You Win in the Locker Room First Beyond The 7 Cs

Building Winning Teams: Beyond the 7 C's

• Integrity: A crucial component of long-term success, exemplified by David Eckel's Cornell teammate Doug Brew, who corrected David and Michael's wrong turn during a race, leading to Cornell's victory. Brew's integrity transcends short-term gains for lasting positive impact. Focus on building teams for sustained success, not immediate gratification, adhering to principles and ethics.

Passion vs. Emotion

• Passion: Passion is crucial leadership by driving decisions based on well-thought-out beliefs and principles, even when feelings might be lacking. Passion stems from understanding and processing of information leading to well reasoned decisions.

• Emotion: Emotion creates illogical actions often leading to poor outcomes. Emotions are harder to control and typically self-serving and undermining of effective leadership.

Creating Your Leadership Style

• Mimicking Styles: A common mistake is attempting to emulate successful leaders' styles instead of establishing a unique personal approach. One size does not fit all and different teams/organizations necessitate distinct leadership structures and cultures.

• Authenticity: A genuine and authentic leadership style, shaped by personal experiences over time is essential for team success. The effectiveness of one leader's approach is not transferable 100% to another individual without considering how personal skills shape leadership.

Macro and Micro Leadership

• Macro-level leadership: Focuses on organizational culture, vision, strategy, and overarching direction.

• Micro-level leadership: Focuses on leading teams and individuals, including coaching, motivating, and supporting them.

• West Point Example: West Point cadets are often skilled in macro-level leadership but require developing micro-level coaching and team-building skills.

Leading Your Leaders

• NCO Influence: Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) can play a pivotal role in mentoring and guiding leaders, highlighting the importance of mentoring and coaching beyond formal titles.
• Supporting Leadership: Leading from where you are involves influencing those around you, even if you aren't in a position of authority.

Focus on the Process, Not the Outcome

• Sustained Success: Winning takes time and effort. Success relies on consistent dedication to principles and processes that cultivate improvement in a well-structured environment, rather than simply chasing wins.

• Wooden's Philosophy: John Wooden prioritized the process over the end results, emphasizing a team culture, sound strategies, great people, and building a winning team.

Fundamentals and Amnesia about the Past

• Fresh Starts: The past should not dictate the future. Forget past successes or failures; focus instead on the fundamentals. Embrace a "fresh start" mentality every season to evaluate where you're currently successful and areas needing focus and improvement.

• Vince Lombardi: Vince Lombardi started each season afresh, focusing on fundamentals to achieve success.

Loss/Learning Opportunity

• Perspective after Loss: Acknowledge losses as learning opportunities and maintain a positive attitude, analyzing why a loss occurred and planning for improvements.

• Maintaining Team Belief: During times of adversity, a team's belief system is paramount.

Culture Contamination

• Maintaining Culture: Successful teams prioritize alignment with visions, purpose, and values. It is important to avoid negativity and quickly replace or remove negativity and negative influences from the organization so the culture can grow positively.

• Hiring for Culture Fit: Hiring practices should focus on ensuring new members are aligned with the existing culture to avoid diluting the positive atmosphere.

Developing Champions

• Focusing on Development: Concentrate on fostering leadership, character, work ethic, belief, and selflessness in team members. This is more effective than solely concentrating on potential championships.

• Long-term Benefits: Developing champions yields a team more likely to achieve success, while simultaneously cultivating personal growth among team members.

Time Management: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

• Importance of Focus: Focus on the present (today); learn from the past (yesterday); plan for the future (tomorrow) but don't overemphasize thinking too much about the far-off future.

• Prioritizing the Present: Empahsize immediate needs and actions to help improve the current team performance and culture of the group.

• Effective Time Management: Properly distributing time creates a stronger environment and culture for success as a unit.

Finding and Dealing with Negative Influences

• Identifying Murphy: Reframe challenges ("Murphy") as opportunities for growth and resilience; turn a negative sentiment into a strong one; a hero's strength can be found in ability to get back up after falling down and using determination to reemerge and lead from the struggle.

• Overcoming Adversity: Teams that take on their challenges develop greater mental strength which prepares teams for success.

Pressure vs. Stress

• Applying Pressure: Leaders should encourage effort, dedication, preparation, and other controllable aspects instead of focusing on outcomes, which could lead to stress and negatively impact performance.

• Reducing Stress: Focus on building a team that can handle the stress caused by negativity instead of placing pressure on them to accomplish something beyond their control, which could cause anxiety and weaker performance.

Competition and Unity

• Constructive Competition: Encourage challenges and disagreements in meetings, discussions to ensure all ideas and perspectives are heard while considering the best options for the team. Actively seek opportunities to improve.

• Team Unity: Despite disagreements, ensure a unified front when presenting strategies to the players.

Media Communications

• Consistent Messaging: Emphasize the development of consistent messaging through a dedicated communications department and media training programs to avoid internal inconsistencies and potential damage from irresponsible comments and statements coming from the team members.

• Handling Issues Internally: Address team issues and complaints privately and internally. Public statements can be damaging and will likely not solve the problem.

Lifelong Learning

• Continuous Growth: Emphasize the importance of continuous learning by utilizing available resources to aid in the growth journey and keep the team up-to-date with current research and strategies to improve their work.
• Mentorship: Encourage seeking mentors in both online and physical spaces to learn from others' experiences and build strong leadership skills.

Leaving a Legacy

• Impactful Coaching: Recognize the long-lasting impact coaches can have on their players' lives through promoting values like teamwork and sportsmanship, which will instill positive values in those coached.

Explore the essential elements of effective leadership, focusing on integrity, passion, and emotional intelligence. Understand how these principles foster collaboration and create lasting success in team dynamics. This quiz will guide you in developing your unique leadership style.