7 Reasons Why Exceptional Leaders Are Like Smart Phones!

If you've ever had to look for a new cell phone in the last little while then you could probably attest to the fact that there's no shortage of choices, features and options at our disposal.  Before you even determine what you're looking for, you've got to decide if you're in the market for a conventional cell phone or go the smart phone route.

Within each of those options, there's a bevy of styles and colours for you to choose from.  At the end of day, both phones perform the same basic function of making and receiving calls, however the additional options the smart phone offers makes it much more attractive and is considered the better of the two.  (This of course depends on who you speak with and what preferences they value.)

Smart phones offers a multitude of features and uses that go beyond just talking to people.  The ability to access the internet through any available wi-fi signal and download applications (or apps) broaden your horizon and make the experience of owning a smart phone much more practical.  For example,  you can use UrbanSpoon to help you decide what restaurant to go to, Tripit Travel Organizer to look after your travel plans or download WeatherBug to stay up on the latest weather forecasts plus so much more.

Owning a smart phone is the equivalent of having a mini computer in your back pocket.

So here's where the leadership comparison comes in.

As I see it, anyone can pretty much step into the role of leader and "do the job".  They might even able to produce results and even get others to follow them too.  That to me is a pretty basic function and is the equivalent to dialing out and making a telephone call.

An exceptional leader is much more like a smart phone.  They have a positive impact on the people around them and offer lots of options to make things easier to get the job done - they go beyond just making a simple call.  Their emphasis as a leader is more on "how" part of what they do instead of the "what" part.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg!

Here are seven things exceptional leaders do to make themselves more like smart phones:

Communicate Instead of Direct
We too often forget that communication is a two sided street and listening is a big part of what makes the whole thing work. Exceptional leaders don't make a living barking directions or telling people what to do, they obtain information and understanding by listening and learning from the people around them.  Communication shouldn't be viewed as an extra task, it should be considered to be a necessary function.

Collaborate Instead of Control
Collaboration can best be described as a group of people coming together to achieve something collectively that they couldn't do individually.  Exceptional leaders recognize that the key to effective team work is giving people an opportunity to contribute their unique skills for the greater good of the team.


Proactive Instead of Reactive
The exceptional leader is always thinking three steps ahead. Working to master his/her own environment with the goal of avoiding problems before they arise. A reactive approach is dealing with fires as they happen while a proactive approach prevents them from occurring. 

Inspires Confidence Instead of Being Unsure
It was the 6th president of the United States, John Quincy Adams who once said, "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." The starting point in being able to do this is understanding that it's impossible to inspire others to do anything if you're not confident yourself. To put it bluntly, if you're not doing anything that inspires those around, then you're not doing your job as a leader. 

Open Minded Instead of Opinionated
It's not outside of the realm of possibility for one to be open minded and opinionated at the exact same time.  People who open-minded are willing to listen to and consider the another person's point of view but still can be very opinionated on certain matters.  The key is that there has to be a willingness to let go of their own bias opinions and viewpoints.  Otherwise opinionated leaders risk not progressing themselves or their people. 

Empowers Instead of Delegates  
Empowering others requires much more effort, energy and time for exceptional leaders however, the end result in the long run leads to a more effective and productive group of followers that feel trusted.  By empowering their people, exceptional leaders are displaying both faith and confidence while constant delegation sends a clear message that they may not exist. 

Inclusive Instead of Egocentric
Being an exceptional leader solely can't be about yourself and your hopes, wishes and desires.  Including others in the decision making process where at all possible helps to strengthen the relationship and build cohesion with those around you.  When its all said and done, people want to know that they're thoughts and feelings were taken into consideration and not left out of the equation whether purposely or not.


__________________

The Main Po!nt
It's not impossible to lead people by taking the old traditional approach of leadership of direct and command and still get results however, the exceptional leaders who stand out are the ones that offer more, give more and continually ask of themselves, do I want to make a difference or am I content with just making a call?



See you on the court!

Follow me on Twitter @TheAudman

If I Had A Choice...

If I had a choice, I'd rather be communicated with as opposed to being talked to, with a heavy emphasis on the word "with".

Coach Kevin Sutton of Montverde Academy, a college preparatory school in Montverde Florida states in a recent blog post, "Talking vs Communicating", that it's a two way street.

By communicating with me, I'm allowed to be a part of the process as opposed to being told what to do.

The most successful coaches and leaders understand its importance and regularly incorporate effective communication strategies into their normal manner of operation.


In the case of Coach Sutton, he does a “CIRCLE OF COMMUNICATION” at the end of each practice.

This is where all of his players gather in circle and a topic is selected for them to communicate with each other about.

For example, he might have them pick a player to their right and tell them know what they did well in practice that day. The key is that they must say the teammates name.

According to Coach Sutton, this exercise has helped tremendously in the development of the players ability to:

1. Communicate & actively listen
   
2. To be secure vs. insecure in giving and receiving a compliment.
3. Help grow a teammates self-esteem.

Maintaining effective communication is the starting point for team success and in order to achieve this:

1. You must have a common language

2. A clear understanding of what is being communicated

3. Acknowledge that you understand what has been communicated to you. (Information given, received and understood).

So after all that.

What's your choice?

See you on the court!

A Tribute to the Greatest Coach of All Time

With the recent news of the passing of UCLA's Coach John Wooden, I felt that it was only fitting that the next edition of HCL Radio was dedicated to the man voted by a panel of coaches as the greatest coach of all time!

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 focused on leadership and a corporate leadership program at UCLA.

But more important than all the on court accolades was the things he did off the court to grow to young men into responsible and contributing leaders to society.

Andy Hill was one of those individuals and you'll hear a bit from him as he reflects on their turbulent relationship at UCLA and how it grew and blossomed.

As well, Steve Jamison will also provide some insights into the man known as the Wizard of Westwood!

All on the next HCL Radio!

See you on the court!

A Decade of Dominance

Hall of Fame NFL coach, Bill Walsh experienced great success on the football field and his 10 years with the San Francisco 49ers undoubtedly made him one of the greatest coaches of all time.



Why?

* He was named the NFL's Coach of the Year in 1981 and 1984;

* He won three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers;

* He drafted great players like Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott and Jerry Rice proving that he had an eye for talent;

* But most importantly, he had a heart for people and recognized that they were an important part of an organization's success.

Steve Jamison, co-author of Bill's latest book "The Score Will Take Care of Itself" comes back to the program to talk about this extraordinary coach and what made him successful as a leader.



As Steve puts it, Bill's leadership ability to get "buy-in" from his teams was advanced.

He also understood that the skills needed to be successful could be applied to the business community, the football field and life.

Tune in to HCL Radio to hear more from Steve on this very special coach.

Listen to the entire interview with Steve.

Thanks for reading!

The Difference Makers

There's a misguided belief that says that your team will be successful as long as you have the best players in the world on your squad.

I've always believed this notion to be false and an article in a recent issue of the New Yorker further strengthened my resolve.

It's called David vs. Goliath - When Underdogs Break the Rules and was written by Malcolm Gladwell, author of many best selling books such as Blink, Tipping Point and Outliers.

It chronicled a story reminiscent of the biblical David and Goliath tale in which a father decides to coach his daughter's under skilled Little League basketball team.

Despite not having the talent and skill level of the other teams, Vivek Ranadivé guides his squad all the way to the national championships where they unfortunately, are beaten.

(This story may have Goilath as the victor but not without a serious scare.)

I suppose one could argue and say the lack of skill was the difference between them winning and losing. However, the reality is that this under skilled team made it to the finals when on paper, they weren't supposed to.

This proves that as important as skill is to being a successful team, it's not enough.

While there are several factors that come into play, I'll give four of the top difference makers:

Game Plan

Having a good coach with a sound philosophy is huge and I think this story illustrated quite nicely its importance.

Ranadivé knew that his team didn't stand a chance if they played the conventional way due to the disparity in skill level. So he adopted a defensive style of play that pressured the offensive team the entire length of the court. It produced turnovers and didn't allow the offence time to execute their diagrammed plays.

Execution

You'll sometimes see a time out called in the closing seconds of a big game. The coach gets the team together to design a play to score the game winning basket. They come out of the huddle, everyone gets into position and something unplanned happens. Maybe somebody drops a pass, misses their assignment or inadvertently steps out of bounds. A loss follows and the game is over.

The process where strategy becomes a reality is execution. A coach can design, draw and strategize all the plays but it ultimately falls on the shoulders of the team to make it happen.

A leader's job is to support and equip their followers with the necessary tools and resources to get the job done and put themselves in a position to be successful when the rubber hits the road.

Intelligence

Intelligence on the court is critical. As a youth basketball coach, I've seen too many examples where players are taught to run a specific play but don't fully understand the reasoning behind what they're doing. So if the plays says to set a screen, that's what I'll do regardless if my defender has left me unguarded for an open shot.

Leaders empower their people to make better decisions and help them understand the reasoning behind the action. Knowing the reasoning helps make better decisions, so if something breaks during the course of the game, the players can choose an alternate pathway that makes sense.

Micheal Jordan, six time NBA champ once said, "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships."

Chemistry

Jordan's quote touches on the final point which is chemistry. This is the thing that brings it all together. For a sports team to exist, you need a group of talented athletes, who work together to achieve a common goal. What makes this so dynamic is that each member of the team has an opportunity to contribute their own unique skills.

Their ability to co-exist in unison is one of the main differences between winning and losing.

In closing...

While skill is an important thing to have, it's not the only thing. To be that conquering David, teams need to be smart, be able to work together and have a solid game plan going in.


Keeping these difference makers in mind will do a lot to strengthen your team, improve your leadership skills and influence your wins and losses.




Thanks for reading!

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

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

Coaching

My first experience coaching youth basketball came when my daughter, who was 8 at the time started playing on an organized team.

I figured that I might as well be of use since I'd be hanging around anyways.



Coaching has been rewarding for me on many fronts and I can truthfully say that I developed a great deal personally from being involved.

Here are four things that I've taken away from my coaching experience:

Patience

You can never have too much patience - Each child has their own on/off switch and coaches have to identify the trigger in each to make them go. Learning a new anything takes time and a lot of trial and error.


Kids may not pick up something after the first attempt but a little repetition and patience can help a lot. Who knows, maybe they'll grasp it at trial #1000?

There's Always a Next Time
It can be real easy to beat yourself up for an in game decision after the fact, especially when the final outcome isn't in your favour. During the course of a game, there's all sorts of factors and consideration points that go into making a certain play call or substitution.

I've found that situations have a way of re-representing themselves so that we can get it right the second, third or maybe even the fourth time around.

Follow Their lead
Although you may be the coach, your players will ultimately guide the direction of the team and what you do during practice. If they don't grasp a concept or idea, be prepared to scrap your original plan and start over. Being flexible is key because you really need to be operating at their speed, not yours.













Celebrate Successes

A coach needs to be prepared to celebrate player's individual successes.I may not have won national titles or had a bucket of Gatorade dumped on my head for reaching a coaching milestone but I love the feeling I get when a player who I taught the mechanics of free throw makes the net sing. SWISH!!!

My coaching philosophy quite simply is to teach my players the right way to play the game. This means focusing on skill development, teamwork and having a good court awareness.

Oh yeah, let's have some fun out there!

Thanks for reading!

Audley