John S. Gordon - Business and Personal Coach

"You have the greatness and the power.  I just help you turn on the switch."

Welcome to Issue 147.  If you did not receive a previous issue, you may use the archive link below to view it now.  The mission of "Marvelous Mondays" is to offer an inspirational thought, a practical exercise, some humor, or a simple tip to jump-start your week and to enhance your life, business, outlook or relationships. 

Please feel free to forward "Marvelous Mondays" to others who will enjoy it.

Why is the Kansas State football team getting nation-wide media attention?  Is it just because they wear beautiful purple jerseys?  Or is it because they were picked to be one of the worst in football and expected to win perhaps two games?  Instead, the team has been ranked as high as #10 in the country.  Wouldn't you expect K-State to have fabulous talent?  Wrong!  There's only one five-star high school prospect on the entire team.  The other players are walk-ons, junior college transfers and players who were rejected by other schools.  The one thing they all have in common is a strong desire to play for coach Bill Snyder.

Who is this coach?  Does he fit the profile of the young, dynamic, type A personality who drives people to win?  No.  In fact he's a distinguished 72 year old white haired gentleman whose coaching style can be a leadership lesson for all of us.  And there's no such thing as a "generation gap" in communication with his players.  In fact, he is two generations from his players; yet he communicates effectively. 

1.He has 16 core values, including:

·      Unselfishness

·      Enthusiasm

·      Leadership

·      Responsibility

2.  Practice.  His mantra is "Keep rowing the boat."  Practice, practice, practice.  This sounds like the skill of Mastery.  Click here for issues 116, 117, 119, 120, 121, 122 on our series of Mastery.  Practice is work and the players are expected to work as hard in practice as in the game.

3.  Improvement and Process.  He never talks about winning but only emphasizes hard work and insists on improving every week.  He says the games will then take care of themselves.  So his leadership style is the process rather than the result.

4.  Honesty.  Coach Snyder is direct and honest with this players, including his half-time talks.  The results shown in the second half have usually been very impressive. 

This week I invite you to reflect and do the following:

1.     As a leader rank your performance of the Snyder Values:

·      Unselfishness

·      Enthusiasm

·      Leadership

·      Responsibility

2.  Are you using "generation gap" as an excuse for not working more effectively with people of a different generation?

3."Keep Rowing the Boat".  Come up with a mantra for your team.  It should become well known by all your team.

4.  Improvement or Results.  Do you focus only on your team's results?  How is that working?  Do you want to shift to the process of weekly improvements? 

5.  Honesty.  Are you honest and direct with your team?

6.  I really want to hear from you, especially anyone who takes a different view.  I will listen to all of you.  I coach executives in all areas of leadership and personal development.

    

     "Keep rowing your boat."    

- Bill Snyder 

Kansas State University Football Coach 

                   **John is currently accepting a few new coaching clients.**

Click here to view an Archive.