The following are current things I am learning about leadership:
5 Signs You Are Not Coachable
I have the privilege of being part of a weekly Zoom Bible study with high school, collegiate, and professional baseball scouts and coaches. Picture above is our recent time together. This past week, Mike Linch of NorthStar Church asked SCORE International and former University of Kentucky’s head baseball coach Keith Madison what he thought when he was told a potential recruit was not coachable. He said, “He may be rebellious. He may think he has everything figured out. He’s not willing to listen. He’s not willing to be a team player.”
From his comments, we learn 5 Signs You Are Not Coachable:
- You rebel against authority.
- You are not a learner. You have it all figured out.
- You do not listen to coaching. Once again, you have it all figured out.
- You are not a team player. You are in it for yourself and what you can get out of it. You love what the game gives you, but not the game itself.
- You are prideful and arrogant. This is a summation of the previous four points.
If you are a baseball scout or coach at the high school, collegiate, or professional level and want to be a part of this Bible study, reach out to Mike Linch at mike.linch@northstarchurch.org and he will set you up.
The Importance Of Risk
On Saturday, May 11th, American Mikaela Shiffrin became the most decorated Alpine skier in history by winning her 87th World Cup event. What caught my attention was her comments when she tied the record with her 86th victory the previous day.
As told in this NBC Sports article, Shiffrin scanned the live race results and realized she had achieved one of her goals for this season, winning the giant slalom title in Are, Sweden. With victory already in hand, Shiffrin was playing with house money. She decided to go for tying Ingemar Stenmark’s career mark of eighty-six individual career victories.
Shiffrin said, “I have everything that I can gain from this if I just take a little bit of extra risk.” And risk she did.
The leadership lesson here is if you want to do something no one else has ever done (like becoming a world-record downhill skier), then you will have to take a risk and do things no one else has ever done.
Successful Leaders Make BIG Deals About LITTLE Things
How you do anything is often how you do everything. Los Angeles Clippers owner billionaire Steve Ballmer held a March 7, 2023 news conference updating everyone on the construction of the team’s new arena. Opening in time for the 2024-2025 season, Ballmer appeared most excited to promote of all things about the new facility – its TOILETS!!! Yes, you heard that right.
He said with great passion and enthusiasm, “TOILETS! 1,160 toilets and urinals! Three times the NBA average! We do not want people waiting in line. We want them back in their &*#^ seats!” See the video below:
“TOILETS! 1,160 toilets and urinals! We do not want people waiting in line. We want them back in their damn seats!”
Steve Ballmer is HYPED for the Clippers new arena features. pic.twitter.com/xTYXeWjphG
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 7, 2023
Anyone who has every attended a sporting event knows this is a BIG deal. Restrooms dramatically impact the in-game experience for the fans. I don’t know for sure but I imagine Ballmer was once attending a game and saw a largely empty arena while the game was going on. He then saw long lines at the restrooms and vowed to do something about it.
This is the type of thing billionaires do. They look for marginal gains because little things make a big difference. It’s something you and I should do as well.
Championship Teams Require Great Depth and A Little Bit of Luck
Great teams have great depth. Depth gives you a variety of options for success and the margin needed if some of your current team members are not performing at their optimum level.
On Saturday, March 4, 2023 Arsenal was not playing at an optimum level. They had fallen behind Bournemouth by a score of 2-0. However, the team fought back to tie the score at 2-2. But at the 96:59 mark, Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson scored an improbable last-second goal to give the team a miraculous victory. The team’s manager Mikel Arteta said in this article the fans were “probably the loudest and the most emotional moment we’ve had here.” Watch the incredible video below:
Throughout the season, Nelson had been given limited playing time. In fact, he had been left off the previous two 20-man gameday rosters. But Saturday, March 4th was his day. And today might be yours as well.
To be a championship team, it requires great depth, players like Nelson who can come off the bench and make an important contribution …. and a little bit of luck as well.
6 Qualities Needed To Get Consistent Raises At Work
One of Nelson’s Arsenal teammates who is seeing a significant amount of playing time is Bukayo Saka. The 21-year-old just signed his second contract with the club. Amy Lawrence wrote in this article what makes him so valuable to the team.
She said, “The consistency of Saka’s efforts has been critical to Arsenal’s title chase. Game after game, he produces. Training session after training session, he works. Week after week, he takes kicks, picks himself up and goes again. The majority of his goals put Arsenal in the lead or are equalisers. He can deliver goals of significance, the ones that turn or decide games, rather than those that embellish them. He’s a tough little guy with a huge heart.”
From her words we learn the following six reasons Saka got a second contract and how you can get consistent raises as well:
- Consistent effort
- Consistent production
- Consistent training and development
- Resilience
- Delivering not only significant results, but results that matter to the team’s success
- Passion
Culture … And The #1 Thing Which Influences It
In the March 4, 2023 edition of Morning Brew, it was reported a Columbian village is having a hippopotamus problem. Yes, you read that right! You see, in the 1970’s, cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar imported four hippos to reside on his estate. Since then, their population has grown to 130. As a result, over half need to be relocated.
The hippos are now considered an invasive species.
I previously wrote HERE about how pythons became a Floridian invasive species and what the story should mean to leaders. The parallels here are the same.
Culture is who you hire and bring into your organization. The right hire can take your organization to a completely different level. The wrong hire is like bringing an invasive species into your organization. They can multiply, harm, and potentially destroy your entire culture.
Much like the pythons and hippos, the invasive species / wrong hire needs to be relocated immediately.
“The heavier the paper, the greater the momentum when you go to throw it.”
As reported in the March 2, 2023 edition of Morning Brew, a pair of Boeing engineers set a Guinness World Record by constructing a paper airplane which flew 290 feet. It took over 500 hours to design and build the aircraft. My elementary classmates would be so proud of their accomplishments as we never seemed to get our paper airplanes to fly farther than two rows of desks over.
When asked their secret, the engineers replied “The heavier the paper, the greater the momentum when you go to throw it.”
Successful leaders know the more depth and weightiness that an organization’s leaders have, the greater success the team will have. It took 500 hours to construct a record-breaking paper airplane. It takes even more time to develop a quality leader … but it’s worth it.
Hard Work Works
No pain, no gain. Success smells like sweat. The world is run by tired people. These are axioms all successful leaders know and likely quote on a regular basis. BriAnna Garza, a professional basketball shooting coach, would agree.
Garza was interviewed in the March 1, 2023 edition of Morning Brew. Regarding her qualifications, she said, “The science piece, I’ve studied shooting in a way that very few people I’ve met have done it. Last year I did a six-month study of watching every single catch-and-shoot in the NBA with 33,000 data points.”
That is an astonishing level of hard work. Are you willing to do the same? You will not become the leader you are capable of being by doing anything less.
Bus Drivers vs. Bus Riders
A bus driver is someone who led a team to a championship season. Bus drivers carry all the pressure and get the majority of the blame if the team does not succeed.
Bus riders are teammates who may or may not add significant value, but they were along for the ride. Bus riders are complimentary pieces who may play an important role, but can’t carry a team to a championship by themselves. For a great explanation of these titles, see the explanation below from Charles Barkley:
One person who is a bus driver is Edmonton Oilers superstar captain Connoer McDavid. On February 27, 2023, McDavid scored his 50th goal against the Boston Bruins. McDavid is a four-time scoring champion, three-time Ted Lindsay award as the NHL’s best player as voted on by his peers, a two-time Hart Trophy winner as the league’s MVP, and the fifth-fastest player in league history to score 800 career points.
Teammate Zach Hyman said in this article, “He’s the best player in the world, and he’s pushing his own boundaries. He’s driving the bus. He’s been driving the bus for a long time and continues to push himself to get better.”
From Barkley and Hyman’s comments we learn the following about bus drivers:
- Bus drivers are the best at what they do
- Bus drivers push their own boundaries
- Bus drivers carry the majority of the pressure
- Bus drivers have been doing so for a long time
Hyman added in this article, “He just tries to elevate his game and get better. His point totals have gone up every year, but I don’t think points are necessarily a direct correlation to how good you are or how much better you’re getting… His overall game since he got in the league to now — he’s not just scoring. He does everything out there,” Hyman said. “He’s penalty killing this year, whereas last year he wasn’t as much. Now, he’s taken a prime role in that, too. It’s faceoffs. It’s everything. He’s driving the bus. He’s doing it every year, and he’s getting better at it.”
For your organization, are you a bus driver or bus rider?
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed these lessons. I have been accumulating a lot of content over the last month and wanted to pass my learnings along to you in hopes of helping you become a better leader.
To also help you become a better leader, my latest book Mighty: 7 Skills You Need to Move from Pandemic to Progress is available for purchase. Production. Passion. Resilience. Teamwork. Contentment. Courage. Faith. These seven skills were embodied over three thousand years ago by a group of elite warriors known as David’s Mighty Men. These highly-capable individuals helped take David, the man who had previously defeated Goliath, from a wilderness experience to leading a nation. Did 2020 feel like a wilderness experience for you? So many people lost loved ones, opportunities, financial resources, careers, time, and much, much more during COVID. The worst thing many people lost was hope. COVID stripped away the non-essentials in our lives. It revealed how foolish pride, ego, and narcissism are. It made us question almost everything in our lives, including God himself. COVID brought us all to our knees in one form or fashion. I want you to know the same skills used by David’s’ Mighty Men still work today. In my new book Mighty: 7 Skills You Need to Move from Pandemic to Progress, I show you how applying these skills can help you become Mighty and move from the Pandemic to Progress. Click HERE or on the image provided to order!