July, 2015 | Coach Pat Sullivan

30 Jul

Listening to the Other Guy

Henry Ford wrote: “If there is any secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as your own.”

The best leaders I have known do this very well.

I served on two cabinets in my educational career. One was led by our high school principal, Bishop Roger Kaffer and the other by our college president, Dr. Jack Orr. Both were exceptional leaders who did not push their respective points of view. They wanted to hear from everyone on the cabinet. They knew they had to make the final decision, but they strived to find the best solution.

Both the Bishop and Jack were much like Coach John Wooden who put it this way. He would tell his assistants the following. “Joe, I am not interested that we do it your way; Tom I am not interested that we do it your way; and equal to that, I am not interested that we do it my way. But among the three of us, can we find the best way.”

I know I always respected the Bishop and Jack for their willingness to really listen to the other guy’s point of view and I think there is the great value in giving others the opportunity to give their insights. That value is that the leader gains the genuine respect of the people on his/her team.

I may not have agreed with the final decision the Bishop or Jack made, but I never had any problem supporting it when we left the meeting because I had every opportunity to give my thoughts and I always respected that as the leaders, they had to make final decision.

I found the same thing in my coaching. At halftime of games, I would go off by myself to make decisions on the adjustments we could make for the second half while my assistants got together to do the same thing. We would then come together and give our opinions. There were times when I felt their thinking was better than mine and I went their way, just as there were times when I overruled them and went my way.

The bottom line was that never once after a game was over and we lost do I remember my assistants telling me how wrong my decision was or me saying that to them. I believe they knew how much I respected them and their decision-making and they knew I had to make the final decision.

Respect. Quality organizations develop respect between the leader and his / her team.

And they do that by seeing things from the other person’s point of view.

24 Jul

Simple Philosophies, Profound Impact

How often the simple is the profound. I do believe that in so many areas of life, we make things so complicated.

I once read that the entire law that was passed as Social Security was 17 pages long and this was certainly a law that has had a profound effect on all us retirees. But the Affordable Care Act is some 2,200 pages long. I am the furthest thing from someone who understands the workings of government, but was it necessary for the latter law to be some 2,180 pages longer?

I have always believed that teachers, coaches, and leaders can have a profound effect on those whom they mentor and when I look back at the leaders who influenced me the most, their philosophies were pretty simple.

Brother Paul French taught me that teachers have to demand work from their students if these students are truly going to advance in learning.

Brother Phillip Lynch taught me that teachers can genuinely care about the students in their charge well beyond the narrow confines of a classroom.

Dr. Jack Orr taught me that listening may be the strongest asset a leader can bring to his work.

Father, then Bishop Kaffer, taught me that if you really believe that something is necessary, one person can defy all the negatives and get it done.

Gordie Gillespie taught me many things, but when all was said and done, it got down to that you should strive to love those whom you coach.

Not one of the above lessons is complicated. They are all pretty simple philosophies, but the results of these lessons are truly profound.

The most profound things we can accomplish in our journey through life seem to be very simple as validated by some great minds.

Albert Einstein wrote, “I can see no other reason why we are here except to help others.”

The Prayer of St. Francis is one of the most simple prayers I have ever read, but if we could live its tenets like bringing joy, light, and hope, we certainly would have a profound effect on those we lead along the way.

Father James Keller, the founder of The Christophers, wrote, “Each of us has, by the grace of God, the power to change the world for the better. Every act of care and concern for others has a ripple effect, touching many lives.”

Again, how simple are these insights.

I have always thought that leaders can be more effective, the more they listen, a very simple concept.

My daughter, Colleen, taught me a profound concept on listening when she said she reminds herself each day, “That I will learn nothing today by my talking; but I will learn from my listening.”

Will Rogers may have summed it up best when he wrote, “Never pass up an opportunity to shut up.”

Another simple concept if we want to accomplish anything is we have to work.

Coach John Wooden said it simply when he wrote, “There is no substitute for hard work.”

Coach Vince Lombardi put it this way, “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”

How important is it to lead with teamwork?

Vince Lombardi wrote, “Individual commitment to a group cause is what makes a team, a business, a church, or a country work.”

John Wooden expressed it this way, “The main ingredient of a star is the rest of the team.” He also used to say, “It’s amazing how much can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit.”

Al McGuire told his Marquette players, “Either we all go uptown together or nobody goes uptown at all.”

Are not these concepts important for leaders… how we treat others, how we listen, how we work, and how much we strive for teamwork?

The effect of the above concepts on those whom we lead is profound. But the philosophies of executing them are pretty simple.

15 Jul

WORK: The 4-Letter Word That Underscores Leadership

It is such a simple concept.

How do you succeed in life? How do you make teams, businesses, or institutions succeed? There can be a number of reasons for success in any arena, but the one recurrent concept that always comes to the front is work.

Besides leading his team to the NBA championship, Stephen Curry was honored as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player this year. When you look at his physical body, then look at the size of the players he drives into as he attacks the basket, you hope he will come out alive!

Due to his size, the major colleges all decided not to recruit him. They simply felt he was too small to take the beating he would receive at their level. When he led Davidson, a mid-level Division 1 school that took a chance on him, deep into the NCAA tournament, he made believers out of all the coaches who passed on him.

But when he came to the NBA, the very same size concern followed him. The experts said he probably could not take the punishment.

Not only did he show people that he could play in the NBA, but that he could play at the highest level, the MVP – championship level.

How did he get from a player who was told all his life he was too small to play at the level he aspired to, to a player who not only made it to that level, but excelled there? The answer that I hear from him is just one word – work.

Vince Lombardi, the highly successful Green Bay Packer coach, used to tell his players, “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” UCLA’s John Wooden used to tell his players, “There is no substitute for hard work.” He also used to say, “Understand there is a price to be paid for achieving anything of significance. You must be willing to pay the price.”

Lombardi’s statement on surrender is exactly why you practice so hard. Having given all that work in practice, there is no way you are going to surrender in the game when the tough times come. Wooden’s statement on hard work says it all. If there is a substitute for hard work, what is it? His thoughts on a price to be paid seems to go right back to one word – work.

I have been fortunate to coach individual athletes and teams that were willing to pay the price. I cannot think of one of our athletes who made All-Conference to All-American who wasn’t a very hard worker, just as I cannot recall any team that won championships that did not work.

Athletics is definitely an arena where work is very evident. If you want to be good, you must pay the price. There are no short-cuts. But work most certainly transcends athletics. Success, in any venue, demands that the leader works and that he inspires others to follow suit. I saw that concept work at a high school and a college.

When I was teaching and coaching at Providence High School, the Bishop’s committee voted to close our school. After some months of reflection, the Bishop vetoed his committee, kept Providence open, and sent us an extraordinary leader to be our principal, Father Roger Kaffer. If you were going to work for Father Kaffer, you really had to make a commitment to work because his work ethic was off the charts! Providence today excels because of the work Father Kaffer did when closure was so imminent.

When I came to the College of St. Francis, the school, I learned years later, was almost bankrupt. Under Dr. Jack Orr’s leadership, St. Francis thrived. His total commitment to work for the good of the College laid all the groundwork for the College to later become the University of St. Francis. His work kept the University open. St. Francis today has been recognized as one of the best universities in the Midwest.

If leaders are to achieve success in their organization, they have to look at their work habits. They have to lead by their commitment to WORK.

09 Jul

Giving Back: A Leadership Lesson From Oliver Gibson

Oliver Gibson

I had the great opportunity of listening to Oliver Gibson last month at a Hall of Fame induction in Joliet. He was a football player at local Romeoville High School. He went on the star at Notre Dame and had a nine-year playing career in the NFL, including a Super Bowl appearance with the Steelers.

Oliver’s presentation was outstanding. He thanked his mother and father for all their encouragement and support and said how appreciative he was of his older sister whom he emulated both on the playing field and in the classroom. He told us how proud he was to come from the Joliet area because of the athletic reputation of our area. He then went on to say how fortunate he was to play for the coaches at Romeoville High School.

Toward the end of his presentation, he informed us that he accepted the head coaching position for the football program at Romeoville.

He said he was so pleased to accept this position because he now can give back all he received from his coaches. He is honored to have the opportunity to influence kids the way his coaches did for him.

Having coached for 44 years, I thought how blessed the players at Romeoville are to have a man like Oliver leading them because he really gets it. I don’t know if I can define and articulate “it,” but as my dear friend and fellow coach, Jack Hermanski, says, “I know ‘it’ when I see it.” And I saw it in Oliver last night.

Is this a good attitude for leaders to emulate when they accept their leadership positions? Is embracing leadership as an opportunity to give back a good way to look at it?

I believe the answer to the above questions is a definite “yes.” I think we all have been fortunate to have mentors along the way who helped us achieve in our chosen professions. They did not tell us how a leader should lead; instead, they showed us and they showed us on a consistent basis.

One of the concepts I took from the book, “From Good to Great,” was the friendship leaders in companies had with their team members when they retired. This seemed to be the case because when they were working together, the team knew how much the leaders cared for them beyond the narrow confines of a workplace.

Oliver is going into his leadership position looking to give back to the kids he will be coaching. I believe because of his attitude that when he finishes his coaching career, he will have many life-long friends from the players he coaches because he is entering the profession from a great foundation – to give back.

-Pat