"I believe the key to being a great coach is to take care of your people and help grow them, develop them, and lead them."

“When you become a leader, you lose the right to think about yourself first. Always remember that a secure leader makes it about the team or organization. An insecure leader makes it all about himself.” — Gerald Brooks

Well, here we are, the final piece in my ‘Coach to Leader Series’ for The Coaches Site. 

As a recap, here are the 5 LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP we’ve introduced:

• Coach to Leader Series: An Introduction
• Level 1 – Position (Rights) – people follow because they have to
• Level 2 – Permission – (Relationships) – people follow because they want to
• Level 3 – Production – (Results) – people follow because of what you have done for the organization/club
• Level 4 – People Development – (Reproduction) – people follow because of what you have done for them
• Level 5 – Pinnacle – (Respect) – people follow because of who you are and what you represent

This, for me has been a real nice way to convey how I feel about the role of coaches and the impact that you should be striving for in the lives of your athletes, both on the ice and off the ice. One is definitely more important than the other, and if you get it right, both will deliver you success.

At the time of writing, we have seen the much mentioned Coach K take his Duke basketball team to the Final Four, before bowing out to North Carolina in the national semi-finals. His legacy is not only the most Final Four appearances by a single coach, or the five National Championships his team has won, it is clearly in the lives of those he has led through his coaching over the past 42 years. 

Well, today we delve into John Maxwell’s 5th Level of Leadership – PINNACLE. There is nothing that you can do at this level that makes you a Level 5 Leader. It is what you have done in the previous 4 levels that affords you the opportunity to be given this particular level.

The questions that become pertinent here are: When you are gone, what is the one sentence that you want people to summarize your coaching? What is it that you want to be known for? What is the legacy that you want to leave? 

1. Law of Intuition – ‘’Leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias”

• This Law favours the gifted leader as everyone is intuitive to their area(s) of giftedness.
• Natural leaders are able to see more than others see it and they do so before others see it.

These two points describe the coach who has the uncanny ability to understand and have a feel for their team during the course of a game, and/or practice. In addition, they know when to push and when to pull back on their team during the course of a season and are able to get their group to understand each. 

The intuitive leaders are those who are usually passionate about their areas of giftedness, and this allows them to make decisions quickly, in the moment, without hesitation, and more importantly with confidence.

The coach who has developed their intuition, and through proper preparation, will provide their team with the necessary information and guidance without nervousness knowing that the game will take care of itself.

2. Law of Timing – “When to lead is as important as what to do, or where to go”

Timing is so essential, and it is very hard to teach, but most definitely can be developed. A leader needs to be able to trust their instincts and intuition. Those coaches who are natural leaders are at an advantage with this law as they can sense what to do and have the right intuition into when to do it. 

For me those who have this under control are able to make the tough decisions in a timely manner as they are doing so from a position of certainty in who they are and what they stand for. 

• The wrong action at the wrong time leads to disaster.
• The right action at the wrong time brings resistance.
• The wrong action at the right time is a mistake.
• The right action at the right time results in success.

The key is to grow and develop yourself as a coach and a leader so that you are exercising the fourth point above the most.

3. Law of Legacy – “A leader’s lasting value is measure by succession” 

Pick it NOW! 

Determine your legacy NOW. As this will determine the actions you pursue daily as what and how we do things today is building what people will talk about later…you reverse engineer your own legacy with your actions today. 

This concept came to light for me in a book called, The Road to Character by David Brooks. This is a book that was given to me by a former player of mine. In the book, Brooks talks about the difference between having ‘Resume values vs Funeral values’. 

Is what we put on our resume that which we want people to talk about at our funerals? A lot of times these two do not mesh together. This is a powerful question.

Always bear in mind that a legacy is created only when a person puts his/her organization, club, team, company, or family into the position to do great things without them, or when they are gone.

Level 5 leaders create Level 5 organizations. They create legacy in what they do, people follow them because of who they are and what they represent. In essence, Level 5 leaders transcend their positions, their organizations, and at times their industry. 

Think John Wooden.

In wrapping this series up, I was struck by an article I read in The Athletic on ‘The Frölunda Way,’ which detailed how the Frölunda Hockey Club has been a hallmark of growth and development for players to the NHL for the better part of a decade. 

One aspect of the article struck me as being key. Roger Rönnberg, who is the very successful Head Coach of the First team, tells the story that Mats Grauers who runs the club, telling him early on in his tenure that at Frölunda, “we want to be the best club in the world of developing PEOPLE – that is everyone, not just players and coaches.”

It is that understanding that I believe to be the key to being a great coach, and that is to take care of your people and help grow them, develop them, and lead them.

I have been inundated since this series has started with coaches reaching out to want to just have a chat about how they can grow their leadership, and it has been fantastic to have those chats. Please continue to feel free to reach out at any time, even if it is to disagree with me, as that is an act of self-reflection.

It is through self-reflection that I believe we grow ourselves as a coach and a leader. Challenge yourself to be better and challenge yourself to greater knowledge and thus greater impact. 

Here is a link to nice article in that regard — Gareth Southgate on How Self-Reflection Underpins his Efforts to Build his Resilience – Leaders (leadersinsport.com) 

I hope you found the series to be of benefit, and as one of my favourite coach/leaders, Lou Holtz said, 

“You have to have good athletes to win, I don’t care who the coach is. You cannot win without good athletes, but you certainly can lose with them. This is where coaching makes all the difference… in the culture you create, in the tone you set, in the way you communicate not only when you win, but when you lose as well. Ultimately it boils down to how you LEAD your team that determines ultimate success both on and off the field.”

To your growth as a leader.

BE OUTSTANDING!!