The Real Heroes of Business

Last weekend, during the Nations of Coaches Character Coach training in Dallas, Texas, one of our trainees, John Corley of Louisiana Tech University Men's Basketball shared a set of questions he has used in business settings that Character Coaches can modify to engage coaches and players in trust-building conversations.

The list of questions and the title of the book from which they come are below. I hope, even a few, can be of value to you and your ministry.

The Real Heroes of Business by Fromm and Schlesinger

Interview Questions:
1) Tell me about your 1st job. Or, for salespeople, “Tell me about the 1st thing you ever sold!”
2) What did you learn about work and about customers from that 1 st experience?
3) Who has had the greatest influence on your adult personality and/or attitude about work?
Explain how this influence affected you.
4) Why are you applying for this job? Specify the job!
5) How did you get interested in this job? Again, specify the job!
6) Have you ever had any experience as a customer of a business like ours? Describe that
experience!
7) What struck you as important to doing this job well when you were the customer?
8) What do you think businesses like this do well? What do they do poorly?
9) Have you ever had a bad experience as a customer of a business like ours? Describe that
experience!
10) Tell me in some detail about the last job you had—or the one you currently have!
11) What were the customers like in that last job?
12) Have you ever had any customers that became regular clients, or even friends?
13) What was your goal as an employee in your last job?
14) If you could have changed or improved anything about that last job (or the one you have now)
or the way your previous employer went about his work, what would you have changed?
15) Who was the best boss you ever had? What made him/her such a good supervisor?
16) Who was the worst boss you ever had? What made him/her such a poor supervisor?
17) In the case where the person is applying for a job that is very similar to the one they currently
have, don’t hesitate to walk them through the plant, shop, or office on a tour and then ask them
what is different about your operation compared to their prior or current job.
18) When you have a job you really like, what is it about that job that makes you like it so much?
19) What do you get from work that you really enjoy?
20) What do you think you will “get” from working here?
21) What do you think you will “bring” to this job?
22) What do you like to do when you’re not working?
23) What would you like to be doing five years from now?
24) Is there anything else about yourself that I haven’t asked you about that you feel is important
for me to know as I consider whether to hire you?
25) Ask me some questions that you must have about our company or business!

Team Culture Development

During a recent meeting with several of my Nations of Coaches colleagues, Coach Dale Clayton made a tremendous statement about team culture.

Coach Clayton said, "A team's culture is:

• determined by the head coach,
• defended by the assistant coaches,
• demonstrated by the players."

That is remarkably simple and tremendously clear. I quickly wrote it down because lots of coaches and lots of others talk about team culture, but few can define it, and fewer can develop it. Coach Clayton's statement adds verbs to the discussion. Each of the three have well defined roles in the development of the team's culture:

• The culture is defined by the head coach, usually in terms of clearly stated values, in single words or in phrases.
• The culture is defended by the assistant coaches, in terms of affirming those stated values in the way they coach.
• The culture is demonstrated by the players, in terms of how they conduct themselves, on and off the floor.

Let's take some coaching from Coach Dale Clayton as we talk with coaches about developing their team's culture. Let's help them define their values, interpret them into daily practices, and see them demonstrated in their players.

Life Map

During a recent Nations of Coaches Character Coach Connection Zoom meeting, our Character Coach for Auburn University Basketball, Jeremy Napier, shared a resource called a Life Map.

One of the highlights of the Map is the process of having each team member tell their stories. Here's an excerpt from the top of the one-page document.


A Life Map is an autobiography – the story of your life. It is not, however, a comprehensive biography. A Life Map should focus on 6 main areas. The goal is to share meaningful information with your peers.

1) Heritage/History

2) Heroes

3) High Times

4) Hard Times

5) Hand of God

6) Honeys


Few things do more to help develop a team's sense of community better than giving them permission and direction to share their personal experiences with each other. Please consider using this or a similar tool in serving your teams.

Five Questions to Build Trust

This is always an exciting time of the year in college basketball. It's preseason, official practices have just begun, and every team in the nation is undefeated! Everyone is full of anticipation and high expectations. In the midst of this ramp up to the season, we have begun weekly discussions with our coaching staff. We're all reading Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and I lead a roughly 20-minute discussion of a section of the book during a staff meeting. At the conclusion of the discussion, I pray, and then leave as the staff meeting continues.

As we were walking through the discussions, last week we observed the team in the book participating in some team development exercises. As the discussion was winding down, I suggested we use one of those exercises among our team. The coaches agreed and yesterday we did it. Below are the five questions we asked each staff person to answer and some insights from the exercise follow the questions.

1. What is your hometown?
2. How many siblings do you have?
3. Tell us about any unique childhood hobbies you had.
4. What was your greatest challenge growing up?
5. What was your first job?

The staff room was full of a wide variety of young men. I am by far the eldest (66), the youngest being a 23-year-old grad assistant, with most of the full-time coaches being between 35 and 40. The group included our strength and conditioning coach and the athletic trainer (physio). Our group is varied in hometown regions of the USA, in ethnicity, and socio-economic background.

One of the younger full-time coaches asked to share first, and he set the tone with remarkable vulnerability, offering many more details than anyone expected, and speaking about family dysfunction very openly. Most others followed in kind, a few being less open with details, but with all sharing freely. This process took 50 minutes, but I never saw any signal of annoyance, anyone looking anxiously at his watch, or any other sign of being less than engaged.

We all learned things about our coaching colleagues, and I learned a great many things that will serve as open doors to further discussions with individuals. One such conversation happened just three hours later on the practice floor as one of the grad assistant coaches spoke openly about his broken relationship with his father and siblings. We had a remarkably vulnerable conversation for several minutes, ending with some encouragement for him and his respectful, honorable attitude.

I would encourage you to use this or a similar tool to invite people to open their hearts to each other. This builds trust and bonds teams. It's worth the time, it's worth the risk, it's worth the effort.

Coaches and Captains Preseason Meeting

Last week I met with a Division III Women's basketball head coach, her new assistant coach, and her three team captains to discuss team leadership development ideas and how to help their team embody their team culture's values.

I have known the head coach since she was a freshman at Southern Illinois University. After her freshman year, a knee injury and surgery, we had a coaching staff change, leading her to transfer to a D-II program. In her senior season she was a national player of the year and her team won a national championship. After playing some professional basketball in Europe, she returned to the USA and began her coaching career. We have stayed in touch across the years and often conversed about challenges she was encountering. It has been and continues to be a privilege to invest in her coaching career and life beyond basketball.

Below are the notes I sent to the head coach ahead of our meeting. They served as the outline for our discussions. I had an hour with the coaches and captains, and then another hour with the head coach and assistant.

Millikin WBB

Captains - (60 minutes)

Introduction -  Leadership = Responsibility

Not that your teammates are responsible to you; rather you are responsible for them.

Leadership levels - (from a John Maxwell book).

◦ Lead by Personhood (highest)

◦ Lead by Elevating others

◦ Lead by Production

◦ Lead by Permission

◦ Lead by Position (lowest)

Team Captains are responsible for: C.A.U.S.E. characteristics (translate to on court & off court matters).

• Complete - developing skills (drills / class). “I see Chris becoming more complete by….”

• Authentic - be real (no drama, no lies). “Abby has been totally authentic through a really tough week.”

• Undeniable - persistence (we never quit). “Jenny had several opportunities to quit this week, but wouldn’t.”

• Selfless - Reward passers, screens, loose balls, taking charges. Clean up the locker room and bus. Off court acts of selflessness). “Makenzie took three charges in Tuesday’s game.”

• Every Day - Consistency (Work ethic, on and off court). “Jill was in the gym for extra shooting four times this week.”

Captains recognize, “Teammates in the CAUSE” weekly at a practice.

Coaching staff discussion:

1. Meet with the captains how often? For leadership development? For CAUSE review?

2. When are you each at your best?

3. What responsibilities can you (head coach) reasonably entrust to an assistant?

4. Do those responsibilities seem possible for you (assistant coach) to do?

5. The goal is to free Coach Lett to operate at a higher level.

We had a tremendous conversation with the coaches and captains, and they seemed enthused to lead their teammates in the process of developing their team's culture. They played deep into the NCAA tournament last season, and believe they have an opportunity to challenge for a national championship. The group of three captains include a junior guard who was an All-American last season.

I am excited to follow the Millikin Women's Basketball team this season. I hope our discussion of leadership, responsibility, and CAUSE will help them achieve greatly.

Encouraging Notes

In late August I received a couple of very encouraging notes from two Character Coach teammates in response to different interactions.

The first was from Lindsay Moncrief of the FCA staff at University of Arkansas. She was one of the people participating in the FCA Character Coach training I led in the first week of August. She was recently preparing for her first meeting with the Women's Basketball team and wanted to refresh her understanding of the 360 Sports Matrix that was part of the training. We had a good conversation and she went on to the meeting. The text message below was her reply to my text message asking, "How did your meeting with the team go?"

Lindsay replied, “I’m so sorry I forgot to text you. I left on such a high and then in awe of God and His goodness.

The meeting went so well, and I even got some extra time with them because they couldn’t get in the weight room right away.

We got on the topic of relationships and girls that would avoid me when I would come in to the gym were asking me so many questions about my experience in college, and with my husband. Many of them opened up to me, and some even came up to me and asked for a one on one.”

The other encouraging note came from the Nations of Coaches Character Coach at the University of Alabama - Huntsville, John Ryberg. His note is below.

"Hello Coach,

Thanks for this timely and helpful message. My first official talk with the UAH Men’s Basketball team is on Sunday evening. I had been planning to start with the subject of identity, with some discussion about how our self worth is affected by our relationships. Our starting 5, and the defacto leader of the players just returned from a mission trip with Real News in Germany and the Netherlands. On the trip, he experienced a very powerful awakening in his awareness of God that has changed the way he thinks about basketball and competition.

When we had lunch together, he shared that does not have the same anger and animosity while playing. He now sees that God can do something bigger through his play. He still plays with great intensity and skill, but he is in control and enjoying the competition. He shared that he has a different understanding of who he is, because he knows whose he is. Very exciting development for the start of the season and how he can help the other guys grow in their faith.

The presentation you shared was very helpful, because there is often a false narrative that condemns the other layers of identity that are not religious. You have given me some great food for thought as I am preparing to talk with the team tomorrow evening. Blessings to you Coach!"

Notes like these two, the stories you share with me, the ways you respond to any sort of encouragement, resources, or input from me are fuel for my fire. This stuff enriches my soul. Thank you for your selfless and faithful service. When you encounter moments of God's grace like Lindsay and John have, please drop me an email, a text message, a phone call, a smoke signal... anything. Thanks!

Faithful Service Story from a Coach's Family

We recently received a note from a coaching family that moved across 3/4 of the USA to their new coaching assignment. The way the Nations of Coaches Character Coach served the coach and his wife is a great example to us all. Thanks to you, one and all, as you serve faithfully and selflessly. The story is below.

Over the summer my husband received a new coaching job across the country. Although there is excitement and adventure that comes along with moving, there are also a lot of challenges.

As my husband was learning his new role, I was carrying the weight of mentally, emotionally and logistically making the move. When I learned our new program had a Character Coach, I was put in touch with his wife. I instantly felt like I had a local advocate and support on the other end of the trip who could assist with this transition into a new community.

She didn't need to be "my newest best friend" or even help unload the moving truck, but she was willing to be a smiling face and an accessible resource for even my most basic questions. Her kindness allowed me to feel seen in an area where no one knows my name.

-A coaching family who is grateful for their new program’s Character Coach and his wife.