By Kevin Eastman
Most of the comments included in the following text are taken word for word for the book
Introduction: – Kevin Eastman was an Assistant Coach with the Boston Celtics for 8 years and later became the Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angles Clippers. During his time with the Celtics the team won the NBA title in 2008 and lost in the finals in 2010. Mr. Eastman applies his observations of working with the very best of the best to the reader both personally and professionally.
Chapter 2: “25 Powerful Words that Impact, Inspire and Define Champions”
Truth: “The ultimate “must have” for personal and team success; without it we’ll live in the world of frustration and regret.” Your actions must match the words you speak. “When it comes to decision about your team, you must make those decisions through the lens of what is best for the team, not necessarily what is best for the individual. In the case of becoming a champion-level team, you have to have team members who ‘live the truth.”
Being a leader requires telling the tough truth at times for the benefit of the organization. The author developed a model he used when preparing for a tough conversation; 1) “be direct and to the point, 2) “always speak the facts and the truth, 3) speak with respect and empathy, and 4) allow them to vent.” “The most important truth is the ‘truth in the mirror’”.
Action: “The only way to get there is to start now.” “If it’s important enough to try, it sure as hell is important enough not to quit…When action becomes a core ingredient of who you are, you will consistently do what you know should be done. Action is incredibly powerful…provided you take it.”
Intentional: “What I do on purpose to fulfill my purpose.” What are you doing every day to grow, develop and improve? The author distinguishes the word “intention” from “intentional”. People often have great intentions but never act. Intentional “is about keeping it front of mind and first to action.” The author says that sustained success is the result of thoughtful, intentional action.
Preparation: “I have to be there before I get there.” The best of the best became that because they make preparation of “must-do”. In the 2013 NBA finals Ray Allen hit a 3-point shot at the buzzer to win the game. According to the author that was a shot that Ray Allen had practiced that shot thousands of times in his workouts. “The key to your preparation is making sure that your preparation is greater than any challenge, issue, or problem you will face.”
Accountability: “My word to the team that I will understand, execute, and hold myself to all I must do to contribute to the successful completion of our goal. “If winning is important, accountability is a must…Losing teams look to blame someone else so that they can portray themselves as the victims.”
Trust: “The glue that hold the connection together in order to succeed.” Building trust requires consistent performance and proof – if you say you’re going to do something, then do it!
Sacrifice: Giving up something that may be best for you but not what’s best for the team.”
“Convenient sacrifice is not true sacrifice.”
Discipline: “Doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done as well as it can be done and doing it that way all the time.” (definition of discipline – Bobby Knight) One of the most important disciplines the best of the best have is their daily routines. “I encourage everyone to look at discipline as the tool we need to get us through the days when we don’t feel like doing the very thing we know has been a key ingredient to our success.”
Commitment: “The strength of my word, the back of my teammate, and the best interest of my team in mind at all times.” “Most every team that goes far does the required work, but championship teams not only do the required work, they separate themselves from others by doing the unrequired work…Commitment has to be a resolve to fight through difficulties when other around you are criticizing you, when teammates are doubting you, or when your goal seems out of sight.”
Belief: “The power created inside of me from the work, thought, research, and preparation I put in behind it.” If you don’t first believe that you can succeed, there is no way you ever will. Belief can bridge over to ego. Loser’s ego is focused on themselves and how good they are. We don’t want that kind of ego on our team. We want winner’s ego which is confidence in oneself that is based on the volume of work that person has performed. Too many people on a team with loser’s ego will ruin the team. For individuals, belief is found in preparation, thought and learning. “Belief must always be preceded by consistent work.”
Unrequired: “The work that others don’t see, don’t think about, and won’t do that I must make a priority.”
Choices: “If I listen to the right voices, I tend to make the right choices.”
Circles: “The people I allow in to impact my future and the person I become.”
Competition: “a ‘given’, if I am pursuing greatness; something I must be prepared for and willing to do every day.” Competition is more than competing against someone. “It’s the mindset to bring the best that you have in you each day, no matter how things are going…True competition comes in when you are willing to continue to give the best of what you have even when you are losint. It’s about giving all you have when the ordinary person would say, ‘This is too hard! Maybe I’ll try again later…Competitors compete when others give up.” (pg 77 & 78)
Passion: “The pull inside of me that comes from the love I have for something; the emotion that pushes me past the impossible.” Passion is a key to the success of any team. You can’t ride passion forever in expectation of success. Knowledge needs to “catch up with your passion.” “The best part about passion and why it is so important to success is that passion allows us to putpourselve out there event when we know that failure may be the result.” (pg 81)
Habits: “The good ones are the most powerful and most needed; they are hard to create and difficult to break….The key for us is to find out what those good habits are and to do our best to replicate them within ourselves.” They could be nutrition habits, or mindset habits or workout.
Urgency: “Now wins more often than tomorrow.” “Urgency is a habit…If we are intentional about doing things now, paying attention to what is happening now, executing fundamentals the way they should be executed now, and putting the energy into the game or project now, we will all be farther along in our journey to success. Maybe the best way to think about urgency is this: the more you put thoughts like ‘tomorrow and later’ before actions like ‘right now, immediately, at this moment,’ the more you will fall behind your competitors.”
Standards: “The level of expectation I put on myself, my teammates and the team; the measurement for filling my capability gap.” “The key is to live up to those standards and never play down to the standards and levels of the opponents we face or the people we work with.”
Courage: “The strength that comes from knowing I have done all I can to take that unknown or uncomfortable step…Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.” The author says that preparation, readiness and courage overcome fear. “The best of the best are driven by the courage of their convictions. They are not scared off by popular opinion. They are driven by educated decisions.” (pg 99) “Courage doesn’t mean you are free from fear. It means you take action anyway. You get past scared.” (pg 100)
Curiosity: “Knowing that I don’t know what I need to know in order to get me where I want to go.” The author identifies two kinds of people; 1) know-it-alls, and 2) learn-it-alls. “There is no doubt that the only way to grow, develop, and improve is to be a learn-it-all, to have a curiosity about what else is still left fo learn, left to do, and left to develop…the best of the best “want to know everything they can about what will make them better what will help make them grow, what will allow them to become a better version of their current self.”
Respect: “Giving it keeps me humble; getting it requires earning it.” “Respect is always earned before it is given. Respect is about what you have proven through the work and sacrifice you put in and the results you have achieved.” (pg 107)
Adjustment: “Darn, it ain’t working!; The ‘different’ next step I must take to achieve my goals.” “To remain successful, you have to continually adjust and evolve. If you only bring the same thing all the time, the competition will catch up and end up beating you.” (pg 109) The author cautions against adjusting everything something doesn’t work.
Humility: “Makes me open and available to keep learning; I don’t know it all.” “Humility is how you carry yourself and does not have to be at odds with the position you hold, the responsibilities you have, or the pressure that may exist. It’s often said that true humility is not thinking les of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less. Where I also believe humility plays an integral part in individual and team success is that humility says: ‘I don’t know it all. I do need to learn more. I am open and available to be taught.’” (pg 114) “Humility may not be a ‘must’ to succeed at the highest levels of production or leadership, but it can be an incredible separator.”
Investment: “All the big and little things I do now that may not reap a benefit today but will add up to create the opportunity for success tomorrow.” “Those who invest the most in their careers have a greater chance at success than those who don’t. Simple? Yes. Do most people invest in their own development to the level of their goals and dreams? The answer is likely no. Everyone wants to win, but first you must make the commitment to what it takes to win: investment. Warren buffet has been know to say, ‘Investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. Nobody can tax your investment in your talent or take it away from you.” (117)
Talent: “Overrated, unless we add an e and a d: in my world the e and the d stand for ‘extra dimension’”, “Talent alone does not win championships, create a great sales force, or make a person great. Being a talented player means you bring something to the team above and beyond your talent along.” (pg 121 & 122)
This first section to the importance of hiring based on personal traits and character in addition to technical skills. The person’s technical skills enable them to get the job done. But hiring someone with those same skills and some of these 25 key words will enable them to be ROCK STARS.
Chapter 3: “The Champion’s Compass”
The author then highlights key principles the best of the best embody;
Chapter 4: “Success Triangles:The Power Thoughts of Champions”
First Triangle – Three Gaps – Capability, Knowledge, and Team-ness Gap
“We have to recognize the gap between where we are today and where we want to go. Once we recognize that gap, we must then spend time learning how we can fill it.
Capability Gap: “success is not about what you have accomplished, it’s what you should have accomplished with the talent you possess. We all have this gap. The best of the best are on a never-ending mission to fill their capability gap”…work to make your future better.
Knowledge Gap: “What matters most is not what you know, it’s what you need to know to get to where you want to go in your life and career.”
Team-ness Gap: “a player cannot be his best unless his teammates are at their best. And the only way to do that is to help the other players be their best.”
Second Triangle – Three Dimensions of Success – Learn from the past, Produce in the Present, and Prepare for the future
Learn from the past, but not live in the past: “It’s important that we learn from what happened in the past but equally important that we don’t live in the past.”
Produce in the present, not coast in the present: “Just because we had success in the past, it doesn’t guarantee success in the present.”
Prepare for the future: “making sure we are not just ready for tomorrow but prepared for tomorrow.”
Third Triangle– Three Sets – Skill Set, Mindset and Reset
Mindset: “’Teams win in the mindset first.’ (Jon Gordon). Getting their mind right is first and foremost.”
Reset: “We must learn to reset ourselves after a mistake or after failure. The ability to reset yourself or your team afterward is the key to becoming successful.”
Fourth Triangle – Three C’s – Overcoming Complacency, Conceit, & Compromise
“I have seen many time when human nature kept a team from getting the most out of themselves or caused an individual to play selfishly. There is a basic instinct to look out for oneself. I have seen human nature manifest itself when we are asked to do something that takes us outside our comfort zone – when our instincts tell us to protect ourselves and hold back se we won’t be embarrassed or fail.” Pat Riley coined the term “disease of me” – worry about me first. Champion team only have one agenda…to win. Once success is achieved it can be brought down by; 1) complacency, 2) conceit, and 3) compromise (“leads us down the path of taking short cuts or doing something we normally wouldn’t do, thinking we can always get back on track).”
The best of the best learn from failure.
Fifth Triangle – Three Bests – The Best, My Best, Our Best
“In the NBA there are two bests; 1) those who are the best, and2) those who have figured out how to bcome my gest (the vast majority of NBA players). How do you become “my best”?
Sixth Triangle– Three Battles – Combatting fear, Failure, and Limitation
Everyone self-sabotages themselves with thoughts on fear, doubt, failure and perceived limitations. “Success is not about what sounds good, it’s all about the work you must put in to make it come to life.”
Trust in Yourself:
Believe in Yourself: “I have found that when hard work precedes trust and belief, you have the opportunity to overcome fear and doubt.”
Resolve: “failure is part of life. Mistakes are part of growth. It’s what we decide to do after the setbacks, how we react to the setbacks that are the separators of success or failure. Resolve, if given effort, is what beats failure every time.”
Preparation:“Organizations fail to achieve teamwork because they unknowingly fall prey to five natural but dangerous pitfalls. These dysfunctions can be mistakenly interpreted as five distinct issues that can be addressed in isolation of the others. In reality they form an interrelated model, making susceptibility to even one of them potentially lethal for the success of the team.” (pg 187)
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