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    November 13th, 2013

    ♫ Silver whistle and an old clipboard
    A polo shirt and a pair of gray shorts
    In that summer haze, remember those two a days
    Tougher than a 10 pound sack of nails
    He’d throw down his hat and start to yell
    At the top of his lungs, front and center, son

    What were you thinkin’ on that play?
    Take a lap and when you come back
    Maybe you’ll do things my way
    Let me tell you why I don’t let things slide
    If you can live through me, boy, you can get through life
    ‘Round here what I say goes ‘cause I’m the coach..♫

    Lyrics and music by S. Azar, Coty, A. J. Masters and recorded by  Steve Azar.

     

    coach 2

     

     

    This is another guest post from Beth Flynn  at the The Ohio State University Leadership Center.  I know that sports metaphors sometimes are a bit overdone in the context of business leadership and coaching, but this post struck a nerve with me and I felt it went beyond the typical stuff that is written in this regard.

    Accordingly here is Beth’s post on what we can learn from sports coaches:

    • To ask ourselves if we have communicated the goal for the team we lead.
    • In order to communicate the goal, we have to know and believe in the result we want to achieve.
    • It doesn’t matter what the goal for the year is if the people on your team don’t trust your motives.
    • You have to possess personal values that the people on your team respect. Or put a different way, they need to see a level of personal integrity on your part that gives them the confidence to follow your leadership.
    • You have to know it to lead it.
    • You have to know your business (know the sport) and be dedicated to constantly improving your knowledge of it.
    • You have to lead each individual.
    • The coach knows that his or her efforts can’t be directed at the group exclusively. He or she will have to teach the fundamentals individually to each player.
    • Create a team to be a leader.
    • The coach also knows that after the individuals know their fundamentals, it’s up to him or her to create a winning team. The coach knows that she/he has to take individuals and determine how to put them together for maximum benefit (Monastero, 2010, p. 60-63).

    From: Monastero, S. (2010). Winning at leadership: how to become an effective leader. Bloomington, IN: IUNIVERSE, Inc.

    Winning at Leadership is available from the OSU Leadership Center. Click here to borrow this resource or any other resource. Once you are on their website, click on the Spectrum icon.

    Learn how the Ohio State University Leadership Center is inspiring others to take a leadership role that empowers the world at http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu

    To begin receiving Leadership Moments, or to update your information, please click on OSU’s Join Our Mailing List button on their website.

    Thanks Beth for keeping us up on leadership moments and not letting things slide!

    This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013 at 4:00 am and is filed under Business Development, Change Management, Firm Governance, Issues facing Law Firms, Law Firm Strategy, Leadership and Strategic Planning, personal focus and renewal, Tips, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    One Response to “What Can We Learn in Business from Sports Coaches?”
    1. Ben Ziegler Says:

      Thanks Beth (and David). Those are really good points. The ones that struck me the most related to leading/instructing each individual. That takes a lot of work, yet speaks to the challenge of leading a collaborative effort… and committing to serve both individual and group.

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