Leadership comes with a microphone. This is because at some point in every leader’s life there will come a time when you must stand up and say, “Follow me!” Smart leaders also know that when you make that statement is as important as how you do it.
On July 18th, USC head basketball coach Eric Musselman was a guest on The Herd With Colin Cowherd simulcast. Coach Musselman has coached with some of the greatest minds in basketball history including Hall of Famers Hubie Brown, Pat Riley, and Chuck Daly. He discussed many of his experiences during the interview which you can listen to by clicking HERE.
Hall of Fame Wisdom
When discussing Coach Daly, he talked about his wisdom on leveraging his voice, messaging, and influence.
Musselman said, “In all reality, he was a true players coach. Like he, in practice, he really believed in giving the assistant coaches a voice. He said that when he spoke in a huddle, he wanted to be like E.F. Hutton. He wanted everybody to listen, all ears towards him. So he felt like they didn’t need to hear his voice all the time.”
Leaders understand the power of brevity. They want to have a high-degree of influence and for everyone to listen to every word they say. They want to be E.F. Hutton. But the question is how do you do this?
As Coach Musselman continued, we learn 6 Ways to be an Influential Communicator like E.F. Hutton. First will be his additional comments followed by the lessons.
“The assistants can bark at practice. When I talk, it’s game meaningful… he talked about how he broke down how many meetings you truly have in a 24-hour game day. You think about all the timeouts. You think about pre-practice. You think about shoot arounds. You think about your 40-minute meeting. You think about your meeting at 20 minutes. So he said all these meetings, think about how tired the players’ ears are of listening to the same voice or the same message over and over. So he was really careful not to use a lot of words in front of his players.”
6 Ways to be an Influential Communicator like E.F. Hutton
- Be Willing To Give Others A Voice – As the leader, your job is not to do the work but to get the work done through others. This is only possible if you are willing to include your teammates. You can accomplish more with “we” than “me.”
- Determine How Much You Already Speak – First, you must define reality. Coach Daly broke down every instance he spoke with players in a 24-hour period and in what environments. He noted timeouts, pre-practice, shoot arounds, meetings, etc… That is a lot of communication when you add it all up. If you have the courage, track how often you are speaking to those on your team. It may be a startling revelation!
- Be Humble And Self-Evaluate – As a communicator, you must have the humility and self-awareness to know where your voice does not have maximum effectiveness. Once figuring that out, what do you do then? This leads to the next three points.
- Determine Where Your Voice Is Most Important – The greatest communicators know when to edit their voice. You do not have to speak into everything. Of all the environments listed above, Coach Daly determined none were as important as his message during in-game huddles. Therefore, he leveraged his influence and voice where it would have the most impact – winning or losing. He did not waste his words and influence in low-impact environments. Do you do the same or are you reckless and undisciplined with your communications?
- Equip Your Leaders – Knowing you are going to need others to speak at specific times and multiply your message, you must equip your leaders with the same message when the time arrives. Afterwards, you then need to hold them accountable to that message.
- Delegate Less Important Messages To Your Leaders – Now that your leaders are prepared to deliver your message in environments you do not need to be in, it is time to delegate those opportunities. This frees you up so you can be used at your highest and greatest use.
Great communicators embrace brevity. They deliver a powerful message with only an economy of words. And they do it at exactly the right time.
Do you do the same?
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