Coaching Successful Teams
The other day I wrote about how important your negotiating style is, and today I found myself running with a parallel train of thought. Let me explain. I listen to John Madden every day on my local radio station, KCBS, and today he was asked a question about 32-year-old Lane Kiffin, the new head coach of the Oakland Raiders. What does a young coach like that have to do to gain the team's respect? Madden talked about keeping control and getting off to a good start. But he finally narrowed it down to how you handle situations when things don't go well. He says the job is easy when everything goes well -- everyone loves you. But the real test is what you do when things going badly.
How is that like negotiating? In that post I said, "The ability to negotiate is extremely important to entrepreneurs. It is, I believe, one of the key differences between good entrepreneurs and highly successful ones." And today's corollary is that the ability to keep control when things go badly is the difference between good coaches and highly successful ones. I believe that, as with negotiating, how a coach interacts with strong personalities requires the understanding that you use different styles with different individuals.
Best wishes to Lane Kiffin!
[John Madden calls in for a casual conversation on KCBS radio weekdays at 8:15 a.m. Pacific Time, and after 10 a.m., you can hear The Daily Madden as a podcast. It's not all about football either, and it's almost always entertaining.]
