, I asked Kevin why there aren't more people with an optimistic perspective.

Click here to listen to what he said.

To hear more, tune into the next edition of HCL Radio!

See you on the court!

The Definition of Winning

Outlasting your competition, winning a championship game or making it to the top of the podium are all generally associated with winning or being successful.

But what if winning had nothing to do with being successful?

What if we measured winning by the individual effort that`s put in rather than the end result?

Former UCLA coach, John Wooden was known throughout his coaching career as one who focused on effort and the fundamentals of the game rather than winning.

Wooden has been called the greatest college coach in history thanks to a long list of accomplishments, including a record 10 NCAA Men's Championship titles. But for him, it's not about the number of wins and losses: It's about how much effort was put into it.

This just so happens to be what the next episode of HCL Radio is all about.

Winning Because I Tried is the name of a youth mentoring program led by former college basketball star, Modie Cox.
Modie spends some time on the show talking about the work he does with young people in helping them to recognize the importance of focusing on effort as opposed to winning.

This Niagara Falls native makes a point of explaining that we don`t control many things that happen to us but we do have control of our effort.

Tune in to the next edition of HCL Radio and hear more from Modie.

See you on the court!