Little Things Matter

In the spring of 2007, I was blessed to get invited to the prestigious Nike Villa 7 symposium in Beaverton, Oregon. One of our speakers was UNC football coach Mack Brown. At the time, Coach Brown really shared his wisdom with us why little things matter. Here’s some of the notes that I wrote down.

Make serving your players and staff a priority Have a common purpose with your team (Have fun) Prepare your players for life after football We are very lucky to be in our current situation Your team has to be player led not coach fed Communication with everyone is a must, this is how you build trust When you get to them, you can find out more than you imagined Have your players stand up and tell their stories (Where are you from? Who are you?) What happened good in your life? Bad? How did you handle it? Who do you respect in this room? Why? Spent too much time working/worrying about losses and didn’t enjoy the wins enough

Analyze the reason why you are losing Give your players ownership Make sure everything is out front (Be direct/Up front) Teach them what the “right thing” looks like Maximum effort every day (Expectations both ways) Message to the team: “If you give me everything you got, I will give you everything I got” Give your players the gift of consistency If we play poorly and we win, let your players celebrate Don’t jump your players after winning, after they played poorly. Save it for the next day. If you tell them something, follow through (credibility) Never say Never