Providing Insights on Leadership and Success. Coach Bechler is a John Maxwell Leadership Team Member.
This past Saturday (originally published on December 20, 2012), did you watch ESPN and see the best college football coach in the country lead his team to another National Championship? What, you say? Nick Saban had the weekend off . . . Alabama didn’t play. I am not talking about the Crimson Tide or the Notre Dame Fighting Irish or any other BCS team.
(editor’s note: originally published on December 5, 2012)
With the recent death of Rick Majerus (25 years as a head coach at Marquette, Ball State, Utah, St. Louis and only had one losing season), story after story was devoted to retelling his life story and what kind of impact he had on others. It certainly got me thinking again about what kind of influence we have on those around us.
(editor’s note: published on April 18, 2012)
Today is a sad day not only in the state of Tennessee but across the nation. Pat Summitt, all of 59 years young, 8 national championships, nearly 1,100 wins (most all-time, men or women) and countless branches on her coaching tree, stepped down from being the Lady Vol head coach. Coach Summitt’s associate head coach, Holly Warlick, will take over the reigns full-time. Head Coach Emeritus is the new title that Coach Summitt has earned. Just like everything else she has done in her career, I am sure that she’ll be the best at this position. [Read more…]
“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”In a previous post, I talked about some of the best books for leaders, whether you are a coach or not. Today, I will recommend the books that will help a coach in nearly any sport at any level. A couple of the books may seem sport specific, but contain information and insight that can help you regardless of what you coach. Even if you are not an avid reader, flip through some of these books and steal one or two ideas to implement with your teams or to strengthen your coaching philosophy. These are 15 books that are different than my list for leaders. However, I would definitely suggest looking at those books as well.
In his book WINNING EVERY DAY, the former Notre Dame football coach, Lou Holtz, tells the story of the Trappist monk who was allowed to say only two words every three years.
After the first three years, he met with the his order’s Brother Superior and said, “Bad bed!”
3 years later, he came back to say, “Bad food!”
After 3 more years of silence, the monk said, “No TV!”
Another 3 years passed. This time, when the monk met with Brother Superior, he handed him his robes and sandals and announced, “I quit!”
Brother Superior said, “Well don’t expect me to try to dissuade you. You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here!”
“It is true that integrity alone won’t make you a leader, but without integrity you will never be one.” (Zig Ziglar)An Ohio State student and University of Michigan student were taking a graduate school entrance exam.
Afterward, the proctor called both of them into an office and proceeded to tell them that they both missed only one question on the test, but that the Michigan student was receiving an “A” and that the Ohio State student would fail.
(Originally published on April 11, 2012)
Joe Paterno, Jim Tressell, Bruce Pearl, the list goes on and on. You can now add former University of Arkansas head football coach to the list of great coaches . . . great leaders, that fell short of their obligations as individuals of character.
“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” (Abraham Lincoln)
Endless roads. Hour after hour we drove. A college women’s basketball team and myself.
“Are we there yet”?
“How much longer”?
The questions are endless.
Then the big-one . . . The question to end all questions . . . The grand-daddy of them all . . .
The Penn State University scandal is a situation that we all must pay attention to and learn from. I will not be writing an Op-Ed piece, nor passing judgment in this brief column. Rather, I encourage all coaches, administrators, teachers . . . anyone that is reading this to take heed and examine how you would handle this kind of situation. More importantly, how would you handle other situations that may be once in a lifetime situations.