Building Your Inner Coach

MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY – Today is supposed to be my day off. It actually ends up being the case about 10 percent of the time. I try not to read anything job-related or listen to performance podcasts, but sometimes I make the big mistake of trying to catch up on email. My brother-in-law, Mike Bellafiore, had sent me a link to a great Ted Talk, “Building Your Inner Coach,” by Brett Ledbetter, who traveled the country to interview and study the top 15 coaches. This led me to another great video starring John Wooden.   It was basically two speeches from distinctly different age groups – one young, motivated individual and one by an older, still motivated individual (passed away in 2010) – who presented the identical story.

Ledbetter says the best performers and coaches focus less on the result, and more on the process.   Watch the clip and you’ll see Brad Stevens, then coach of Butler, walk off the court with no emotion after a huge buzzer-beating upset. It reminded me of Jay Wright one week ago. Did you see his walk-off? He appeared to have so much trust in his kids. Why? Well both Ledbetter and Wooden would tell you the same thing.

Character drives the process and drives the result. Brad Stevens said he doesn’t care about results because they’re often out of your control. What they can always control is best effort all the time. Stevens wants his players to have a no-regrets attitude. Leave it all out there, and he’ll be fine either way.

Ledbetter highlights the definition of goal: the result to which effort is aimed. Wooden’s rule, which I repeat all the time in our workouts, is “No whining, no complaining, no making excuses. Get out there and do your best.”

 

Watch/listen to: Building Your Inner Coach

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