Leaders by Example

1. Leaders by Example Involves 4 Main Characteristics: • Commitment • Confidence • Composure • Character

2. Composure: How To keep Your Cool Under Pressure “You’ve got to be the guy who keeps your teammates from getting too giddy when things are going well, and who brings them back up when things aren’t going your way.” Joe Montana

3. Composure • Great leaders are able to keep themselves under control and manage their emotions during the heat of the battle. • They effectively manage their emotions when everyone and everything else around them might be going crazy. • Your teammates will more than likely mirror your composure. • Panicked or poised? • Disappointed or determined? • Negative or optimistic? • Frustrated or focused? • Giving up or going strong? • Flat or energized? • Scared or confident?

4. Adversity • HOW WILL YOU RESPOND TO ADVERSITY? • Your mindset must be “the tougher it gets, the tougher I get.” • “When things aren’t going well, it’s not what a leader says, it’s how a leader looks that matters.” Coach Mike Kryzewski

5. Traffic Light Analogy • Green: composed, optimistic, confident, focused, determined, communicating, encouraging, positive body language, aggressive, energetic. • Yellow: frustrated, questioning, doubts, negative, blaming/making excuses, distant, tentative, distracted, confused, rattled. • Red: angry, pessimistic, overwhelmed, out of control, apathetic, hopeless, negative body language, scared, emotional , flat, unapproachable.

6. Dr. Ken Ravizza • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkv9cWXiAyU (Stop Lights)

7. Your Lights Are Contagious • When you lead by example, you must realize how contagious your light colors are for your teammates. • The best way to get your teammates in a green is to be in a green yourself.

8. How To Get Into A Green Light • Go over the game plan and/or scouting reports. • Visualize how you want to play. • Quiet reflection/prayer. • Listen to music. • Chat with teammates. • Watch highlight videos. • Take a nap or a shower before the game. • Team chant. REMEMBER: Each person prepares differently. Respect your teammates method of preparation and do not interfere with them.

9. How To Handle Yellows and Turn them Into Greens • Leadership ability is tested when the “stuff” hits the fan. All eyes will be on you to see how you handle the situation. • It’s not the situation that determines what causes you to get into a yellow or red light. It’s your interpretation of the situation that causes the yellow or red. • Key: Recognize and refocus-recognize yellows and immediately refocus your thinking on thoughts that will bring you back to the green light. • Traffic light reminder: Place a green dot (sticker or marker) on your equipment or on your body.

10. Refocusing Strategies 1. Slow the pace to allow yourself time to regroup. • Tie your shoes, untuck your shirt, get a drink, adjust your equipment. 2. Control the controllables. • Controllables: attitude, effort, commitment, focus, confidence, diet, rest, responses to situations, communication, body language, coachability, preparation, etc. • If it’s controllable then you must take responsibility for controlling it and act. • Uncontrollables: coach’s decisions, teammates, crowd, umpires/refs, opponents, weather, equipment problems, travel delays, injuries/sickness, playing team, media, etc. • If it’s uncontrollable, stop focusing on it and getting frustrated about it because there is nothing you can do anyway. You will need to ignore, work around, or adjust to it.

11. Refocusing Strategies 3.Focus on the present. • Deep breath. • Self Talk and Cue Words: “back to work” or “amnesia” • Learn a Lesson: Convert your mistakes, errors, and losses into lessons. Instead of dwelling on what you didn’t do right, focus on the lesson you learned and how you plan to do it correctly the next time. 4. Focus on the positive. • Positive self talk • Positive imagery. • Performance logs. 5. Focus on the process. • Focus on competing • Focus on taking care of the small yet important things that put you in position to be successful.

12. Refocusing Strategies 6.Release negativity: Create a routine or gesture to let go of negative thoughts and feelings. 7. Find a focal point: Pick a focal point in the ball park or arena before a game begins and let this be the place you look at to regain focus when you are faltering. It needs to be a permanent object like a sign, flag, banner, picture, etc. • By looking here, you are acknowledging all the hard work that got you this far and will carry you to the next good place. 8. Carry yourself to confidence: Change your defeated body posture to a confident stance. “Keep your head up. Lift your sternum. Act like the most confident player you know. Think about your greatest performance and carry yourself the way you did that day.” • Fake it until you make it.

13. Show the Positive Emotions and Control The Negative Positive Emotions: • Being composed does not mean you need to play like an emotionless robot. • Learning how to manage your emotions is what composure is all about. • Show your positive emotions. Celebrate your successes and those of your teammates. Negative Emotions: • Negative emotions are ok to show from time to time but they should never show up your teammates/coaches, distract your teammates, or harm the success of the team in anyway (penalty, etc).

14. Assignment • List 3-5 major points or insights you gained from this lesson. • Watch another team’s practice or competition to observe them. During the practice/game watch to see what color lights the captains, coaches, and athletes seem to be in during various points in the competition. • When was the coach in a green/yellow/red? How could you tell? • When was the captain(s) in a green/yellow/red? How could you tell? • What seemed to lead the team into yellows and reds? • How did they handle these yellow and ref light situations?