January, 2014 | Coach Pat Sullivan

30 Jan

Leadership Lessons from Spin Class

“Finish strong!” hollers the spin class instructor.

I ask myself: “Finish strong? Heck, I didn’t know we were close to the finish line.”

Facilitated by a good leader, spin classes can be a great, low-impact cardio workout. Good instructors take class members on a journey that transcends peddling a stationary bike in a dark room. A class lacking a game plan and good communication certainly creates a less inspiring experience.

I am certainly not qualified to teach a spin class but my experience as a participant for the past 10 years at various fitness clubs has provided me with some thoughts on what works and what doesn’t. The experience has also provided an interesting comparison to other team training environments, such as basketball. Like coaches in other sports, I believe exercise instructors are more effective when they communicate clearly about where they want to take the team.

So, if I were asked to speak at a “coach-the-coaches” clinic for spin class instructors (not likely anytime soon, by the way), here are two pieces of advice I’d impart:

Start and finish the class on time. Attendees are making a point to be in your class and prepared prior to the start time. The instructor should have the respect and professionalism to follow suit.
Inform your participants about the journey before it starts. Will it be a series of intervals and hills or a long, heavy endurance ride? Athletes are inspired by leaders with a vision. Where are we going and how are we going to get there? Spin instructors without a game plan for each session are likely to be perceived as uncommitted and ineffective.

Each segment of the imaginary ride should be telegraphed. For instance, if we will be starting a 5-minute gradual hill climb, let the cyclists know. Providing periodic progress reports during the segment (“Two minutes down, three to go!”) is also a good thing. Barking out “Gear up!” every 20 seconds does not qualify as good communication.

Good coaches share their vision with their respective teams. Whether that vision relates to season-long goals (Ex: “advance to the playoffs for the first time in school history”), individual practice sessions (Ex: “focus on ball-handling fundamentals, individual defense and our fast-break offense”), or the segments within the practice session (Ex: “the next 10 minutes will be dedicated to strong- and weak-hand ball-handling before we take a 2-minute break and then move on to our press break), good coaches communicate early and often.

I had the good fortune of playing college basketball for an excellent leader, Pat Sullivan. He set the bar high in terms of communicating goals and objectives for our teams. Each season and individual practices were meticulously planned in advance. Each player on the team had a strong sense of what we were doing and why, and the length of time required to work hard in a particular area of the game. We were actively engaged because we knew where we were headed and could clearly see the pathway to get there.

In sum, leadership that expects to drive teams to achieve common goals, and individuals to achieve personal goals, requires solid planning and frequent communication.

-Guest Blog by Tom Kennedy

Tom Kennedy is the Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications at Republic Financial Corporation, a Denver-based private investment firm.

20 Jan

The Little Things

John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball coach used to say, “If you take care of the little things, the big things take care of themselves.”

Bob Boyd, the former University of Southern California basketball coach, used to say, “It’s not what you teach, it’s what you emphasize.” And if you emphasize the little things, the big things do fall into place.

As most successful basketball players and coaches can attest, investing quality time practicing free throws can pay substantial dividends in the big game. A former St. Francis player and current youth basketball coach reports that after spending considerable practice time this season on free throws, his 7th grade team recently went 21-of-30 at the line to easily defeat a much larger 8th grade team. Final score: 49-28. Yes, they won the game by the exact amount of free throws they made.

When I asked Dr. Jack Orr, the president of the College of St. Francis for nineteen years, what was the most important thing he did to have such a successful presidency, his answer was, “Attention to detail.”

How do leaders give attention to detail?

I think the best way is the written word. We had an event at St. Francis that brought a celebrity from the world of sport to a fundraising dinner. We averaged approximately 600 people in attendance annually.

There was a great deal of detail that went into planning for this fundraiser. We developed a ten page document delineating all the detail that had to be executed to make the program successful. Every year we would begin our first meeting by going over this document and assigning a person or persons for each detail.

This program has now had a 36-year run. I believe its success is due to the attention paid to the little things.

As Apple founder Steve Jobs said, “Details matter, it’s worth waiting to get it right.”

02 Jan

Living Simply, Leading Simply

An ABC newscast recently featured Pope Francis and emphasized that he is living simply and that his life-style is having a profound effect on people – Catholics and non-Catholics alike. His impact has been so great that Time Magazine named him its 2013 Person-of-the-Year.

Isn’t it amazing how the simple can often be the profound?

It seems that throughout history, we have had so many leaders surround themselves with all things majestic. They use material things to show the rest of us that they are the leaders. They are above us. They separate themselves from us. They are the leaders and their surroundings express their supreme position.

Then we have leaders like Gandhi and Mother Teresa. They are leaders who walk with the people – not above them – and they are leaders who truly make a difference.

Gandhi summed up his leadership style with this simple quote, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

Mother Teresa explained her philosophy of leadership when she said, “Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person.”

Pope Francis seems to fit the Gandhi/Mother Teresa mold and maybe he is teaching all leaders that we don’t need to be surrounded by all the hoopla. Instead, it is leading simply that has the most impact on those we lead. “Don’t wait for people to come ringing. You need to go out and look for the poor,” he said in describing his leadership values.

Leaders can learn from these leaders by living simply and leading simply.