Leading Narratives

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed.  The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?"  The operator says, "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."  There is a silence; then a gun shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says, "OK, now what?" Moral? Be very clear when giving instructions! --From The Book Leading Narratives by Dan Spainhour

  How you spend your days is how you spend your life. J ust what I needed! I love getting your thoughts each morning. They often give me a fresh outlook on things and get me motivated to start my day.. Keep up the good work!  --MB Hey Coach! I just want to thank you for these daily inspirations . I've had a tough month and today I was at a breaking pointy but your quote today helped me out so much!--A High School Athletic Director Sign up for free daily insights from Dan Spainhour Email* First Name

Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you.  Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.  Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.  The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.  Love the people who treat you right.  Pray for the ones who don't.

  Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. —Harry S. Truman People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. —John Maxwell So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. —Peter Drucker The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. —Tony Blair The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. —Reverend Theodore Hesburgh The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. —Kenneth Blanchard A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible. —Polybius

Garry Kasparov  is a chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, and political activist, whom many consider to be the greatest chess player of all time. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 225 out of 228 months. His makes some terrific points about coaching and competition that all leaders should keep in mind: "There’s this conventional wisdom that it’s possible to give universal advice — a tip. But we’re all different. Your decision-making process is as unique as your fingerprints or your DNA. Something that works for you may be counterproductive for me. Some of us are more aggressive; some more defensive. You have to understand who you are, know what you’re capable of and what you’re not, and then try to construct a game — or a deal or a campaign — in which your superior qualities will be factors and your disadvantages will not be displayed." Thought for the week: If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for p...

I’ve seen people use emotion, positive or negative, as a tool and it works for them. But typically, the more you can remove emotion, the more efficient you’ll be. You can be an inch from winning but still miles away if you allow emotion to interfere with the last step. So you have to accept: the weather, heat, rain, stops and starts, the line calls, whatever your opponent is giving you, however tired or injured you are. There are so many things that can distract you from taking care of business. Thought for the week: The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not in fighting the old, but on building the new.   Open: An Autobiography

The following article is form Marc Hill, Current Deputy Athletics Director for the University of Kentucky & former Director of Performance / Head Strength Coach for football program. The article appeared the September 2013 issue of The Coaching and Leadership Journal Developing competitors has become a huge part of our program.--Marc Hill Prior to starting the offseason workouts, we select ten captains. Those ten captains then meet in a closed room and have a draft of "teams" They select their own team that will compete against other teams for the entire winter workout session and the summer workout session. To draft properly, they have to understand what gains them points and what costs them points. You often win or loss based off of how many mistakes you have in a game so a huge piece of this is that when a player misses class, misses a tutor, etc. he loses points for his team. So, the captains always start by taking the guys that will do it correctly...