Monthly Archives: February 2014

Pete Carril, the outstanding former Princeton basketball coach, in his book, “The Smart Take From The Strong,” says the following about the basics. “One of the things I’m grateful for about my coaching career is that I started teaching guys to play in the tenth grade… I taught the basics.”

He went on to say, “Even at the college level, I always spent a good half hour on the basics. And one thing I noticed: Sometimes in an effort to shorten our practices, we cut out the basics. If we did that for a long period of time, the guys began to slip.”

Then going on to coach in the NBA, he said, “And now I’m teaching the basics to the pros.”

While we were speaking together at a basketball coaches’ clinic, Joey Meyer, the excellent DePaul coach, said this to me. “You’re lucky you began coaching at the high school freshmen level while I went from playing college ball directly to coaching at the collegiate level.”

I never thought of that before, but I was fortunate to begin at that level because I had to learn to teach the basics to these young players. And I carried that same concept into my thirty-four years of collegiate coaching.

Is it any different in business?

I always respected our Joliet 7UP Bottling Co. executives. From the president on down, when these folks graduated college and went to 7UP, they all began the same way – driving a truck to deliver the product. With this beginning, they learned the basics of the trade.

Tom Thayer, a starter on the Chicago Bears Super Bowl champions, never forgot where he came from. To this day when someone in Tom’s hometown of Joliet, Illinois needs help, they can count on Tom. He never forgot where he came from.

If you begin doing the basics and never forget that beginning, you will prevent slippage in your leadership role.

I recently read an article where the writer listed two non-negotiables in coaches: humility and non-stop learner.

I played college baseball with Ed Spiezio, who went on to be a Big League player with the Cardinals, Padres, and White Sox. Ed was by far the best hitter I have ever seen or played with or against in the Chicago area.

Leadership-Ed SpiezioPrior to Ed’s going to pro ball, we all played semi-pro baseball in the Joliet area. When we played at different parks on a Saturday afternoon and got together in the evening, Ed never talked about how he played unless someone asked him. It was not unusual for him to have hit two home runs that afternoon but I never heard him offer that information unless asked.

Everyone in our area was happy for Ed’s success in the majors because we all knew and respected him for his genuine humility.

Pete Tyrgovich played on Coach Wooden’s last UCLA national championship team. I’ll never forget Pete’s telling me that in his last year of coaching, at age sixty-five, Coach Wooden talked about how much he was learning about basketball that year. And this is the coach whose teams previously won seven NCAA tournaments in a row and ten in his last twelve years of coaching! So, arguably the best coach in collegiate basketball history, was a non-stop learner.

Every great leader I have ever known has embodied these two non-negotiables. They have been truly humble and never stopped learning.

As a leader, where do the best ideas for your organization come from?

I once heard that the mind is like a parachute. It works best when it’s open.

Through the years I have found that if you keep an open mind, you will find that you never know where the best ideas will come from.

When I served in high school administration, we always had a student, a senior, in our administrative cabinet. Each year it was a different student. I thought the best ideas annually came from that student.

I saw the same thing when, as the Athletic Chair at the university level serving close to 400 student-athletes in 14 sports, we established a Student Athletic Advisory Board composed of an athlete from each team. Some of the very best ideas we had for our Athletic Department came from these students. They brought ideas to our Athletic Department that we, as athletic administrators, never thought of.

As a collegiate basketball coach, we had to beat a certain team to advance to the national tournament. They had the best offense I had coached against in my forty-four years of basketball coaching. The coach with the least basketball coaching experience on our staff came up with the best idea to defend their offense. It was the singular best idea that advanced our team to the nationals.

In a recent blog post, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter calls for business leaders to “encourage new ideas, especially from below and from unexpected sources.” In short, she says that innovation is inclusive, not exclusive, and that it’s a mistake to assume that all of the good ideas come from an elite group of insiders. (Source)

The key, I believe, is for leaders to have an open mind and to be respectful of the resources you have around you. Everyone has unique experiences and insights that can be used to advance the greater good of the organization.

Keeping that parachute open can be the best thing a leader can do.