Vault: Leadership Development

Dysfunctional Teams (and Your Ultimate Trump Card)

Here’s how you end up with a dysfunctional team culture: Someone points out that one of the team members is negative and a real problem. And the coach says, And here’s how you end up with a toxic environment on your coaching staff: Someone points out that people are afraid to contradict this person. And the …

Sharing The Thinking With Your Players

Read this quote today by Luke Walton (Head Coach, Los Angeles Lakers) on building a winning culture and developing basketball IQ: Let’s Go Deeper… I agree with the basic premise of the quote; yet, I think we can go deeper. Think about replacing freedom with responsibility. As the saying goes, ‘with freedom comes responsibility’. (I don’t think Luke will be …

Mortar Not Just The Bricks

Five-time CEO Margaret Heffernan, spoke at length on the topic of social capital during her June 2015 TED Talk. The words that hold true for developing a winning culture are: “What matters is the mortar, not just the bricks.” Character, as defined by personal discipline and helpfulness, is the the glue that holds your team together. Teams that are made up …

Nothing Is Wrong With The Recipe

It’s not the recipe. It’s you. Why is it that two people can take the exact same recipe yet have different results? Same ingredients, same cooking supplies, different results. If The Lady and I were to follow the same 10-step instructions for cooking salmon, they’d taste different. Fact. She’s no master chef and I’m not a …

On Failure, Fundamentals, and Practice Planning [Interview]

The Whistle and a Clipboard podcast was created to “provide a place for coaches to learn from one another.” With, I want to give a big shout out to Jason Oates for creating this platform for so many coaches to share their point of view and grow sport coaching – together! Highlights: In this interview, I discuss: …

How Tell A Star From A Super Star Basketball Player

Most people struggle to understand the difference between an athlete that is a star and one that is a super star basketball player. In an NCAA March Madness pre-game telecast, the panel was breaking down the impact that Michigan State’s Draymond Green has had on the men’s basketball program. MSU head coach, Tom Izzo, said …

Bill Russell On Developing An Outside-In Leadership Style

Boston Celtics great, Bill Russell, the man with 11 NBA championship rings for 10 fingers, touches on developing an ‘outside-in’ versus ‘inside-out’ leadership style in his book ‘Russell Rules‘. Here’s one of the ways he shared for business leaders, basketball coaches and players to use when they’re thinking about leadership: Remember the five most important …