Balance your Life!
To stay on a Hammock, you have to relax and keep your balance.
Larry Bird
How to Exceed - Larry Bird on Leadership
One of the greatest basketball players of all time shares his secrets of success and motivation.
From his modest beginnings in the small town of West Baden, Ind. to his status today as a basketball icon, Larry Bird embodies the classic American rags-to-riches story. Success has followed Bird wherever he has gone: from All-American college player to All-Star for the Boston Celtics, and from highly successful coach of the Indiana Pacers to his position there today as president of basketball operations.
As a player, Bird was quite simply one of the greatest the game has ever seen, racking up one superlative after another during his career, including College Basketball Player of the Year, NBA Rookie of the Year, and three-time, consecutive-year league MVP. During his 13 years with the Boston Celtics, he led his team to 12 post-season appearances, including five NBA championship bouts and three championship victories.
However, Bird was always considered as much a phenomenal leader as a great player, motivating his fellow players by setting a good example with his legendary work ethic. He was famous for showing up to practice early, staying late, and shooting at least a hundred free-throws each day (which led to a staggering career free-throw-shooting percentage of .886, the ninth-best of all time). Whenever he set foot on the court, team members knew they were going to have to work hard to keep up. Opponents, of course, did too, lest they have to deal with Bird’s comments between plays (not all of them publishable).
Bird laughs about his trash-talking days now, but also notes that getting into a competitor’s head, and all the chatter that implies, was a way to motivate himself to play harder. “You know, it wasn’t as much as people say,” he says. “But my thing was, when I went onto that court to play against another team, they knew every night that I was coming out there that they’d better be ready to play, or we were going to walk all over them.
In retrospect, Bird was sowing seeds early on for the off-the-court managerial success that would follow his retirement in 1992: first as a coach for the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000, then as president of basketball operations for the Pacers–where today he oversees, among other things, the scouting of new talent. That’s no small feat, as anyone who knows sports management (or management in general) will tell you. But not everyone as driven to win as Bird makes good management material–not least because getting that level of dedication out of one’s staff at all times isn’t likely.
Bird
has proven the exception in this case, not the rule, and his
post-player achievements serve as an object lesson in translating
personal drive into good management. Bird understands that motivation
has to come from within, and that the best coaches or managers help
their teams to find that motivation within themselves rather than just
cramming it down their throats. Of course, he expected his players to
work hard, he says. But he has never been interested in being the tough
guy, something that was apparent to anyone who saw him courtside as a
coach. He wasn’t a screamer–in fact he rarely showed any emotion at
all. Rather than “browbeating them everyday,” Bird chose to trust and
believe in his players and their ability to deliver the goods.
“I knew that if I could push them in the right direction, just believe in them, let them have some leeway and talk to them about certain situations while letting them have some input, then we could have a chance to be a pretty good team,” he says. “And we were more than a pretty good team. We got to the Eastern Conference Finals three times.”
That philosophy comes in large part from his small-town upbringing. Always a down-to-earth, hometown guy (he’s a big fan of auto racing and country music–especially Kenny Rogers), Bird’s rural roots have played a big role in his life, both on and off the court. His life growing up was neither idyllic nor easy. His parents were poor and worked long hours and weekends throughout his childhood. And though they always had enough to eat, he says, it was always a struggle–one that left the young Bird to essentially fend for himself from a very young age. That early self-reliance is what helped make him what he is today.
"I didn’t need a coach to, before a game, come in and tell us what we had to do and try to motivate us to play harder and all that,” he laughs. “I just thought that was normal. I thought that’s what you were supposed to do."
Of course, not everyone thinks that way, which is why his first priority upon becoming an executive was to surround himself with quality, hard-working people—a leadership lesson he learned from a junior high coach. As a boss, if you staff yourself with the right people, the greater part of the battle to motivate your team is already won.
“A lot of these guys, they’re self-motivated,” he says, referring to his team of seven scouting staffers. “They like what they’re doing. If they love the game, then they’ll love their job.”
But even with the best staff, not everyone always agrees, he admits, which makes decisive and resolute leadership imperative. As the leader of his team’s scouting operation, he has to make decisions that not everyone is going to like. But he doesn’t try to cajole his staff into seeing things his way. He chooses, Rather, to be confident in his job description, in the trust that was placed in him to recruit the best players possible, and to carry out that mandate accordingly.
“We’ve had situations here where it’s been six, seven guys to one,” he says. “But I go ahead and take who I think is best for this team and move on, because that’s just the way it is. That’s why I got the position.”
But Bird recognizes that if he expects his staff and players to trust his decisions, they also have to trust his ability and his integrity. Preparation is the key–something he believed as a player and has since tried to instill in his players and staff. “It’s all about preparation,” he says. “Just like going in and taking a test in school. You know if you’re ready or not.”
As a player, his teammates knew that he was always prepared, and if they could trust him to do
his job well down the stretch, then the team played more confidently,
and played better. When it came down to the last seconds, when the team
needed a leader to pull them through to victory, they knew who they
wanted to have the ball. And therein lies perhaps the greatest of
Bird’s leadership secrets: if you want trust as a leader, you have to
show your staff and colleagues that you’re working just as hard as they
are, if not harder. You must show them that you’ve come prepared for
clutch-time.
“Everybody will take the shot when you’re tied or you’re ahead, but very few people will take it when you’re down one,” he says. “All that extra work that I did was just for those situations when, if it came down to the last shot, I wanted my teammates to have faith that I was going to make it.”
PLAY HARD; PLAY TOGETHER; PLAY SMART
DEAN SMITH (one of the 7 greatest coaches of the twentieth century)
Hard meant
with effort, determination, and courage; together means unselfishly, trusting
your teammates, and doing everything [possible not to let them down: smart meant
with good execution and poise, treating each possession as if it were the only
one in the game.
That was our philosophy; we believed that if we kept our focus on
.those tenets, success would follow. Our
Making winning the ultimate goal usually isn't good teaching. Tom
Osborne, the great former football coach of the University of Nebraska, said
that making winning the goal can actually get in the way of winning. I agree.
So many things happened in games that were beyond our control: me talent and
experience of the teams; bad calls by officials; injuries; bad luck.
By sticking to our philosophy, we asked
realistic things from our players. A player could play hard. He could play
unselfishly and do things to help his teammates succeed. He could play
intelligently if we did the job in practice as coaches. We measured our success
by how we did in those areas. When we put these elements together, the players
had fun, one of my goals as their coach. I wanted our players to enjoy the
experience of playing basketball
for
PLAYING HARD
Maybe a player wasn't the fastest, the tallest, or the
most athletic person on the court. In the course of any given game that was out
of his control. But each of them could control the effort with which he played.
"Never let anyone play harder than you," I told them. "That is
part of the game you can control." If another team played harder than we
did, we had no excuse for it. None. We worked on it in every practice. If a
player didn't give maximum effort, we dealt with it right then. We stopped
practice and had the entire team run sprints for the offending player. We
played a style of basketball that was physically exhausting and made it
impossible for a player to go full throttle for forty minutes. When he got
tired, he flashed the tired signal, a raised fist, and we substituted for him.
He could put himself back in the game once he had rested. We didn't want tired
players on the court because they usually tried to rest on defense. That
wouldn't work in our plan. Therefore we watched closely in practice and in
games to make sure players played hard. If they slacked off, it was important
to catch them and get them out of the game, or if it occurred in practice, to
have the entire team run.
One of the first things I did at the beginning of
preseason practice was to spell out for our players the importance of
team play. Basketball is a game that counts on togetherness. I pointed out that
seldom, if ever, did the nation's leading scorer play on a ranked team. He
certainly didn't play on a championship team. I made them understand that our
plan would fall apart if they didn't take care of one another: set screens;
play team defense; box out; pass to the open man. One man who failed to do his
job unselfishly could undermine the efforts of the four other players on the
court.
We taught and drilled until we made the things we
wanted to see become habits. The only way to have a smart team is to have one
that is fundamentally sound. We didn't skimp on fundamentals. We worked on them
hard in practice and repeated them until they were down cold. We didn't
introduce something and then move away from it before we had nailed it. Our
entire program was built around practice, which we will talk more about in a
later chapter. Practice, competitive games, late-game situations, and my
relationship with our players are what I've missed most since I retired from
coaching. We expected our team to execute well and with precision. If we
practiced well and learned, we could play smart. It was another thing we could
control.
Small improvements
The beginning of the 1986 season Pat Riley, formerly of the Los
Angeles Lakers, had a major challenge on his hands. Many of the players had
given what they thought was their best season in the previous year but still
had lost to the Boston Celtics. In search of a believable plan to get the.
Players to move to the next level, he decided upon the theme of small
improvements. He convinced the players that increasing the quality of their
game by one percent over their personal best would make major difference in
their season. This seems ridiculously small, but when you think about
twelve players increasing by 1 percent their court skills in five areas, the
combined effort creates a team that's 60 percent more effective than
it was before. A 10 percent overall differences would probably be enough to win
another championship. The real value of this philosophy, however, IS that
everyone believed that it was achievable. Everyone felt certain that
they could improve at least one percent over their personal bests in the five
major areas of the game, and that sense of certainty in pursuit of their goals
caused them to tap even greater potentials. The result? Most of them increased
by at least 5 percent, and many of them by as much as 50 percent. According to
Pat Riley, 1987 turned out to be their easiest season ever. .
Remember,
the key to success is developing a sense of certainty-the kind of belief that
allows you to expand as a person and take the necessary action to make your
life and the lives of those around you even greater. You may believe something
is true today, but you and I need to remember that as the years go by and we
grow, 'we'll be exposed to new experiences. And we may develop even more
empowering beliefs, abandoning things we once felt certain about. Realize
that-your beliefs may change as you gather additional references. What really
matter now is whether the beliefs you have today empower or disempower you.
Begin today to develop the habit of focusing on the consequences of all-you
beliefs. Are they strengthening your foundation by moving you to action in the
direction you desire, or are they holding you back?
“As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Values 101
By Dr. John C. Maxwell
When the legendary John Wooden was coaching basketball at UCLA, he seldom made home visits to prospective players. He did make an occasional exception, however, like the time he went to see an extremely talented prospect who had great potential to help his team.
Wooden had every intention of offering the player a scholarship that night. In fact, all the necessary paperwork was ready and waiting in the pocket of his suit coat. But when he left the player's house later that evening, the scholarship was still in his pocket.
What changed Wooden's mind? His decision had nothing to do with basketball, that's for sure. Rather, as Wooden watched the player interact with his mother, he was troubled by what he saw as a decided lack of respect. He surmised that a young man who spoke disrespectfully to his mom probably wouldn't respect his coach, either. That was enough to keep Wooden from offering him a spot on the team.
When Wooden shared this story with me, he noted that he had often passed on exceptional talent if the player lacked good values. "What I have found is, just because the talent and the giftedness is there doesn't mean you're going to be able, as a coach, to bring it out of them," he said. "But if their values are there-the right ones-you can bring the best out of them every time."
This story is a great illustration of an important teamwork concept: Values-those guiding principles that influence and guide behavior-determine the foundation of the team. When the members of a team are guided by respect, integrity, excellence and other positive attributes, their footing as a group is strong. Their shared values provide stability for their organization to build upon.
That's not all a strong set of values will do for a group of people working together, of course. Let me illustrate with a few word pictures.
" Values are like glue. They hold an organization together.
" Values are like a ruler. They set the standard for a team's performance.
" Values are like a compass. They give direction and guidance.
" Values are like a magnet. They attract like-minded people.
" Values provide identity. They define and identify the team.
Fish Don’t Fly
When a fish swims in the ocean, there is
no limit to the water, no matter how far it swims.
When a bird flies in the sky, there is
no limit to the air, no matter how far it flies.
However, no fish or bird has ever left
its element since the beginning.
This ancient Zen teaching hold great wisdom for anyone
envisioning how to get the most out of a group. Just as fish don’t fly and
elephants don’t play rock and role, you can’t expect a team to perform in a way
that’s out of tune with its basic abilities. Though the eagle may sore and fly
close to the heavens, its view of the earth is broad and unclouded. In other
words, you can dream all you want, but, bottom line, you’ve got to work with
what you’ve got. Otherwise, you’re wasting your time. The team won’t buy your
plan and everyone_most of all you_will end up frustrated and disappointed. But
when your vision is based on a clear-sighted, realistic assessment of your
resources, alchemy often mysteriousdly, occurs and team transforms into a force
greater than the sum of its individual talents. Inevitably, paradoxically, the
acceptance of boundaries and limits is the gateway to freedom.
But visions are not the sole property of one man or
one woman. Before a vision can become reality, it must be owned by every single
member of the group.
Coach Pat Summitt
Coach Pat Summitt 
She is considered by many to be the
greatest female basketball coach ever.
“Not everyone needs someone to start their
engine and inspire them, but , few people are motivated everyday. I happen to
feel I’m one of those very few who are.”
Managing is too important to be apart-time
pursuit. If you are a manager, concentrate solely on getting the best to of
others.
A manager is to identify the potential in
others, often previously completely unseen and untapped, and then make sure
that they fulfill it.
You
will not be able to motivate people unless you discover precisely what It Is
that makes them tick. Think hard about
each Individual; learn their background; conduct personality profiling.
People
don't care how much you know until they know how much you care To get people to work hard for you,
you need to show them that you genuinely do want them as individuals to achieve
career success, for their own sake.
If people set their own targets, rather
than receive them from their manager, they are more driven to reach them. Act
as a guide and mentor to your team, but always remember that you can't do the
Job for them.
Surround
yourself with people who are better than you
When you recruit people for your management
team, look for those who will challenge you and come up with original ideas and
methods.
It's easier to get to the top than to stay
there. Don't let the cancer of complacency bring you down. Look forward to
your next achievement.
Don't rush to shift the blame onto others
for their own underperformance. It is possible that you as their manager failed
them. Be honest with yourself about what you could have done better.