Great Leaders Impact Everyone

The Indiana Hoosiers were in the middle of an intense practice — and Assembly Hall was just about silent.

Only man spoke and controlled the pace, and everyone — players, coaches, staff and managers in particular — reacted instantly to his verbal commands.

When Head Coach Bob Knight shouted, "Free throws," a swarm of young adults burst out like an organized ant colony, pushing racks of basketballs to precise locations on the court.

When the coach yelled "Stop!", these racks and balls were gone like a puff of smoke. The Rockettes would have been jealous watching the incredible choreography these young men displayed at the sound of a single word.

One of those ants was named Dusty May, and nearly 25 years later, he's the head coach of Florida Atlantic University, which will play in the Final Four this weekend.

May grew up playing high school basketball in the shadows of Assembly Hall at nearby Eastern Greene High School. Competing beyond that level simply wasn't an option for him, but he knew coaching might be if he could just find a way into the prestigious Hoosier Manager Program.

Fortunately, May was industrious as a youth and had cut Indiana team doctor Larry Rink's lawn, meaning he had a foot in the door — and would make the most of his opportunity.

After working for Knight, May became a video analyst for five years before landing assistant positions and finally taking over as the head coach at Florida Atlantic in 2018.

“It’s just a testament to the foundation that Coach Knight laid with basketball and how you operate, and preparation and work ethic and all of the intangibles," he recently said of his career path. "You learn so much that you can be successful in almost any walk of life.”

When coaching a team in any sport, we as leaders often focus our attention on the players — but it's pivotal that we remember that everyone around them needs our coaching as well.

We are the leaders of the TOTAL team, and the more attention to detail we give to the auxiliary aspects of our program, the more effective the TOTAL team will become.

Ensuring the support staff is perfectly aligned and doing their jobs correctly may seem time-consuming. But it's almost always energy well spent.

It demonstrates our ability to process the details and recognize the ways in which we can impact the lives of those we lead. May was impacted significantly by his experiences at Indiana, and they have in many ways been the cornerstone of his success since.

We cannot always pick and choose whom we lead and with whom we share our wisdom. But we must always be willing to spend time developing those under our watch.

Great leaders impact everyone. Do you?

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