three qualities of a great leader

8/7/2019 Three Qualities of a Great Leader

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Three Qualities of a Great Leader

The number one quality of a great leader is that the leader must be a person of integrity. If coaches andplayers are not true to you, you will have problems. I tell our coaches and our players that I am not going to

lie to them. I let them know I do not expect them to lie to me. That is integrity.

The second leadership quality is compassion. They are compassionate toward the men that serve under them.As I visit with high school coaches when I am out recruiting and visiting schools, I can tell how the coach

handles his players to see if they love them or not. You can get the feel for how coaches treat their players andhow they have compassion for them.

The third trait of all great leaders is to have courage of your convictions. You must have courage of yourconvictions. If you believe in something you must have courage to carry out your ideas. This is what we must

do to win. You have to believe in what you think will work for you in your situation. Set your plan and thenhave the courage to stay with that play. You are going to be tested. You are going to be questioned about

your play. Coach you can not do that. People will tell you, Coach, that will not work. You must have a planand have the courage and conviction to stick with the plan.

One word I have used over and over with our players and coaches is enthusiasm . We talk to our kids about enthusiasm all the time. Enthusiasm is spirit! Spirit means full of God. We all have physical ability. Now findsomething in that physical ability to make you explode. I got the word enthusiasm from one of Woody Hayes stories. He told us at a clinic that enthusiasm comes from the Greek word enthios which means full of spirit,

God in you, full of God . Do not be afraid to say that men. You are just trying to get these men to be the best that they can be.

Six Commandments to Victory

The Six Commandments that I will give you are items that we as coaches can control. I use sixcommandments but some other coaches may have more and some may have less. These commandments are

basic to the game of football.

1. No Breakdowns in the Kicking Game

When everything else is equal this is probably where you are going to win or lose. Be sure you have your punt team perfect, you punt return team perfect, your kickoff coverage and kickoff return teams perfect. Be sure

you start with that. We start out every practice with special teams at Florida State. That is the first thing wetell our kids; We must have no breakdowns, and we must win the kicking game.

2. No Missed Assignments

The 2nd commandment is: No missed assignments. You can train, practice, and prepare your kids to handlethese things. You need to practice daily by stressing no missed assignments . When we put in a play we put it

on the blackboard first where we can see it. Then we explain it to the players so they can hear it. We have awalk through, and then we walk through it versus dummies. We try to simulate it best we can. We do not scrimmage all the time as we cannot afford to get people hurt. When we do scrimmage though we go full

speed.

3. Play Great Goal Line Defense

We always practice for a while at the goal line. We go full speed here a lot of the time because we do not get

many players hurt practicing on the goal line. No one gets a long running start at anybody. By goal line I meanfrom the three yard line to the goal line. Every day in spring practice we finish with goal line situations for five

minutes.

We put the ball on the three yard line on the left hash and tell them it is third and goal. They get a coupleattempts at running the ball. They may run a play action pass, a sweep, or another play. If they don t make it we kick a field goal. After that we put the ball on the one yard line on the left hash. Now the situation is fourthand one to go for the touchdown. The offense must get the ball in the end zone. The defense must stop them.

In this type of scrimmage the defense has the advantage as you can turn eleven people loose on defense.


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Then we go over to the right hash mark and repeat the drill. The kids have a lot of fun. The defense may beat them four straight times in a row. If they do you can bet the next day the offense will score. You need to win

on the goal line.

4 . No Foolish Penalties

This usually occurs in the kicking game. You would have won that game if you had not roughed the kicker.

When you roughed the kicker you gave them a first down and they went on to score . Or another case is if youline up off sides on a field goal and they score a touchdown instead of the field goal. Those type of mistakeswill get you beat. We say, no foolish penalties .

This is the way I view penalties. We are the most penalized team when we play. We always get morepenalties. We try to prevent this but we have not been very successful. Here is the thing about that situation.If you want to stop penalties cut out your aggressiveness and quit hitting people! Is that what you want? Youcheck the conferences; the most victorious teams are normally the most penalized. If you are an aggressive

team you will get penalties called on your team. We tell our players, Just don t get the foolish penalties . Byfoolish I mean lining up off sides, personal fouls, and those type.

5. Allow No Long Touchdowns

You ask how we can prevent giving up long touchdowns. Back up and don t let anybody get behind you. Thefirst thing I learned as a player was if you do not know where the ball is back up. They are probably trying tofool you so get deeper. If I am playing defense and if you can not get a long run or long pass against us how

are you going to score? If I play great goal line defense how are you going to score? This is part of ourthinking.

6. Keep Fumbles and Interceptions to a Minimum

How do you keep kids from fumbling? We do a pretty good job on this aspect of the game. We teach themhow to hold a football. The fingers go over the end of the ball. At the other end the ball is under the arm and

the elbows are down. There should be no daylight in the cavities. We stress both hands over the ball when therunner is going down. Most fumbles occur when you are being tackled. As you are going down the second guycomes in and knocks the thing out of the arms of the ball carrier. We stress that once you are going down get

both hands on the ball.

I do not talk a lot about interceptions. I am afraid that I will scare off our quarterbacks and they will not throwthe ball. I had a quarterback who threw an interception versus Miami. I told him we could not have

interceptions. The next week he kept throwing the ball one yard beyond the reach of the receivers. I askedhim why he was throwing the ball so far over the head of our receivers. He said, Because I want to keep it

away from the defender . I told him not to worry about it. You can talk too much about interceptions. You just coach them to use their heads.

y


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Terry Donahue, pictured here in coaching UCLA in 1995, talks to AFCA coaches about his experiences in the collegeranks.

Terry Donahue ended his 20-year career as head coach at UCLA, his alma mater, in 1995with a career record of 154-74-8. He led the Bruins to 13 postseason bowl games, includingfour Rose Bowls and five Pac-10 championships. Donahue competed in six Rose Bowls oneas a player, one as an assistant coach, and four as head coach.

Donahue was one of two coaches in college football history to win a bowl game in sevenconsecutive seasons. He currently serves as an analyst on College Football Now on the NFLNetwork.

In January at the American Football Coaches Association Convention in Anaheim, Donahueoffered some of his thoughts during the Master Coach session, sitting alongside former

Southern Cal coach John Robinson. On defense, Id look for quickness and speed over size and strength.

"I was always more concerned with how we used our best players than the formation theywere in. Our defensive coaches used our safeties so prominently. Defensively, if you cantackle, you can hang in any game.

"We had to win, entertain, and beat USC.

"The main thing with discipline is to be firm, consistent and fair. Off the field, we had onerule you have the responsibility to conduct yourself in a positive manner.

"My ethics came from being a member of the AFCA. The ethics committee wanted me tojoin them, but I did not want to judge other coaches. But I finally agreed to, and thanks tosome of the work by this group, you dont see things like fighting on the field. Thats beenwiped out by the AFCA.

"I have regrets about certain games, but my number one regret is that I retired fromcollege football so early. I was 51 when I retired.


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"We all change as we go through life, and Im not sure that I had a total appreciation of howpowerful words are when I was coaching. Words are very powerful to these young men.How and what we say has a dramatic impact on players.

"When things are going good, theyre not really that good, and when things are going bad,theyre not really that bad.

"Opportunity is one of the most important gifts in our lives.

Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc.

"Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you'rein control, they're in control."


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Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but what you should haveaccomplished with your ability.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should haveaccomplished with your ability.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character iswhat you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.

What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player.

Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Becareful.

Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did yourbest to become the best you are capable of becoming.

Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts.

Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you arecapable of becoming.

Nothing will work unless you do.

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

Leadership May 20, 2009, 10:58PM EST text size: TT

Leadership Lessons from UCLA's JohnWooden


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P atience, faith, and empathy put the great coach atbasketball's apex. Here are Wooden's life lessons for today'sbusiness professionals

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He is arguably the best basketball coach ever, with a record 10 national titles as coach of UCL A 's basketball tea m and the distinction of being the first person to be voted into basketball'sHall of Fa m e as both a playerhe was a three-ti m e all- Am erican at Purdue Universityandcoach. But John Wooden, 98, describes hi m self as a teacher. "I m iss the practices," he says,sitting in a wheelchair not far fro m a folding chair covered with a UCL A cushion, si m ilar to theone he sat on while directing the Bruins through their glory days. "Teaching players duringpractices was what coaching was all about, to m e."

Wooden retired after the 1975 season (during which UCL A won its 10th title), ending hiscoaching tenure with a 664-162 won-lost record over 29 seasons. Since then he has lectured andwritten six books about leadership and life. In The John Wooden Pyramid of Success , he outlinesthe life lessons he taught his players, which he says can be applied to business professionals whotoday face the worst crises of their careers. Am ong the tenets of Wooden's pyra m id of success:

"A bility m ay get you to the top, but character keeps you there." A nother: "Control of your organization begins with control of yourself. Be disciplined."

Last year, UCL A 's A nderson School of Manage m ent established its John Wooden GlobalLeadership A ward and m ade Starbucks ( SBUX ) CEO Howard Schultz its first honoree. Theschool's second award will be given on May 21 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to Am erican Express(A XP) CEO Kenneth I. Chenault.


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Los A ngeles Bureau Chief R on Grover interviewed Coach Wooden (he's si m ply called "Coach"by those who know hi m ) at his ho m e in Encino, Calif., whose walls are filled with letters fro m U.S. Presidents, tea m photos of his cha m pionship squads, and the cover of Sports Illustrated ,which in 1973 na m ed hi m Sports Man of the Year. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:

Does it take the same kind of leadership to run a business that it took to coach a basketballteam?

I think that in any group activitywhether it be business, sports, or fa m ilythere has to beleadership or it won't be successful. You have to get people to work together, to acknowledgeeach other, to take an interest in the m and in their world.

My players know that I was interested in the m and their fa m ilies and [wanted to know] if therewere any proble m s. I worry that business leaders are m ore interested in m aterial gain than theyare in having the patience to build up a strong organization, and a strong organization starts withcaring for their people.

Today's economy makes patience hard to come by, don't you think?

Sure, things are different than they would be ordinarily. But in m y pyra m id there are two thingsthat lead to the apex. On the one side, there is patience, and the other side there is faith. Whenthings are down, you have to have patience and then you have to have faith that things will work out. A nd they always have [worked out] in this country, and they always will.

They m ay not work out the way you hope, but that's why you need the patience to stick to whatgot you there first place.

Today the reaction seems to be to lay off people. How would you deal with the humandynamics of that?

I hope that I would show m y concern for the m and I hope they would know m e well enough [tounderstand] we are doing this as a last resort, and that so m eti m es you have to hurt a few peoplein order to save the entire organization.

The i m portant thing is that you have to care for the others, and not just use the m for your ownbusiness purposes. A nd you have to co mm unicate that. If you don't care for the m , they will never have that feeling for you, and the organization will suffer when things do turn around. But youcan't give up on your people when things aren't going well. Those things won't continue. Your

people will. I don't know that business leaders always understand that when you help others inyour organization, you are also helping yourself.

How do you nurture people to care for the organization as a whole, rather than their owninterests?

Knowing your people is the m ost i m portant thing. I re m em ber talking to [Hall of Fa m e Center Lew A lcindor, now Karee m A bdul-Jabbar] and telling hi m we could create an offense that would


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m ake hi m the greatest individual scorer in the country, but we wouldn't win any cha m pionships.A nd he said, "Coach, I don't want that." A nd he went on and was a great playerand a greattea m player. There are so m e players you need to spank every so often to get the m to succeed,and others [who] will go into a shell. You have to know your people.

Did you ever think about going into business?

No, sir. I don't want to put the lives of so m any people under m y hand and not have the ti m e torun it right. A lot of other [for m er sports people] have done it, but I was never te m pted. I had fivedifferent offers to coach professional basketball, and didn't take those either. You're away fro m your fa m ily a lot and the owner can fire you because you don't get along with the star player. I'veseen it happen here in Los A ngeles.

In the end, it's about the teaching, and what I always loved about coaching was the practices. Notthe ga m es, not the tourna m ents, not the alu m ni stuff. But teaching the players during practicewas what coaching was all about to m e.

1. Never m istake activity for achieve m ent.

2. A coach is so m eone who can give correction without causing resent m ent.

3. A bility is a poor m ans wealth .

4. A dversity is the state in which m an m ostly easily beco m es acquainted with hi m self, beingespecially free of ad m irers then.

5. Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

6. Id rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.

7. Failure is not fatal, but failure to change m ight be.

8. Its not so i m portant who starts the game but who finishes it.

9. It isnt what you do, but how you do it.

10. Its what you learn after you know it all that counts.

11. Success com

es from

knowing that you did your best to becom

e the best that you are capableof beco m ing.

12. Things turn out best for the people who m ake the best of the way things turn out.


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character

Definition

character [ krr kt r ]

characters Plural

NOUN

1.

distinctive qualities: the set of qualities that make somebody or something distinctive,especially somebody's qualities of mind and feeling

"It's just not in my character to behave that way."

2.

positive qualities: qualities that make somebody or something interesting or attractive

"an old house full of character"

3.

reputation: somebody's public reputation

"an attack on his good character that ended in court"

4.

somebody in book or movie: one of the people portrayed in a book, play, or movie

"None of the central characters is particularly likable."

5.

unusual person: somebody with an unusual or eccentric personality

6.

individual: somebody considered in terms of personality, behavior, or appearance

"a flamboyant character"

7.

letter or symbol: any written or printed letter, number, or other symbol

8.


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C OMPUT unit of computer data: a single letter, number, or symbol that can be displayed on acomputer screen or printer and represents one byte of data

[ 14th century. Via French caractre < Greek kharakt r "tool for marking" < kharassein "engrave" < kharax "pointed stake" ]

in or out of character

1. typical or untypical of the behavior of a particular person or thing

2. involved or not involved in the psychological preparations for acting out a particular role in aplay, movie, or other dramatic work

M allett was also punished by Coach Petrino with early wake up calls, extra running, and early curfews

three qualities of a great leader

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