LOCKER ROOM LEADERSHIP...THE TALE OF A COACH'S SON

"The most difficult thing I do is getting them ready to play each week." Vince Lombardi.

CHARLES MOORE

My father, Charles Moore, was a coach and leader.  He raised me, taught me and prepared me to become a coach and teacher. I grew up in his coaching office watching game film, on the practice field and in the locker room. I spent time with him learning to game plan and plan practices to prepare athletes to execute his plans. I watched him prepare his players to perform and was on the sidelines and heard the in-game coaching,  halftime adjustments and post game speeches which were always to get them ready again. Then I spent time listening to other coaches exchange ideas and heard coaches speak at coaching clinics. I am a coach's son, raised to be a coach and thankful for the lessons I learned.

The last time I spoke to legendary Major League Baseball Manager and family friend, Bobby Cox, he reminded me that I was doing what my father raised me to do...In business, rather than in sports.

My father exposed me to many of the great coaches of the past 50 years and I learned from all of them. Coaches like Vince Lombardi, Bear Bryant, Tom Landry, Red Auerbauch,  Don Shula, Chuck Knoll. Then I began to study coaches like Bill Walsh, Bill Belichick, Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, Tommy Lasorda, Bobby Cox, Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlinson, Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh. The one who influenced me the most after my father, was in my opinion the greatest coach of all time...John Wooden.

THE HARBAUGH'S

My Dad spent my childhood, teenage years and early adult life preparing me and helping me refine my coaching insights and skills. He and I talked for hours on end about how to apply what we both knew about coaching to business leadership and management. We found that all he had taught me applied to coaching, executive leadership, sales management and salespeople. In addition, I learned something from every coach I ever played for, every person I ever worked for and every client I every consulted with or trained...Every single one of them!

I found that life and business was a performing art, just like sports. I also learned that people performed best when 'coached up' by a leader. I believe that sports are important to society not because of who wins or loses but because of the lessons we can learn about peak performance, coaching, teamwork and leadership. Don't get me wrong, winning makes playing the game more fun, just as achievements make life more fun, and coaching and leadership is about preparing people to have more fun!

After using all I had learned to lead, coach and manage people, I began writing, speaking, teaching and training about what I had learned that would help others prepare to perform to their peak to produce their best results. 

JOHN WOODEN

I was blessed in 1996 to have John Wooden take the time to meet with me. We spent hours discussing coaching, leadership and teaching. John graciously spent those hours at his home in Encino, California where we shared ideas about how leaders should view winning, losing, relationships and life. He opened up and shared his wisdom and insights and patiently answered all my questions. I lost my father, Charles Moore, in 1992 and John in 2010. I miss them both and feel very fortunate to have called them my mentors and coaches...I love them both.

Their influence and impact on me, and many others is their legacy and the reason they will never be forgotten. The lessons I learned from my father, John Wooden and the other great coaches have served me well and helped me serve others.

Now, I am teaching leaders, managers and coaches how to build businesses, teams and individuals that produce their best results. The following are some of the high points I teach in my 'Locker Room Leadership' seminars and coaching sessions.

1. Great leadership, coaching, teaching and managing is an act of will.
2. Leadership is something you do with people, not to them.
3. If you stop learning you'll stop leading.
4. In a locker room, boardroom, sales office or any group, if you pay attention, you can hear and feel the attitudes of the people.
5. If you pay attention you can tell if people are ready to perform.
6. Peak performance is a Spirit (Attitude), Mind (Knowledge and Skill) and Body (Actions) experience...To win in sports, business and life, they have to always be in that order.
7. Leaders don't worry about averages or excellence they raise the standards...The lowest form of behavior that's acceptable.
8. Who you are as a coach or leader is the lowest form of behavior you except...It's not your average or top people's performance but your lowest producing performers...That's who you are as a leader.
9. Winning coaches spend time with the people they least want to engage...The people who need to improve the most.
10. Leaders assign, monitor and teach to generate improvement.
11. Leaders manage the atmosphere...the air! They do this by managing attitudes because attitudes create behavior that results in winning.
12. Leaders inspire, motivate and hold people accountable to be their best.
13. Leaders challenge people to change their average thinking, so they can grow and improve.
14. Leadership skills can be taught, learned and improved but need insight, intuition and a personal touch to become most effective.
15. Great leaders love people...That's where their insight, intuition and personal touch comes from.
16. Most managers and coaches sabotage the results they want by trying to manage the results.
17. When you manage results you’re too late to lead.
18. Results, the score and winning, can’t be managed. Winning comes from preparing the spirit, mind and body.
19. Results, the score and winning come from the intentions, attitudes, skills and actions that were present long before the results.
20. Intentions, attitudes, behavior and skills can be taught and managed through the discipline of preparation.
21. Winning will take care of itself when leaders manage the things that create the score.
22. Leaders lift people to accomplish beyond their own expectations through preparation.
23. Never forget that your standards define who you are as a coach or leader.
24. Leaders never compromise their standards, instead they use them to teach, motivate and inspire.
25. Leadership is about people first but no one person is more important than the team.
26. Treating everyone the same is the fastest way to show favoritism.
27. It takes courage to treat each person the way they deserve to be treated…The way that's best for them.
28. Leader’s help people grow and become their best by working with them, to get them to do the things they don’t want to do, that will create the results they both want.
29. Leaders manage people’s intentions, attitudes and dominant thoughts that create the behavior that produces the results.
30. Leaders pay attention and listen to manage the atmosphere by managing the attitudes and state-of-mind of people.
31. Great leaders get uncommon results from common people by requiring them do the work to become uncommonly prepared.
32. In the absence of leadership, mediocrity will lead and failure is assured.
33. You won't know how good a job you've done until you see how the people you've led, mentored and coached turn out...Sometimes that takes years.

 By Mike Moore

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A GOOD DAY...A GREAT LIFE

What makes one person cheerful, happy and able to handle the hassles of a normal day, while another is upset, frustrated and ready to quit when adversity comes? Our intentions and expectations drive our emotional state-of-mind. Too often they focus us on our circumstances and not solutions to our circumstances. This will make our emotional state-of-mind a roller coaster ride full of peaks and valleys that sabotage our ability to create the results or life we want. We have to set the proper expectation and intentions that will generate the behavior that will create the results we want. We have to start in our mind before we take action.

It's  simple really, just not easy. When you wake up in the morning what are your intentions for the day ahead?  I have asked individuals and groups, large or small, this question over the past two decades and the overwhelming number one answer is, “I want to have a good day”.  When I ask people to define a good day, the definition is, “A day with little to no problems, no hassles and nothing to worry about”.   When I ask them how many days a year this intention or expectation is met, they usually answer, “None”.  So, the majority of people I meet and speak with, start each day with an unrealistic intention, that when not fulfilled, makes them frustrated, upset or stressed out.  We’ll discuss stressed out later but let’s stay focused on how to use our intentions and expectations to better serve us and drive us towards the life or results we really want, instead of setting us up for more bad days ahead.

First, let’s look at how we ever got to an intention of no problems, no hassles and no worries.  When we wake up each day we have a choice to make, “Better or Comfortable”.  Our human nature wants us be comfortable, not better. Can you picture early man in a cave?  It wasn’t until he knew someone else had a better cave that he decided to go look for a better cave for himself.  Our human nature makes us content to be comfortable but it’s constantly driving us to compare ourselves to others. We really don’t wake up each day driven to be better human beings or to make things in our life better.  If we did we wouldn’t have most of the issues confronting society today. 

Let’s stay focused on how we can overcome our human nature and stop sabotaging our own lives. When we define a good day as no problems, no hassles and no adversity, when we are confronted with the first problem, how do we react? If you said, “frustrated”, you would be right.  By definition, this intention has set you up to be frustrated. Not the best state-of–mind to handle life’s problems. It is also my experience that defining a good day with comfort as our primary goal, leads to becoming frustrated when you meet the first problem of the day, which starts a downward spiral of poor emotions. These emotions make you less capable of handling the next problem or the adversity you are confronted with and may even make you withdraw or quit trying to overcome the obstacles in your day.

How can you change your intentions to change your results? Everyday the choice you make, makes you.  When you start your day, change your intentions by changing your definition of a good day.  Let’s revisit the idea or definition of a good day. If your choice is comfort you define it as “no problems”. Think about when you feel best about yourself. Your self-worth or self-esteem is best when you overcome adversity, solve problems and help others.  So to change your results, to develop the emotional state-of-mind to make a difference in your life, you need a new definition of a good day.

This new definition can help you make a better first choice as you wake up each day. Define a good day as one where you find, meet and overcome adversity. Yes, you need to wake each day looking for problems.  Problems to solve that will help people.  You should not be looking to make problems, but to find existing problems and help solve them.  If you are part of a problem, then become part of the solution.  You should be looking for ways to serve or help others.  This definition will help you not avoid conflict and endure difficulties with the proper emotional state-of-mind.  With this definition, when you find problems you will be prepared and not be frustrated.  You will meet them head on and you will find solutions.

Adversity and problems are the obstacles that stand between where you are and the results or life you want.  The first step to overcoming adversity and problems is your attitude or emotional state-of-mind, which is most affected by your intentions and expectations created by your daily choice, “Comfort or Better”.

Redefine a good day and begin to experience them everyday until your life is a journey of solutions that serve others and rewards you with the results and ultimately the life you want.

By Mike Moore http://dld.bz/XePf 

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LIVING A LIFE OF BRIGHT MOMENTS

At the peak of tremendous effort, when you have given all you have to give, and find yourself victorious, with your heart pounding in your chest and head, everything becomes still and quiet within you. Your thoughts and feelings seem clearer and illuminated. Everything becomes so bright it's as if a great spotlight has been turned on. At that moment you feel and believe you have the power to overcome any obstacle and conquer any challenge. In that moment you believe you have wings and can soar. There is no more precious moment in life than the bright moments and once you've experienced one, you'll work very hard for as long as it takes to experience another and then another!

The world is full of people going through life on cruise control. We all encounter them daily. Their greatest excitement each day is looking forward to getting off work. This isn't living, it's existing and we've all seen these people and watched as this life path sucks the life out of them. They allow themselves to become victims who find fault, accept mediocrity and become cynical. If that's not the life you want to live...Make a change, choose a path that lights you up and that provides you with the opportunity for those bright moments.

Life is best when taking a path that causes you to wake up everyday excited, looking forward to doing what you will be doing that day. Find a path that excites you. Understand life isn't about making money and it isn't about accumulating possessions. It is about living with passion and giving yourself the opportunity to experience the bright moments.

The victories that produce the greatest bight moments, the lasting, life changing bright moments, are found in helping, serving and caring for others. Everyone has the ability to do this each day and fill each day with bright moments. You have to choose to be less selfish, more giving and stop serving yourself first to open the door to a life of bright moments.

The greatest deception happens when you attach your victories to achievements, accomplishments, wealth or possessions. These things can produce feelings of euphoria but will be fleeting and leave you feeling empty and searching for more without the experience of the true victory and bright moment of making a difference to another person. The quality of your life and depth of your happiness will come from the deep relationships formed in serving others...these are the brightest moments.

Be prepared, you'll find the bright moments on a path that has obstacles. The path that can provide these bright moments will be filled with things you'd rather not do...Things most people won't do. Every path that can provide these bright moments has obstacles and challenges but it has those wonderful bright moments that make life so fulfilling.

The question to ask yourself, "Do I want to do the work, put forth the effort and pay the price to experience those bright moments?". Answer yes, and I promise you, if don't quit until you experience one, you'll be thankful and get busy working to create the next one.

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TOO COMFORTABLE TO LEARN, GROW AND IMPROVE

Past success and achievement often breeds comfort. It's also in our human nature to seek comfort even before improvement. It’s this comfort that causes people and leaders to stop improving and protect their success in good times when they get comfortable or reach their desired level of success.

In tough times, like we're now experiencing, it will make people and leaders dig in even deeper to survive and wait until things get back to normal instead of taking the actions to improve and create a new normal.  While this make slow the decline or fall, it certainly de-motivates and demoralizes people and organization. This mind set will enable the final decline and move them or their organization backwards at a time when energy and enthusiasm for the challenges, change and new innovative thinking are desperately needed.

Over the years I have met many people and business executives who seemed to be comfortable with the status quo. These same people and leaders often agree it is time for change, time to improve, but go back to what is familiar and wait for change to overtake them or their organization.  After years of observing this mind set and behavior I am left with only one conclusion.  This happens because they have achieved a personal goal and become a too comfortable with their position or life. This causes them to look to protect their position or possessions instead of using all the attitudes, skills and actions that help them achieve or grow in the first place. 

When things get tough and leadership and changes are needed, their comfort level motivates them to wait until things get better rather than look for alternatives to make things better.  I have never believed these same people or executives achieved their personal goals with this mentality. Rather, they only stopped moving forward, being innovative thinkers and advocates for change and personal growth after they achieved a personal goal and reached a comfort level.  

When bright, aggressive people and leaders, who were able to lead their organization to great achievements, start using language like "hunker down" and "wait", it is most often a sign of comfort or fear and it’s happening too regularly.

When the time comes that people or leaders would rather be comfortable than grow or lead the movement for improvement in their life or organization, it is time for the leader to step down and find a new challenge to get reenergized.  This is true in our personal lives as well...complacency or comfort are our greatest enemies to a happy successful life. Leaders stepping down or finding a new challenge rarely happens in a timely or productive manner and usually occurs after much of the success achieved has been lost.

As a leader...Do you have a plan for stepping down or creating new challenges? In your personal life,...Are you aware when you get too comfortable? Good habits lead to good results but when a habit becomes a rut that drains you of your energy beware. Look for the new challenge to reenergize the achiever in you. 

How will you know when it's time?   One major indicator is when the changes required to keep moving you or your organization forward aren’t energizing but a chore! When our attitudes as leaders are right then change is always energizing. 

Most leaders have the heart of a great competitor. Great competitors usually lose the will to prepare before they lose the desire to perform. When this happens performance suffers.

Often in business, leaders get comfortable with their past achievements or the position they hold and it creates an unwillingness to embrace the changes needed for their organization to move forward to new accomplishments.

Too often achievers or leaders are like the performing artist that can’t let go of past accomplishment or the thrill of the performance and try to perform after their performance deteriorates. Except people's performance in life don't have to deteriorate if they stay committed to learning, growing and change. 

For people, leaders and their organizations, it is best to get reenergized by becoming change advocates.  It is never best to wait for things to get better… Be careful that your life and leadership strategy isn’t to hunker down, wait or survive until things improve.

Don't hide behind the idea of going, back to basics, I've always done it this way, or it's worked this way before. Be ready to make changes, learn, grow and keep making changes to learn again. Remember it's what you learn after you know it all that matters the most and makes the biggest difference.

We are all experiencing a new economy and a new way of life. If you want a happy successful present and bright future then wake up everyday looking for what's possible, what's new.

It's time for people in general, and leaders specifically, to get back to their first loves…challenge, change, innovation and improvement.  This is the best solution in good times, tough times and the best way to re-energize yourself or your organization.

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