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A True Story of Class, Maturity, and Doing the Right Thing

This is a true story that I experienced last week.  I was visiting with an elderly gentleman who I had just met in the past week.  I like to listen to older people tell stories ever since I was a young boy listening to my dad and his fellow sports friends share stories.  This one is worth re-telling.

This gentleman is in his late 70’s.  In college, he was an athlete, and his school had a team in his sport, sailing.  It wasn’t an NCAA-varsity sport and there was no such thing as the Power 5 back then, but this was a Power 5 school and he became the leader of his team.

Following his senior season, he was named the school’s athlete of the year, the highest honor his school bestowed upon any athlete at his institution.  You would think he would have relished this award.  You would think that’s the story and he was sharing it proudly with me.  What he said next is the story so pay attention.

My newfound friend knew there was someone else more worthy of this honor.  Another athlete at the school was All-American in TWO sports that year!  But, you see, that other athlete was black and my friend was white.  He knew that was the only reason the other gentlemen did not win the award.  And so, my new friend, gave the award back.  He did NOT accept it.  

He’s been very successful in his life.  He is not famous (except at his favorite watering hole where I met him, you would think he was world-famous because he is among his friends!).  As I was listening to him share that story, I thought “man, if we only had more leaders in this country like him”.

His ACTIONS spoke volumes about him.  That one act of giving the award back because he knew someone else was much more deserving and that other gentleman did not receive it only because of the color of his skin spoke volumes about my new friend and this is what comes to my mind about him.

                                          He has class.

                                          He has maturity.

                                          He did the right thing.

At the close of Black History Month, the phrase that was spoken by Martin Luther King, “The time is always right to do what is right” keeps popping up in my head as I read and hear about actions throughout our society and world.  Thank you my friend for living that and sharing your story with me.              

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Your “Sphere of Influence”

I have often used the phrase, “We can’t change the world but we can change our part in it”.  I heard a better description for this earlier this week from Matthew Kelly as he used the phrase “sphere of influence” encouraging others to “become the most generous person in your sphere of influence”.

There are over 7.6 billion people on earth and over 330 million people in the U.S.  Almost all of us will never have all of these people in our “sphere of influence”.  But think about those you have in your “sphere of influence”.  Family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, colleagues, etc. It is a larger sphere for some than others.  It doesn’t have to be large.  The question everyone should ask themselves is, “am I doing good for those in my sphere of influence”?

You don’t need to change the world as Lincoln, Ginsberg (RBG), Edison, Ford, Gates, King, and Jobs did. Just strive to change your “sphere of influence” for good things!  You know, things like generosity, kindness, unselfishness, goodness, justice,…..we could add a lot more.  Make an impact for good in your “sphere of influence”!

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A Macro Look at Leadership

Leadership is leadership……for the most part. However, I believe different leadership is required for different institutions.  Note I said different, not better. Good leadership is good leadership no matter where it occurs but the best leadership understands the mission……with every decision!

 Throughout my career in education (FYI – I was a leader in college athletics), I often heard business leaders say “you have to run it like a business” with “it” being government, a school, a hospital, a church, a sports team, etc.  Whenever my brother, a long-time educator and school administrator, would hear this his reply would be “Which business? Enron?”. (Google it if you don’t know why that was his reply.)

 Here are some statistics according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Data from the BLS shows that approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years. Only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more.  I would suggest that schools, churches, hospitals, and governments have a significantly better track record than businesses so why would anyone think we should run everything “like a business”.

 Each of these institutions has a different mission (these are my layperson’s paraphrases of their missions).

 Business – Cares the most about making a profit.

 Education – Cares the most about educating our youth to improve society.  

 Places of Worship – Care the most about providing spiritual nourishment for their flocks.

 Healthcare – Cares the most about healing patients.

 Government – Cares the most about protecting the populace.

 In every instance, leadership means leading people and managing things.  The same problem can be solved in different ways with different solutions given the mission.  But……and this is a big “But”, know the mission and make your decisions accordingly if you want to be a successful leader in your institution!

 Yes, each institution must use good business principles to help them carry out the mission.  Simply, each institution should not spend more than it has access to.  

 But should a hospital be trying to turn a profit while turning away certain patients because their care costs more than they want it to?  Should we continue to cut state and local-level education budgets K-12 and Higher Ed and make more schools “for-profit”?  Should churches make decisions based on the net revenue they can project?  Should governments leave pandemic control up to “market forces”?

 All too often business leaders (most of them men although ladies, we are starting to see some women leaders in business follow men in this way) try to impose their “business mission way” on the rest of society. In some cases, business leaders have done a great job in helping other institutions because they have understood it is a different mission.  It is when greed creeps in any institution and the mission gets distorted because “in the business world, we do it this way” and profit becomes the mission, that other institutions begin failing.

 The answer?  A lot of leadership skills are transferable.  Use them.  But always keep the mission in mind with every decision.  This often means give deference to experienced leaders from a particular institution that completely understand the mission.  In other words, stay in your wheelhouse and stay out of other leader’s wheelhouse.  The world won’t become perfect, but it might become a better place.

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Finding Balance in a Crazy World - a Fundamental of Success

(This is an excerpt from my book, Make One Play, than can be found on Amazon.)

John Wooden, the legendary coach of UCLA men’s basket­ball from 1948 to 1975, has influenced me as much as anyone I’ve ever met. And yes, I did meet this wonderful man, and it was the most enlightening experience in my professional life. (More on that in the next chapter).

In the middle of our visit Wooden said something that has stuck with me—in fact I opened this chapter with it. He said: “The two most important words in the English language are love and balance.” He said we all must love and be loved, but we all must try to achieve a balance in everything in life. He kept referring to balance, whether the subject was diet, work, rest, family, whatever.

Think about your own life. Most people function best when they have some balance in their life, and that’s not always easy to achieve. Your family is important, your work is important, your health is important, your spiritual life is important, your social life is important, etc. I don’t know about you, but when I neglect one of these areas of my life, not-so-good things tend to happen.

If you’re a workaholic, you tend to neglect your family life and health. There’s nothing wrong with working hard and being committed to achieving your full potential. After all, I stress that as a fundamental in this book. But you must have balance in your life to truly reach your full potential.

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Unselfishness - A Fundamental of Success

(The first two paragraphs are excerpts from my book, Make One Play, that can be found on Amazon.)

Unselfishness involves sacrifice. Sacrifice is defined as “surren­dering something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.”

Ask yourself this question: “Why do I do what I do?” I believe to have success you have to do what you do for a greater cause than your own. If the answer to that question is “to make money,” I believe you will not have a fulfilling career. If the answer to that question is “to win games” or “to be in the hall of fame” or “to win awards,” I believe you will not have a ful­filling career. In order to meet John Wooden’s definition of success, you must be unselfish in your chosen career. 

John Wooden’s definition of success is “Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of the self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming”.  Have you done your best this week that you are capable of becoming in whatever roles you have in your life and has it been for a greater cause than your own?

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A Lesson in Positivity

(This is an excerpt from my book, Make One Play, that can be found on Amazon.)

Being positive means more than just happy-go-lucky, smiley face all the time. There are many days you just don’t feel that way. But remember, as the leader of your team, however large or small, you set the tone for everyone in the organization. If you have a negative attitude and are down in the dumps, what do you think those you are leading will be? Positive? Probably not. Even if you are not the leader, as a team member, your positivity or negativity will affect everyone around you. Positive people are infectious in successful organizations, like Women Leaders in College Sports.

Mike Guswiler, president of the West Michigan Sports Com­mission, shares that it is hard to start a new operation, whether it is an entrepreneurial business like Eidex or a nonprofit such as his sports commission. It takes courage, and it also takes a positive attitude.

Mike describes it this way: “Positivity breeds positivity, which breeds success. Negativity takes away so much energy and lessens productivity.” Mike talked about bidding on events and tournaments the West Michigan Sports Commission seeks to host. In many cases, the people in charge of the or­ganizations whose bids they are going after will ask for the moon in guarantees. Mike said he and his staff in turn pro­pose only what they are capable of providing, and they are positive about it in their correspondence. They focus on what they can do to provide an exemplary experience, not what they can’t.

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A Story of Successful Teaching of a Great Leader

(This is an excerpt from my book, Make One Play, that can be found on Amazon.)

Jim Ayres, mentioned in the Balance chapter, is managing di­rector of Amway North America, a division of Amway, an American company specializing in health, beauty, and home care products. Amway is composed of people who own their own businesses, so Jim’s job is to help them operate those businesses as successfully as possible. He makes several presentations to these owners and always uses the following guidelines:

·       Tell them what you are going to tell them.

·       Tell them.

·       Tell them what you told them.

Yes, it is repetitive, but that is part of driving home the fun­damentals to your people so doing their jobs becomes second nature.

Jim’s approach saw Amway North America experience growth in three of four years even though sales for the com­pany overall increased only one year during the same period. As Managing Director, Jim’s strategies have generated a growth rate nearly eight percentage points higher than the par­ent company. In addition to increasing sales, Amway North America also doubled in profitability over the same stretch.

Jim does something else I appreciate. In his college days, Jim was an offensive lineman at Grand Valley State University, where I was the director of athletics from 1996 through 2016. Jim became accustomed to repetition as a highly skilled athlete, and he has an interesting take on it today. He routinely asks people: “What’s your six-inch jab step?”

What does he mean by that? Well, as an offensive lineman, it’s critical to have the right footwork. Jim was up against big defensive ends and speedy linebackers coming at him from every angle, and he had to maintain his balance to react which­ever way they moved in order to block them. That’s why a “six-inch jab step” was so important, and why it needed to be repeated so consistently in practice. It had to be six inches to maintain the right balance, not five, not seven, but six, and they practiced it every day.

And what did repetition do for him and his teammates? Well, Grand Valley State, an NCAA Division II school, has built the winningest football program in the nation at any level thanks to the commitment to teaching by its coaches.

It’s the same with any form of success. Some things you must practice every day. Here’s what Jim does before every meet­ing: He starts by recognizing someone for their good work. Who doesn’t like that? Positive recognition is among the best motivational tools out there. Employees and the teams they are a part of perform better when they’re recognized for their efforts. (And you never know what one effort will lead to!) Jim makes that a habit. That’s repetition of successful leadership.

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Balancing Act

(This is an excerpt from my book, Anchor Up, that can be found on Amazon.)

Any vision you have for your organization or university is likely not going to be a cakewalk in terms of implementation and execution. As such, one of the more important aspects of your job will be balancing your time both professionally and personally. Only then will your vision take shape; if you are burned out, the energy needed to see your vision through won’t be there. 

So let me start with a story. 

Terry and I had just started dating while I was a graduate assistant coach with Bob Nichols’ men’s basketball team at Toledo for the 1980-81 season. 

I remember our third date like it was yesterday. After all, I took her to a basketball doubleheader—what young coed wouldn’t want that? 

As a graduate assistant coach in those days, you were often assigned to scout games of your team’s future opponents. We didn’t have the video capabilities teams have today. You had to scout a team in person rather than on a computer. I was to scout Alcorn State, which happened to be playing at Indiana in December of 1980 before visiting Toledo later that season. 

Back then, a lot of big schools would host three other teams for a two-day tournament. Often called “classics” or some other fancy name to give the event some pizazz, the idea was really just to hand the home team a couple of easy wins and send the crowds home happy. (To prove my point, the Indiana Classic was conducted annually from 1974 through 2000, and the host Hoosiers went 53-1, losing only to Indiana State in 1999, Bob Knight’s final year as IU’s head coach.) 

In 1980, Alcorn State, Baylor, and Cal provided the likely fodder for the Hoosiers. Coach Knight was in his heyday at that time, having led his squad to the 1976 NCAA title, and being on the verge of another national championship in 1981. 

Even though I was from Ohio and had no rooting loyalty for Indiana, as a basketball nerd I loved how Knight’s teams emphasized the passing game and played so unselfishly together. Knight was a celebrity by then and it was fascinating for me as a young coach to watch how his teams played. I didn’t think much of him then as a role model and still don’t, but it was hard not to admire his tactical mastery of the game. 

Given that, I was excited when Coach Nichols told me to drive to Bloomington, Indiana, for the first night of the Indiana Classic to scout the Alcorn State-Baylor game. 

I thought it would be cool to bring Terry, not just for the road-trip aspect, but probably to show off a little that I had a big-time task at one of the most storied basketball arenas in the country (when in fact what I was doing was pretty much grunt work). 

Traditionally Indiana played the first game of the Classic in order to be the prime-time show and not make the older fans stay late. So I wanted to arrive there early to see IU play before fulfilling my scout duties in the nightcap. 

Perhaps surprisingly, Terry said yes to all of this, even though she was facing a five-hour drive, a five-hour doubleheader, and a five-hour return trip. And here’s the kicker: As a scout, I was able to be on press row, while Terry had to sit by herself in the upper echelons of IU’s Assembly Hall. 

Yep, that was our third date. We’ve since been married for thirty-four years, so either Terry has learned to be patient with me, or she actually enjoyed this stuff. Maybe it was a little of both. 

I bring all of this up as a way of emphasizing that any job in athletics, whether it’s coaching or administration, will challenge your time-management skills. Let me rephrase that: If you intend to be good at any job in athletics, your time-management skills will be challenged. You must understand that as the leader, and you must take it into account when you set expectations for your staff. 

To be proficient at anything takes a time commitment, but athletics comes with the added bonus of having the actual contests occur on weeknights and weekends when people in other jobs are catching their breath. 

That means when it comes to balancing your work life and your personal life, you’re probably going to have to make some tough choices. I’m not trying to be doomsday about it. You can have a rewarding balance, but you might have to be a bit unorthodox about how you achieve it. 

Terry knew what she was getting into when we started seeing each other, probably even before that basketball-marathon third date. She knew I was dedicated to achieving my career goals, and that because I was in athletics, I wasn’t going to be as domestic as perhaps some guys in other jobs. 

I certainly knew what I was getting into and was determined to make it work. Some sense of balance in which I could achieve at a high level in my work and be a devoted and involved husband and father at the same time was needed. 

For me, there were only two things that mattered beyond my faith: family and work. So for many years personal time was hard to come by, but I found ways to compensate and make time for myself and for others. 

During my career, I was always realistic with young people in athletics, telling them that being an AD or an administrator or a coach is a time-intensive position. You have to make a commitment, because your life is going to be your work and your relationships with family and those close to you. Which means you’re not going to be able to do everything that maybe you’d like to do, and you’ll probably have to make sacrifices from your own personal life in order to make sure your work and family don’t suffer. 

How do you achieve any sense of personal balance when the world is going a hundred miles an hour around you? For me, I had to have some private, quiet time every day. I still do. 

When our children were living at home and of school age, once the first kid woke up and hit the shower to prepare for school, it was chaos—sometimes controlled, sometimes not. The noise level rose and the activity around our house approached warp speed. 

I have always been an early bird, while Terry was then and still is a night owl. Her job was to stay up and wait until all the kids arrived home safely from wherever they were. My role was to make sure they woke up, ate breakfast, made their lunches, and went to school on time. I used to feel like I had been through World War III before even leaving for work! 

Quiet time was a necessity before all of that. I would arise at 5:30 or 6 a.m. for some devotional time and reading. I am a Catholic Christian, so I start the day with a devotional reading from the Bible, followed by some prayer time to get me grounded (other religions encourage meditation as a similar way to find inner peace). After that, I’ll grab whichever book I happen to be reading. 

That’s just how I did it. You may not believe you need that kind of personal time, but I had to have it every day, even on the weekends.

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Surround Yourself with Successful People and Develop Them

(This is an excerpt from my book, Make One Play, that can be found on Amazon.)

Your business or organization probably has limitations as well. All do. If you are the leader, it is your job to find a way to be successful anyway. In some cases, perhaps the current people are the problem. What if you became the leader of the organization and discovered your work force was hinder­ing your success? In those instances, it may take several years to get the right people in place, but that has to be your first order of business. The top priority for leaders is surrounding themselves with the best people possible.

Even if you are not in a leadership position with an organiza­tion, or you are self-employed or a sole practitioner, align yourself with people/colleagues/business cohorts you can lean on professionally and personally for advice and friendship. In other words, surround yourself with people you can trust. Your chances of success will increase greatly!

Occasionally, there may be some people who just aren’t going to fit within your organization and you have to make a change. You may find you just cannot be compatible with your fellow workers for some good reason. Perhaps you just cannot do business with someone because of a difference in values. More often than not, though, wholesale changes tend to be a mistake. “Change agents” often discover they cannot hire peo­ple better than the ones they already have.

People need developing, just like whatever widget or service you are providing. Everybody has their strengths and weak­nesses. Work hard to identify the hidden talents of those you interact with, and then use them to construct stronger per­sonal and professional relationships. Usually it just takes time to make a relationship successful.

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A Story About Courage

(This is an excerpt from my book, Make One Play, that can be found on Amazon.)

Mike Spiros, the lawyer mentioned in the previous chapter on teaching, describes the courage it took for him to practice law on his own:

“I had a partner for the first nineteen years of my practice who decided to leave on short notice. I had never practiced en­tirely on my own and was faced with the prospect of handling high overhead and having to buy him out of not only his share of the practice but also of the office building that we owned together—all this while maintaining my teaching schedule and work I was doing as a statistician for the University of Toledo basketball team.

“The temptation was to give up teaching and/or the work with the basketball program, both of which I had a passion for, or scale way back on the practice, which would be difficult be­cause of the fixed nature of the overhead. What I did lacked drama or maybe anything worth writing about. I just decided to square my shoulders and continue on, put one foot in front of the other and not feel sorry for myself.

“It turned out quite well. Perhaps, without being told ex­plicitly, I had picked up the message that you’re going to face adversity at some point and how you handle it will have a lot to do with your success or lack thereof. The truth, though, is that I didn’t think of it that way at the time. No pep talk, no ‘you can do it,’ I just got up every morning and went about my business. Eventually I acquired another partner who has been with me ever since, and here we are.”

Many of you reading this are probably small-business owners with a small staff and can relate to Mike’s story. There was no fanfare, no pep talks, no board to provide advice or guidance, just his own will and courage to keep getting up every day and practicing law. Even though there may be only a limited staff around you on a daily basis, it is a story of courage. It is a story of success! You don’t have to influence hundreds of people to make an impact. Just keep getting up every day. Others will take notice, and you never know the positive influence you may have on them. People will recognize the courage it takes to start your own business, and as Mike said, square your shoulders, put one foot in front of the other, and keep going.

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A Fable About Sports and a Pandemic

Thomas was a sports junkie. When he was a kid, he couldn’t get enough of sports.  He was the kind of young boy that was described by his coaches as “he eats, sleeps, and drinks _________” (fill in the blank with football, basketball, or baseball, whichever was in season).  In summer he would golf for fun.  In winter he would bowl for fun.  He also loved to play ping pong, shoot pool, go swimming, race on the track. Thomas was a competitor.  Even board games or card games were competitions for him and since they kept score, he wanted to win!

When he grew into an adult he loved watching sports.  Attending in-person was his favorite entertainment where he would be a part of the roar of the crowd and hear the bands play to stoke his emotions.  It didn’t matter if it was high school, college, or pro sports.  The next best thing was watching sports on TV or on his mobile phone.  Sports took him away from the daily responsibilities of life and helped him, for a few hours, forget about the stresses that came with those responsibilities.  He was a part of a generation, thankfully for him, in which sports evolved from occasional entertainment to its own industry and he couldn’t get enough of it.

And then the pandemic hit. Thomas had played the board game, Pandemic, with his teenage kids.  He, of course, tried to win but it was challenging to be the player to discover the cures for all four diseases that have broken out before they wipe out huge amounts of the population.  When it occurred in real life, Thomas thought “Uh-oh, if this is anything like the board game, this is not good”!

At first, he paid scant attention to the news of the pandemic, thinking, “this can’t happen in 2020”.  And then March Madness was canceled.  That got his attention.  What were Americans going to do without bracketology!

And then all spring sports at every level were canceled.  The sports world was stunned.  How could we survive with sports?

Thomas realized that first weekend without live sports “gee, I now have to talk to my wife on the weekends”! After a few weeks of binging on several Netflix series and reruns of sporting events, he was ready for live sports again.  He kept hearing about the pandemic of 1918, the “Spanish Flu”, so he did a Google search and this was what he found,

“As the NBA prepares to resume play in its Disney World bubble and NFL and college football are planning their seasons in some form, they should visit the past to chart the future. They should start here: The 1918 World Series probably played a big role in starting a second wave of the deadly Spanish flu.

Looking at the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 is like looking in a mirror from 2020. Masks were de rigueur. In many cities, public gatherings were banned — schools, churches and businesses were shut down. Makeshift hospitals were built and filled. Sports canceled games and altered schedules. Governments suppressed news about the pandemic for political reasons.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about one-third of the world’s population was infected with the Spanish flu virus and at least 50 million people died.

And that was only half of the nightmare that the world was living then. World War I was raging simultaneously. World war and a virulent virus created the perfect storm for a pandemic, a contagious illness and a rapid means of spreading it. Millions of soldiers were sent to war around the globe, sowing the virus wherever they went.”

Again Thomas thought “uh-oh, this ain’t good”!  

As important as sports were to him, Thomas came to understand that life would go on in America without sports just fine.  He recalled seeing stats of pro leagues where there were gaps in the annual stats that said: “no contests” or “shortened season” due to a pandemic and/or a World War and sports came back stronger than ever.  

Thomas took comfort in that because of his belief that history will repeat itself and he’ll once again walk into a football stadium with his heart thumping to the marching band sounds and hear the bouncing basketballs and the squeaking of the sneakers while the pep band juices the crowd and experience the thrill of seeing that beautiful green baseball field again when he walks through the entrance.

In the meantime, Thomas the sports junkie realized he rather enjoyed his walks with the family, dinner at the dinner table with every member of the family, paying more attention to national and world news, reading more than watching “mindless” television, working at improving his spiritual life, and getting more rest due to the less “busyness” in his day.  He didn’t feel rushed to do everything every day just so he could enjoy watching sports.  

Thomas chuckled to himself as he realized: “yeah, I could live without sports”. But in his next thought, he said: “but I can’t wait until they come back to normal”!  

Editor’s note - This too shall pass folks.  Hang in there.  Wear a mask in public, wash your hands a lot, practice physical distancing, and if you aren’t feeling well, don’t go to school or work.  We’ll get through it as previous generations have.  Let’s do it better though and lessen the suffering by taking it seriously.  

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The Last Four Months

The Last Four Months

 Your immediate reaction probably was “Oh, Tim is writing about the pandemic”.  Wrong.  I want to tell you about something I decided to do four months ago and the positive effect it has had on me.  View it as a way I found time for more balance in my life.

 One of the things we Catholic Christians do well is our practice during Lent, the 40 days preceding Easter.  During Lent, which this year began around the same time as the pandemic hit our country, Catholics begin a practice of fasting, prayer, and penitence beginning with Ash Wednesday (you may have seen us walking around with ashes in the sign of the cross on our foreheads), until Holy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter). Lent is often portrayed as the time Catholics give up chocolates or other sweets.  While that can be a worthy practice for those addicted to Snickers bars and Krispy Kremes, the intent is to deny oneself something to focus more on spiritual matters.  At least that’s my interpretation.

 Over the years I have done a variety of things in practicing the fasting part of our Lenten practice. Sometimes, yes, it has been fasting from certain foods that I know aren’t good for me (FYI – I have a sweet tooth).  At other times, and perhaps more meaningful, I have fasted (abstained) from behavior or a habit that is not healthy (e.g. picking or biting my fingernails when nervous – I have broken that bad habit with decent, not perfect, results 😊).  

 So I decided this year that a good Lenten practice would be to abstain from watching any political talk shows and I am a significantly healthier human being because of it.  It doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or Republican or Independent (like me), political talk shows are often a waste of time and energy (as are partisan political social media sites).  You see, those shows (sites) are designed to tell you how you should think.  God gave us each a brain to decide for ourselves on these issues.  Use it.  Yes, perhaps you want to discuss a political issue with someone or talk about an election. That’s ok.  When you watch those “news channels” that spout their opinions more than news, know that those people (and you know who they are) are paid A LOT of money to tell you how to think.  Think for yourself.  They don’t want you to do that because they wouldn’t make millions of dollars (and that is what they make) if their ratings go down and oh, by the way, their ratings go up when they stoke your emotions by saying the most extreme things, which helps divide our country.

 You might think I abstain totally from the news.  Actually, knowing what is happening in the country takes about 5 minutes of reading and you get the gist of it.  Read the headlines on a news app (USA Today for example) and you’ll figure it all out in no time!  During the pandemic, I did watch when medical people like Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, and other medical experts were speaking to be informed about the pandemic.  When the channel would move on to the opinions I would tune out.  As Jon Stewart has said, “the 24-hour news cycle was meant for things like 9/11, hurricanes and other natural disasters”.  It wasn’t meant for the ad nauseum discussions about politics.  

 In addition to political talk shows, I also decided to abstain from sports talk shows (that was pretty easy since there have been no sports the past four months).  I mean, how many different people does one need to listen to during a game tell me what I just saw?  Another annoyance is the all day long sports talk show people (e.g. Mike and Mike or Golic and Wingo or other fill-in-the-blank know-it-alls that make millions by blathering on about last weekend’s games). As someone who has spent a lifetime in sports, I enjoy listening to former coaches who can explain strategy well.  Some are entertaining, I’ll grant you that.  However, again, know that YOU PAY for the millions of dollars those people make to TALK ABOUT SPORTS (something you and your friends probably do all the time at about the same level of knowledge as most sports talk show hosts). And the radio guys, their job is also to stoke your emotions by saying something outlandish about your team so more people call in so ratings go up so they can make more money.  AND ALL OF THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ACTUAL PLAYING OF THE SPORT!

 So right about now, you are saying, “yeah but Tim, I like the entertainment factor and it helps me get my mind off of the daily grind so that provides me with some balance”.  I get that.  But the pandemic has shown us there are other, more productive ways to do find balance in your life.  Take the family for a walk (at a park perhaps where you can enjoy nature), have dinner together with no TV (yes, talk to one another), read a good book (perhaps a good book on defeating racism would be a good one for you during this time of social injustice in our country), or perhaps just enjoy some quiet time somewhere in a world that never stops making noise.  That’s what talk shows are – NOISE!  I have found that I am a better human being with less of this noise in my life and I encouraging you to try it.  I wonder what the talk show people would do if everyone tuned them out?  I suppose we should ask some sports talk people who are currently worried about their jobs if there are no sports for another length of time?  They would take that question and turn it into 3 days of “coverage”!  Meanwhile, you could be exercising while they blather on and be healthier in every way!

 Most of these people are probably not bad people and are just trying to make a buck like everyone. Some of them do not have good intentions in my opinion.  No matter, you will be better off tuning out the “noise” and finding some constructive ways to find balance in your life.  Try it!

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Leadership During a Crisis

Leadership During a Crisis

I don’t profess to have all the answers on leadership but I have learned a few lessons about leading that I want to share.  Leadership is not easy during a crisis, but one rule of thumb of leadership to always use in a crisis is “better safe than sorry”.  For that, I applaud the current leaders in government, school, sports and entertainment for their decisions to cancel events indefinitely.  When there are unknowns, as there are now, error on the side of safety versus games, championships, money, etc.  

When things go bad like when a pandemic hits, revert to the fundamentals of successful leadership.  Here are some fundamentals of leadership as food for thought to all leaders out there in the “real world”.

Maintain Balance – All crises fall somewhere between “the sky is falling” and “it’s a hoax”. As the leader, be intensely concerned without panic.  Work (repeat – WORK) at keeping your emotions under control.  You are the leader.  Everyone is looking at you during a crisis.  KEEP YOUR POISE!  You’ll make better decisions during a crisis if you do.  You probably won’t be right 100% of the time because it is a crisis, but KEEP YOUR POISE!  When the opportunity arises, try to get your mind and body away from the crisis for even a short time period.  In other words, try to stay as fresh as possible by resting properly, exercise (even if it is just a short walk), spend time with family, or read a good book.

People Make You Successful - Crises are why surrounding yourself with the best people possible is a critical fundamental of successful leadership and now is the time to utilize the good people around you.  You are in the proverbial foxhole and hopefully, you have surrounded yourself with people you want with you at this time.  Rely on trusted advisors and staff. Yes, a vaccine for this virus is critical but it is people working at producing this solution that will get us through it.

Teach - Teach everyone around you how to successfully handle a crisis by your thoughts, words, and actions.  Think of the best teacher you ever had and ask yourself what characteristics of this teacher caused me to believe him/her was the best teacher I ever had.  Then emulate that great teacher during the crisis.

Courage– Be honest.  Always. That takes courage.  Don’t sugarcoat the problem but don’t exaggerate it either.   The word toughness gets thrown around too often when it is usually associated with talking tough with weak actions.  We find out during a crisis which leaders have true toughness.  And (repeat after me) BE HONEST and KEEP YOUR POISE when things go bad – that’s toughness!

Positivity – Be genuinely, intensely concerned but also be encouraging.  People need encouragement.  Provide genuine encouragement.  No, this is not a happy time and it will be a while before you can lighten up, but people also want to follow someone that genuinely projects a positive countenance and encouragement.  Provide it!

Unselfishness – Think of those under your watch before you think of yourself at all times. If you help them through this, you will get through it.  Servant leadership is the best leadership there is.  Now is the time to be a servant and help others somehow, some way. Now is the time to teach those around you how to be a servant leader.

Commitment – This is NOT the time for you the leader to take a vacation.  Cancel your vacation until the crisis has passed. You will be tired when this crisis is over.  You will spend more time on your workday than usual dealing with this crisis.  Wake up and do it again the next day until the crisis has passed. That’s the price of leadership.  You will take a few punches throughout this crisis.  That’s the price of leadership.  You won’t have much personal time.  That’s the price of leadership.  You won’t get much credit for anything.  That’s the price of leadership.  But……. If you can stick to these fundamentals, you can minimize the damage and come out of the crisis as an organization better prepared for the next one and your team will be more unified.  That’s the REWARD of leadership!  

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Blog #50 - It’s a Plan, by Definition it’s Strategic!

One of the great contributions, or not, to the vocabulary of a countless number of organizations in the past fifty years has been the term strategic plan.  A plan is no longer good enough. We have to attach the word strategic to it as if the word plan is not enough.  Businesses used to have a business plan, now they must have a strategic business plan.  It sounds better I guess.  Let’s make no mistake about what this author feels about this subject.  An organization needs a plan.  If you want to call it strategic to sound military-like, that’s fine.  However, it’s the planning that is most important!

Here’s what usually happens when someone (usually leadership that doesn’t know what to do or is afraid to do) decides the organization needs a strategic plan.  They form the obligatory “strategic planning committee”.  Those invited to be on this committee obtain a feeling of great importance.  In reality, this means leadership has just ceded the future vision of the organization over to people who will never have to take responsibility for the successes or failures of the organization.  These committee people will gladly accept credit if all goes well with the organization but if it fails, they hide and leadership will take all of the blame.  Therefore, as the leader, do you really want to put your future into the hands of well-meaning people that aren’t paid to do what you do…..lead!  Furthermore, a primary responsibility of leadership is to plan so leaders out there, if you aren’t taking control of the planning process in your organization you might as well go back to the rank and file because you are abdicating a huge responsibility of yours.

Make no mistake most intentions in the strategic planning process are well-intended.  However, in higher education, in particular, strategic planning becomes more of a wordsmithing exercise than a planning exercise.  If you are like me, you have seen numerous strategic plans that have 5 themes, 4-5 goals under each theme, and sure as shootin there will be objective number 4.2.16 under one of the goals. By the time the reader of the strategic plan gets to the second objective he/she has probably tuned out. This large document, or cool-looking pamphlet in an expensive format, will sit on everyone’s shelves for the next five years until another strategic plan is needed.  And heaven forbid we attempt to accomplish a goal before it’s designated timetable on the chart says so.  I have heard of organizations that have been able to secure funding for something but the leader has said no we can’t do that because our strategic plan says we are supposed to do it 3 years from now.  How stupid is that!

Although organizations try to make it be, this is not rocket science folks.  Here are a couple of suggestions for your organization for the next strategic planning process:

·       Keep it simple. The key to a good plan is one in which every member of the organization understands it, most importantly, YOU THE LEADER must understand it.  Forget the traditional, business-college production with all of its numbered everything and MAKE A PLAN and describe the plan in words everyone can understand. The end result will be better!

·       You who are leaders…….LEAD!  YOU assume leadership of this plan.  YOU lead the process.  YOU express YOUR vision of what YOU want the organization to be.  THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE PAID TO DO!  You are NOT paid to let others conduct the planning of the organization for you (although in many places there are leaders being highly paid and they don’t do any of this).

·       Instead of worrying about numbering things and sticking dates on everything, go through each area of your organization and develop a plan for each area.  The “big picture” vision for your organization may be something like “consistently be in the top 10% of our industry in market share” or some such thing you as the leader determines as the vision of where you want your organization to be.  People understand that.  They don’t understand Objective 6.3.8 is part of Goal 4.2.3. Think (and by the way, thinking during this process is more important than talking) about what you the leader wants to be done. Write it out plain and simple so everyone understands it.  That’s a plan.  It’s written down and you the leader can be held accountable for it.  Yes, there are specific things that need to be done to accomplish goals but most people in their area understand those things.  How many times have you heard coaches say they have cut back on what they are teaching and they are simplifying things to get better results.  Again, this is not rocket science.  Keep it simple.

·       It is fine to develop several different documents from the plan.  The internal plan, the one that really matters, is the one that is detailed and the leadership of the organization must know and understand this one inside and out.  If, as the leader, you want a document for external constituents (shareholders, customers, donors, etc.), create a simplified version of the plan that is attractive to these constituents and “tells your story” in a pamphlet-type document.  If you want something for your employees, just print the vision on something they can stick above their computers and see every day.  It can include your company’s slogan and three key goals for the future. That’s it.  The employees need to be focused on their jobs to make the plan successful.  They aren't being paid to create the plan.  Yes, you should get their input as they are usually the ones where “the rubber meets the road” and know how the organization can best be successful, but they aren’t the planners.  You, the leadership, are!

·       On an annual basis, update the plan.  That might mean re-writing all, some, or none of it.  But you must update it annually (or more if you desire).  The “Strategic Plan 2025”, that sits somewhere on shelves or in PC files that nobody pays attention to because the Strategic Planning Committee has disbanded because their job is done until 2024 and we form a new committee, is a recipe for long-term failure (the word long-term is key by the way; yes some goals are shorter term than others but the leader must think long-term if he/she wants to produce an organization that attains success over time).  Your plan should be updated in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.  Things change and as the leader, you must have the flexibility to adjust the plan when you, the leader, see fit!

The moral of this story is that planning is the responsibility of leaders.  Be a leader and do it.  Keep it simple.  It doesn’t have to be the complicated affair most make it in order to justify their jobs.  Think!  Make it understandable for everyone!  PLAN! If you’ve done those things you have been strategic so you don’t need to describe it as such.

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Blog #49 – Cheer for the Little Guy……but Beware the Cost!

              March Madness has begun. We all love it.  One of the best parts is to root for that low seed against the big boys (e.g. St. Bonaventure over UCLA).  It is always great to watch a Hoosiers (my favorite) movie-like scenario play out.  I grew up in a small town of 400 people and I root for the little guy as well.  I hope we get a Cinderella team or two we can cheer for.

              Having said that, most of the “little guys” are spending a good deal of money to get about 5-6 days of publicity.  And for most of them, the publicity bump their schools get only happens about once every 10 years or so.  It costs a lot of money to play Division I athletics for these schools.  Many of the “little guys” do not generate enough revenue to cover the costs of their men’s basketball programs, let alone all of their athletics programs.  You will hear some of them talk about the increase in applications but don’t be deceived by that.  It doesn’t last and after the one run they have in the tournament every 10 years, their applications remain the same.  Fundraising might get a slight bump in that one year and then it too returns to normal levels.  

              Meanwhile, at these schools, i.e. the “little guys”, students pay for intercollegiate athletics through fees or other forms of institutional funding that is prioritized for Division I athletics over other areas of the institution.  Every school has to make decisions for what is best for their school.  If that is their priority, they have the right to choose that.  All I’m saying is that it comes at a cost…..and students pay that cost.  In an age of high student debt, I believe it is ok to question that priority.

              There are 351 Division I basketball playing institutions.  68 make the Big Dance every year.  Most of the 68 are from Power 5 conferences or other major DI conferences.  The number of “little guys” that make it is very small.  Mathematics verify that.  There is a high number of “little guys” that do not make it.  Many of them aspire to be the next Gonzaga or the next Butler. What many fail to realize is that Gonzaga and Butler have had excellent traditions in basketball for decades. The chance, in today’s world, of any of them becoming the “next Gonzaga or Butler” is miniscule……and it comes at a high cost.  They will spend a lot of money for one shining moment that lasts about a week until they play against a high seed. Think about the names of the schools over the years you have watched in the tournament ONE TIME.    

              So why do they do it, i.e. compete in DI athletics?  Mostly it is ego-fulfilling for everyone to say we are “DI”. Coaches, athletics directors, and yes, often presidents, believe it can be career enhancement for them.  There is also big money at the highest levels of college athletics.  The people in the positions I named at the highest levels are getting wealthy at an enterprise that was never intended to be a wealth creator.  It is education, a not for profit enterprise.  Human nature being what it is, people will always use others and their institutions for their own personal gain.  I don’t fault these people, but of the 351 basketball playing institutions, at least 51 of them do not belong there.  I can hear people now, “yeah right Tim, you were a DII A.D. so you think they should be DII”.  Yes, that’s part of it.  However, I also played Division I basketball at the University of Toledo and twice played on teams that made the Big Dance, once in the Sweet Sixteen.  The Mid American Conference is at a level significantly higher than the “bottom 51”.  Many of those are private, enrollment-driven institutions that are hurting for enrollment in today’s environment. If one of them can get an enrollment boost from an appearance in the DI tournament, good for them!  But for every one of them, there are 50 others trying to stay afloat financially.  

              All I’m saying is that in a world of scarce resources, which is the world at most institutions of higher education, students pay the freight for most of these Division I basketball-playing institutions.  They do not earn the money in revenue that the Power 5 conference schools do.  Somebody has to pay for these costs and students bear the burden.  So while we can all root for the “little guys this week”, it is important to keep it in perspective.  We fans get our “feel good” moments but it doesn’t feel good to the students who pay for it when they have huge loans to pay off upon graduation.  Division 1 athletics isn’t the only reason for that, but it contributes to a part of it at the Cinderella schools.  

              Here’s hoping for some bracket-busting upsets in the early runs and the little guys to get some much-deserved attention.  But let’s also deal with reality and beware the costs.

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Blog #48 – Finding the Sweet Spot in Work-Life Balance

As we head into the 2017-18 athletics year, I thought I would share some thoughts on maintaining a balance in your life for all of those in leadership positions in the world of athletics.  Actually, these are thoughts and beliefs that are good for anyone that is a busy professional!

I came across this statement on LinkedIn the other day:            

Idea of the Day: Work and life won’t be balanced all the time — but it could be over the long term. “If you want to achieve anything big, the chances are your life will get seriously out of balance for a while,” explains GLOBIS founder and president Yoshito Hori. 

There is no question that it is very difficult to have your life in perfect balance all of the time. I am working on a second book on the fundamentals of leadership to follow up my first book, Anchor Up, Competitive Greatness the Grand Valley Way. Consider this blog piece a preview of a section on being balanced in your life as well as in leadership.  As the quote above says though, being balanced can be very difficult, but there are some things you can do to try to stay in balance as much as possible.

Most people function best when they have some balance in their life, and that’s not always easy to achieve. Your family is important, your work is important, your health is important, your spiritual life is important, and your social life is important, etc. I don’t know about you, but when I neglect one of these areas of my life, not-so-good things tend to happen.  

If you’re a workaholic, then you tend to neglect your family life and health. There’s nothing wrong with working hard and being committed to achieving your full potential.  But you must have balance in your life to truly reach your full potential as a leader for the long term!

On a daily basis, finding time for all of these important things in your life might be difficult. Some days are just busier than others at work and you don’t have time for other things.  Perhaps it would help if you think of the entire week and while you may be working on a big project at work that is taking up the vast majority of your time that Monday through Friday, get away from it and find family time on the weekend, or a Friday night dinner with your spouse, partner or significant other.

You might be like me as well in that there are times you MUST have some privacy.  There are moments as a leader when EVERYONE is vying for your time and attention and you just need to get away from people for a while. In order to get some privacy, here are a few things I did to help “balance” me:

·        I would always get up early in the morning before the rest of my household so I could have a devotional time as well as do some reading while having my morning coffee and breakfast.  I am usually up between 5:00 and 6:00am most mornings so I use that time to get “centered”. My reading during the day to day grind was books on “other” subjects than my own, which was my career in college athletics.  During the summer months was when I would read books on leadership or sports to improve as a professional, and yes, there were times I did that during the sport seasons as well, but I attempted to get some balance in my brain by getting away from sports during the heat of the battle.  If you work in a profession not in sports, perhaps you might read sports books to get your mind off work (Hey, I have a good suggestion for you – go to www.fivecountpub.com/anchorup! J).  Maybe you are a night owl and not an early bird like me.  If so, use that time after 9:00pm when the world quiets down to get off of your email accounts and social media and exercise your brain with reading material NOT of your profession.  Be balanced!

·        Speaking of exercise, ANY exercise is a great way to balance your workload with a healthy activity.  You’ll find it will bring mental and emotional balance too by doing some exercise during the work week.  Again, do what works for you!  I love to go for walks of 45 minutes to an hour.  I do some of my best thinking when I am on a “power” walk.  Most of the speeches I’ve given have been written in my mind while walking.  This past summer I began practicing yoga.  I wish I would have begun practicing yoga thirty years ago during my heyday as a professional!  It is a GREAT way to get a great workout in while finding balance in your entire being! Be balanced!

·        Going back to the quote at the top, all of us have a “busy season” and we also have a “down season”.  Ok, some of you are saying you never have a down time, but if you think about, there are times in every one’s work life that aren’t as busy as others.  So you have to look at those times as opportunities to find some balance and put emphasis on the areas of your life other than your work life.  I think the Europeans have that figured out better than we do in this country.  I have always gotten the impression that they take at least 6 weeks of vacation each year.  That seems like a lot but I am an advocate of 4 weeks of vacation. For me July was the “down time”. As my career unfolded, I found it helpful to take two straight weeks of vacation in July every summer.  I learned that I was just winding down near the end of week one.  If I went back to work after one week, I didn’t feel re-charged.  If I took two straight weeks, I would really get re-charged in week two and I would be ready and anxious to get back to work!  That is how you should feel after a break!  So take your vacations to balance out all of those days of work!  Be balanced!

·        I can hear some of you saying, “but I feel better when I am working and when I take time off I’m bored and get stressed from the boredom”.  Yes, we are all different and each of us must find our way of achieving balance in our lives, but sorry, I’m not buying that, as THE LEADER, you cannot find something else to occupy your mind and time and be a better leader for it.  Maybe it is just reading novels for a week or going camping or traveling away from home or visiting family.  Success in leadership is dependent on YOU, the leader, not being burnt out.  YOU, the leader, must bring energy every day. YOU, the leader, set the tone for your organization.  YOU, the leader, demonstrate to your staff that you can be successful while striving for balance in your life.  For every person who brags about the 80 hour work weeks he/she is doing I’ll show you someone who has something wrong in another area of their life and eventually, it catches up and destroys them.  Think long term!  Be balanced!

·        I was fortunate to have had the late John Savage as a mentor.  You’ll read some wisdom I gained from John in Anchor Up, Competitive Greatness the Grand Valley Way, as well as in my next book.  John was a giant in the life insurance industry.  If you are in life insurance, it is a MUST that you google John Savage’s books on selling life insurance and buy them.  You and your agency will become better for it.  John had a couple of sayings that illustrate the kind of balance I’m talking about. One is, “Work eight hours, sleep eight hours – just don’t confuse the two.” That’s a great one! Be balanced!

 Stay tuned for my next book on leadership in which I discuss finding balance in one’s life in greater detail among other fundamentals for successful leadership.  In the meantime, think long term in finding balance in your life.  It is rare to have life in complete and total balance all of the time, but over time, be disciplined enough to seek ways to be balanced. You WILL become a better leader if you do!  Be balanced!

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Blog #47 – Finding Real Competitors

 In my last blog, I defined what a real competitor is versus a fake competitor. If you haven’t read it yet, please take the time to read it before going any further.  Defining a real competitor is just the beginning of the process. Surrounding yourself with real competitors is the key to success for any business or organization.  You must find real competitors to have a successful team in any endeavor in life.  Let’s talk about how you can find real competitors to help you and your team achieve success.

 I referred to Gary Pinkel in my last blog.  Gary was the highly successful head football coach at the University of Toledo, where I had the privilege of working with him for six years, and then at the University of Missouri.  He will be in the College Football Hall of Fame.  When describing certain players that he loved as competitors, he would often say “that kid has it, whatever it is”!  So what is the “it” factor you need to be looking for in the people you hire? Perhaps there is no one single definition, but I would argue that those individuals that possess the “it” factor have a combination of passion for what they do, a burning desire to be successful, i.e. clearly evident, genuine desire to be the best they can be at what they do, a confidence that they will be successful, a work ethic that will propel them to success through tough times, the ability to handle adversity with maturity, the desire to solve problems, a love for their chosen endeavor, willingness to lead, etc.  No one person may possess all of these traits but perhaps they have a combination of them or one particular trait (e.g. love for their endeavor) is exhibited off the charts.  Find people with those traits for your team and you will find success.  So how do you do that?

 One of the best examples of a competitive environment is college athletics, where I worked for 35 years.  In fact, I believe I can make the argument that athletics may be the most competitive environment in today’s society except for the military.  I can hear people in business now saying, “no way, the business world is far more competitive”.  Here is my answer to that.  Take the typical collegiate athletic program.  Let’s use the Big Ten Conference as an example.  Any of those teams in the Big Ten, whether it is Michigan State, Iowa, Maryland, or Northwestern, has 13 fellow fierce competitors just in their conference!  Then, when you add in the other 51 schools in the Power 5 conferences (i.e. ACC, SEC, Big 12, Pac 12), you have 64 fierce competitors.  Now how many businesses have 64 fierce competitors?  If you are in the pizza business for example, you have Pizza Hut, Little Caesar’s, Papa John’s, Hungry Howie’s, Domino’s, and perhaps a few regional competitors.  Let’s be generous and say 6-8.  Cell phone companies? A few.  Amazon? A couple popping up maybe?  And so on to demonstrate my point that college athletics is as competitive an endeavor as most in life, minus the military.  A lot can be learned by all professions from how college athletics finds true competitors.  Here’s some advice that I hope will be helpful to you in searching for and attracting true competitors to your team

 First of all, it starts with you the leader.  If you aren’t competitive, true competitors probably aren’t going to come and work for you.  Keep in mind my definition of competitive greatness from my last blog taken from my book, Anchor Up, Competitive Greatness the Grand Valley Way, which is “coming through with your best effort and best performance when it is most needed”.  To have the capacity to do that, you must bring forth your best effort and best performance EVERY day!  Then you have to evaluate and master the ability to find that in others, and then of course, develop them.  The interview process is key!  When interviewing people, you MUST ask them questions that will get them to provide examples of their experiences that would indicate their level of true competitiveness.  For example, when hiring head coaches, I would ask candidates to “tell us about the toughest recruiting battle you were ever in and what was the result”?  If they couldn’t provide a specific example, they were probably “out” as a candidate! I didn’t worry about whether or not they actually signed that recruit, I wanted to know if they were going after the best student-athletes they could at whatever school they were at.  I wanted to hear how they went about trying to lure that prospect to their school.  I wanted to know how they responded to the competition in the recruiting process and were they able to handle “curve balls” thrown their way.  I wanted to hear if they did NOT sign that prospect, did they get “back in the saddle” and go right back after the next best recruit.  You can only find that out by seeking examples from candidates. Don’t ask them non-specific questions like, “how would you go about recruiting the best student-athletes”? Ask for examples in EVERY question you ask and listen carefully to the answers!  Find out their experiences, NOT their theories.

 Find out about ALL aspects of their life and ask them questions about it (those questions that you can legally ask).  Ask a candidate “name 3 things that motivate you”.  Their answer will tell you something about themselves.  There are similar questions you can ask (google them if you are searching for some) that lead candidates into telling you about themselves.  When I became Associate Athletics Director at the University of Toledo almost 30 years ago, my boss, Director of Athletics Al Bohl, used to ask candidates “name 3 people you admire”.  At first I thought it was corny, but as time went, I realized it was a great question as it really provided insight in to that person!  Seek examples and stories from candidates about themselves.  Bill Walsh, the late great NFL Hall of Fame coach described success in coaching football by making it a study of people!  It’s not about the fanciest plays or the coolest marketing slogan, to be successful in any endeavor in life it is about studying people to find real competitors for your organization.

 When we interviewed Dave DiIanni at Grand Valley State to be our head women’s soccer coach (Dave won 3 national championships at GVSU and is now head women’s soccer coach at the University of Iowa), within the first 5 minutes of the interview, I remember writing down the note “this guy can really teach his sport”! He was teaching us, the search committee, how to be successful in the sport of soccer and he wasn’t talking at all about techniques in kicking a soccer ball.  He talked about competitiveness and how to teach it to your team!  He showed the “it” factor immediately in his interview!

 We had a student-athlete at Grand Valley named Matt Williams, who just completed a great career as both a standout in football and baseball at GVSU. I always encouraged coaches to find multi-sport athletes because they usually loved competition.  They had the passion and work ethic to be good in 2 sports, which demonstrated true competitiveness.  Matt was a great wide receiver at GVSU, not because he was the fastest guy out there but because he competed for every pass thrown his way and had a tremendous determination to be the guy that caught it.  In baseball he was our closer, i.e. the relief pitcher who came in and finished off the game by shutting down the opposition so our team would maintain its lead and win the game.  During his junior and senior seasons, he was the best closer in NCAA Division II baseball. In one particular game in his junior year during the conference tournament, he came in and failed to maintain the lead.  He had a string of something like 35 straight scoreless innings as a pitcher, some unreal string of success.  But in this particular game he gave up the tying run.  He didn’t close it out.  But in our next at bat, he was the leadoff hitter.  He promptly came up and hit a walk off home run that won the game for us. He was so determined as a competitor that when he failed as a pitcher, he was going to solve that problem at the plate when we came up to bat.  That’s a true competitor…….solving the problem!

 Some people are more willing than others to “raise their hand”, meaning they are anxious to be in the middle of the battle.  Find out as much as you possibly can about people you are trying to hire for your organization.  Find those people with the “it” factor and you will find success as a leader!

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