Leading Narratives

An Excerpt from the book War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team  gives some great insight into how Bill Belichick set up the New England Patriot organization.  This excerpt written by Tedy Bruschi shows how the leaders within the team held each other accountable: "We had the formula down," Tedy Bruschi says. "My locker was on the left, Willie McGinest's locker was on the right, and there was a door in the middle of us. And as early as we got there and as late as we stayed, we saw everyone who walked in and we saw everyone who walked out. And everyone who walked in late got a comment, everyone who walked out early got a comment about what they did that day. We held them accountable as soon as they walked in the door. Me and Willie, we policed that locker room as soon as you walked in." "If we smelled you, you know, we wanted to know what was in your hand.  What were you eating?  Did you bring in the McDonald's bag

A fisherman observed a snake swimming towards his boat.  When the snake reached the boat the fisherman could see that he had a frog in his mouth. Feeling sorry for the frog he reached down and carefully removed the frog from the snake’s mouth and set it free.  But then, feeling sorry for the snake he looked around to see what he could give him. He found a bottle of bourbon, poured a capful, and gave it to the snake. The snake then swam away. The fisherman was feeling content from his good deeds when about ten minutes later he heard a knocking at the side of the boat. When he looked over the side he saw the snake had returned this time with two frogs in his mouth.  The moral? It’s a universal truth. Give people (or animals) what they want and they’ll come back again and again. Even better, they’ll bring more people with them.  On Sale Now  Leading Narratives (Print) Take $5 off when you purchase the book through this link. More Information

Alabama football coach Nick Saban is a master motivator who has won seven national championships. Here are some of his thoughts: We’re not going to talk about what we’re going to accomplish, we’re going to talk about how we’re going to do it. We don’t talk about winning championships, we talk about being champions. I’m tired of hearing all this talk from people who don’t understand the process of hard work. It’s like little kids in the back seat asking ‘Are we there yet?’ Get where you’re going one mile-marker at a time. It’s not the end result. Don’t think about winning the SEC championship. Don’t think about the national championship. Think about what you needed to do in this drill, on this play, in this moment. That’s the process: Let’s think about what we can do today, the task at hand. If you don’t allow yourself to be so result-oriented with the kids, you can focus more on the things in the process that are important to them being successful. —Adapted from The Coaching and Leader

1.  Shared Ownership 2. Shared Suffering 3. Individual Responsibility 4. Collective Pride  Thought for the week... “What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure? Is there a better way to die?” Charles Lindbergh Championship Team Building: What Every Coach Needs to Know to Build a Motivated, Committed & Cohesive Team

Leaders are often afraid of finding the shortest, simplest way to get a job done well. This could be because they think accomplishing something quickly makes it seem like they didn't work hard enough on it, or because it's always been done a certain way in the past.  There's a law of diminishing returns, where the more time we spend on something, the more the quality of work decreases. —Adapted from The Coaching & Leadership Journal , February 2106 The Coaching and Leadership Journal Subscription Options—Yearly ($149); Monthly ($15) All Major Credit Cards and PayPal Start Your Subscription Today Institutional and Group Rates are available Download A Sample Issue