Jon Gordon’s Blog | Developing Positive Leaders, Organizations and Teams

7 LESSONS I LEARNED FROM COACH JOHN WOODEN

If you read my book Training Camp you know I was influenced deeply by Coach Wooden. In this spirit here are 7 lessons I learned from him.

1. Success Is All About the Little Things - On the first day of practice Coach Wooden didn’t discuss basketball strategy. Believe it or not, he taught his players the proper way to put on their socks and shoes so they didn’t get blisters.

2. Focus on the Process, Not the Outcome - Coach Wooden didn’t focus on winning. He focused on the character of his team, key fundamentals, daily improvement, effort, potential and selfless teamwork. As a result he won…a lot.

3. There’s No Such Thing as an Overnight Success - Wooden was at UCLA 16 years before they won their first national title. Today we live in a world where people expect instant results. If a coach doesn’t win a title in a few years he or she is fired. Wooden is a testament that greatness takes time.

4. Selfless Teamwork is Great Teamwork - Wooden said, “A player who makes a team great is much more valuable than a great player.”

5. There’s Power in Humility - Norman Vincent Peale said that humble people don’t think less of themselves. They just think of themselves less. Wooden made his life about coaching, leading and developing others and in doing so exhibited true power.

6. Faith Matters - In our politically correct world where people are afraid to mention God, even though it says it on our dollar bill, I find it interesting how in all the media reports about Wooden they talk positively about how his faith guided his life, principles and actions. There is power in faith. More importantly there is enormous power when your faith moves you to love, serve, inspire, coach and make a difference.

7. Your Legacy Matters - The most important thing you will leave behind when you die is your legacy. And the greatest legacy you can leave is your life, your principles and the lives you touch. Wooden didn’t spend his life amassing wealth and trying to make a fortune. He invested in others. And while buildings will fall, jewelry will tarnish and money will get spent, his legacy will live on in those who carry his teachings in their heart.

What have you learned from Coach Wooden. Join the conversation here on our Blog, Twitter or Facebook.

Jon

Tags: Coach Wooden, john wooden, jon gordon, Learned, legacy, Lessons, UCLA

5 Ways to Think Like a Champion

I meet and learn from Champions every day. Not just in locker rooms but in classrooms, hospitals, homeless shelters, homes and office buildings. I’ve learned that to be a champion you must Think Like a Champion. Champions think differently than everyone else. They approach their life and work with a different mindset and belief system that separates them from the pack.

1. Champions Expect to Win - When they walk on the court, on the field, into a meeting or in a classroom they expect to win. In fact they are surprised when they don’t win. They expect success and their positive beliefs often lead to positive actions and outcomes. They win in their mind first and then they win in the hearts and minds of their customers, students or fans.

2. Champions Celebrate the Small Wins - By celebrating the small wins champions gain the confidence to go after the big wins. Big wins and big success happen through the accumulation of many small victories. This doesn’t mean champions become complacent. Rather, with the right kind of celebration and reinforcement, champions work harder, practice more and believe they can do greater things.

3. Champions Don’t Make Excuses When They Don’t Win - They don’t focus on the faults of others. They focus on what they can do better. They see their mistakes and defeats as opportunities for growth. As a result they become stronger, wiser and better.

4. Champions Focus on What They Get To Do, Not What They Have To Do - They see their life and work as a gift not an obligation. They know that if they want to achieve a certain outcome they must commit to and appreciate the process. They may not love every minute of their journey but their attitude and will helps them develop their skill.

5. Champions Believe They Will Experience More Wins in the Future - Their faith is greater than their fear. Their positive energy is greater than the chorus of negativity. Their certainty is greater than all the doubt. Their passion and purpose are greater than their challenges. In spite of their situation champions believe their best days are ahead of them, not behind them.

If you don’t think you have what it takes to be a champion, think again. Champions aren’t born. They are shaped and molded. And as iron sharpens iron you can develop your mindset and the mindset of your team with the right thinking, beliefs and expectations that lead to powerful actions.

A great example of this is John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach who passed away Friday night at the age of 99. He was one of my heroes and someone who not only thought like a champion, but lived like a champion, taught like a champion and developed champions. Visit http://www.coachwooden.com/ to learn more about him and his teachings.

Do you think champions are born or developed? Shared your thoughts here.

Jon

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Tags: 5 Ways, business, Celebrate, Champion, john wooden, jon gordon, team, Think, Win

Humble and Hungry

When young men and women who are graduating high school and college ask me for advice I focus on two words and here is what I tell them.

BE HUMBLE

• Don’t think you know it all. See yourself as a life-long learner who is always seeking ways to learn, grow and improve.

• See everyone as a teacher and learn from everyone you meet.

• Be open to new ideas and strategies to take your life, school and work to the next level.

• When people tell you that you are great don’t let it go to your head. And when they tell you that you stink, don’t let it go to your head.

• Live with humility because the minute you think you have arrived at the door of greatness it will get shut in your face.

BE HUNGRY

• Follow your passion, continuously improve, and set new goals and milestones.

• Seek out new ideas, new strategies and new ways to push yourself out of your comfort zone.

• Invest the time, energy, sweat and dedication to be your best and let God do the rest.

• Be willing to pay the price that greatness requires. Don’t be average. Strive to be great.

• Decide to leave a legacy. Even at a young age it’s important to think about what legacy you want to leave because knowing how you want to be remembered helps you decide how to live today.

As I share this advice my hope is that these words will stick with them throughout their life. After all being humble and hungry is not only meant for the young but for all of us who want to be our best.

Regardless of our age, education or career status, if we stay Humble and Hungry everything else will take care of itself.

Humble and Hungry,

Jon

What does Humble and Hungry mean to you? Join the conversation here.

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Tags: humble, Humility, Hungry, jon gordon, legacy, passion, vision

A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture

People Who Love SOUP

Tags: book, business, culture, inspiration, jon gordon, Soup, Special Offer, team

Real Teamwork

I know there are a lot of people who love to fish, but honestly I’m not one of them. I wish I enjoyed it more, but I just don’t. Yet today I found myself fishing.

Why?

Because my ten year old son LOVES to fish.

I recently confided to a friend that my son and I haven’t been connecting lately and that I wanted to create a stronger connection with him.

My friend asked me what my son loves to do.

I told him he loves to fish.

He asked, “Do you fish with him?”

“No, I don’t,” I answered.

“Well,” my friend said, “then fish with him. Spend time doing what he loves to do, not what you love to do.”

The truth hit me right between the eyes. As someone who speaks a lot about leadership and teamwork I realized I wasn’t being a good team member.

Great teamwork is not about doing what you want but what the team needs.

And my family team needed me to be more selfless and spend quality time with my son doing what he loves.

My son and I didn’t catch any fish this morning but today we became a better and stronger team. And I’m confident with real teamwork we’ll catch plenty of fish in the future.

How about you? Is there something your team needs you to do? Are you focused more on your-self than the good of the team? What actions will you take today to make your team better? Share your thoughts here.

Stay Positive!
Jon

Tags: jon gordon, team, Teamwork

3 Ways to Be a Positive Leader

In a world filled with busyness and stress I find that too often leaders can act like hard-charging, fast-driving bus drivers that have a vision and goal within their sights and they’ll run over anyone - even their own employees - to reach their destination. I know this well because early in my business career I was that kind of leader and I have had to work hard to change my approach.

I realized that any hard-charging leader can create success in the short term, but it would take a positive leader with a people and process-driven approach to build a successful organization for the long term. As John Maxwell said, “If you are all alone at the top, you are not a leader. You are a hiker.”

No one creates success alone. To win in business, you must win with people. Running over people will only get you so far. To create true and lasting success you must nurture and invest in your people. Here are 3 essential ways to do this.

Care about them - The main question every employee in every organization is asking is, “Do you care about me; can I trust you?” Employees want to know if you care about them. If you do, they will be more likely to stay on the bus and work with you. Employees are more engaged at work and will work at their highest potential when their manager cares about them.

Develop a relationship with them - Author Andy Stanley once said, “Rules without relationship lead to rebellion.” Far too many managers and leaders share rules with their people, but they don’t have a relationship with them. So what happens? The people rebel, and they disengage from their jobs and the mission of the team. I’ve had many managers approach me and tell me that my books helped them realize they needed to focus less on rules and invest more in their work relationships. The result was a dramatic increase in team performance and productivity. To develop a relationship with your employees, you need to build trust, listen to them, make time for them, recognize them and mentor them.

Appreciate them - The main reason why people leave their jobs is because they don’t feel appreciated. For example, Doug Conant, the CEO of Campbell Soup, has written more than 16,000 thank-you notes to employees in the past seven years and created a very positive business in the process. It’s as easy as saying (or writing) “Thank you.”

It’s a simple truth: When you care about your employees and the people you work with, they are more likely to stay on the bus and work harder, with more loyalty and greater positive energy. In turn, they are more likely to share their positive energy with your customers, thus enhancing service and the bottom line. The greatest customer-service strategy has nothing to do with customer service, but it has everything to do with how you treat your employees. If you model great service, they will provide great service.

Remember, leadership is not just about what you do, but what you can inspire, encourage and empower others to do. Instead of running over the people in your team/organization, invite them on the bus with you and engage them to help you create an amazing and successful ride.

Agree or disagree? Do you have a positive leadership strategy you would add to this article? Join the conversation here.

Stay Positive!

Jon

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Tags: jon gordon, Positive Leader

Hot or Cold?

Tags: Apathy, business, jon gordon, passion, Soup

The Power of Relationships

One of the key messages in my new book Soup is that soup is meant to be enjoyed together. Or in another words, life is more meaningful and rewarding when you take the time to create relationships that make life more enjoyable.

In this spirit, here is an excerpt from Soup, where Nancy, the CEO of Soup Inc. shares her thoughts about the power of relationships:

“Nancy walked back to Soup, Inc., headquarters thinking about all the turning points in her life and realized that every great event happened because of one relationship or another. She had met her husband through a relationship. She had landed her first job out of college because of a relationship. She’d been hired at Soup, Inc., because of a relationship. She reasoned that the people we meet and the relationships we develop have the biggest influence on the course of our lives.

It was a lesson she wanted to impart to her kids and anyone who would listen: The world is a mosaic of people and opportunities, and when you make relationships your priority, the possibilities are endless. Great relationships lead to great outcomes. Develop as many great relationships as possible. Make time for them. Nurture them. Engage them. Not just at work but at home. In your community. On airplanes. At the ball field. Everywhere. You never know where your next idea, opportunity, or life-changing moment will come from or which relationship will be behind it.”

Today, I want to encourage you to take a little more time and energy to invest in your relationships. I can’t promise you that the relationships you create will change the world but they will definitely change your world!

What relationship has changed your life and career? Did you ever meet a stranger on a plane or some other place and have it lead to a new opportunity? Share your experiences on our blog?

I hope you’ll join us for a free tele-seminar on Monday, May 17 where I’ll share strategies from my latest book SOUP to help you create more rewarding relationships at work and home. Register Here.

Stay Positive!

Jon

Great Leadership

Challenging times require leaders who can lead others through the challenges. Now more than ever we need great leadership in our government, schools, businesses, hospitals and organizations. Good leadership won’t suffice. We need great leadership. There is a difference.

• Good leaders get people to believe in them.

• Great leaders inspire people to believe in themselves.

• Good leaders say “Watch what I can do.”

• Great leaders say “Let me show you what you can do.”

• Good leaders catch fish for others so they can eat today.

• Great leaders teach people how to fish so they can eat for a lifetime.

Having worked with countless leaders over the years in businesses, schools and professional sports I’ve realized that great leadership is really a transfer of belief. Great leaders share their belief, vision, purpose and passion with others and in the process they inspire others to believe, act and impact. Great leaders are positively contagious and they instill confidence and belief in others.

Great sales managers inspire their sales people to believe in themselves and their product/service. Great school principals inspire their teachers to believe they can make a difference. Great teachers inspire and empower their students to believe in themselves. Great pastors inspire their congregations to serve and impact the community. Great sports coaches inspire their teams to believe they can win. And the people who have changed the world have been those who instilled in others the confidence to step up, serve, take initiative and create positive change. You don’t need a title to be a leader. You just need to lead.

To lead others in a powerful way you must invite them on your bus, share your vision for the road ahead and then encourage, empower and inspire them to drive their own bus. In the process, instead of having just one bus that you drive, you create a fleet of buses and bus drivers, all moving in the same positive direction. When you create a fleet of buses and empower people to drive their own bus, you generate an amazing amount of power and momentum that becomes an unstoppable force. This is what great leadership is all about.

What does great leadership mean to you? Share your thoughts here.

Stay Positive!

Jon

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Tags: business, great leadership, jon gordon, Leaders, Leadership, management, positive, success

Relationships First

To build a winning team, organization and family I’m convinced that we must create engaged relationships. Engaged relationships are interactive, collaborative, and meaningful and they are essential because to effectively lead, coach, work and live with someone we must truly know and have a strong bond with them.

This may seem obvious yet we live in a world where stress and busyness too often sabotage us from developing great relationships at work and home. With projects to complete, to-do lists to accomplish, goals to hit, and outcomes to achieve… life can feel like we are on a runaway bus in the movie Speed. We’re driving through life 100 miles per hour and instead of taking the time to get people on our bus, we run them over—and if you have people under your bus that’s not good for team building. We become so focused on creating success that we don’t make the time to develop the relationships that lead to true success.

In this spirit I want to encourage you to do what Mansfield, Texas School District did last year. Their Superintendent, who spoke before me at their convocation, declared that as educators we will focus on RELATIONSHIPS FIRST. He said, “while we as a district have goals and outcomes we want to achieve, it is our relationships with each other and our students that will help us achieve them.”

Standardized test scores will rise when teachers make time to get to know their students. Businesses will grow when employees grow their relationships with their team members and customers. Sales numbers soar when sales people take the time to cultivate loyal relationships. Sports teams perform at a higher level when the coach creates engaged relationships with his/her players. And families are strengthened when we spend quality time with our spouses and children. (This is something I’ve personally worked on the past year).

When you make the time to engage people and nurture relationships you’ll realize that the quality of your business, family and life is determined by the quality of your relationships. After all, it’s not the numbers that drive the people but the people and relationships that drive the numbers.

Trying to build a winning team without great relationships is like trying to build a house on sand. It won’t stand. Relationships are the rock that creates the foundation upon which winning teams are built.

Do you agree or disagree with this newsletter? What would you add to it? Share your thoughts here.

Stay Positive!

Jon

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Tags: business, Engaged, jon gordon, Quality, Relationships First, team, Trust, Winning