Positional Leadership

Yesterday I posted John Maxwell's 5 Levels of Leadership: Position, Permission, Production, People Development, Pinnacle. Throughout the book, Maxwell writes about the Upside & Downside of each leadership level. The following is about the Upside & Downside of Level 1: Position 

The Upside

• A leadership position is usually given to people because they have leadership potential
• The best leaders promote people into leadership based on leadership potential, not on politics, seniority, credentials, or convenience.
• Your initial goal should be to show your leader and your team that you deserve the position you have received.
• No man is a leader until his appointment is ratified in the minds and the hearts of his men.
• If you want to lead, you need to grow. The only way to improve an organization is to grow and improve the leaders.
• Good leaders are always good learners
• What kind of leader do you want to be?
• Do you want to be a tyrant or a team builder?
• Do you want to come down on people or lift them up?
• Do you want to give orders or ask questions?
• You can develop whatever style you want as long as it is consistent with who you are.
• Leadership is much less about what you do, and much more about who you are. – Frances Hesselbein
• Good leadership begins with leaders knowing who they are.
• Your values are the soul of your leadership , and they drive your behavior.
• Before you can grow and mature as a leader, you must have a clear understanding of your values and commit to living consistently with them – since they will shape your behavior and influence the way you lead.
• People with different personalities, different approaches, different value succeed not because one set of values or practices is superior, but because their value and practices are genuine.
• If you want to become a better leader, you must not only know yourself and define your value. You must also live them out.

The Downside 

• Just because you have the right to do something as a leader doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to do.
• “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abraham Lincoln
• The position does not make the leader – the leader makes the position
• Good leaders leave an organization when they have to follow bad leaders.
• When people follow a leader because they have to, they will do only what they have to. People don’t give their best to leaders they like least.
• Success demands more than most people are willing to offer, but not more than they are capable of giving.
•  “If you don’t invest very much, then defeat doesn’t hurt very much, and winning is not very exciting.” – Dick Vermiel 

Always Being Prepared

The following comes from a small piece on ESPN.com about the Greatest Coaches in NFL History. This caught my attention, not only because I am an avid Giants fan, but because I have tremendous respect for Coach Coughlin and his coaching philosophy. Eli Manning talks about his Coach and what he has learned from him. The full article can be found here.

After the second Super Bowl, Coach Coughlin and I had kind of a unique moment. I hadn’t seen him right after the game with the hoopla and then doing interviews. So now I’m dressed and I’ve done all my interviews, and I’m leaving the locker room and realize I haven’t talked to Coach Coughlin. So I knock on his door and go into the his office, and right away we both start analyzing what we should’ve done in that last minute [against New England].

So after the game, Coach Coughlin and I started analyzing it. We knew they were going to let us score. Do you take a knee? Do you kick a field goal? Do you try to score? We start dissecting that, thinking into it. I threw in my theory. He gave me his theory. What’s the best possible way? It was a unique situation. You’ve got to score. You don’t want to settle for a field goal in that situation. How do you possible handle that situation if it ever happens again? We do situations on Saturdays. That would be a good situation to think about and go over. It was second down, and they’d just taken a timeout. We were thinking they have one timeout left, we’ll run it again, let the clock run all the way down, then kick a field goal to take the lead. But on second down they let us score, saved a timeout and got the ball back with 50 seconds rather than getting it with 15. Of course, they needed a touchdown now to win the game instead of a field goal.

And I think he’s ingrained that in me, to always be planning, always be thinking, and to be prepared for every situation. You watch things happen, whether it happens to you or another team, and you learn from it and you can be prepared for it. He wanted to talk about what happened at the end of the game, but I did, too.

5 Levels of Leadership

This book is by far one of the best books on leadership I have read to date. In this book, John Maxwell helps you put into perspective what type of leader you are and want to be. The 5 Levels of Leadership are listed below. 

LEVEL 1 Position

·       People follow because they have to

LEVEL 2 Permission

·       People follow because they want to.

LEVEL 3 Production

·       People begin to follow you because what you have done for the organization

LEVEL 4 People Development

·       People follow you because of what their leaders have done for them personally

LEVEL 5 Pinnacle

·       People follow you because of who you are and what you represent

Play Of The Day - San Antonio Spurs

Another San Antonio Spurs entry into our Play Of The Day archive. This play is run ATO, which is an acronym for After Timeout. Coach Popovich draws up a play to get a get a wide open 3 for Danny Green:

Actions in Order: (Timing is essential)

• Parker (1) dribbles to the wing 
• Duncan (4) down screens for Leonard (3) 
• Parker (1) passes to Leonard (3) and makes a "Carolina" cut to the opposite wing with Splitter (5) setting a screen to help free Parker.
• Splitter (5) then sets a "Step-Up" Pick (Ball screen) for Parker (1) 
• As that Step Up Pick (Ball Screen) is being set for Parker (1), Duncan (4) is setting an angled back screen for Green to drift to the corner for the 3. 

11 Lessons for Graduates and You

It's that time of the year where high schools are preparing for graduation. Here at UCF, we host numerous graduation practices and ceremonies for high schools around the area. I thought it was only right that I would dedicate a blog post to not only our graduates but to anyone looking to be a better employee/staff member. These 11 Lessons come from The Seed by Jon Gordon.

1. You are here for a reason and the most important thing you can do in life is to find, live and share your purpose. It’s the one thing in life that truly matters and if you don’t pursue it, everything else is meaningless. 2. Follow your passion. It so often leads you to your purpose. You may not know what your passion is right now. That’s ok. The important thing is to make it your life mission to find it, live it and share it. To help find your passion, seek out jobs and experiences that allow you to use your strengths and gifts. Do what energizes you. 3. Beware of hobbies. Just because you love spending time on Facebook doesn't mean you would enjoy working for the company. And just because you love to cook doesn't mean you would enjoy owning a restaurant. For example, I owned restaurants but I realized I didn't love the food business. I loved the service and marketing aspect of the business. 4. Quit for the right reasons. Don't quit because work is hard or you're experiencing challenges. Quit because in your heart you know there is something else for you to do. Quit because you are not benefitting yourself or the organization you work for. Quit because you are absolutely certain you are no longer supposed to be there. 5. Learn from every job and experience. Every job, good or bad, prepares you for the work you were ultimately born to do. 6.Your current job may not be your ultimate purpose but it can serve as a vehicle to live and share your purpose. 7. Whatever job(s) you take after graduation simply decide to serve. When you serve in small ways you'll get more opportunities to serve in bigger ways. 8. Your dream job is likely not the one you dreamed about. So often we end up in amazing careers that have nothing to do with our college degree or childhood dreams. 9. The quest for your purpose is not a straight line. It is filled with mystery, signs, obstacles, victories, dead ends, delays and detours. Your job is to stay optimistic and faithful on your quest. 10. Don't rush the future. There is a process that seeds must go through in order to become all they are destined to become, and you must go through this same process to become the person you are meant to be and do the work you are meant to do. You may want things to happen NOW but more than likely if you got what you wanted NOW you wouldn't be ready for it. The purpose process prepares you, strengthens you, shapes you and grows you to be successful, not in your time, but in the right time. 11. Be the Seed. Seeds surrender themselves to the ground so they can be used for a greater purpose. Wherever you work, decide to plant yourself where you are and allow yourself to be used for a greater purpose. When you plant yourself and make a difference you grow into the person you were born to be and produce a harvest that will benefit others and change the world.

Pick & Roll: 4 S's For The Ball-Handler

Lawrence Frank's 4 S’s for the Pick and Roll Ball-Handler

• Starting Point
• Setup
• Be a threat to go the other way
• Jab
• Knockoff
• Separation
• Score

Becoming A Great Receiver

I came across this article via the Harvard Business Review twitter handle. They are constantly tweeting great articles. This one happens to be about receiving communication. Read the full article written by Peter Bregman here. 

The better you are at receiving, the more likely people will talk to you. And that's precisely what every one of us needs: to be surrounded by people who are willing to speak the unspoken.

So how do you become a great receiver?

1. Be courageous. We often attribute courage to the speaker, but what about the receiver? 
I may have been scared broaching topics with Alma, but I had the advantage of time and preparation. I could control what I said and how I said it. I was able to think about it beforehand, write down a few notes, and test my thoughts with someone else. 
The receiver has no such advantage. Like Sam, he has to receive my throw, however, whenever, and wherever it lands. He has to be willing to listen to something that might make him feel afraid or insecure or defensive. And if he is a great receiver, he will take in the information or message thoughtfully, even if the delivery is awkward or the message jarring. That takes tremendous courage.


2. Don't judge. Receiving is as much about what you don't do as it is about what you do. 

Resist the temptation — blatantly or subtly — to be critical of the speaker or what the speaker is saying. Don't argue with her, poke fun at her, shame her, act aggressively, turn on her, become defensive, or act cold toward her. 


3. Be open. In order to receive a pass in any sport — and at work and in life — you need to be free, open, and unguarded. 
Yet we often guard ourselves. Powerful feelings like fear, anger, sadness, and insecurity do their best to block our ability to receive a pass. If you want to be a talented receiver, your task is to feel your feelings without letting them block or control you or your response. Breathe. Acknowledge what you're feeling to yourself — maybe even to the other person — without dwelling on it. 

Reiterate what you're hearing, ask questions, be curious. Not curious in an "I-will-find-out-enough-information-so-I-can-prove-you-wrong" way. Curious to understand what the person is saying and to understand what's underneath what they're saying.

If you can be courageous, avoid judging, and stay open — even if the toss is awkward and the message unsettling — then, like Sam, like Alba, you'll be able to catch pretty much anything.

And when you're skilled at that, you'll be a most valuable player of any team you're on.