You Win in Locker Room First : Contagious

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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