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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LEADING BY EXAMPLE...FULFILLING YOUR PURPOSE

Help people prepare, learn and grow so they'll recognize, seize and fulfill the opportunities available to them.

This doesn't always mean you'll be liked or popular with those you are responsible to lead. Most people don't like to prepare, learn or grow. Most people just want to be comfortable, it's part of all our human nature, and when leaders challenge, push and stretch people they usually put up some resistance.

It's a leaders responsibility to teach, motivate and inspire people to overcome their human nature, natural tendencies, and experience the best of themselves. When people don't overcome their human nature they become average , and average has to be unacceptable for a leader.

As a leader, your credibility and influence will come from being a person who does this themselves...Your influence will increase when you display the ability to discipline yourself to prepare, learn and grow...To overcome your human nature.

Leading by example isn't the willingness to do what you ask others to do, it's the willingness to do be you should be, while helping others become who they should be. It's about finding and fulfilling your purpose and helping others find and fulfill theirs.

By Mike Moore

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LEADERS KNOW AND BELIEVE...

People are spirit, mind and body...Keeping it in that order is a priority.

Attitudes come from the spirit, the mind holds skills and knowledge and the body performs the actions.

Attitudes are more important than skills.

Skills can be taught when the attitudes are right.

Actions do speak louder than words.

People move in the direction of their dominant thoughts.

If you manage results, you'll be too late.

Managing attitudes is their job.

They have a higher purpose.

People are more important than things.

Character is more important than reputation.

They are always being watched and judged by those who don't want to learn, grow and improve, so they'll have an excuse not to.

The truth is always beyond what they can see.

They'll have to do the things they don't want to do, to get what they want.

They'll have to motivate and inspire people to do the things they don't want to do, to help them get what they want and become their best.

The truth is always the best information and communication tool.

Being present, paying attention and listening is a requirement.

Communicating openly, honestly and directly is the best policy.

Most people don't really want to be extraordinary but they also don't like the idea of being average.

The easy way will almost never produce the best results.

People won't always like you when you challenge them to be their best.

They'll have to make the hard decisions and act on them.

The lowest form of behavior they allow or accept is who they are as a leader.

They need to spend time with the people that need them the most, and that's probably not who they would naturally choose to spend it with.

Culture is the cumulative, pervasive or dominant attitude of the people they lead.

It's their job to help people be prepared to, and perform to, their best.

It's a strength to be humble, gracious and forgiving.

Forgiveness doesn't mean acceptance.

Leadership is an act of service, caring and love.

There is a higher power with a higher purpose.

By Mike Moore

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YOU WON'T WIN WATCHING THE SCOREBOARD

To win in business and life, stop watching the scoreboard and start coaching or playing the game to the best of your ability! You'll be able to deal with the final score if you always give your best effort, but you won't give your best effort while watching the scoreboard.

We're living and working in a rapidly shifting world and economy so you can't just wait for a recovery or things to go back to normal. You can't produce new success by going back to good old basics. In fact, anything with 'back' in it is the wrong strategy this time around. 

Selfish, short-term intentions have created poor behavior that has led us to a crisis in personal and business relationships alike. These selfish intentions cause people and businesses to look at what's in it for them, work to get more while providing less and damages the relationships that can make us rich both personally and professionally.

These selfish intentions have caused people to look only at today's scoreboard and not at the final score. We've been so busy winning the first quarter we're losing the game. Life and business are both best when built on a sustainable 'people first' culture.

Championship coaches don't spend their time focused on the scoreboard or asking the players what the score is during the game. If they did, they'd lose more often than they'd win. This behavior is what executives and sales managers have been doing for years and it's no wonder businesses are struggling because this behavior sabotages the score. In business, this behavior creates a focus on new sales, new subscribers and today's numbers instead of customers which generates diminishing, unsustainable results. Making customers makes a business healthy, profitable and sustainable.

Poor intentions are sneaky, they slip in unintended and damage the result we want. Take for example when the boss asks, “How are you doing?”, what do they mean?  They are most often checking up on sales and a discussion of the company’s sales statistics ensues. Typically, right after this conversation, calls are made down the chain of command to each level until a sales manager calls a salesperson or store manager with the same conversation. This, “How are you doing?”, when we mean, “How are sales?” needs to stop.  This is the coach asking the players the score during the game.  

We need new conversations that will only occur from new intentions and generate a new sales engagement with consumers. We need a 'people first focus' to build relationships and generate positive results by serving people rather than trying to please them.

Watching the score and waiting for it to get better won't get it done this time. There's no recovery coming, just opportunities to begin again. This time, our best opportunity is to play the game with new thinking and intentions that can drive the attitudes, skills and actions that will produce healthy relationships with consumers and generate success!

It's so easy to slide back into the instant gratification of making new sales rather than customers. It's the comfortable old path that sabotages the possibility for your new success.

It will take 'people first leadership' to create a 'customer first company' and solid sales management to keep salespeople on track to win and generate a healthy new economy.  

By Mike Moore

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THE TRANSITION TO A 'PEOPLE FIRST ECONOMY'

The signs are clear that the economy has been and is in transition with the failure of Borders, collapse of Blockbuster, bankruptcy at Kodak, big changes at JC Penny, rumors of Best Buy's demise, the worst year in US Home Sales ever, a threat of a worldwide recession and not enough room to list the failed banks! There are countless other businesses trying to survive until a recovery comes but they are on a course to fail.

There are too many leaders suffering from 'normalcy bias', waiting for a recovery that isn't coming. This is producing strained and stressed sales managers, needy, desperate salespeople and sales trainers teaching the same sales skills with the intention to make a sale. All of them working harder and putting more pressure on consumers to buy that's helped create today's dysfunctional buyer and seller relationship. Add to that, consumers don't trust or believe salespeople, changing demographics, maturing use of technology, the explosion of social networks and it's the perfect storm for a transition to a new era in business. This is no less dramatic than the shift from the agricultural age to the industrial age...New intentions, thinking, attitudes, skills and actions are required to make the transition to a 'people first age' in business!

Success in this 'new economy' will require new business and sales intentions to generate a new engagement, connection and conversation with consumers for a healthy relationship. Nothing else will produce immediate results and sustainable growth better or faster!

It's not back to basics unless you want to just slow your failure... It's forward with new intentions for a successful new 'people first economy'!

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ACCOMPLISHING YOUR GOALS...THE MISSING STEP

We all have wishes, hopes and dreams but to turn them into goals and unleash their power, they have to be put in writing with a date to be completed.  


Wishes, hopes and dreams rarely come true while goals are often accomplished. 


Setting your goals is actually step three in accomplishing them. Step two is creating an action plan. You’ll need to start at step three and work backwards to create the first step to accomplishing your goals.

When people set goals they often don’t make an action plan for how to accomplish them and set themselves up to fail. For those who set goals and make an action plan, they’re still missing the most important and powerful step. They’re missing the first step and real driver behind accomplishing their goals. Most people fail to accomplish their goals because of this missing step!

Deciding who you need to become, the person who will take the actions in your plan is the powerful first step in accomplishing your goals. If you don’t change who you are, you won’t change your behavior. If you don’t change your behavior, you won’t achieve your goals.

To accomplish your goals, think in terms of these steps…Start at step three, setting your goals. Then take step two by making an action plan. Be aware that if you stop there and start trying to take actions you have set yourself up to fail, become frustrated with goal setting, and eventually stop setting goals altogether.

After setting your goals and making your action plan, take step one…decide the person you have to become to take the actions in your plan. Decide what attitudes, intentions, beliefs and character traits are needed to be the person who would naturally take the actions you’ve planned.

Now use these three steps to accomplish your goals. Start at step one, working on becoming that person. This may also give you insight to a better timetable to accomplishing your goals. If it does, then re-write your goals with a new date for them to be accomplished. This will help make your action plan and goals more realistic and more achievable.

Starting with this missing step will create less frustration and help you start working on the core cause of your accomplishing your goals…YOU!

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TIPS AND TRAITS OF TOP PERFORMERS

There are no secrets to success. Learning, modeling and preparing yourself with the time tested traits, attitudes, skills and actions used by top performers is the best way to achieve your best results in your work and life!

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