By Thomas Roijakkers
Book Notes
Kevin Eastman – Why the best are the best
If you want to be successful at anything, the 1st step you have to take is the try to.
He often says it is not about where you’ve been and what you have done, but about where
you are capable of going and who you are capable of becoming. In regards to NBA players
it’s not about if we can relate to the level they have achieved, but learning from the lessons of how they got there.
3 most important things a leader can get: the players’ ears, minds and hearts.
Turn lines into lessons. Turn red lights into reminders. Turn flights into classrooms.
He believes that clarity and simplification are increasingly becoming important. His
philosophy has been: “success lies in simplicity, confusion lives in sophistication”. He knows that if he simplifies his thoughts, philosophies and strategies he can call on them when he needs them the most and get into execution mode without hesitation.
Common goals that teams have:
The 25 power words of champions:
Truth: You must be able to live it, to tell it, to take it. Live it: Put your money where your mouth is.
Tell it:
Take it: not always easy to take but necessary to reach our goals.
Page 35: The truth musts: Have a truth teller in your inner circle. Conduct a truth audit at least once a year with yourself. Act on what you hear.
You get better by doing. You don’t get better by talking about doing.
If it is important enough to try, we have to make sure it remains important enough not to quit. Don’t let your effort be determined by success or failure, by win or less. Let the determining factor be the personal importance of it, that purpose that made you try in the first place.
When action becomes a core ingredient of who you are, you will consistently do what you
know should be done. Action is incredibly powerful… provide you take it.
2 questions about where you are on your journey of growth are:
Intentional is all about keeping it front of mind and first to action. This is at the core of living an intentional life.
They best of the best understand that the knowledge and confidence they get from preparation is a separator. Preparation creates knowledge and knowledge breeds confidence.
Be there before you get there (game situation).
Doc Rivers and preparation: it trumps pressure, fuels confidence and becomes your separation.
If winning is important, accountability is a must! Success demand accountability and accountability demands ownership and truth.
In team Doc Rivers coached they talked about never allowing themselves to BE the victim, never following to PLAY the victim. In a competitive environment, victims never succeed and blame teams never win.
Decisions to be made when it comes to accountability:
Championship teams understand they are accountable:
An accountability culture has to start at the top from both the leader of the team the best players on the team. The best way to create buy-in to an accountability-driven team is for them to educate and exemplify that accountability is mandatory. They must also instill a mindset that says accountability doesn’t just mean admitting mistakes and failures as much as it show us what to work on, and that drives success.
The importance of accountability: think and work like you are paying the bills.
Doc Rivers in his years with the Celtics told the media a lot of times after a loss that this loss is him. From a leadership point of view, his players felt he was right there in it with them, there is no telling what they will do for that coach!
Master the bilities (page 50)
Trust needs: time, consistency and proof.
Convenient sacrifice is not true sacrifice. Convenient sacrifice never wins; it is actually selfishness disguised.
Sacrifice is giving up something that you may really want for something bigger that may or may not happen in the future. Doc Rivers would say: “Doing something that may not be good for you but is better for the team”. Sacrifice becomes a decision to go against human nature to look out for oneself.
Two ways of looking at sacrifice:
Bobby Knight says: “Discipline is doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done as well as it can be done and doing it that way all the time”.
Discipline says no to easy and says yes to whatever it needs to do to succeed and fulfill one’s
capabilities.
Time zones of winners vs losers:
Success is all about consistency. Championship teams separate themselves from others by doing the unrequired work. Champion workers consistently are willing to put in the unrequired work.
All achievers have a high level of belief in themselves. The loser’s ego is focused on ME and how good I am and not in the team or the team’s success. The winner’s ego provides the self confidence needed to compete at the highest levels. It comes from knowing that you have put enough sweat equity into yourself to allow you to know your prepared and you are the best you can be.
The separator is doing the unrequired work. The best of the best always do a little bit more. They work harder and more often. They do more than the people who they pass on the climb up the success ladder are willing to do. They deliver more than is expected and work more than contracts require. They do unrequired work.
What if we looked at our choices not from the lens of what choices should we make, but rather through the one used by the most successful people, the lens of what will our choices make of us. Every choice has a ripple effect that is the aftermath of that choice. The ripple effect is very real and must be given serious attention.
Key question: who are the people we are spending the most time with? They play a part in how we think, work, how we motivate ourselves and what kind of attitude we bring everyday.
As you create your circle, consider these filters:
Circles should not be based on friendship alone, but also on respect and trust.
Competitors compete when others give up. A competitor is one who doesn’t change depending on the score. A competitor is one who gives honest, maximum effort at all times. A competitor gives the best of himself until the finish.
Successful teams understand that passion is important not just to the individual but also to the team. Passion brings a spirit to a team, and all winning teams will tell you that the spirit of their team is important. All great individuals and all great teams have a passion for what they are doing. They bring a positive spirit to the day. Positive spirit is a fore multiplier.
Passion is a valuable part of successful people’s make up – because success is hard. Success demands test like failure and embarrassment. The drive to get to both of these is passion. The key is to perform with emotion, but not get emotional.
There are two types of habits: good ones and bad ones. Habits are a choice. The key is to find out what good habits are and to do our best to replicate them within ourselves. While others become bored with the basics, Kobe Bryant made a habit of mastering them working every day to turn those basics into separators.
A great lesson on the importance of turning the fundamentals into the habit of success: Ray Allen asks Kobe Bryant: “Kobe you are the best player in the world. Why would you spend two hours on some of the most fundamental drills in the game ended them over and over again”. Kobe’s answer: “why do you think I’m the best player in the world”. Kobe understood that the secret to greatness. The secret is that there is no secret. It is a habit of working on the fundamentals of craft, so that, when necessary, you can go beyond the fundamentals.
The best understand the important of the now.
Maybe the best way to think about urgency is the more you put thoughts like “tomorrow and later” before actions like “right now, immediately, at this moment” the more you will fall behind your competitors.
We were not going to be satisfied with a standard of just winning regular-season games. Not only what our standards be much higher, we would play up to and against our standards, not just play the opponent.
He believes there are three forms of competition that challenge is to be our best:
The best do all three but emphasize the third. Competing against ourselves is actually competing against our own personal standards.
Courage
There are different levels of courage that many successful people have displayed. I’ve often characterized these levels as:
There are two types of people in the world:
We must continue to learn if you want to keep up. The best players have a curiosity gene. Curiosity is the foundation for getting better, the to learn how you can improve, try new ways of doing things, and learn how to remain relevant. The best of the best make sure to find time to simply think. They find time to pursue curiosity, sort of options, massaging idea to make it the best for given situation. The best of the best realize they don’t know all they need to know and don’t have all the answers they hope to have. How do they solve this challenge? Intellectual curiosity. They’ve built think time into their lives and remained hungry for new knowledge.
Respect is always burned before it is given respect is about what you have proven through the work and sacrifice you put in and the results you achieve receiving the respect of your competitors and teammates no matter your profession, should be-your ultimate goal.
One thing on change: to sustain we must change. We may not like it, but we have to live with it, and even more in live with it, we have to make it work. He often shares this is saying: “we have to make it work while we’re seeing if it works”. In order to give it a chance to work everyone has to try to make it work. We have to be able to adjust. But I caution you here, we should not adjust after every time something doesn’t work because if we believe in everything, we believe in nothing. Tom Thibodeau on adjustments: “before we adjust anything, we have to first make sure we are doing it the way we have taught it. First we
needed to do it harder, then do it better”. We were going to make sure it was done the correct way before we were going to make an adjustment. Coach Nunally thought the best coaches will make a second adjustment to your adjustment. One final thought: you have to have great eyes to see what you need to adjust. You have to have great ears to hear what you may need to adjust. You have to have a great mind know what strategic adjustments you need to make. And when you make a difficult adjustment you have to have the courage to stay within make it work.
Humility is how you carry yourself in does not have to be at odds with the position you hold, the responsibilities you have, or the pressure that may exist. It’s often been said that true humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. Humility plays an
important part in individual and team success because it says: “I don’t know it all. I do need to learn more. I’m open and available to be taught”. In other words humility keeps us on the path of self-improvement that all greats travel. Kevin has had many Conversations with executives and he says that the majority of leaders he has met our humble. And as he observe their humility, he has seen that is a major part of why their teams want to come to work each day rather than see themselves as having to come to work.
2 reminders:
What he knows for sure is this: the combination of humility and confidence is a championship formula.
Everyone wants to win, but first you must take the commitment to what it takes to win: investment.
Entitlement is the enemy of success as a team or for an individual, no matter what age.
There are players who have talent and there are talented players. The difference is small, but the result enormous. The difference is two letters E and D, which stands in his world for Extra Dimension. The Extra Dimension shows up in many different ways. Being a talented player means your bring something to the team above and beyond your talent alone.
Championship talent goes beyond what you do well. It is what you can do well when what
you do well isn’t going well.
The champion’s compass – Next, every, simple, willing.
Kevin concluded that the teams that made it to the finals had many similar strengths from a tactical and physical point, but the winners possessed a different mental standpoint. These mental separators allowed these teams to persevere through all the pre and regular season games and playoffs. The teams that are mentally tough enough and buy into these mindsets are the ones that have the best chance of creating the separation needed to give themselves a much needed advantage.
Next: No matter what happens to us we have to move onto the next play, the next challenge, the next day, the next project. Next also applies to winners for able to take their the next level; next level of effort, preparation, focus, discipline, and thinking. From a team standpoint, we find that the best-the strongest teams in the most resilient teams-are
doesn’t way because of the belief they have in their teammates, those next to them in the
trenches.
Simple: Success lies in simplicity, confusion lives in sophistication.
Every: every second, every quarter, every game, by everybody, every time out, in every arena. Teams that take possessions off build up over the course of a game and come back to be the deciding factor in winning or losing.
Willing: Everyone who aspires to greatness has to be willing to be teachable and coachable. Winners are open-minded. The biggest “willings” for improvement and accomplishing our goals are:
Success triangles: the power thoughts of champions
Capability gap: what you have should accomplished with the talent that you have. The best understand that accomplishment is about where we have been. Becoming is all about where we can go and how much better we can be.
Knowledge gap: Is an exercise in knowledge acquisition. What matters most is not what you know, its what you need to know to get to where you want to go.
Team-ness gap: 3 parts; teammate, teamwork, team.
Being a teammate means you have one, and only one, agenda; the team agenda. There can be no personal agendas on a championship team. A teammate is someone who is over himself and into the team. The key part of being a teammate is understanding and excepting your role. In order for team to win, it has to use the strings that each has in each of its members. Each role is not created equal. On great teams, roles are defined by what you do the best team. Whether the player accepts it,, understands it, and executes his role will be the difference in success or failure.
With Doc Rivers they talked to their teams about: being an all-star at your role, understanding the role we need from you for us to win a championship, and understanding your role is the value you bring to the team.
Champions are formed when a coaching staff finds the players they need and defines the roles for each player. Then it’s the players who take over and make sure they integrate their roles into the whole, knowing that if they are missing one role, they are playing at a deficit.
They know it is on them to make the parts work together. They know for the team to work it starts with teamwork.
The best companies are the ones that have jealous freak cultures.
Three dimensions of success: yesterday, today, tomorrow.
We have to: learn from the past, produce in the present, prepare for the future. Learn from the past not live in the past! (evaluation and education)
In a team setting, we must not look failures or losses linger in the locker room. Locker rooms were those things linger our locker rooms and lose. Locker rooms that learn are locker rooms that have the best chance of rebounding from setbacks. Learning locker rooms understand the importance of leadership, and leaders are needed most when the losses begin to build.
We have to produce in the present not coast in the present (execution)
Success requires a daily approach. Role players - The best leaders see the invincible in value their contributions. If you want to expand your role, you must use the off season for the nights and weekends to study, work on, and perfect something else that adds value to the team.
We have to prepare for the future not with for the future (preparation)
Preparation is a critical word when it comes to success. If we are not prepared for what is about to happen or what we are about to do, we will always be playing from behind the reacting. Remember the definition for preparation that was provided earlier; be there before you get there.
Skill sets applies to whatever skills one has to master to be successful at his craft. We must find out what those skills are and then put a plan together to master them.
Mindset: the ingredients of a championship organization: win in the mind first. Getting their mind right is first and foremost.
Reset: the ability to reset yourself we’re team afterwards is the key to becoming successful.
Achieving success is always a great feeling Paris it’s tangible proof that what you did and the work you put in actually did playoff. Well is a great feeling, once you accomplish its success can also leads to certain attitudes that will ultimately bring you down. These are:
complacency (I don’t have to work that hard or work right now). Conceit (I did it last year, I’m good, I’ve already proven myself). Compromise (I can take this play off; I can turn it on anytime).
Failure: failure is such a personal hit to our ego…. Unless you reset how we look at it. You either live with it or learn from it. The best learn from it. The way you look at failure will influence the way you react to failure, and the way you react to failure is the way you will move on from failure.
What you will learn on your way to becoming the best, is that you must give my best, and then as a team we become our best.
How do you become my best
Sometimes we need to listen to the obvious, because it’s the obvious. There are times we
must rely on common sense, because frequently the obvious is simply the truth.
Learn from the older people in your profession. Seek wisdom from those who came before you.
Be careful not to dismiss the ideas that are not your own.
Deep down we all put self-imposed mental roadblocks in our own way. How to combat these roadblocks?
Resolve: some call it resiliency. You have to develop it.
Preparation: if you prepare yourself as well as capable you will always have a chance to succeed, and you will always what is most important for a leader: the respect of the team.
Being liked comes from showing your appreciation for other people, being kind and helpful, not coming across as a know it all, showing respect, thinking about others’ feelings, and engaging in the group instead of trying to standout. We all know how important respect and trust or to advancing a career, but do not put likability on the back burner. Having all three parts of the triangle of success will take you much further for much longer than just having only one or two parts of the triangle.
Buy in is a step-by-step process that requires: belief, trust, truth.
In order to get buy-in we must first get “believe in”. I am not going to buy into anyone I don’t
believe in. In order to get the believe in must first develop trust. I am certainly not going to ‘’believe in’’ someone I don’t trust. And in order to trust someone, I have to know that the trust is built on the truth there is. There’s no way I can trust someone who does not tell the truth and does not live the truth.
All in: all in groups have a chance to achieve the goals.
Not in: these teams have no shot at success and are destined to fail.
Give in: these are the team members who tease us. They are “in” at times and not quite “in” at others. Give-ins are dangerous because of the selfish attitudes they bring and because they are always trying to persuade teammates to join them.
Showing up: starts with giving all of yourself all the time, treating every practice and every work day as important.
Shutting up: understanding that you don’t know it all.
Keeping up: All about making sure that once you hear something you then invest the time to learn it. You learn, and then you study, you implement and you evaluate. Keep up with the trends in your business.
Values: A value is something that I am willing to be fired over and/or vigorously and personally fight for. Kevin lists them in 2 categories:
Create your own values list! Example: what are the things that you value in a teammate, a leader. What are the things you value in terms of physical commitment you have to make to your craft. What are the things you value when things are not going so well for the team.
Inside the room: This list is a reminder that when he enters a meeting or discussion, he is going to do all he can to make sure that he is:
He wants to get the best information and the deepest answers, so he has to make sure to his questions elicit the best response.
Personal success plan: What am I intentionally going to do that will help me grow, develop,
and improve? This will form your “will do” list. His Will do list consists of:
Champions are about: Collective sacrifices.
Below is a list he created of a champions’ mindset, which explains how champions think:
Think about the complete transformation if you would put NO in front of the words we discussed. NO trust, NO truth, NO standards to live up to etc. etc..
You won’t be surprised to learn that I also made lists for our team. These are things as a team we were going to be sign NOT to do. The more I could get the team to come up with the items on the list, the better buy-in I got from them.
It’s not just about having success, it’s about what you do with your success that really matters. His legacy may be: helping others find success and fulfillment by passing on what I’ve learned from the best of the best?
Leave a job or leave legacy: you leave a legacy by the attitude you bring day, the example you set, the conversations you have, and the mentoring you do. Your legacy comes from bringing your best every day and by bringing out everyone else’s best as well.
The power of legacy has nothing to do with numbers and everything to do with the lessons.
It’s the value of the lessons you leave with those who lives you touch.
Strength lies inside each of us:
Start with your heart: in order to be successful you have to put your heart into something, because that is the strength separator.
Analyze with you head: emotion is great, but it cannot be the focal point. Your head must provide the pre-thought and the logic that major decisions demand.
Give your gut a say: I find the god at the combination of all my experiences, successes, observations, conversations, and learning.
Learn with your eyes and ears: the best way to go through life is with big eyes, big ears, and a small mouth. Observe and learn. And stay quiet so you can concentrate on the lessons.
Ask probing questions with your mouth: what you learning is directly proportional to how much you grow. Use your mouth not too much to talk but to learn. Ask questions. Asked for more death of information and leave with total understanding.
Find strength in your mind: our minds are as strong as we need them to be, asked them to be, and train them to be
Be strong in your core:
Once you decide what parts of this book fit you or your team, make sure they become who you are in everyday life. These words must be lived, not just using conversation. The best of the best domes just have them in the vocabulary-they live then each day. Then adopt and adapt; find your own words. And once you have made them who you are, pass them on to the next generation will one day sit in your seat and be part of a team just as you are.
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