Picking Your Team: You Don't Need the Best

Confession: I love candy. Who doesn't, right? My wife and I received a $20 gift certificate to a local candy shop and we finally cashed it in. You know the expression "like a kid in a candy store"? Yeah, that was me- the poster child. I went crazy. There were so many options- new candy, vintage candy, home made chocolates, on and on and on..

So what did I do? I grabbed my favorites- Runts, Sour Patch Kids, Smarty's, Reese's and a few others.

After dinner on Saturday I ripped through my bag of candy and started with the Runts. (for those that don't know, they are basically pure sugar in a hard candy coating). Then, in deciding where to go next, I was thoroughly disappointed. I had picked mostly hard-shell, sweet candy.

What's the point? How does this relate to picking a team?

My wife Christine thought I was crazy when I made this connection...but she was kind and patient enough to listen to me rant for a few minutes:

Picking your team is like picking candy.

I made the mistake of picking all of my FAVORITE candy, without considering how the candy "fit" together. Christine, on the other hand, had all sorts of different textures and levels of sweet/sour/salty. She gladly moved from tasting one thing to the next. I sat there, disappointed in my choices.

But I had my favorites! Why was I so unhappy?

Why do coaches evaluate talent and sometimes think "I CAN'T believe THAT kid is going to THAT school...what do they see in her? She's not that good?!".

It's all a matter of making the right pieces come together in a complimentary way. You don't need to have 15 superstar athletes on your team to be a good team. What you need is a few solid pieces (Runts) to build around and to make sure your support structure (other candy) compliments your base.

A silly connection but an important lesson.

Creating the Perfect Tomorrow

Before going to bed, ask yourself: What will tomorrow look like?

Would you take a test before reviewing your notes? Coach a game without scouting the opponent? Then why would we start a day without thinking ahead of what we want to get out of it?

Step One: Review your personal and professional long-term goals (big picture)

Step Two: Envision success in working towards those goals (small picture).

Step Three: Start with the small tasks (action steps) that can be done TOMORROW to work towards your goals.

Step Four: Do the uncomfortable...that's how we grow.  

Step Five:  Focus and follow through. Set notes/reminders. Email the plan and print it to yourself. Putting ideas into actions is the HARDEST PART!      

Contribute or Contaminate

Easy enough: you're either contributing or your contaminating the practice court. Great video.

Vic Shaefer's talk at the Final Four

Below are some notes I took when Texas A&M Assistant Coach Vic Schaefer spoke at the WBCA Convention at the Final Four last year (the day his Aggies won the National Championship!).

-Assistants and Head Coaches can agree to disagree...but, when you disagree, it should be about what we think is best for the program or team.

-The Head Coach should talk to parents about intangibles, but let the Assistants handle the crises that arise.

-Knowledge of the game is so important!! WATCH THE GAME!! (See my post on "deliberate practice" here)

-Professionalism is so important...what you say, how you dress...

-Know you're stuff- we aren't paid to be wrong.

-Be a voice to your Head Coach. Sometimes, bosses need to think it's their idea about a game plan or something that will benefit the team/program.

-Go to work early and stay late.

-Emotionally invest in your team!

-Teach kids to be accountable and to hold each other accountable (it's not personal, only work!). For example, run on the 3rd missed block out.

-It's not WHAT we do...it's HOW we do it

-Trust is the foundation of A&M's defense....tight ball pressure = susceptible to penetration. Need to trust your teammates' rotations, etc.

-Post defense is played 35' from the basket (bump and get position early)

-Make your team uncomfortable in practice so they are better prepared to face adversity in games (and life!)

-Clear minds make plays. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

-A&M has a foundation of the same 3-5 drills everyday

-BE WORTH POINTS EACH GAME (on defense!)

-Defense is a LEARNED response.

Culture beats strategy...All day long!

How Do You Weigh Strategy, Execution, and Culture in an Organization's Success? -Article from Harvard Business School by Jim Heskett

Strategy, execution, and culture: Do we have our priorities right? 

"An outstanding strategy weakly executed will always be trumped by a weak strategy with outstanding execution.

What if you had a plan to be president of the USA? You could have a perfect plan. A brilliant one! One, that if put on practice, it would give you a 100% chance of being the next president of the USA.

There is a catch. It's extremely hard to accomplish and you can't do it alone. Actually, you need the best people available, you all have to be believe you can do it and above all, you have to learn how to work together.

Other than that, the plan is perfect.

It's all about people. It's all about making ideas become reality.

Reality is made of people, doing small things, every day. It's not about abstract ideas that in the realm of imagination look good.

Is strategy good? Of course it is. It gives us a goal, direction, things to care about, helps us to work together.

But it's not everything. And actually, it's not even a must.

You can win without a strategy. You could be lucky. You could have other people who care about you and help you in your objectives. Your competitors could make the wrong choices.

There are an infinitude of variables that just makes every good strategy a good guess.

Strategy gives you an edge, but it's nothing without people (culture).

Why "to-do" lists will fail you.

How do you organize your day's schedule?

One motto that I live by is "schedule your priorities; don't prioritize your schedule".

A "to-do" list often sets you up for failure. When you make a to-do list, it is generally a list of odds and ends clumped together in an organizational fashion to give you an outline of what needs to be done. There are three problems with this type of system:

1) Your "important" and "urgent" priorities may get mixed up with the "not important" but "urgent" duties (see my post on the 80/20 rule here to understand the difference).

2) There will be things that become added to your list...regardless of priority, these usually get placed at the bottom.

3) If you don't finish your list, it feels terrible knowing you didn't accomplish everything you set out to.


By scheduling your priorities, you have to know what tasks need to be completed today, tomorrow, this week, next week, next month, or those tasks which can be delegated. We must feel comfortable pushing off important and non-urgent tasks for another day while focusing on the immediate urgent and important.

I have a daily/weekly/bi-weekly planning tool that I utilize daily and I'm happy to share that with anyone interested! Please email me at coachchrispassmore@gmail.com

How to put your career on the fast track...

www.BrianTracy.com, assist to Bob Starkey.

1) Ask For Greater Responsibility
You can accept 100% responsibility for everything you are and everything you become. You can refuse to make excuses or to blame others. You can tell your boss that you want greater responsibilities and then when you get them, put your whole heart into doing an excellent job.

2) Improve A Little At A Time
If you become one tenth of one percent more productive each day, that amounts to one half of one percent more productive each week. One half of one percent more productive each week amounts to two percent more productive each month and 26% more productive each year.

The cumulative effect if becoming a tiny bit better at your field and more productive amounts to a tremendous increase in your value and your output over time.


3) Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Improvement
The key to long term success is for you to dedicate yourself to continuous improvement. If you become one tenth of one percent more productive each day, that amounts to 1/1000th improvement per working day. Is that possible? Of course it is! 

Schedule Your Priorities: The 80/20 Rule

In April 2011, I led a presentation at the WBCA National Convention/Final Four in Indianapolis, IN for the Director of Basketball Operation's Roundtable.

The focus of my presentation was the 80/20 Rule (also known as the Pareto Principle)...essentially, how to effectively maximize results through efficient work habits. Here is a link where you can download the PowerPoint in a PDF format and here are a couple of key points from my presentation:

*There's no such thing as time management; it's all about self-management!

*Organize and execute around priorities...The way you spend your time is a result of the way you see
your time and your priorities (Schedule your priorities; don't prioritize your schedule).

*The Pareto Principle states that 20% of your efforts lead to 80% of your results.
     -In business, 20% of products usually account for 80% of profits 
     -At home, 20% of your clothes get worn 80% of the time
     -In college athletics, 20% of the sports get 80% of the funding
     -On the court, 20% of your offenses will get used 80% of the time

*We have been conditioned to think that high ambition must go with thrusting hyperactivity, long hours, ruthlessness, the sacrifice both of self and others to the cause, and extreme busyness. In short, the rat race.
A much more attractive combination is that of extreme ambition with confidence, relaxation, and a civilized manner. Think of Newton sitting under a tree with an apple....
We have more than enough time! Achievement is driven by insight and selective action.

Here is a link where you can download the PowerPoint in a PDF format.