What Coaches Do To Drive Success

Former University of Kansas head basketball coach Roy Williams once told U.S. News and World Report magazine that there are three things that coaches as leaders must do to drive success:

"Have everyone on the team focus on the same goal." And, the leader must effectively communicate that goal to the team.
"Emphasize those goals every day."
"Understand that although everyone has a common goal, individuals also have goals, needs and dreams that must be cared for."

According to Williams, in a commentary he wrote for the magazine, the third point is the most challenging to address and where leadership may be the most critical. And, I totally agree.

Therefore, if you lead a team at work or within an organization, one of the best ways to work with each of your team players is to tailor your motivation techniques for each individual, and then be prepared to tweak those techniques if necessary as each person grows.

Williams was the head coach at the University of Kansas from 1988 to 2003 and is now the head coach for the North Carolina Tar Heels. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 1, 2007 and has won the Associated Press Coach of the Year award twice.

Comments

What Business Leaders Need To Know About AI

Mastering AI by Jeremy Kahn is absolutely a must-read for every business leader who wants to better understand the history and evolution of AI (Artificial Intelligence), and more important, the promise and perils of AI for businesses and society. Even if you think you have a basic understanding of AI, this book is an essential resource for you. That is because Kahn delivers not only a timely, thorough and thought-provoking examination of AI’s benefits to humanity as well as its potentially chilling dangers, but also and vitally, a declaration for how we should proceed as AI evolves. Reading Mastering AI reminded me of the popular The Popcorn Report by Faith Popcorn – where in 1992 she identified and forecasted trends to chart the future's impact on our businesses, our lives, and our world. Similarly, Fortune magazine journalist, Kahn, draws on his expertise and extensive contacts among the companies and scientists at the...

Great Business Quote

Here's a great quote from author and speaker Harvey Mackay : "When a person with money meets a person with experience, the person with the experience ends up with the money, and the person with the money ends up with the experience."

How To Unleash Your Full Potential

To accomplish something great, author Matt Higgins says you need to toss your Plan B overboard and burn the boats . “You have to give yourself no escape route, no chance to ever turn back. You throw away your backup plans and your push forward, no longer bogged down by the infinite ways in which we hedge our own successes.” You’ll learn plenty more about what it means to burn the boats, how to unleash your full potential, and how to tear down your barriers to achieving success in Higgins’ new book, Burn The Boats – a business-advice and self-help book. Five of the most powerful takeaways are these according to Higgins: Trust your instincts and reject conventional wisdom : We are the only ones who know the full extent of our gifts, and the paths we are meant to follow. Proprietary insights are the keys to game-changing businesses : you don’t need a unique project to start an empire, just an intuition all your own. Your deepest flaws can be fuel for your g...

The Need For Humanity In Leadership

The authors of the new book, ESSENTIAL , explain that the American workplace is in crisis. Questions of where, how, and why we work loom large, and trust in traditional leadership models has plummeted. “Simultaneously, leaders find themselves more lost than ever—overwhelmed and burning out as they struggle to navigate this rapidly changing landscape,” they add. Now, there’s essential evidence that proves humanity in leadership is needed to save our work. In ESSENTIAL: How Distributed Teams, Generative AI, and Global Shifts Are Creating A New Human-Powered Leadership authors Christie Smith, Ph.D. and Kelly Monahan, Ph.D. bridge generational perspectives, combining the wisdom of a seasoned Boomer with the fresh insights of a tech-savvy Millennial, respectively. “We’ve dedicated our careers to empowering and enabling companies to thrive through a human-powered approach to leadership. Our experience and research show that for businesses to thrive,...

Creating A Work Culture Everyone Wants

“If you’re a leader, you don’t need me to tell you that this new era of work has been challenging. I believe that right now is the most complex and confusing time to be a leader in modern history,” says Jennifer Moss , author of the new book, Why We Are Here?: Creating A Work Culture Everyone Wants . In her book, Moss outlines eight areas rooted in social and behavioral psychology research that will transform a workforce weighed down with ennui into a healthy and high-performing one. “These are the must-have core skills leaders need to thrive in the new universe of work, where a leadership reset is a requirement, not a request,” explains Moss. She describes the eight area as follows: Hope . Hope is a major driver of self-efficacy, helping us meet our goals. Hope is one of the best remedies for tackling uncertainty and quieting an anxious mind. Hope drives action. Purpose . Every effort becomes a step toward a greater goal, enriching o...

Use A Board Of Advisors

David Burkus often provides valuable comments to my various Blog postings, and he's a person who effectively uses a board of advisors, instead of mentors, to help him achieve success. "I've found that in my life, it was easier and more effective to set up a board of advisors," said Burkus, the editor of LeaderLab . "This is a group of people, three to five, that have rotated into my life at various times and that speak into it and help me grow. I benefit from the variety of experience these people have." LeaderLab is an online community of resources dedicated to promoting the practice of leadership theory. Its contributors include consultants and professors who present leadership theory in a practitioner-friendly format that provides easy-to-follow explanations on how to apply the best of leadership theory. Community users can download a variety of research reports and presentations about leadership and leadership versus management. For example, a pr...

How To Improve Your Internal Communication Skills

Here is this week's book recommendation. It's a quick read, yet power-packed with useful tips for communicating effectively -- tips you can start to use tomorrow. And, the eBook is free! As author David Grossman says, "good internal communication gets the message out, but great internal communication helps employees connect the dots between overarching business strategy and their role. When it’s good, it informs; when it’s great, it engages employees and moves them to action. Quite simply, it helps people and organizations be even better." I really found this book useful.

Critical Questions To Ask New Hires

In Paul Falcone ’s book, 75 Ways For Managers To Hire, Develop And Keep Great Employees , he recommends asking new employees the following questions 30, 60 and 90 days after they were hired: 30-Day One-on-One Follow-Up Questions Why do you think we selected you as an employee? What do you like about the job and the organization so far? What’s been going well? What are the highlights of your experiences so far? Why? Tell me what you don’t understand about your job and about our organization now that you’ve had a month to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Have you faced any unforeseen surprises since joining us that you weren’t expecting? 60-Day One-on-One Follow-Up Questions Do you have enough, too much or too little time to do your work? Do you have access to the appropriate tools and resources? Do you feel you have been sufficiently trained in all aspects of your job to perform at a high level? How do you see your job relating to the organization’...

5 Reasons To Do An Employee Survey

Business leaders who wonder whether they should conduct an employee survey should think about these five good reasons for conducting surveys, as recommended by John Kador and Katherine J. Armstrong in their book, Perfect Phrases for Writing Employee Surveys : 1. To discover what employees are thinking and doing – in a nonthreatening survey environment. You will learn what motivates employees and what is important to them. 2. To prioritize the organization’s actions based on objective results – rather than relying on subjective information or your best guesses. 3. To provide a benchmark – or a snapshot of your employees and their attitudes at a certain point of time that you can then compare to future surveys to spot trends. 4. To communicate the importance of key topics to employees – by communicating with employees the survey results that shows your organization is listening to employees. 5. To collect the combined brainpower and ideas of the wor...

Reach Communications & Leadership Expert David Grossman Via His New App

If you haven't engaged with David Grossman's website, Blog and incredibly useful eBooks, make a point of checking them all out at his website for The Grossman Group. David just launched his new App, called " Ask David ." Via the App, David promises to bring his communications industry expert advice and wisdom right to your fingertips. Topics covered include: Employee engagement Internal communications Change management Leadership effectiveness Crisis messaging Diversity and inclusion

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog