I was at a high school basketball game this past Friday at Marist High School in Chicago. Marist was playing Benet Academy and I knew it would be a good game because I know the coaches of each team, Gene Nolan of Marist and Gene Heidkamp of Benet. Both are outstanding coaches! As I watched…
“When we walked into a building for practice or a game, we left our egos outside the building. However, we brought our TEAM EGO into the building.” The above quote is how Bill Russell described the Boston Celtics basketball teams he played on. Their Team Ego resulted in 11 NBA championships in the 13 years…
My sister, Marybeth Balog, sent me a number of quotes and quite a few of them referred to how we will be remembered at the end of our lives. Enjoy them. Clarence Darrow wrote, “I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.” Mark Twain saw it this way:…
I recently heard an expression from John Maxwell that I had never heard before that made me reflect on its wisdom. “People don’t pay for average.” I know we see this in the athletic arena. When we have excellent teams, we attract bigger crowds. Although people won’t pay for average, they will pay for excellence.…
There has been a great deal written criticizing this relatively new concept of everyone getting a trophy. I am not in favor of it for one reason – Failure. Failure is a part of life. I believe all of us meet Failure in our lifetime – both personally and professionally – and the sooner we…
Ben Zobrist of the Chicago Cubs gets “it.” I cannot explain what “it” is but I believe I know it when I see it. On the World Series championship team in 2016, he was the Most Valuable Player of the Series. This is an extraordinary honor for any major league player. He did an equally…
The Value of Consistency of Effort Leaders obviously have to be concerned with success, if for no other reason just to keep their job! I just read a quote about success that I had never seen before but I thought it was very insightful for leaders. See what you think: Success is never…
John Kennedy once said, “…a sense of humor makes it all bearable.” There is a great deal of wisdom in this statement and it seems that a number of leaders bought into this concept. Lady Astor told Winston Churchill that if she was his wife, she would put poison in his coffee. Churchill’s response…
Kenny “The Jet” Smith said something during one of the telecasts of this year’s NCAA tournament that I never heard before, “Bring a game; not a name.” I believe this statement can have a great deal of insight for leaders, whether you have or do not have a “name,” in terms of preparation. Just as…
John Maxwell, one of our country’s experts on leadership, may have written one of the most insightful comments on leaders when he wrote, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” The best leaders I ever worked with cared. I believe when those whom you are leading know you…
