Book Notes from 'You Win in the Locker Room First' by Jon Gordon and Mike Smith
Contagious
- Germ or Vitamin C
- Research shows that when you
have feeling in your heart - it goes to every cell in the body - then
outward and other people up to 10 feet away can sense feelings
transmitted by your heart.
- This means that each day you
are broadcasting to your team how
you feel.
- You are either broadcasting
positive energy or negative energy.
- Research from Harvard also
supports the idea that emotions you feel are contagious and affect people
around you.
- Each member of your team is
contagious and every day you all are either sharing positive or negative
energy with each other.
- Are you going to be a germ
to your team or a big dose of Vitamin C
- Great leaders and teams are
positively contagious with a vision and purpose that drives them.
- Contagious with a Vision and
Mission
- A powerful way for leaders
to be contagious is to share a positive vision and mission with their
team.
- Your vision and mission
should be simple, clear, bold and compelling.
- Your success comes from your
team's commitment to a vision and purpose. I believe that a vision and
mission should include the greatness you want to chase with a focus on
the character traits and purpose that inspire you to get there.
- Research shows that people
are most energized when they are contributing to a bigger cause beyond
themselves.
- As a leader - inspire your
team to move beyond their own selfish desires and concerns and contribute
to a cause bigger than them.
- Contagious with Your Belief
- Often the difference between
success and failure is belief.
- Does your team believe they
can win?
- Have their preparation,
practice, and focus given them the confidence that they can?
- Pete Carroll - the world
trains people to be pessimistic…one of the most important things I must
do here is to make sure my players and staff believe that tomorrow will
be better than today.
- Leadership is the transfer
of belief.
- I'm convinced one of the
most important things a leader must do is to be positive and optimistic.
- Duke University found that
optimistic people work harder, get paid more, win at sports more
regularly, get elected to office more often and live longer.
- Clemson Football coach -
Dabo Swinney : people call me an overachiever, but I'm not an
overachiever. I'm an overbeliever
- Dabo believes in his team
so much that he inspires them to believe in themselves. Every meeting
with his team in an opportunity for him to tell them what they can
achieve if they truly believe.
- Steve Jobs: famous for what
Apple employees called his 'Reality distortion field'
- Steve's team said he
distorted their reality from pessimism to optimism.
- Contagious with a Positive
Attitude
- Wrote down the expectations
I had for myself
- The first one that I wrote
down in my notes was 'never a bad day, only bad moments'
- So instead of allowing
myself to focus on the negative - I created moments of gratitude and focused on the positive.
- I discovered that when I
approached the challenges of the day with positive, helpful attitude to
serve others, it not only uplifted my spirits, but also set the tone for
the entire organization and helped everyone perform at their highest
level.
- Contagious Leaders in the
Locker Room
- Matt Ryan (QB) positive
approach along with this contagious desire to be great rubbed off on the
rest of the team and organization.
- No one worked harder than
our starting quarterback, on and off the field.
- You have to have this type
of leader and mentor on your team to maximize your chances of being
successful.
- Ray Lewis was all about
accountability.
- He was always accountable
to himself and then to the guy that lined up next to him.
- He always made sure that
every member of the team understood that we are all relying on each
other to be successful.
- In an ideal situation you
would have one contagious leader or mentor in every position group on the
team.
- The most successful teams
that I have been around are the ones that have this contagious leadership
and mentoring in each position group.
- Your culture will come to
life through the leaders and people in your locker room.
- No Energy Vampires
- The detrimental impact a
negative team member can have.
- One person can't make a team
- but one person can break a team.
- Tell your team that you will
not allow negativity to sabotage the vision you have and the team you
expect to become.
- Mark Richt - Head Coach
Georgia Football
- Team was reading the Energy
Bus
- Lost first two games - the
team is still on the bus
- In years past we've allowed
energy vampires to ruin this team - but not this year. This year we wont
allow it
- It was a message from Mark
to his team that they would stay positive through their adversity and
challenges.
- To build a winning team you
must create a positive culture where negativity can't breed and grow and
the sooner you start weeding it from your team the stronger and more
positively contagious your culture and team will be.
- No Complaining Rule
- You must also weed the
subtle sources like complaining
- We were not going to be a
group of guys who complained about insignificant issues.
- They realized that
complaining is toxic to the team and locker room.
- The energy we share with our
teammates and co-workers is essential
- Great leaders are positively
contagious and I encourage you to spend more time sharing a positive
- Vision
- Belief
- Attitude
- Encouragement
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