During the first half of last night’s contest on Football Night in America, Mark Sanchez called an unnecessary timeout as his team approached the goal line within the two-minute warning. The Jets scored but left enough time for Tom Brady and the Patriots to answer back with seconds remaining in the half. Interviewed at half-time, Rex Ryan called Sanchez’s actions “the stupidest play in football history.” Obviously hyperbole, Ryan’s remarks suit his intense personality. It seems to suit the New York defense perfectly and feeds their aggressive personalities. With a young quarterback, such comments may have the opposite effect.
Joe Paterno and Leadership Dilemmas
The recent crisis at Penn State University highlighted some legal and moral responsibilities that come with positions of leadership.
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Broken (Bullpen) Telephone
During Game 5 of the World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals were placed at a disadvantage when a miscommunication occurred between the dug out and the bullpen and incorrect pitchers were warmed up. Consequently, the Texas Rangers score two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, enabling them to win a pivotal game.
Learning from the 2011 Boston Red Sox
Good coaches promote ownership of the program by all of the stakeholders. Everyone – players, coaches, trainers, support staff and sometimes parents – is responsible for the team’s success. Some may contribute more than others but everyone needs to know that what they provide to the process matters to the outcome. Every action, from individual workouts to practices to meetings, enables the team to progress towards its goals. When a program experiences success over a long period of time, generating this feeling of ownership becomes easier; people want to be involved in success and become willing to take initiative and …
Star Trek Leadership, Part III: Starfleet Academy in the Delta Quadrant
Star Trek remains extremely popular because of how the stories are analogous to many modern situations. It is a science fiction genre that does not overwhelm the viewer with technology; the characters – and humanity – remain the focal point. During a syndicated episode of Voyager entitled “Learning Curve”, Lieutenant Tuvok encountered Maquis crew members who were unwilling to follow Starfleet routines. The renegades were incorporated into Voyager’s crew after both were stranded in the Delta Quadrant although the partnership was not working entirely smoothly. Starfleet demanded strict adherence to procedures which was a stark contrast to the Maquis philosophy …
The King’s Speech
Over the course of a given year, only a handful of elite films are released. Hollywood has diluted most of the major genres and most works are shallow copies of something that succeeded previously. The King’s Speech is a shining example of the contrary: a film that balances drama and comedy, features a stellar cast that honours their craft with skilled performances, and a plot that is relevant and informative. The topic – the speech impediment of King George VI and how it is threatening his ability to lead the United Kingdom following the abdication of his brother Edward VIII …
Values Education
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” – John Wooden Coaches and teachers concern themselves with values education, a subject as integral to the construction of elite teams as defensive fundamentals or offensive skill. No good team has progressed to the excellent level and maintained that greatness over time without a core of solid values. Frankly, the current generation of student-athletes shares a different perspective from their predecessors and this is neither good nor bad. It means that what used …
Star Trek Leadership, Part II: The Wisdom of Captain Picard
College coaches may send envelopes full of money via Emery Worldwide, professional coaches may be found guilty of sexual harassment forcing their organization to pay $11.5 million in damages, and international coaches may enter a non-disabled team in the Special Olympics but one person can always be relied upon for his leadership is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise. During a recently rerun episode of The Next Generation, Chief Engineer La Forge and Commander Riker submitted and unsatisfactory performance review for Lieutenant Barclay to Picard. The captain ordered the pair to reconsider their evaluation of the socially awkward lieutenant. It was …
Coaching the Players on the Team
ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentaries have been very intriguing. Some of have covered famous events, others have brought intriguing issues to light. Directed by Billy Corben, The U covers the rise and fall of the Miami Hurricanes football program in the 1980s. To me, the Miami Hurricanes program is interesting because of how a small academic school in Coral Gables won four national titles during a span of twelve years. The University of Miami had flirted with the idea of becoming “The Harvard of the South” but decided to place greater emphasis on football as the 1970s came to a close. …
Mistakes Worth Making
Aside from the priority placed on planning and reviewing – briefing and debriefing – as espoused by Robert McNamara and others, the main message of Mistakes Worth Making is that coaches must deal with the emotions of players, in addition to their skills. As evidenced by the title, there are some mistakes which lead to improvement and others which are desultory. As coaches, we aim to manage mistakes so that we (and athletes) learn from the positive errors and control the negative ones. A theme which is repeated through the book is that the emotions of athletes are as important …
Invictus
Invictus is a satisfactory film with two significant flaws which should be addressed. The film does not decide if South African President Nelson Mandela and Springboks captain François Pienaar are equals – different leaders with their own style – or whether Mandela is at the centre of a complicated power structure as he rebuilds his country after Apartheid. If the former is the case, then there is not enough time devoted to the rugby player; he should receive equal screen time as the President. If the intent is to focus upon the latter, there should be more instances showing how …
Star Trek Leadership, Part I: Humans and Klingons
When Commander Riker volunteered to serve aboard the Klingon vessel “Pagh”, he encountered several challenges as he adapted to the new environment. Star Trek frequently used a utopian vision of the future to show how humans can better interact the episode “A Matter of Honor” is no exception. As a participant in the Officer Exchange Program, William Riker enters a new culture and must judge when he must adapt and when he must stand for his convictions, as a Benzite named Mendon does likewise as the Enterprise’s science officer. At first, he displays a tough exterior to his new shipmates …
1993 Is a Long Time Ago
The Toronto Blue Jays organization is certainly a wicked problem to which there is no clear solution. The problem has many symptoms: inconsistent performance, poor performance under pressure, and high rates of injury. Rumours suggest that some workout habits that leave a lot to be desired. On-field results appear to have impacted the balance sheet and the team suffers from low attendance and a budget where revenues hardly approach expenses. This all stemmed of a leadership failure, endemic throughout the entire chain of command. Perhaps the best case scenario for the team was a .500 season, but the Blue Jays …
Skills We Should Teach More, Part I: What Should the Point Guard Do After Passing the Ball?
What should the point guard do when they have made a wing entry pass and instigated the half-court offence? Sit in quiet contemplation: if one’s role is to handle the ball, what are they without it? Are they still a player or merely an observer? Does giving up the rock entail giving up one’s self? Is their performance a result of their effort or the position in which they have been placed? Atlas was still a man (actually a Titan) before the world was placed on his shoulders and retains his identity despite his onerous burden. Cut through the key and… …
What I Learned this Summer, Part I
Earlier, I described a desire to become a more empathic leader. I hoped to become better at building relationships with other coaches, players, and people in general. I endeavoured to become more sensitive as to what others were feeling and discover how I can help student-athletes on and off the court and inside and outside the classroom. To do so, I read a couple of books which described examples of excellent relationships that resulted in personal development and basketball championships: Red and Me and The Gold Standard. Bill Russell’s tribute to his mentor Red Auerbach was a quick read that …
The Fog of War
Robert S. McNamara was one of the brightest minds of the twentieth century yet he was still unable to prevent one of the fieriest conflagrations in modern times from exploding. Reflecting upon his time as Secretary of Defence for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, he grants a lengthy interview with director Errol Morris, who combines the 2003 discourse with archival footage, original tape recordings, and thoughtful music composed by Philip Glass. McNamara does not limit himself solely his role in the escalation of the conflict in Vietnam but explains his background, education, military service during World War II, and …