Process Driven Leadership

Imagine you’re a young girl named Alice.     you’ve just fallen down a rabbit hole and don’t know where to go.     You come to a door that you’re too large to get through.     Even if you could fit through the door, you don’t know where the key is.     Then you find the key sitting on a table in the middle of the room. You grab the key, but you still can’t fit through the door. Then you find a potion that shrinks you.     Now you’re able to use the key on the door and walk-through.     I believe this is a perfect description of how you need both wisdom and knowledge to be successful.     Knowledge is the collection of information.     Wisdom means being able to correctly use that knowledge.     Think of the Key as Knowledge, the Potion as Wisdom, and the Locked     Door as Success. You see you can have all the knowledge in the world and it’s absolutely useless, unless you have the wisdom ...

Some coaches think that parents shouldn’t be involved beyond making sure their kid arrives on time, and is picked up on time.     In my opinion that belief is ignorant, it’s a belief im ashamed to say I once had.     A parent’s love for their child is a deep unconditional love.     That love drives them to do whatever it takes to protect and care for their child. At times I do believe that parents can act irrationally, but so can anyone. Unconditional love is in itself irrational.     I now understand the “problem” parent, but I don’t believe they’re a problem.     I believe they love their kid, and they don’t wanna see them upset.     The greatest leaders take extreme ownership of all things. As a coach I believe I need to take ownership of my relationship with the parents. If I try to build a wall between us, it creates a false sense of security.     Just because I’m not hearing it, doesn’t mean it’s not being said....

When our backs are against the wall we tend to focus on our problems. The thing is if we focus on our problems, the problems tend to get bigger.     We start to doubt whether we can even get out of this situation. This could’ve been the smallest problem, yet through self doubt and a mind focused on an undesirable outcome it can become massive. In volleyball this is why momentum is a such a big deal, but it doesn’t have to be.     Momentum is based off of emotion.     We can’t stop the emotions from happening, but we can absolutely control how we respond to them. One of the greatest ways this was ever explained to me was this.     Reaction is acting on emotion without thought.     Responding is feeling that emotion, yet taking a second to think about how you need to act in response to the emotion. Knowing this information is one thing, using it is a whole different story. I wish I could say that I always choose to “Respond” rather than “R...

I’ll preface this by saying that GOD is truly amazing!     He is at work in your life, even when you think he couldn’t be further from you. In 2021 two legendary Pennsylvania Boys Volleyball Coaches, chose not to return.      When I applied for those positions, it was for me. I thought if I could replace one of those coaches, that it would somehow validate my life.     I was so lost,  I thought my worth depended on how successful other people thought I was.     I took the     Northeastern job to prove to the world that “I” was great.     Well I quickly realized, just how NOT great I was.     The season started with a 5 hour drive to Meadville.     That Friday we lost our first match and the Next day competed in a tournament where we didn’t do much better.     That weekend I realized something that I should’ve already known….. I wasn’t a very good coach. I spent that 5 hour bus ride back f...

  Things that I guarantee to members of a team coached by me. You will be loved  You will be heard You will be respected  You will be valued  You will be held accountable  You will learn how to handle adversity You will learn valuable life lessons in respect, honesty, and leadership. You will learn what it means to be a part of something bigger than yourself Things that I don’t guarantee  That you will play the position you want That you will start How much playing time you will get  That you will have the same role at the end of the season that you had when you started the season

  Websters dictionary defines Normal as conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern. If you worry about others perception of you, then you will never grow as a person.  Too often we define what’s acceptable of ourselves based on what others are doing.    Have you ever been held accountable for something you did and immediately responded with “but this person did it”?    You have goals and dreams things you would give anything to achieve, but no other person in the world shares exactly the same dream. They shape their behavior and day to day actions based on their own goals and dreams.    When you conform to what’s thought to be “Normal” you limit yourself to achieving average results. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to settle for average, I want extraordinary.    So I’m different. everyday I make decisions that others don’t understand.    So I make mistakes, but they’re my mistakes. I no longer make the mistakes ...

There’s a book called “extreme ownership”.    In chapter 3, they discuss a moment in the war in Iraq, where higher leadership issued an order that most seals didn’t understand.    They separated navy seals into teams that included Iraqi soldiers. These Iraqi soldiers were rarely in proper physical condition lacked problem solving skills and had next to no training what so ever. A military mission requiring navy seals is not an easy task by any means and now they were going to need to train Iraqi soldiers in the field as well. They couldn’t see the purpose, they were    livid that they were being put in harms way to train Iraqi soldiers.    However the leadership team    understood what they didn’t. there weren’t going to be any winners in this war, atleast not in the traditional sense of the word.    These enemies didn’t care about winning a war they only cared about causing as much death and destruction as possible.  ...