Week of 1/15/2023
1 - Dr. Michael Gervais | Relationship-Based Teams
2 - Ja Morant | Somebody’s Always Playing the Game
3 - Be A Great Teammate
4 - Georgia Football | Hold Your Teammates Accountable 5 - Justin Herbert | Know Your Priorities
Dr. Michael Gervais | RELATIONSHIP-BASED TEAMS
Tom Bilyeu runs a great podcast where he interviews very interesting people from many different walks of life. He interviewed Dr. Michael Gervais, a high-performance psychologist who works with high-performing athletes and teams, including the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL, and they discussed relationship-based teams.
Tom asked Gervais: How do you hold somebody to a standard, say, “You messed up,” and at the same time, love them?
Gervais said, “What we do ahead of time is, we invest in the relationships. The Seattle Seahawks are a relationship-based organization, and the product or output is football. None of us do this thing alone, and if we are going to do something amazingly difficult, we need to lock arms and stay in the trenches long enough. Most people lock arms and as soon as it gets hard, we unlock our arms and take care of ourselves. But the extraordinary teams are able to lock arms and stay locked. They bet on themselves.”
We can do that by building strong relationships based on trust. Gervais said that we want to be around people who make us feel better, do better, and be better. We want to feel that the people around us have our backs, understand us, and make decisions that benefit both of us.
Invest in relationships on the front end.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1 - What is your biggest takeaway from this video?
2 - How do you tell someone they messed up and still love them?
3 - Have you ever been on a team that locked arms and got stronger when the going got tough? Why do teams get stronger when times get tough?
4 - Have you ever been on a team that unlocked arms when the going got tough? Why do teams tear apart when times get tough?
5 - What do you think is the biggest difference between teams who stay locked together during difficult times vs teams who don’t?
Ja Morant | SOMEBODY’S ALWAYS PLAYING THE GAME
Ja Morant went from an unknown, mid-major basketball player to one of the most recognizable young stars in the NBA. Morant is known for his athleticism and his work ethic, but he wasn’t always a hard worker like he is today. He said that he and his friends used to play video games all day and night.
One day, after pulling an all-nighter, his dad woke up and told them, “While you are playing the game, somebody else is playing a game; let me know what that means by the time I get back home.”
When his dad came back home, they were still playing video games. His dad said, “While you are in here playing video games, somebody is actually working on their game.” After he said that message to us, he had to start begging us to come from outside; to go into the house to eat.
He said he then spent day in and day out working on his game. He would go to school and basketball practice, and then come home and work out with him.
Discussion Questions
1 - What is your biggest takeaway from watching the video?
2 - What do you spend most of your time doing? Playing the game, or playing video games (or something else that distracts you from your goals)?
3 - When a parent or coach tells you something like this - that you need to spend more time working on your game - how do you feel? How do you respond?
Billy Donovan | PLANTING SEEDS
One of the most difficult parts of coaching and teaching is that we often pour so much into our kids, especially the more difficult kids, and we often don't see the fruits of our labor.
NBA Coach Billy Donovan once said:
“I’ve had more players come back to me over the years that were really difficult and challenging to coach, and it was not a great relationship, and they have come back and our relationship has gotten better.
The hardest thing for me in coaching is we are always planting seeds in players, but sometimes that seed doesn’t take sprout and doesn’t bloom until long after they’re gone. The frustrating part as coaches is we want that plant to flower right now; we want the harvest right now, and sometimes that harvests at different times in people’s lives.
An educator once told me:
"How often do you hear teachers and coaches complain that their students and athletes are under-prepared?
I think that we are so focused on getting our students prepared for the next level, that we don't teach them how to master the level they are currently at. Elementary teachers try to prepare them for middle school, middle school teachers try to prepare them for high school, and high school teachers try to prepare them for college and the real world.
But what if we just focused on preparing them to be successful today and trusted that their teachers tomorrow will do the same? They will master where they are, enjoy where they are, and hopefully continue doing so."
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1 - What is your biggest takeaway from this video?
2 - Have you had a kid that you poured into who harvested after they left you? How does that make you feel?
3 - Were you ever that kid who was difficult to coach who harvested later? How would your coach feel if they saw you now? What would you tell your coach if you had lunch with them today?
4 - Have you ever poured into a kid who never really bloomed? Would you do anything differently?
Georgia Football | HOLD YOUR TEAMMATES ACCOUNTABLE
In this video, former Georgia Bulldog football star Nakobe Dean jumped in teammate Channing Tindall’s face when he didn’t do what he was supposed to do.
In the very next play, Tindall responded by getting a big sack. Tindall then came back to his teammate and daps him up.
On great teams, players are able to hold each other accountable.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1 - How would you react if your teammate got into your face and challenged you like that?
2 - Would you be willing to get in your teammate's faces if they aren’t performing the way you need them to?
3 - How do you like being held accountable by your teammates?
4 - How do you hold your teammates accountable?
5 - Justin Herbert | Know Your Priorities
HIGH SCHOOL QUARTERBACK: How do you manage being a quarterback while knowing and keeping your self-image and worth?
NFL QUARTERBACK, JUSTIN HERBERT: Keep your priorities straight and listen to who is important: family, coaches, and teammates. If it doesn't come from them, don't pay attention to it; everything else is a distraction.
Discussion Questions
1 - What is your biggest takeaway from the video?
2 - Who is in your inner circle? Who's thoughts and opinions do you value the most?
3 - Whose voice distracts you? Social media/fake friends/opponents?
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