The Team Leadership Report

"You are not only coaching a sport; you are coaching a life," is the motto of the Positive Coaching Alliance. The alliance run within the Stanford University Athletic Department in California is working to change a culture of sports where coaches only coach to win and where parents pressure their athletes while trying to live vicariously through them. The alliance is determined to educate parents and coaches. Some facts their lectures and website include are: Less than 1 percent of high school athletes get college scholarships. Student-athletes have much more of a chance of getting a scholarship if they study Young athletes who have college-level skills are better off being multisport athletes. Different sports allow young athletes to use different muscles, which may prevent injury in the long run, and the diversity may prevent burnout. Studies show that 70 percent of players quit sports by age 13. The longer you can keep it fun, the longer they will play. For parent

So many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't. —Adapted from Law of The Garbage Truck   The Law of the Garbage Truck: How to Stop People from Dumping on You

The Team Leadership's last post examined the leadership of Magic Johnson. This week we take a look at Larry Bird.  If you put all of us in a room--Magic, Jordan, myself, and Bird, Bird would probably be the guy who walked out of the room at the end of the day.--Isaiah Thomas I would be all over him, trying to deny him the ball, and all Larry was doing was yelling at his teammates, 'I'm open! Hurry up before they notice nobody is guarding me!' Then he would stick an elbow in my jaw and stick the jumper in my face.--Dennis Rodman A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.-- Larry Bird Larry Bird was equal parts clinician and warrior, one half-Socrates, another half-Patton. Cunning, ice-cold, witty, clutch. There is no single, defining trait of Larry Bird's game--it was the arsenal, the variety of ways that he would beat you, that characterized the ma

He can reach from the top to the bottom to inspire an entire team, and he`s done it and done it and done it. It`s not inspiring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It`s inspiring the seventh and eighth man --Jud Heathcoate Whatever team you put Magic Johnson on, whatever its makeup, it will win. -- Jim Murray  Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates. -- Magic Johnson Great leaders make great ambassadors, and you couldn't ask for a better ambassador for the game of basketball than Magic Johnson in the 1980s, when he led the Lakers to five NBA championships. Perhaps more than anything, Magic's appointment as Co-Captain of the 1992 Dream Team, the greatest basketball team of all-time, signifies the respect and admiration he commanded from his peers. In the 1980s, he was the NBA's ambassador to the American public. In the 1992 Summer Olympics, he was the game's ambassador to the world. How did Magic accomplish this? By lead

A little lie is still a lie. A little abuse is still abuse. A little racism is still racism. A little bullying is still bullying. A little infidelity is still infidelity. A little nepotism is still nepotism. A little negativity is still negativity. A little immaturity is still immaturity. A little narcissism is still narcissism. A little name-calling is still name calling. A little discrimination is still discrimination. A little sexual assault is still sexual assault. A little mental instability is still mental instability. A little disregard for the environment is still disregarding the environment. Something wrong doesn’t just show up and announce itself as being wrong. It might even look like something good at first. And it will certainly try to convince you that it is. But little by little it works in ways that end up having major negative consequences if you continue to turn a blind eye to the damage it’s doing. Coach Yourself: A Motivational Guide F