Best Quotes of The Daily Coach's Saturday Blueprint

In October, The Daily Coach launched a series called the Saturday Blueprint, weekly Q&As with coaches and leaders across sports and business.

To close out 2022, we've assembled some of the highlights of the series thus far.

What traits do great leaders possess, and why is self-leadership so important?

All great leaders have a growth mindset. They are extremely curious. They are constantly trying to reach their outer limits and discover them. I don’t know of a great leader in humankind who did not have a vision. All great leaders have a vision, mission, goal, purpose and strategy.

Great leaders execute the strategy and recognize it is about WE, not ME. It is about how they can serve the needs of others. I’ve always had this theory that, if you help enough people get what they want, you’ll always get what you want. Also, there is self-awareness among great leaders. They understand that great leadership starts from within, and the most important leadership is self-leadership. If we cannot lead ourselves, how in the world will we lead others?

When we talk about being a positive change and difference maker, the thought process is about trying to change society. People always say, “Do something that’ll change the world.” Well, if you want to do something that will change the world, you change first. If we started from within before going outward, we’d have this massive movement of change that would be authentic. -George Raveling, Daily Coach founder and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall-of-Famer

You’ve been coaching 25 years now and have obviously evolved as a coach. How are you different now than when you started out?

My first year in New Hampshire, not only did we lose every game, we got our teeth kicked in. It was a brand-new high school. Through the course of the season, I said, “Well, we don’t have any seniors, that’s why we’re losing a lot.” But at the end of the year, I said that was part of it, but the biggest part was I took on too much as a head coach. I didn’t have my assistants do a lot, even though they wanted to do more.

Our playbook was way too big. The bigger our playbook got, the worse we got, and I realized I needed to simplify things. I give credit to Bruce Lee, who famously said, “I fear not the man who practices 1,000 kicks but the man who practices one kick 1,000 times.”

I’ve really decreased the number of plays we run and really concentrate on running the same play out of multiple formations and perfecting what we do. -Kurt Hines, head football coach, Coronado High School

You're in your 20s and have obviously had to coach players who are older than you. What’s the key to leading someone who’s older and more experienced?

This is the EQ aspect of the job. Your being vested with the title of coach doesn’t suddenly imbue you with the ultimate authority. You’re a leader based on the people who allow you to lead them. My starting point was, what can I learn, what can I bring, how can I help them get better? They don’t care how old you are if you can help them get better, earn more money, extend their career.

Availability at all hours goes a long way. A lot of players interact with people who are very transactional. When you enter a relationship as a coach with “I want nothing from you but for you to be your best self,” it’s refreshing for a lot of them. You also have to know what you’re talking about, and if you’re not sure, keep your mouth shut. -Daniel Sokolovsky, assistant coach, New Zealand Breakers

How do you productively learn from defeat without dwelling on it?

One thing’s for sure. If you move forward too quickly, you will repeat it. When somebody loses or makes a mistake or someone in a hedge fund makes a bad choice and loses millions of dollars, if you speak to the person on the heels of that moment, nothing will get accomplished. They are so overwrought, there’s so much emotion.

What I believe is you go to that person a little later. “Are you calm now? How are you feeling? Let’s discuss what happened and your preparation." At that moment, you can talk to the person about what transpired.

I used to try to coach immediately after defeat and I found all that would happen was I would get into fights with the athlete. Then, I thought I’ll just stay away. Well, I learned that’s not the solution either.

You need to go over to the athlete, put your hand on his shoulder, say “Tough one there” and then come back later. If you don’t acknowledge the hurt at the moment, they think you’re angry at them. The worst thing you can do, though, is wait too long before you come back to speak. The timing of true teaching is critically important, and true teaching happens after defeat. -Paul Assaiante, men’s squash coach, Trinity College

How did you battle against imposter syndrome?

For me, it really came down to understanding the value you bring to an organization. I knew Xs and Os, but not nearly as much as some of these guys. But what did I bring? I brought consistency, positive energy, I brought my interpersonal skills where the guys felt comfortable asking me questions.

It came down to that vulnerability piece. How do I build trust, and how do I do it quickly but in a meaningful way? You can start it as simple as going to the gym with them every day. If someone asks you what time it is or when the next thing is, you give them the right answer. If you don’t know, you go ask someone and find out. You don’t try and lie about it. You have to believe in yourself. -Phoebe Schecter, former Buffalo Bills assistant coach

What’s a leadership belief you have that goes against the grain?

Ego can be a good thing. It can also obviously be an extremely destructive thing. What I most commonly see is people talking about to be a leader, you can’t have an ego or you need to kill it. My perspective is everybody has an ego, we all do. What matters is how you channel it. An ego is what drives us to be great in a leadership role. It can be part of what drives a company to be great or to build a great team. Ego can have productive value, it’s just very nuanced because you have to be aware of its dark sides and not let it sabotage your team. -Teddy Mitrosilis, entrepreneur and leadership consultant

In your book, you share some interesting views on failure and its connection to toughness.

A real competitor acknowledges that he/she can lose. If you’re going into a game or competition, you’re laying it on the line and you’re endeavoring to win, but you have to acknowledge that the competitor across from you is doing the same thing. Whether you play well, don’t play well or whatever, you can lose. You have to accept this. How you behave afterwards is indicative of your competitive nature.

I think it’s an important thing in dealing with competitiveness. You’re going to fail, but are you going to beat yourself up for it or accept, “I failed. Why did I fail and what do I have to do so this doesn’t happen again?” -Jay Bilas, ESPN college basketball analyst  

What’s an unconventional leadership belief you have?

It’s actually the title of my next book. “We Are All Leaders.” I think a lot of people are thrown off by that, but sociologists have found the average, very introverted person influences over 10,000 people in their lifetime. And that’s the most introverted person. He/she is a leader. I think the biggest mistake leaders make is believing they’re not a leader. I’m really pushing this idea in my next book. Everyone is a leader. -Julie Fournier, founder of BallisPsych and Clemson women's basketball director of player development

Here are 10 of our favorite books from this year. We hope they provide valuable lessons and wisdom on your leadership and self-discovery journey in 2023!