Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 647 - "You Don’t Have To Agree But You Do Have To Listen" (Daniel Coyle and John Wooden)


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 647
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"YOU DON’T HAVE TO AGREE BUT YOU DO HAVE TO LISTEN" (DANIEL COYLE AND JOHN WOODEN) John Wooden Video Clip (1 min 53 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "Is it possible to put the student back in student athletics?" Daniel Coyle is the New York Times bestselling author of The Culture Code. In his book Coyle identifies the building blocks of a great team culture. The first building block he calls "Build Safety". You "Build Safety" on a team when team members feel they are being listened to. John Wooden anchored his Team Culture with his listening skills, because his players knew he was listening. Coach had two habits that accomplished this: He cautioned his players that just because he didn’t agree with them did not mean he wasn’t listening. He acknowledged their point of view before he stated his own. Your listening will not positively impact your team culture unless team members know they are being heard. In his book, Daniel Coyle described it this way: "When I visited the successful cultures, I kept seeing the same expression on the faces of listeners. It looked like this: head tilted slightly forward, eyes unblinking, and eyebrows arched up. Their bodies were still, and they leaned toward the speaker with intent. The only sound they made was a steady stream of affirmations—yes, uh-huh, gotcha—that encouraged the speaker to keep going, to give them more. "Posture and expression are incredibly important," said Ben Waber, a former PhD student of Alex Pentland’s who founded Humanyze, a social analytics consulting firm. "It’s the way we prove that we’re in sync with someone." Relatedly, it’s important to avoid interruptions. The smoothness of turn taking, as we’ve seen, is a powerful indicator of cohesive group performance. Interruptions shatter the smooth interactions at the core of belonging." In thirty-five years, I never heard John Wooden interrupt anyone. Do others know you are listening? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 647. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 647. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE Now And Then Why not think a decent thought, Now and then? Why not ponder, as you ought, Now and then? Get your mind out of the mire, To the higher things aspire, Claim a loftier desire, Now and then. Think of something else than gold, Now and then! Think of things not bought and sold, Now and then; Turn from sordid deeds and mean, In your acts your thoughts are seen, Think of something sweet and clean, Now and then. Think of good instead of bad, Now and then; Of the bright things, not the sad, Now and then; If you think the way you should, As you could think if you would, You would do a lot of good, Now and then. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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