Leadership

  Teamwork Intelligence Conversational Exercise The following questions are intended for leadership conversation involving coaches and players. The deeper your conversation goes the closer and clearer you get to understanding the heart and mind of each team member. The deeper the better; adverse incidents happen daily—it’s a guarantee.    What Can You Do When Something Unfair Happens?   Let’s Talk About ...

The number one priority of every coach, player, and administrator is building the team’s culture—not winning. And if you get that right, most of the other stuff—such as tactical precision, selfless behavior, teamwork intelligence, and mental toughness—will happen as a natural by-product of the culture created by the team. This is how culture works: players ...

Beyond IQ: How Grit and Reflection Can Change the Way You Coach Dr. Cory Dobbs Angela Duckworth has been one of the leading researchers and voices on the topic of “grit” –something  she defines as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.”  Duckworth has found that grit can be a powerful predictor of academic achievement and, of course, physical ...

Leading a Group Through Losing Written and contributed by Dr. Chris Hobbs ( Follow him on Twitter @Dr_ChrisHobbs) My experiences in high school, college, and career have always revolved around athletics. As a result, my days almost always end with the stress of competition. There is a 50/50 chance that I will go home every evening dejected ...

Encouragement: A gift to be given Written and contributed by Dr. Chris Hobbs (Follow him on Twitter @Dr_ChrisHobbs) Scott Drew is the head men’s basketball coach at Baylor University. Over the past 16 seasons, he’s won nearly 20 games per season. It’s an impressive stretch for a program that has a mediocre history and when Coach Drew ...

Dr. Cory Dobbs The Academy for Sport Leadership How Coaches Turn Students into Smart Leaders Looking back on 2019 we’re going to refer to it as the year of Player-Led Leadership. Go ahead, Google it. Many major universities Click here to see: UCLA UTSA Nebraska have begun to identify the need to involve the student-athlete in a more holistic manner. To compete in ...

Have you ever coached a team that was talented but something was just missing and as a result it simply underperformed? If the answer is no … then either you haven’t been coaching long or you are one of the all-time great coaches. The truth is a lot of teams fall short of expectations. But why? According to Dr. Cory ...

Submitted by Dr. Cory Dobbs of The Academy for Sport Leadership. Dr. Dobbs is a regular contributor on coaching for leadership to The Coaching Toolbox. Three Reasons Every Coach Needs a Mentor Most coaches enter the profession with a vision on building a career.  Simply stated, anyone who is building a career will need help along the way. ...

Dr. Cory Dobbs The Academy for Sport Leadership In an essay titled “Good Guys Finish First (Sometimes),” Andrew Bagnato told the following story: Following a rags-to-riches season that led them to the Rose Bowl—their first in decades—Northwestern University’s Wildcats met with coach Gary Barnett for the opening of spring training. As players found their seats, Barnett announced that he ...

Choosing Success Every Day Ask Why Before You Ask How Dr. Cory Dobbs The Academy for Sport Leadership One simple way to gain more control over your life is to ask the correct questions at the correct times.  Everything that you do in your life has at least two basic parts to it.  One part is the reason for ...

Focus on the Coaching Staff HEALTHY CONVERSATION: THE STARTING POINT The most valuable resource in any organization is the human resource.  The second most valuable resource may just be the way we talk to one another.  That’s because we spend a considerable part of our work lives in conversation—it’s the way we get things done.  And the ...

Slow Down and Take a Look at How You are Leading. Dr. Cory Dobbs The Academy for Sport Leadership The primary purpose of leadership is to create more leaders, not more followers.  Pause for a moment, think deeply about this declarative statement.  More leaders. Now… How are you doing as a leader? The answer is how are the student-athletes you ...

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 ...

Nothing Sabotages Loyalty Like the Blame Game Cory Dobbs, Ed.D. The Academy for Sport Leadership *Note: This article is to be shared with your student-athletes.  Hold a brief discussion after your players have read the article. Loyalty is the heart and soul of any meaningful relationship. A sports team provides the perfect platform for loyalty. Giving of one’s self ...

Cory Dobbs, Ed.D. The Academy for Sport Leadership Time and again, through my own eyes and those of student-athletes, I have seen the impact of poor leadership. Leadership from the ranks of the players and leadership from the coaching staff, when not actions of character, almost always turn out badly. Teams underperform, players drift from the team, ...

By Dr. Rob Bell Dr. Bell is a Mental Toughness Coach and Certified Consultant of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.  He consults with hundreds of athletes, coaches, and teams and has served as the mental coach for PGA tour winners, USTA Champion, and Olympic Medalists.  He is also the author of several mental toughness books. ...

This article is also posted  on The Coaches Toolbox, a collection of free resources for coaches of all sports Answering the question “What is leadership?” begins by grounding it in these 7 core assumptions By Dr. Cory Dobbs The Academy for Sport Leadership Excerpt from A Leader in Every Locker (2016) “I’m not used to supposing. I’m just a working man. My ...

Humility is not Optional.  It’s a Necessity Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.  The Academy for Sport Leadership “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” –C.S. Lewis As we descend deeper into a society characterized by polarization and division, cooperation is increasingly a curious characteristic.  First, let me suggest that cooperation is a product of humility, ...

This post was provided by Coach Dawn Writes By Dawn Redd-Kelly, Head Volleyball Coach at Beloit College If you’re not happy with the culture of your team, how are you working daily to change it around?  As was said over at Leadership Freak, “Toxic environments are the result of neglecting culture-building and tolerating toxicity.” When we find ourselves with a ...

This post was provided by InnerDrive, a mental skills training company How do we become better leaders? An effective leader is someone who can create an inspiring vision, motivate and inspire their team, manage the delivery of that shared purpose and then coach and improve that team in order to achieve that end goal. So what ...

This article is also found on the Coaches Toolbox, a collection of free resources for coaches of all sports. The success of any institution, organization, group, or team, is grounded in the effective application of leadership. By Cory Dobbs, Ed.D. Lessons from the Art Studio “Students who are truly student-athletes have a chance for a life-transforming, life-shaping experience. I can ...

These two articles on self-reflection and leadership were submitted by Dr. Cory Dobbs of The Academy for Sport Leadership The Invisible Barrier to Learning: Question Your Assumptions What if we—you, me, and the next guy—really understood how little we know. Oh, we might have some subject matter expertise. But that only counts for a small sliver of ...

This article was written and submitted by retired High School Coach Dave Millhollin. Two types of loyalty; (one genuine, one obligatory): Freely given type (genuine loyalty): This kind of loyalty is given to a caring authority by members of the group based on trust.  The authority figure expects results for the benefit of the institution as well as ...

Leading with Quiet Strength By Dr. Cory Dobbs, President, The Academy for Sport Leadership Editor’s This was written about a basketball team, and is offered as food for thought for your program, regardless of the sport. On an unusually warm morning, sometime in October, the head coach of a successful basketball program looked at me and said, “He ...

What to do after a tough loss? Ask these three simple questions after a tough loss and/or a disappointing performance What went well?What needs work? What did we learn? By John  O’Sullivan, Founder of Changing the Game Project,   a site that is your one stop shopping for  the latest and greatest information, research, and best practices regarding high performance, ...

Everybody wants to be somebody. Once this becomes a fundamental way of viewing your teammates, classmates, and everyone you meet, you will become a person of influence. Dr. Cory Dobbs Homelessness is a complex problem. Not just because a person without a home needs money and other essential resources—but because the psychological consequences are crippling. A homeless ...

by Cory L. Dobbs John chose Yoko over Paul, George, and Ringo.  Shaq couldn’t stand Kobe.  Steve Jobs was fired by John Scully, his hand-picked CEO.  Relationships between people of high status often prove challenging.  It not need be this way. Have you ever been on a team where the players can’t get along?  How about having ...

by Dr. Cory Dobbs, a national leader in providing leadership resources for coaches and student-athletes. The most recent resources include Coaching for Leadership and Teamwork Intelligence: a workbook for the student-athlete along with a facilitator’s guide for the coach. Excerpt from “Coaching for Leadership” Are you a talented coach on the rise? Do you want to be an “A‐Level” coach? ...

This article was written and submitted by J.P. Nerbun of Thrive On Challenge Sports Forget about setting uncontrollable mid-level goals this season. Make these six commitments and build a transformational culture in your program that values people. Commitment 1: Be authentic and vulnerable with your team. Start the process to become a transformational coach AND open up with your team about ...

Dr. Cory Dobbs Academy for Sport Leadership Why is it that student-athletes fear leadership roles and responsibilities?How then can you change the outcome of inaction? Practice, practice, practice.  Just as you practice your offensive and defensive systems, you must practice your leadership system. One of the deepest needs within people is belonging.  If you’re a coach you belong ...