A Passion to Lead by Jim Calhoun
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A Passion to Lead by Jim Calhoun I love the challenge of building a new team every year – taking a new collection of kids and trying to turn them into winners. Athletic skills have a short shelf life. Most professional athletes are back in the real world by age thirty or thirty-five, and basketball skills don’t’ help much then. Character and judgment will shape the rest of their lives. I want every kid, first, to value himself and his potential as a human being. I want him to learn that getting a good education is important; that being dependable and responsible to yourself and your family, friends, and teammates is vital; there is no substitute for hard work; and that the need to broaden yourself never ends. It’s not hard to put together one good, or even great, year. But strong legacy organizations are different. They capture lightning in a bottle almost every year, because they have people and values that perpetuate their success – year after year. We share an identity, and we share the same goals: to improve individually, to work hard, to act responsibly, and to value the team’s success more than any individual accomplishments. Once you make a great leap forward, everybody expects you to jump at least as far, if not farther, the following year. The competition gets harder. There is more pressure. There are many good basketball programs in the country, all trying every year to win the NCAA title. Doing so requires a lot of talent and a helluva lot of hard work. Winning, in the general sense, is a lifelong process. It’s a learning process, and for most people, it never tops. There are setbacks along the way-failures. You exert great effort, start rolling the rock-your goals-up the hill, then watch in horror when you lose your grip and the boulder goes tumbling back down the incline. You’re lucky it didn’t roll over you. Then what do you do? Give up? Run away? Or do you walk back down the hill, grab hold of that damn rock, and start pushing it up the hill again redoubling your effort because getting it up and over the ridge means something to you? Those who succeed in life-on the job and at home-have a strong sense of themselves. They have a sense of purpose. They know what they want, and they are passionate about getting it. Winning lives are not built easily or quickly. Nor are first-rate organizations. The vast majority of successful companies are built painstakingly-with blood, sweat, and tears. They are made successful over time by people who are strong, productive, and creative. The more passion and energy you have, the more things you’re likely to get done in the course of a day or a week or a year-and the better off you and your organization will be. It’s called being productive-and it means that you’re working harder than your competititors. Success starts with wanting to be successful. When you get up in the morning, you should have a pretty good idea of what you want to get accomplished that day. Think about what you want to get done this week, this year. Think about what you want to be doing in three years, or five years. Think ahead. Plan. Set goals, and then start to chase them. I’m in the business of motivating kids-and, importantly, trying to teach my student athletes to motivate themselves. A Passion to Lead by Jim Calhoun - 1 - Freshmen don’t comprehend how organized they’ll need to be to handle the many new demands on their time- academic, athletic, and social. In college, the academic requirements are more rigorous. Before, athletic success came pretty easily, and everybody adored these players. In college, the competition will be much tougher, and the kids will have to work far harder to earn accolades from me or the other coaches. I tell my players constantly: you are accountable for your actions. I tell our young players all the time that they wouldn’t be wearing a Connecticut basketball jersey if they weren’t special players and special people. I want every kid who plays for us to believing in himself-totally-even as we break him down a bit to start the process of making him stronger. My message is this: “ I know you want to be special, and you will be. But you’ve got to be willing to sacrifice to reach your goals.” VJ Singh – For years he dreamed of winning at Augusta. He knew that there was only one thing he could do to make it happen-practice. Practice like a man possessed. He was fanatical about practice. Commitment. Commitment. It was not luck. It was Commitment. You don’t know what your limits are unless you test them-unless you keep raising the bar. What is a basketball game? It’s really a long series of little battles played out over forty minutes, hundreds of momentary skirmishes – battles for loose balls and rebounds, one-on-one matchups between a guy who, with the shot clock running down, is going to shoot the ball and a defender who must keep him from putting it in the basket. Win enough of those little fights and you win the game. By doing lots of little things well, you’ve accomplished a very big goal. Basketball is, fundamentally, a simple sport: you move the ball around, try to find an open shot, and get the ball in the basket. To be productive in life, to make progress toward a goal, you have to perceive every hour of every day as important. “I will get ready, and then perhaps my chance will come.” –Abraham Lincoln Everything is precisely scripted to boost our productivity. It’s all about being efficient and accomplishing as much as we can in a short period of time. Sports are a great way to build character in young people in their formative years. Sports helped me tremendously in life. It kept me off the streets. It taught me the importance of being competitive. The parents have given me their kids and their trust. Their parents expect me to help their sons become better people and, yes, better basketball players. Some of the players want me to help them get into the NBA. That’s fine – so long as they come to understand that they won’t get there without a helluva lot of hard work, dedication, intelligence, and passion. Stuff happens. But don’t dwell on mistakes or failure. What’s important is that you take responsibility and move on. No leader can afford to let minor mistakes get him down. I make adjustments. A Passion to Lead by Jim Calhoun - 2 - You can’t be successful if you’re distracted, unhappy, or always wondering in the back of your mind if you made the right career move. I think that one of the things that separates good leaders from lesser ones is this: attention to detail.” Great teams of any kind are built on solid relationships. I tell my players to stay away from people with shady reputations. Your perception of yourself and others becomes reality. Isn’t it true? If you think you are not worthy of success, you’re doomed. Self-doubt is corrosive. On the other hand, self-confidence can enhance your performance and help you get through rough patches. Each of the great UConn players questioned their abilities at one time in his career. Each guy had a ton of talent, but each went through periods of self-doubt. I build my programs around the concept of family and togetherness. It’s a corny idea, but I believe in it. I demand that my players, and everybody else on the staff, get along. I don’t ask them to get along, I insist on it. I want my players and coaches to care about one another, and to help on another when needed. During games, I tell the guys all the time: “Don’t save your breath.” What I mean is, be an enthusiastic teammate at all times. If you’re in the game, give encouragement to your teammates as you’re running up and down the floor. Let the other guys know you’re fighting along with them. If you’re on the bench, don’t be selfish or quiet – cheer on your team. It’s a little contribution, but in the long run little things mean a lot. I let them know they are appreciated and that they’re important to the program. (Managers, Adm. Ass’t, Secretaries) The study found that poor producers tend to have a negative attitude, stir up trouble, blame others, lack initiative, and can be incompetent. In my business, a low performer might be a guy whose basketball career hasn’t progressed as he thought it might. Maybe he’s not playing a lot and that makes him unhappy. He develops a bad attitude, and then starts griping to his teammates and criticizing the coaches. Suddenly, there is a divisive element on the team. If we can’t find a way to bring some peace of mind to the malcontent, he could corrupt the attitude of the best players. And that can royally screw up a team. I make it clear from the get-go, every year, that I’m the boss, that we stick together , and that bad attitudes won’t be tolerated. You’ll never have a really strong organization if you, as leader, have to apply all the performance pressure yourself.