"The secret to success is good leadership, and good leadership is all about making the lives of your team members or workers better."     Tony Dungy

If you know me, you know I am a huge Deion Sanders fan, and as a coach, I've become a huge fan of Coach Prime. Therefore, you know our lead pastor, Matt Merold, got my attention with this excerpt from his sermon on Sunday morning. In his sermon about Illumination, Matt talked about how Coach Prime is bringing out the best in everyone around him, and not just his players, but the competition as well. This is more than worth the 6:00 you will spend watching this video.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS VIDEO FROM MATT'S SERMON ABOUT COACH PRIME!

 

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This week marks the fifteenth anniversary of Quiet Strength, Tony Dungy’s memoir. It was the first book I’d ever written, and the primary reason I hounded him for three years to write it was because I’d seen his leadership up close during a season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I’d hoped it might help some people along the way, but it surpassed my wildest expectations, selling over a million copies in its first year and launching my writing and speaking career – leading to another seven books with Tony as well as others.

In honor of that anniversary, here are three leadership lessons I gleaned from watching Tony on a daily basis.

 

He’s intelligent, deliberative and soft-spoken. As he was promoted into roles that carried greater formal leadership (positions of “authority”), he stayed true to his personality. He never tried to become an authoritarian or screamer, which some expected him to be. On the flip side, if your personality is more direct and boisterous, that’s okay, too. No need to become like Tony. Your leadership style should reflect, well, you.

 

Leading up to the writing of Quiet Strength, I’d watched friends at other NFL teams or law school classmates in law firms get consumed by the expectations of their environment. Tony never did that, and fully recognizes that “life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” He couldn’t make up time with his family later, because “later” might never come. He couldn’t treat people badly along the way, because his legacy was being created at every step, relationships built or destroyed. He couldn’t let the ends justify the means, because who we are is defined along the way, not by our wins or policy decisions.

 

Tony was never concerned with who got credit. He’s not only humble, but would actually prefer that others get put in positions that will help them grow in their leadership capabilities, even if it was to his “detriment.” He delegated authority (occasionally leading to more work on his part by having to oversee things he could’ve handled quickly on his own), seeking to empower others into the ability to take on greater leadership roles. He believes, as do I, that if the organization crumbles when the leader departs, then that leader probably didn’t do enough to mentor other leaders to create a sustainable system. If we care about others—and the organization—then we should strive for our eventual absence to not cause a hiccup in the operation.

It’s not about us.

These things aren’t easy, but they are simple:

If you do nothing else, those three will take you a long way.

If you are looking for great resources to expand your coaching game, no matter what sport you coach, look no further than the thousands of options on Championship Productions. CLICK HERE TO GET ACCESS TO AWESOME DEALS!

Cutting: Cut for us, not for you. No cosmetic cuts. Every screen and every cut is a screen and cut to score.

This is a great drill from Reid Ouse (@reidouse) on Twitter called the Pin Down Series out of a side jab. I really like working on these types of actions with our players in workouts to teach them how to make reads and play off of various catches - I'm just not a big fan of the floater - talk to Michael Lewis at Ball-State if you want his feelings on the floater…LOL. I thought this drill went really good with the stuff from Coach Boone above. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PIN DOWN SERIES…

As coaches we are always looking to sharpen our axes. If you are like me and you love to read, but struggle to find the time to make it through an entire 200+ page book on personal development, look no further. I've been using Shortform recently and I love how it condenses materials and gives me a breakdown and summary of the chapters. Shortform also has exercises that accompany the materials to allow you an opportunity to test your knowledge and help retain the information. 

We are excited to release our newest drill series with Coach Kevin Kruger and the UNLV Runnin' Rebels! UNLV recently upgraded to two 12K models for added accountability, analytics, and ease of use for their players this off-season.

Coach Kevin Kruger, following in the footsteps of his father Lon Kruger, took the helm as the head coach of UNLV's men's basketball program in March 2021. In his inaugural season, Coach Kruger not only led the team to their most wins in four years but also had three players receive All-Mountain West honors, reflecting his leadership and the team's transformative progress.

Stay tuned as we will continue to release new drills from UNLV each week!

Here is a great set that you can run against a 3-2 Zone. It has Need a set to attack a 3-2 zone with different possibilities? 1. Flare Cutter 2. Flare Slip 3. Middle Entry and High Low or Weak Side Skip 4. Snap Back Misdirection 

Ready to access thousands of courses to sharpen your ax as a coach, then now is the time to hop on Coach Tube. CLICK HERE FOR ACCESS!

We would love to have you join us on a 31-Day Journey to become a more faithful and successful coach. This book is great for coaches, huddle leaders, and those in the FCA ministry field. It gives you great direction and helps you to set daily goals, that will develop into habits, to help you grow your team and make you more intentional in your purpose as a coach.

 

JOIN US EVERY DAY ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE - LIKE @31DaysandWays today!  CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THE BOOK FROM AMAZON