Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.
The Academy for Sport Leadership
K. Anders Ericsson, a psychology professor at Florida State University, has spent a substantial portion of his life researching and analyzing expert performers. The question driving much of his research is, “What do you have to do to become the best?” To which Ericsson’s research reveals, “Successful people spontaneously do things differently from those individuals who stagnate. They have different practice histories.” Elite performers, experts if you will, engage in what can best be called “deliberate practice”—an effortful activity specifically designed to improve individual target performance.
The question you need to ask is, “Can I develop student-athletes into team leaders?”
A valuable lesson from one of the most successful coaches of all time, the late UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, exemplifies the value of practice: “It is quite probable that the success or failure of most coaches is in direct proportion to their ability to devise practice drills to meet their particular needs, and then to properly coordinate them into daily practice program. A tremendous knowledge of the game is wasted if the coach cannot pass along his ideas to the players.”
So, are you taking the same approach—deliberately practicing—to the development of leadership skills and abilities? Have you devised leadership drills? Are you using your practice time to create a context in which your student-athletes feel compelled to lead?
You have choices to make. Is leadership development a part of your program? If not, why? Are you satisfied with the way your team leaders develop? A growth mindset would take every opportunity to grow leaders. Are you coaching and nurturing a leadership mindset?
Leadership development makes an important and engaging contribution to the challenges your team will face this season. Create a game plan for developing team leaders and team leadership. For the price of time and creative coaching, you can create a team of leaders who play to win—now and in the future.
New to the Second Edition of Coaching for Leadership!
We are pleased to announce a new chapter to the second edition of the best-selling Coaching for Leadership. The chapter, The Big Shift: Unlock Your Team’s Potential by Creating Player-Led Teambuilding, connects the previous edition of this book to its origin, as well as to the future of team sports.
The new chapter sets forth a practical and applicable agenda for change and improvement. The reader is introduced to seven vital elements of change; seven shifts of traditional mental models that lead to the new core principles necessary for creating a player-led team culture. Click here for more information about Coaching for Leadership
About Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.
Cory Dobbs is the founder of The Academy for Sport Leadership and a nationally recognized thought leader in the areas of leadership and team building. Cory is an accomplished researcher of human experience. Cory engages in naturalistic inquiry seeking in-depth understanding of social phenomena within their natural setting.
A college basketball coach, Cory’s coaching background includes experience at the NCAA DII, NJCAA, and high school levels of competition. After a decade of research and development Cory unleashed the groundbreaking Teamwork Intelligence program for student-athletics. Teamwork Intelligence illuminates the process of designing an elite team by using the 20 principles and concepts along with the 8 roles of a team player he’s uncovered while performing research.
Cory has worked with professional athletes, collegiate athletic programs, and high schools teaching leadership and team building as a part of the sports experience and education process. As a consultant and trainer Dr. Dobbs has worked with Fortune 500 organizations such as American Express, Honeywell, and Avnet, as well as medium and small businesses. Dr. Dobbs taught leadership and organizational change at Northern Arizona University, Ohio University, and Grand Canyon University.