A few years into my coaching career I started having my teams memorize the following poem.
It’s amazing what teams have accomplished.
It’s outstanding how much they have done.
When the ultimate call is when one is for all,
And the credit is reached for by none.
Sven Nader
I knew to be a successful basketball team, we needed to play as a unit instead of five individuals. From the very first day I was selling our players on that idea. My most important job was getting the players to buy in to my ideas. The players had to adopt my directions so they could play as a team, five players working as one. Trust was essential to this happening.
First the players had to trust the coach. Years ago when I was an insurance agent, my district manager Dave, told us, “For your clients to trust you they need to know two things. They need to know you are competent and they need to know you care about them.”
That always stuck with me so I worked towards those goals as a coach. To show I was competent I was always on time or early and I was always prepared. In thirteen years of coaching I made every practice and every game except one. The game I missed was to keep a thirty three year commitment to an annual reunion with my college friends. The way I treated each player with respect as an individual showed I cared about them. The first statement I made to the players in the first practice of every season was, “Your value as a person has absolutely positively nothing to do with how well you play basketball. You are infinitely more important than that.” They knew I had their backs.
Getting them to trust me was step one. Step two was getting them to trust each other. I was asking them to play outside themselves and sacrifice for the team. Most players are willing to do that, if they know their teammates are also. Only one player can shoot the ball at a time, but it takes five, each doing their jobs to make good shot opportunities happen. Therefore, they need to know that doing their job is just as important as the shooter and that if the roles were reversed the person shooting now would sacrifice next time down the court so another player could get a good shot. They do it for their teammates because they know their teammates would do it for them.
One of the most important life lessons I gave my teams was about trust worthiness. Trust is the key to any great relationship, be it a marriage, team, business or friendship. Where trust is present great things are possible. Trust doesn’t come easily. It’s earned and I was teaching my players it is worth the price you pay for it. That’s why it is being called trustworthy.
My good friend Ed sent me an article in the Washington Post titled The Ten Most Important Things I’ve Learned About Trust Over My 100 Years by George Schultz. In it he says the following “I am struck that there is on lesson I have learned over and over: Trust is the coin of the realm. When trust was in the room, whatever room that was-the family room, the school room, the locker room, the office room, the government room, or the military room-good things happened. When trust was not in the room, good things did not happen. Everything else is details.”
George Schultz served as Secretary of State, Labor and Treasury. He was also the Director of the office of Management and Budget for the United States government. I assume he knows what it takes to be successful and understands the price for trust is sacrifice. Here is a link to his article.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/11/10-most-important-things-ive-learned-about-trust-over-my-100-years/
Our mission statement as coaches for our team was this. “To have a lasting positive influence on our players’ lives.” As the years go by our players may not remember how many games we won. However, I am certain they will remember the feeling of being part of something bigger than themselves to sacrifice for the team. They will remember what it’s like to trust their teammates. More importantly they will remember what it’s like to be trusted. These things will have a lasting positive impact on their lives. We all paid the price, sacrificed, for that special coin of the realm, and it’s been more than worth it.
May you have enough today, one moment at a time.
THIS HELPED ME 