I have questions. The first question I have is “where are we headed?” We live in a world that basically doesn’t work. We have territorial wars. We have religious wars. We have other ideological conflicts. It sounds like the world in 300 B.C. … so much for technology. We live in a world that is [...]
Given we are psychological beings, it is no surprise that the field of sports psychology has grown rapidly over the years. There was a time that performers wouldn’t do anything that “messed with their minds,” … even though their minds were a mess. Today, however, the majority of high performers have someone they work with. [...]
“Conventional wisdom” doesn’t work and it never did. It is always a limitation, prevents creative thinking and is , in general, a formula for mediocrity. In the sports world, the media are the biggest purveyors. It seems safe. So what. Life is inherently risky. No one knows what is going to happen. No risk, no [...]
Over all my working life I have been a keen observer of human behavior. I have not only been an observer; I have done my best to impact that behavior. To me, above all, it is a commitment to preserving and treating another with dignity.Let’s look at some of the ways we damage or destroy [...]
My morning sports section in the newspaper (yes, I still read the paper) did a recap of the winter Olympics in Sochi. One writer spoke of and listed “successes and failures.” There are no failures in the Olympics. The successes are being there and competing. There are gold, silver and bronze winners and everyone else. [...]
How do we get full engagement from people on our teams, in our projects and in our lives? What determines the quality of their performance? What has us able to be consistent with any group given the divergent points of view we are working with? I am not thinking about agreement … too limiting and [...]
What’s the difference between playing on our home court/field or the opponent’s? Oh yes, there is the sound of the home crowd, but my experience of that as an athlete was it was noisy on the road and noisy at home. For the purpose of this conversation can we consider that we are naturally afraid [...]
It is such a killer of teams, individuals and projects of all kinds. The heart of our survival “machinery” is the reaction that stops the action, deters people from playing 100% and mostly leaves a trail of broken relationships, dissatisfied participants and a waste of a great possibility. That reaction is being “right,” which requires [...]
Sometimes an effective way to look at defining something is to distinguish what it isn’t. Power is not force. Power is not manipulation, even though it can produce results. Power is not gained through fear. Then, what is it? The formula I like is this: [...]
Several clients are in Tempe, Arizona this weekend for a big intercollegiate women’s golf tournament. They are the coaches and athletes from several teams. The majority of them are members of PAC 12 teams. Some are not. The teams and personalities on those teams shall remain nameless since the point of this is to address [...]