“First get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and then they can figure out where to drive it.” (Jim Collins, Good to Great)
During the summer of my first year as an AD, we hired a brand new secretary. On her first day, she put all the mail that had been piling up for the last month into a big black trash bag and threw it in the dumpster.
In all fairness, it looked like a big pile of trash with all of the catalogs from equipment, award, and apparel businesses. But there were a few letters and other important stuff mixed in.
Obviously, I was not happy. However, she was just trying to help out and we were in the midst of redecoration and redesign of the athletic department so she thought this was right in line with what we were trying to do.
Regardless, I went dumpster diving and also learned a great lesson.
As a college basketball coach for nearly 20 years, I had many experiences that I was proud of. But, I also made my share of mistakes, especially early in my career. Now that I have left coaching to work with teams as a leadership trainer and consultant, I look back on my career and offer up five things that I wish I knew when I first started out in coaching.