Book Notes From 'You Win in the Locker Room First' By Jon Gordon & Mike Smith
Commitment
- It's not about you
- It's about committing
yourself to your team.
- Commit if You Want to Commit
- The hen is involved in
creating the eggs for breakfast, but the pig is committed.
- He has to sacrifice
everything
- To be a great leader, coach
and team member you must be more than involved - you must be committed.
- Self-evaluation to make sure
that his or her level of commitment is greater than that of anyone else
in the organization.
- Create the right environment
for your team to thrive, grow, improve and enjoy the journey.
- You have to show your team
that you are willing to do whatever it takes to help them be the best
they can possibly be regardless of their stage of growth.
- Commitment is something you
should spend more time demonstrating than talking about.
- When you are committed,
everyone knows it and your team feels it.
- There's no way you will get
buy-in unless you demonstrate your commitment to them first.
- They have to know that you
are there to serve, teach and coach.
- You demonstrate this
commitment each day with the time you give your team and your willingness
to server them and help them improve.
- Commitment Begins with the
Leader
- I knew Arthur Blank, teams
owner, was a man who was committed to his team and to winning.
- Co-founder of Home Depot -
was always impressed with how the associates in the stores were so
helpful.
- They made it clear that they were there to
serve people
- I knew this commitment to
service didn’t begin on the front lines an in the stores - to have such
committed employees, I knew Arthur Blank had to be a man who believed in
serving his team.
- Commitment begins at the
top.
- Feeling is More Powerful than
Seeing
- Coach K took his the USA
team to West Point
- Coach K knew the players
wouldn’t fully understand how special the place was by hearing him talk
about it.
- They had to experience and
feel it.
- "You can't talk about
this place, see a movie about this place, you have to feel this
place."
- Coach K new it was the same
when talking about service and sacrifice
- The players may have
understood the concept of service and sacrifice before, but after seeing
the graves of fallen soldiers, listening to personal stories of service
and sacrifice and feeling the loss of the family members, they truly got
it.
- Feeling is more powerful
than hearing.
- Your team must feel your
commitment - not just hear it.
- When we hear from a leader -
we will learn; but when we feel a leaders commitment - we will be
transformed.
- Serve to Be Great
- A team feels a leaders
commitment when the leader takes the time to serve.
- Great leaders know that
their job is to serve teams
- When you serve the team, you
help them grow and they help you grow.
- You can't serve yourself and
your team at the same time
- You must decide if you are
going to be a self-serving leader or a true leader who serves others.
- Self-serving leaders don't
leave legacies that change the world for the better.
- True greatness is achieved
when a leader brings out the greatness in others
- Great leaders and coaches
are great servants.
- The big questions you must
ask yourself each day are.
- What am I doing to serve my
team and the people I lead?
- How can I serve them to
help them be the best versions of themselves?
- How can I demonstrate my
commitment to them?
- Commitment Starts at Home
- I think as leaders and
coaches we think that commitment, leadership and service are all about
the big things but really they are about doing the little things to let
your team know you are there for them.
- How important it is to
commit at home.
- It doesn’t matter how much
success you have in your career - if you fail at home you are a failure.
- Commitment is Spelled T-I-M-E
- My word for the year was
going to be 'serve'
- I had to start serving at
home. I had to show them I was committed to them.
- Making the time to serve my
family was how I showed I was truly committed to them.
- I realized that I didn’t
need a different team - but instead needed to become a better leader
through my time and service.
- Everything in my being
wanted to focus on ME - but I was at my best when I focused on WE
- We have the team we have for
a reason.
- I believe all success starts
with making the team around you better.
- When You Commit You Make
Everyone Better
- Swen Nater - he is a great
example of how, when you help your team get better, you get better
- When you focus on helping
others improve, you improve.
- When you have teammates like
these who are committed, it will make everyone around them better.
- It's not always about making
the big play - it's about taking action and committing yourself to
preparation, health, nutrition, practice, recovery and all the ways that
make you and the team better.
- The Hard Hat
- George Boiardi - one of the
greatest teammates to ever live.
- Played lacrosse at Cornell
- he died on the field in 2004
- George and the hard hat
came to define the Cornell lacrosse program
- He was the hardest
worker and the most selfless
person on the team.
- He never wanted
recognition, but simply to help his team get better.
- They wonder if they are
living committed lives and serving their current team members enough.
- It's Not about You
- Carl Liebert - CEO of 24
Hour Fitness
- Mandatory for the
executives to train at the centers so they could spend more time
interacting with staff members and identify better ways to serve their
team and customers.
- Required executives to work
for a week in one of their locations each year.
- He leads with authenticity,
humility, and commitment.
- He looks for ways to
develop the strengths of each team member and coaches them to be the
best versions of themselves.
- Remember it's not about you
- it's about committing yourself to your team.
- Lose Your Ego
- To be a humble leader like
Swen, George and Carl - you must lose your ego.
- You must lose your ego so
you can stop focusing on yourself and start focusing on your team.
- Coach them to improve or let
them off the team - but don’t blame them for your lack of success.
- Rule of Thumb: you have to
care more about what your team thinks about you than what the forces
outside the locker room think of you.
- Lose your ego and let your
team and the world know you have their back.
- The only option for leaders
who serve their teams is to take responsibility for everything that
happens on the field or in the marketplace.
- When something goes wrong on
the field, do everything in your power to make sure that no one
individual player or coach is going to take the blame.
- The team will function more
effectively when it has leaders and team members who refuse to blame
their teammates.
- NBA coach - Chuck Daly :
shout praise in public, whisper criticism in private.
- Commitment Requires Sacrifice
- To build a great team, your
team has to know and feel that you would run into a burning building to
save them.
- They have to know that you
are willing to sacrifice yourself for their gain.
- If you love your team you
will do whatever it takes to build them up - even if it means tearing
yourself down.