“The best of the best never get bored with the basics.”
Back in 2005, I was asked by the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association to speak at their annual clinic. In the basketball world, this was a pretty big deal. At 23 years old I was humbled by this opportunity and incredibly excited to share something I loved with a new group of coaches. I remember arriving early to my session on a Saturday morning and walking into a packed gymnasium where Ganon Baker, an internationally renowned skills coach had the entire audience engaged. As I sat at the top row of the bleachers and took notes while Ganon ran players through his drills, I could not believe that this was going to be me out on the floor for the next session. With about 10 minutes left in Ganon’s session, I went down to the floor on the baseline to stretch out and get my body ready for the session.
But, when Ganon finished up, the M.C. who was introducing me announced that “lunch was now being served”. I remember looking to the left from the baseline towards the bleachers to see quite literally 497 of the 500 coaches who were in this audience pack up and head for the exit. They made the decision that a cold cut, chips, and soda were definitely more important in that moment than listening to some 23 year old kid from Wisconsin they’d never heard of.
As I ran the demonstrators through the drills, I tried to keep focused on the task at hand, but my mind kept drifting to “how much of a failure I was.” The situation definitely took a major hit to my confidence. But at the end of the session, a friend of mine — the one who stayed out of guilt — came up to me and said, “Alan Stein wanted to make sure you knew that you did a great job”. It was out of this moment of awareness, empathy and care that a relationship was born. It is a simple, but powerful example of how we need leaders to show up today. It meant so much to me that someone else saw me in that moment when I felt incredibly alone. Now more than ever do people want to be seen, heard, and know they are cared about beyond the bottom line, which is a great place to introduce to you, Alan Stein.
Alan is an experienced keynote speaker and author. He spent 15 years working with the highest performing basketball players on the planet (including NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Kobe Bryant). Through his customized programs, he teaches proven principles on how to utilize the same approaches in business that elite athletes use to perform at a world-class level.
His previous clients include American Express, Pepsi, Sabra, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, and Penn State Football.
The strategies from Alan’s book, Raise Your Game: High Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best, are implemented by both corporate and sports teams around the world.
On today’s show we talk about the often-overlooked power of elite preparation, why chasing the external will eventually lead to crippling burnout and Alan shares a story about NBA All-Star Point Guard Chris Paul, which contains a leadership principle we can all implement to elevate our legacy.
