BOOK OF THE WEEK: "You Win In The Locker Room First" by Jon Gordon

In a collaborative effort between Jon Gordon and former Atlanta Falcons Head Coach, Mike Smith, the two co-authored book about building winning teams. 

Sports are not about the x's and o's and competitive strategies on the playing surface. It's much more than that. The most successful teams are not only one's that have the best players; the teams that find success are the ones that win inside the locker room. The entire team has to buy into the message the coach is putting out there. 

While reading this book, it reminded me of the past semester and working with the Harvard women's swimming and diving program. From the outside looking in you can identify their philosophy is built around being a team and it trickles down from the coaches to the captains to the rest of the squad. As a coach, you may be recruiting the top athletes, but more-so you want to recruit good people. 

Throughout the course of a long season you're going to be around your teammates a lot, which makes chemistry paramount. If you recruit a superstar but "their personality doesn't mesh with the team culture, then they beat you ever day; whereas if you let that person go on to another program then maybe they beat you once a year." It's building a team that you can win with every day and recruit people who fit the culture you want to set. 

It’s all about people.

Hire good people.
Trust good people.
Follow good people.
Play with good people.
Chat with good people.
Work with good people.
Argue with good people.

The rest will figure itself out.

— Imry Halevi (@imryh) May 29, 2020

Many teams have achieved success using this model. Professionally, one can look at the New England Patriots. For two decades, it's always been the "Patriot Way" of operating and if a superstar player didn't quite fit the mold they were quickly pulled aside and mentored by a veteran (i.e. Randy Moss) or they were shown the door (i.e. Antonio Brown). 

I can point to a few college programs who have achieved team success using this model and I look towards three high-caliber Division III softball programs in the Boston-Providence area - Simmons University, Emmanuel College and Johnson & Wales University. While only one program has won a conference title in the last few years, success is far from just winning championships and receiving accolades.

"Success is defined by setting goals and feeling satisfied those goals were achieved." 

Every team at the beginning of the year - no matter the sport - sets out to win a championship. That's everyone's big goal, so you as the leader of the team need to create smaller incremental goals that will lead to the big goal.  If you do all the little things right, they will eventually lead to bigger and better things - hence the term "Little Drops Make Big Drops" and you will success will be achieved. 

Bonus points that don't quite fit with the rest of the post: 

•  Guarding against complacency - making sure everyone is still hungry and willing to constantly improve and innovate. Nothing kills a team more than getting complacent. 
• Past failure does not determine future failure - reminds me of what longtime Harvard women's basketball coach Kathy Delaney Smith said that the HBS "Sports as a Classroom" panel last fall with "failure being the fuel to success." 
• The purpose of sports is to develop better human beings and who have the ability to change the world. 
• Everyone wants to feel cared for, so get to know your team as people and see them more than just a number. 
• Care about the work you do and the services you provide. The top organizations care deeply about their work. 
• Commitment starts at the top and get out and walk around to meet your employees in their environment. No job is beneath you. 

BLOG: "One Team One Dream"

It was a phrase we used to say in the office to lighten the atmosphere and way to brag about the academic success of our student-athletes.

"We were the Harvard of the NECC" was the phrase used in referencing how Newbury College had more student-athletes on the academic all-conference team than any other member institution. We weren't being serious. Newbury and Harvard could not have been further apart. 

Harvard was the prestigious, well-respected beacon of higher education and students attending were all at the very peak of their high school class. On the athletic side, Harvard - a Division I institution - was rich in it facilities and fitness centers. Compare that to, Newbury where most of the students were first-generation college students, possibly working full-time and attending college in hopes for a better future. To say Newbury, a Division III school and a member of the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC), had very little resources would be an understatement. It had no on-campus athletic facilities and coaches and student-athletes hopped in 15-passenger vans to its home athletic contests at Hellenic College and Pine Manor College. Sometimes home events would be 30 to 45 minutes away in Brockton or Nashua, New Hampshire. 

From the outside looking in, the worlds of Harvard and Newbury could not have been further distanced. Or so we all thought. 

Having spent time at both places, I've come to realize that this is not the case. Harvard may have had better facilities, and students that were present with greater opportunities and tutors growing up, it is not all that different than Newbury.  It's the people that make Harvard great, just like it was the people who made Newbury great. 

At Newbury, the athletic department was a team and we coined the phrases "one team one dream" that we all lived by. It's what drove us. Flash forward to January 2020, I was speaking with an associate athletic director and bring up the phrase and she immediately thought it was a cool phrase. Not too long afterward I brought it up with the associate head coach of women's swimming and diving, she loved it too. 

I thought that was the end of it, but last month after announcing captains for the 2020-21 academic year and posting on Instagram that same associate head coach used the hashtag #oneteamonedream. 

Who would've thought something from a small Division III institution would provide so much inspiration to place like Harvard? But when you really think about it, it's about the people. It doesn't matter what division the school is, if the students get 4.0 GPA and 1600 on the SATs or 2.6 students with a moderate 1000 on the SAT. All that matters is the people who are making that educational experience a positive one. 

A lot of things in life trickle down from the top-tier organizations, but sometimes, the most important things rise from lower organizations. It doesn't matter if it's a Division III school or an Ivy League institution, it's alway come down to the people. Hire, trust, work and play with good people and you will have an outstanding organization.