Indiana University Athletics
IU Basketball And The Education Of A College Coach
10/21/2015 12:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By: Jason Belzer (Forbes.com) and Tom Crean
This article, taken from Forbes.com, is co-authored by Tom Crean, Head Men's Basketball at Indiana University
People often ask me, "What's the secret to being a successful basketball coach or executive?" Truth is that there is no secret, but rather a skill that separates great leaders from mediocre ones, and that's the ability to focus and make the best move when there are no good moves left. It's what you do in those dark moments – when that voice in the back of your mind begs you to run and hide – that makes that biggest difference in leadership.
Self-doubt will eat you alive if you let it.
It's a brutal lesson that I've learned many times in my career. Yet after more than three decades in coaching, I admit it never hit me harder than it did last fall. One of our players had too much to drink on Halloween night and in a freak accident got hit by a car driven by one of his own teammates. I ended up getting the call in the middle of the night, and by 3:30am I was sitting by his bedside in the emergency room. His parents – who entrusted me with his care – were sitting next to me crying. His teammates were hysterical. The next day the papers were calling for my resignation and I somehow had to be the voice of sanity and reason while holding back my own tears.
The expectation to perform and win at the highest level, to be a role model and mentor to my players and the community, can be a merciless pressure cooker that suffocates from all sides. But it was in that bleak and unforgiving moment in which I realized that a leader's greatest challenge isn't having to answer to their shareholders, the competition or even the media, but rather it's finding the strength to confront their biggest nemesis– themselves...
To read the complete article, click here to visit Forbes.com.
This article, taken from Forbes.com, is co-authored by Tom Crean, Head Men's Basketball at Indiana University
People often ask me, "What's the secret to being a successful basketball coach or executive?" Truth is that there is no secret, but rather a skill that separates great leaders from mediocre ones, and that's the ability to focus and make the best move when there are no good moves left. It's what you do in those dark moments – when that voice in the back of your mind begs you to run and hide – that makes that biggest difference in leadership.
Self-doubt will eat you alive if you let it.
It's a brutal lesson that I've learned many times in my career. Yet after more than three decades in coaching, I admit it never hit me harder than it did last fall. One of our players had too much to drink on Halloween night and in a freak accident got hit by a car driven by one of his own teammates. I ended up getting the call in the middle of the night, and by 3:30am I was sitting by his bedside in the emergency room. His parents – who entrusted me with his care – were sitting next to me crying. His teammates were hysterical. The next day the papers were calling for my resignation and I somehow had to be the voice of sanity and reason while holding back my own tears.
The expectation to perform and win at the highest level, to be a role model and mentor to my players and the community, can be a merciless pressure cooker that suffocates from all sides. But it was in that bleak and unforgiving moment in which I realized that a leader's greatest challenge isn't having to answer to their shareholders, the competition or even the media, but rather it's finding the strength to confront their biggest nemesis– themselves...
To read the complete article, click here to visit Forbes.com.
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