Glenn’s Space: Never Stop Believing

When my daughter Katy was in the sixth grade, she asked me to coach a group of her friends who wanted to play basketball. We assembled a team of 10 girls and began practicing the fundamentals of basketball. Unfortunately, the girls were not natural athletes, but they had a lot of heart. For some unknown reason, they named themselves the Bullets.

56-4

By the time our first tournament rolled around, I was a bit suspect of what the outcome might be. Our first game was against a very mature, polished, athletic sixth grade team who cleaned our clock. Final score: 56 – 4.

In the second game, we drew a fifth-grade team from the same community as our last opponent who were certainly more experienced than we were. It was a depressing, long, deflating game. Final score: 54 – 6.

Our girls were devastated! In unison, they all declared their desire to give up basketball. In between tears I attempted to put a Band-Aid on the hurt pride but my attempt at consoling them was futile. Once the emotions subsided, I had an opportunity to inject some optimism.

“Listen girls, it’s just your first tournament and I know you can get better. Meet me at the gym Monday evening at 6 p.m. and we’re going to start becoming a basketball team,” I said.

On Monday evening, we all sat on the gym floor and discussed our strategy. “I believe in you girls. I see you in the future, and you look much better than you did last Saturday. I know we can become a good basketball team. Here are the three things that will guide our team from now on.

Three Guides

First, whether you are on the court or on the bench, you are all going to positively encourage one another. If you decide to become critical of a teammate, you will be invited to sit on the bench next to me. You don’t want that. We will win together and lose together and always encourage each other.

Secondly, we are going to have fun. That’s why we started the team. When it is no longer fun, I don’t want to be the coach.

The third important element is going to help us have fun and play basketball the right way. We are going to learn basketball fundamentals.”

Learning basketball fundamentals, supporting each other and having fun guided us through every practice, near-win games, getting trounced, and our periodic wins.

Always Believe

I wish I could tell you these girls became superstars. They didn’t. But they did learn basketball fundamentals, how to play as a team, and win or lose, to have fun together. I was so proud of how each girl left their heart on floor every game they played. As a bonus, in their third year together they won 12 games and lost 6. They even took second place in a tournament. They were elated. Ecstatic!

I am proud of the fact that I made our practices, games, and relationships a place where the girls were invited to excel. They learned to believe in themselves. We just removed some of the previous roadblocks to success and gave them the tools that made success possible. I never stopped believing in them.

Jump-starting a person’s performance means expanding a person’s view of themselves, raising their performance to an elevated standard, and helping them grow beyond their self-conceived limitations.

Simply stated, the greatest way for people to become inspired to raise their level of performance is to believe in themselves. When leaders choose the right people, provide exceptional orientation and training, and inspire them to stretch toward their potential the stage is set for quite a performance. Find out where your people can excel and push them to their highest level.

The leader’s task is to create a culture conducive to self-motivation and superior performance. Buy into this philosophy and your leadership effectiveness and the performance of your team will improve dramatically.

Questions to Ponder:

How can you expand a team member’s view of themselves?

What roadblocks to success can you remove for people?