Next Level Blog

Rick Pitino’s Winning Leadership Tips

 At the risk of alienating readers who are University of Kentucky Wildcat fans (like my brother), today’s post features the leadership lessons we can learn from Louisville Cardinals basketball coach, Rick Pitino.  With his team ranked number 3 in the country at the moment, Pitino is the only coach who has led three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, Louisville) to the Final Four.  A recent article in Investors Business Daily outlines Pitino’s winning leadership and coaching philosophy.

Here’s a quick summary of the Pitino way:

•    Motivate to the right level

•    Focus on continuous improvement

•    Scout the competition

•    Coach the individuals, not just the team

•    Get the hard stuff out of the way first

•    Schedule your time efficiently

•    Hire great help

•    Establish goals and follow through

On the last point of establishing goals and following through, I’m reminded of some of the executives who have been through our Next Level Leadership™ group coaching program.  In our newly released white paper that summarizes the lessons learned from working with over 300 high potential leaders, one of the common denominators in the case study reports is a clear focus on goals and an actionable plan for following through.  You can request a copy of the white paper here to learn more.

Have you ever been coached by one of the greats?  (Maybe you’re one of the greats yourself.)  What would you add to Pitino’s list?

Person Rick Pitino

Right click for SmartMenu shortcuts

Let’s All Maintain Our Perspective

So what was it yesterday, like a 700 point swing in the Dow as the market dropped 150 at one point and then closed up 550 in the last couple of hours?  Meanwhile, jobless claims are high and expected to go higher, the U.S. auto industry is on the ropes and the list goes on.  It can all take your breath away if you let it.  It’s easy to get mired in the belief that it’s always going to be crazy.

 Maybe so.  But, when you think about it, crazy times are what we’ve lived through our whole lives.  Same thing with our parents and grandparents (and theirs too).  I had two great reminders of this with clients this week.

The first was on Wednesday during one of our Next Level Leadership™ group coaching programs.  Our executive guest speaker was a senior vice president in a computer services company who did a terrific job of sharing what he’s learned over the course of his career.  With a lot of humor, he observed that there are always crises and he’s noticed that they fall into three categories.  There are weekly crises that are usually resolved by Friday afternoon.  There are monthly crises which might extend from one week to another and there are annual “near death experience” crises that are the all hands on deck, stop the  presses crises.  Two points from my SVP friend:  1.  Crises are always with us.  2.  We always live through them.

The second perspective builder came with a senior executive client in a financial services firm.  During a quick break in our meeting yesterday.  I noticed that he had what looked like three rather old magazines on his credenza.  Two of them were copies of TIME magazine and one was a Newsweek.  The cover stories were “Banks in Trouble,” “The Deficit Blackhole” and “The Energy Crisis.”  In addition to dealing with economic issues, what each of these issues had in common was that they were published in 1984!  My client’s wife had insisted that he clean out his belongings from their attic last weekend and he had found these historical artifacts.

 What is it the French say? Plus ça change, plus c' est la même chose.  (The more things change, the more they remain the same.)  The next time you find yourself feeling gloomy about the long term prospects, remember that you’ve been through tough times before.  It’s all about what you do during the tough times that ensures your success in the good times.  They will be back.

White House Fire and Ice

For all of us leadership geeks it doesn’t get much better than watching the presidential transition unfold.  There are so many moments to observe (e.g. this week’s White House meeting between the Bushes and the Obamas) and so many strategies to analyze.

As an example of strategic analysis, my colleague, John Baldoni, offers an interesting take on President-elect Obama’s selection of Congressman Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff.  If Obama’s temperament is ice (see the current issue of Newsweek for an in-depth look at the consistency of Obama’s approach over the past two years), then Emanuel’s is fire (check out this Slate article for the background).  John makes the great point that leaders need to be intentional in selecting their key team members and avoid the mistake of hiring solely in their own image. 

If you haven’t seen it, take a look at this clip of Obama calling out Emanuel at a charity roast a few years ago.  Pretty funny stuff.  They should be an interesting team to watch. 

Great Leadership by Dan

If you're looking for a consistently excellent resource on the art of building leaders, check out Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy.  An experienced leadership development professional, Dan recently marked the one year anniversary of his blog and has generated quite a community of readers.  So, needless to say, I was pretty excited to see that Dan's most recent post features The Eblin Group's recently released white paper on what new executives need to do to ensure their success at the next level.  Thanks Dan!

LEADERSHIP LESSONS Podcast: Jet Blue's Ann Rhoades

Last month, I had the great opportunity to hear Ann Rhoades when both of us were speakers at Disney Parks and Resorts annual leadership conference.  With her experience as the head of HR for Southwest Airlines, the founding EVP for People of JetBlue Airways and now as a board member of both JetBlue and P.F. Chang’s, Ann offers a unique perspective on leadership.  Her field of vision is further broadened through her work as an adviser to senior executives in her own firm, PeopleInk.

Recently Ann and I had a great conversation on her leadership lessons learned so far and it’s available to you through this podcast.  Among the topics we talked about are:

•    What she learned from the legendary founder of Southwest, Herb Kelleher.
•    What executives need to know to successfully work with board members.
•    What her Southwest and JetBlue experience has taught her about winning in an economically challenging environment.

Hope you enjoy the conversation.  Let me know what you think.

Scott's Podcast