The Championship Project

OUR 6 STEPS Find athletes who can play Make sure they are of the character we want our program to represent Make sure they are not liabilities in the classroom Get them on campus Show them why they should choose our experience SHOW THEM EVERYDAY WHY THEY MADE THE RIGHT DECISION THE THOUGHT PROCESS  STEP #6:  SHOW THEM EVERYDAY WHY THE MADE THE RIGHT DECISION There was a point in time when I believed that college baseball was a game of survival.  After witnessing a handful of recruiting classes (including mine) run their course, it seemed as though the "if you don't work out, we will find someone who will" process was wildly inefficient, not to mention, unfair to the student athlete.  This “Darwinian” approach, with the right resources and lack of concern for an individuals welfare, may work wonders for some; however, it was not for me.  It seemed lazy and bad for culture, while challenging my ethical beliefs.  In today's post, I will share the

GLOSSARY OF TERMS Micromanage: control every part, however small, of an enterprise or activity. QUOTABLE "Micromanage the process, not the people."                                                -Joe Apfelbaum THE THOUGHT PROCESS Relinquishing control of any part of your program or organization is a challenge, and I would correlate the degree of difficulty to degree of the leader's insecurity. Unchecked insecurity can manifest in program-damaging ways.  This week I am going to touch on a couple of influences that have greatly improved my ability to manage my own insecurities and highlight some of the lessons I have learned from my journey as a "recovering micromanager." As an avid consumer of new ideas and perspectives, I have stumbled upon some eye opening  TED  Talks, some strongly correlated to the everyday problems we often face.  Itay Talgam’s 2009 Talk “ Lead Like the Great Conductors ” opened my eyes to another layer of true leadersh

GLOSSARY OF TERMS CHAMPIONSHIP: Vigorous support or defense of SOMETHING. QUOTABLE “ If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea “.                                                                                                -Antoine de Saint-Exupery.   THE THOUGHT PROCESS Let's pretend for a minute that SOMETHING,  in the above definition, gets replaced with THE  VISION .  As the head coach of this baseball program (or vice president of baseball operations, since head coaches are part of a larger organizational structure) , my job is to outline how to get from "point A" to "our version of  success ."  My vision for our program needs to at least match the expectations of the institution; however, my expectations will always exceed those in place by the powers that be.  With the autonomy to operate as we best see f

GLOSSARY OF TERMS Vision a   : the act or power of imagination b  ( 1 )   : mode of seeing or conceiving  ( 2 )   : unusual discernment or foresight  QUOTABLE "If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed.  The vision pulls you."                                                              -Steve Jobs THE THOUGHT PROCESS My vision for this program is to "CREATE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE STUDENT-ATHLETE EXPERIENCE POSSIBLE."  Possible in this case means with the resources we have or can dream up.  Essentially, we want to strive to max out the potential of our program.  Two realities exist: 1) we do not have unlimited resources to throw money at problems/challenges to make them go away 2) we do not need money to improve our program and separate our program from others.  In order to create a standard and set of expectations which would guide the daily actions of our program, I need