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May 16, 2023
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62. Leader As Coach

62. Leader As Coach
Explore the connection between sports and business with Jeff's guest, Randy Bennett. Randy is the renowned Saint Mary’s Men’s Basketball coach and on this episode he shares his insights and experiences in coaching his team to excellence. Randy shares about the transormation from when he inherited a 2-27 team 20-years ago to one of the top non-Power 5 programs in the US, with a 70.9% win-loss ratio. Together, Jeff and Randy discuss leadership, teamwork, strategy, and culture in both sports and business. Randy shares valuable coaching tips about the importance of adaptability, a positive attitude, and teamwork in achieving success. They discuss the difference between improving personal best personal average, and how to manage systemic turnover in sports and business.

Transcript

Intro: Duration: (02:01)

Opening music jingle & sound effects

Jeff Hunt:

This Human Capital Podcast is brought to you by GoalSpan, a performance management app that helps you set goals, get real-time feedback, run reviews, and align your workforce around what's most important. With GoalSpan, you can integrate with all your favorite HR and payroll apps. To learn more, go to GoalSpan.com.

Welcome to the Human Capital Podcast I'm Jeff Hunt. Today we're gonna discuss the connection between sports and business. These worlds are similar in so many ways, so much so that we can get sick of hearing people at work use sports phrases like he's a team player, the ball's in her court, stick to the game plan.

Let's huddle up, or perhaps time to play hardball. If you think about business and sports, what are some commonalities that come to mind for you? Some of the things that I think of are that there's fierce competition. They both require strong leadership, teamwork strategy, and performance measurement. And today I've invited a guest from the world of college basketball to join me on the podcast.

St. Mary's men's basketball coach, Randy Bennett, inherited a team back in 2001 with a two and 27 record, but since then, he's transformed the GAILS into a team that is now recognized nationally as one of the top non-power five programs in the United States. Randy finished this last season at 27 and eight overall and 14 and two in the conference, which is incredibly impressive, and he has an overall win loss ratio of 70.9%.

That's an amazing statistic. So, he must be doing a few things right. So, my hope today is that we can all get some great leadership coaching tips from the man himself Randy Bennett, welcome Randy.

Randy Bennett:

Jeff, thanks for having me on. Look forward to it.

Topic 1. Who or what inspired you early in your career? (02:02)

Jeff Hunt:

Yeah, we're gonna get into sports and business, but before we do, start out by giving me like a thumbnail of your career journey. Tell me how you ended up coaching this fantastic organization.

Randy Bennett:

I'll give you the shortened version, but basically you know, I grew up like a lot of us loving sports and playing sports and played basketball and football and, baseball wrestle. Did 'em all like we used to do and did 'em cuz it was fun.

And so I say that because it, I often need to remind myself, Hey, that's why these guys started playing. So, cuz you can make it so much work and business, but it's supposed to be fun. Anyhow, I started out doing that and my dad was a coach and so I was around it all the time. Obviously more than the average person and that was kind of my thing to do.

That's what was my passion, was playing. And as you know I got into college and I knew by college that when I was done playing, I played in college at UC San Diego. But, I knew I wanted to coach and I actually did my major was a pre-med major is animal physiology down at UC, San Diego.

So I was on a good academic track, but I knew what I wanted to do and it wasn't gonna be animal physiology. So anyhow, after that it was, And you have to do this in this profession, it is you jump in, get in a volunteer assistant or grad assistant position and you're like, why did I just get this degree at UC, San Diego in a science major and now I'm gonna work for free?

And that's how you get in. It's a crazy profession. I tell people that I don't necessarily recommend it cause. It, it's not guaranteed you're going to make it up or get an opportunity, make it up the ladder, I should say. And anyhow, I did it. I didn't get into it because I wanted to be a division one coach, or I just did it cuz I knew I liked coaching and I wanted to be part of it.

And then the further I got into it and I was assistant for I think 14 years, the further I got into it, the more I started figuring it out. You have to make certain decisions to put yourself in the right place to be able to get a head coaching job in division one, I wasn't thinking about that at all early on.

I just wanna get into coaching and loved it, and that was my passion. And then, but once I was in it in about late twenties, early thirties, I figured out, wait a minute, I better be a little more strategic about this. And actually got turned down at University of San Diego as assistant there, and the head coach left Hank Egan and he hired me.

So anyhow, he went to the Spurs. I thought maybe I'd get that job, but didn't they brought in another guy. And that's kind of when I figured out, wait a minute, this thing he had really strategic about it. So eventually I was a St. Louis and as assistant and St. Mary's job opened. And it wasn't like I was dying to get this job, but I knew the league.

I'd been at University of San Diego for nine years, so I knew League and I was lucky. Honestly, I just. Rick Madras made call for me and I worked for Lorenzo Romar at the time anyhow, and he helped me in just kind of my background as far as where I coached being in the WCC helped. So anyhow, I was lucky, and I don't say that outta humility.

I was lucky I got this job. They were down at that time and I had a good job. But it worked out and I was really excited to have the opportunity and I did know what I was doing, but I didn't know what I was doing. And I knew what I was doing cause I'd been assistant, whatever it was, 14 years.

And I Had been in positions where the head coach had given me a lot of responsibility, which is I was fortunate to get there. That doesn't always happen. And so I always felt like I was gonna be all right as far as, you know, running a program and, and so I really never had any doubts when I came to St. Mary's.

But if you would ask me then if I thought we'd bury be where we are at now. I really didn't even think that way, but I always did think that we could be good here. I never really wondered on that, but it's turned out even better than I thought. But I want to emphasize I was so fortunate to get an opportunity.

It, and there's been guys who've done as much as I had done at that point as assistants that never got an opportunity to be a head coach. So, I was really blessed there and we'll always look back on it like that. Like you got lucky, you got a chance and be grateful for the opportunity you got.

Jeff Hunt:

I love that story, Randy, because there's so many pieces of it that are important and like the moral of your story seems like a follow your passion, which is exactly what you did.

You followed your passion, you were on one path, but then you knew your passion was somewhere else, so you followed that. B be strategic. So eventually, even though you're following your passion, you really gotta take a look at what's around and make good decisions around that. And then C, take any luck that you can get because luck is a big factor, right? So, is that sort of a summary of kind of that career, that career journey?

Randy Bennett:

Yeah. There's one more piece is, it was the next piece is I think a lot of people spend a lot of time worrying about the things they don't have and complaining about kind of complaint oriented.

And that was never part of my deal was make the big time where you're at. And I think that's a good one to live by for somebody who's trying to lead and trying to do something special with the opportunity to have. So, it's my approach now. We all get in these positions where we don't have this, we don't have that or getting a bad deal here.

But as soon as you can get off that and the quicker you can get into, Hey, we're gonna make this work. How you re react to the hand you've been dealt. And I think that's, A huge deal in having success. Just your attitude.

Jeff Hunt:

Yep. Was there any one person that really inspired you along the way?

Randy Bennett:

Many, but mostly, I mean, I said my dad was a coach, so unknowingly at the time he was painting the picture for me and probably unknowingly to him, like he was just living his life. But I'm there watching it and so every day, every night, and see what it's like to be a coach. And obviously it was something that I thought was pretty cool.

I don't know, it just kind of was happening when I didn't even know it was happening. But now that I'm older and I look back like. Why do I think this way? Or how did I end up being the way I am? A lot of it goes back to that. I worked for some really. I had really good coaches, like junior high, high school and junior college, and then even at four years school and then when I worked, I worked for a guy named Hank Egan.

That's the first guy I worked for. And he was just a, a guy with great integrity and again, at the time, like, that's the first guy I was working for. And you have your ideas and you think you know a lot. And then he was just a great guy to help shape my opinions as far as how you should handle yourself in this business.

And there are some, there are plenty of times when you may have to make it. A good character decision. And he was like best at that. He ended up going in the pros and working for Greg Papa bitch who was, he coached the Air Force and all that. So anyhow, and then, yeah, all the way up to Tim Floyd and Brad Hong, Lorenzo, Romar, all those guys I was assistants for, they helped me with college basketball that just figured out and gave me opportunities.

So, but Hank was big and. I played for my dad. He was big and I played for my high school coach, Buddy Dylan was great. And then a guy named Roy Sheri, who I also played for and was around when I was in high school. He was a great coach. So those guys kind of were big inspirations for me. Still are guys. I look back like how would they handle this player's situation or how would they approach this? And so I think they, they really shaped me and appreciate, I've always appreciated them and the longer I go, the, the more impact they have.

Topic 2. Exceptional player leadership (11:27)

Jeff Hunt:

Well, and you're doing that for so many people now. It's, it's so cool to see that in reverse. But let's talk just briefly about this last season.

You had some exceptional player leadership. With Alex Dukus and some of your other top players, but talk to me about what were some of the characteristics that you saw in these guys that really, you know, you can, you can name it as exceptional player leadership.

Randy Bennett:

For sure these guys were, the reason we've been good last two years is our senior leadership.

These guys as juniors, were good leaders for us as well, and I've been doing it long enough now, I think. You learn a lot, whether you're assistant coach or head coach, but when you're a head coach, you really razor sharp on your focus as far as studying the leadership piece, not just for you, but for your players and what it should look like.

So I've had enough reps at it now, after 22 years is doing it here at St. Mary's that you kind of know what it looks like, feels like, and so it's helped me on that. We've had some great leaders here, but Logan, Kyle and Alex Duke is, were our three seniors this year, and they were exceptional.

Usually we pick one guy, we call it, he gets the leadership tie and he's kind of, he's the gatekeeper for our program, so to speak, but make sure that we just entrust him with our program that he's gonna make sure that talk in the locker room's right on the court we’re right off the court we’re right.

We know that basically as a coach, that's a player and if that guy's good, we're good. It's pretty much that simple. But we had a group like Logan and Kyle. They're exceptional leaders for numerous reasons. And then Alex was as well. And so for the first time we went with it is usually a one man job and put a lot of responsibility on that guy and a guy who can handle it.

But this, we thought all three of 'em were good. So we with three people, which I don't know if we'll ever do again, but we did cuz we thought all three of 'em were good and they were just, that's kind of tricky too, cuz who's really leading it? And anyhow, they did an incredible job just caring about our program and, and caring about their teammates and really kind of owned it as a group.

Each one did it in their own way, so it was kind of fascinating to watch and they really couldn't have done a better job. There's the obvious things like, alright, we, we always played hard. You could count on 'em to show up every night, and they took pride in that and, they wouldn't set little goals for their team and they only work if they set 'em and they want to achieve them.

And so they were good on them. They're good on the follow up. We had, of our 10 players this year, we had four freshmen and that's usually a lot. And uh, but they got those guys, right, and I think their biggest goal, and this is where they were unselfish in that. They wanna leave the program in a better place than when they came in and with our program, that's hard to do cuz we've had some, we've had some runs where we went 29 wins.

29 wins, 30 wins three, three consecutive years. So they had come in right shortly thereafter that, and they embraced it. They really took it to heart. And I mean, they still do. I mean they're still around till graduation, but, It mattered to them a lot that they left our program in a really good place.

So they were special for a lot of reasons, but I think eventually they cared more about their program than themselves, which is when you can get that, you got a chance.

Topic 3. Personal average versus personal best (15:25)

Jeff Hunt:

That's a great way to encapsulate it. It's really the teamwork mentality. It's denying yourself and really putting the team first.

And like I said in the intro, some of these principles are just applicable to business. You also mentioned a lot around integrity and making sure, for instance, talk on the court and off the court is the same, so there's it's congruence, if you will, right? You know, setting these goals that they can achieve so there's no hypocrisy, right?

It's not like you gotta do, as I say, not as I do. I'm gonna do this and I hope you're gonna rise to my level. The other thing I heard you say is that it's tough when you are building an organization and you're such a high performing organization. I heard you tell a story once about personal best and, and so I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about personal average versus personal best.

Randy Bennett:

Yeah. So, I was talking to a sports psychologist. I happened to end up on a plane flight with them from the East coast all the way here. I didn't know him or anything and we started talking. He w he was actually a sports psychologist for the US swim program. Yeah, the Olympic Swim program.

So anyhow, so they do a lot, you know, you're always trying to get your personal, best personal record PR when you swim and all that. And he said they made a change, a slight change that really helped their performances as far as meddling. And it really was a big change in their US swim program in the positive.

And instead of shooting for their personal best, every time they swam, they changed it to Beecher average every time. And cuz you're gonna fail most times if you're trying to get your personal best every time. But your personal average was a little bigger target and something that people could achieve more often, a higher percentage of the time.

They found that to really be a successful way to approach it. So anyhowwe do that with our shooting numbers, when we shoot. Same thing. If you're trying to hit your best number every time, well, you're gonna fail a lot more times than you're gonna hit it, and it can discourage you and lose confidence and all that.

So there's a lot of things to go with it, but, I think it applies to how you have perspective with players on hitting goals and getting better. You're not always gonna play your best game, so that can't be a failure. I just said yeah, shoot. I just heard it with Gianni of the Night when they lost in the game and the reporter asked him if he considered the season a failure cuz they weren't gonna win the championship and he had a great answer on it.

But you have to have perspective on that stuff. And I think as a coach, as leader kids don't know. They don't know. They're too young to know. But after you've done a while, confidence is so important and, uh, you get confidence by seeing yourself succeed. I mean, that's real Confidence is alright.

You, you've seen it, you've done it, you know you can do it as opposed to talking about it and not necessarily doing it and saying you have confidence. I don't think that's real confidence. I think real confidence, knowing you can do it and have it.

Topic 4. How to lead differently to prevent turn over (18:54)

Jeff Hunt:

Yeah, I like that too because beating your personal average seems more motivational than, it's a lot harder to constantly beat your personal best, but you can pretty regularly improve and beat your personal average, right?

So, it seems more motivational to me. Right. One of the things that the pandemic did in business is it created huge turnover in some sectors. So, people left their jobs. They, they took inventory on what was important in life, and some people left and they found other jobs. Or they really required remote work and some employers wouldn't do that.

And so, there were some turnover and there's some sectors that still have a lot of turnover. And I was thinking about your basketball program because you have this built-in turnover every year. Where you're losing guys, you're bringing in new guys, and I'm wondering, how you account for that?

What are some leadership lessons to make sure that when you have turnover you're gonna manage it really well as an organization?

Randy Bennett:

Yeah, that's a great question. So, we have it, I answered, apply it to what I do. Cause that's the domain I understand the best. So sometimes you, you want turnover for the positive.

I don't think you want turnover just for the sake of turnover, but all turnover isn't positive and we have it, I have it, my coaching staff and I have it with players. And I think you have to have a plan and then you have to have a, you have to have a plan A and a plan B.

For me, a plan A is like with the coaching staff, you want your guys back, like continuity and coaching I think it's a huge advantage. And if you're turning over coaches every year and you never have guys who are familiar with your program returning, it's a problem. It'll end up hurting you. So I'm a believer in what we're doing works.

I believe in what we're doing and so. You get people how you recruit 'em, or you get players or coaches, how you recruit 'em. So, I think you, you're upfront with them about, Hey, here's what we're trying to do, here's what our expectations are, one of our big deals is find a program where the team.

The success of the team is more important than your own success. Yes, we want people to have great individual success, but not at the expense of the team. And in my world, we d deal with that a lot. And I'm sure in a, a business world where they're trying to make profits, you would find that a lot as well.

So we want guys to be pros. We want their grains to be our grains, but for those things that happen, we need to have success as a team. And we really see it. Yeah, always see it. But now our, our deals change a little bit and the selfishness can be more of a factor now.

So our plan is address that on the way in, not once you get there. And that's is for coaching and it is for players as well. So I think that's the deal. Do a good job. Bring them into your program the right way so that it's not, oh, all of a sudden you're changing the game plan here. And I think people who think team and think that way are attracted to, you know, they're attracted to what we're selling and that's what we're selling.

So, I think that's a key deal. And we have to do it all the time with recruiting with players, parents, some, I think now one of my biggest deals is, let me I talked to the recruit, I know the recruiter like, let me talk to the parents, because those parents will influence those kids.

How are they gonna handle adversity and handle success and all those things. So you wanna recruit good ones, and then you don't wanna lose them before you think you're gonna lose them. But there's times when, hey, you have a guy who's exceptional and he can go pro. Well, that's a good thing. Yeah. And same can happen with an assistant coach.

I mean, I've had so many that gone on to be cuz they're good. They've been able to get a head coaching job. That is like the ultimate win for a head coach is when you see an assistant be able to go, cuz they're so hard to get a head coaching job at a college level. So you have to have good perspective on that.

Yes, you're losing 'em, you're losing a good one, it's gonna hurt you a little bit. That's what you wanted from the get-go. And same with a player. If player gets that good, and we had Patty Mills left after his second year, and so we have guys that sometimes are like that, but you have to, I think he just have to have, have thought up through, have a good game plan and team before individual.

But if an individual is just a above the line outlier, you have to embrace that and help him get there. And so, I think there's a lot of factors going in that, but you want them to care about your program. You better make sure you care about them. And I think as a coach, the sooner you figure that out, you're gonna be better off.

Like it's easy to get selfish as a coach too, cuz hey, you want to have your success for your team. You have to keep perspective on that stuff. And treat others the way you would want to be treated if you're in their position. So, I think there's a lot of factors in it, but those are just going off the top of my head. Those, that's kind of how I think on those things.

Jeff Hunt:

I love that it's really, well, what you just said was the golden rule, basically. There's so much value to that and sometimes we discount it. The other things I heard you say that are so also applicable to business, it's gotta start with recruiting.

We wanna recruit the right people that are gonna get our vision, and then when we get 'em on board, immediately we got, we need to indoctrinate them on our core values and our culture and the team approach versus the individual approach. And then we need to recognize that some of them are gonna leave, and if they do leave and they go to a better organization or opportunity, it might hurt, but it's not necessarily a bad thing because it's really flattering it, it shows and speaks volumes about the quality of our organization.

Randy Bennett:

And it's what they wanted to do, you know, it's what they, it's what their, one of their goals and dreams was when they came into your program or your business. And so if you know that on the front end that's all good and you don't wanna lose 'em to lesser situations or, or be for a negative reason.

It's so easy to get, get caught up in your own deal as a, as a leader. And you, you may have, you may be the controller on it, but you have to be careful, care about what they think about too. That doesn't mean you're, you're going to lower the bar where you people can just be selfish and just use your program for their own personal benefit and, and not really care about your program or your team or your business.

There's a gray area there that you have to do a good job managing it, and I think you manage it by good communication and good conversation, good communication and good perspective.

Topic 5. Reducing dependency on managers while empowering employees (26:43)

Jeff Hunt:

It seems like one of the most valuable skills as a coach is to actually reduce dependency on yourself. So the players or my employees are essentially coaching themselves, at least when they're on the court. And I'm wondering if you can speak to that. Is that a truism that you want them to be so empowered that obviously you're gonna give them guidance along the way, but the machine is well oiled and it's running on its own?

Randy Bennett:

It's a great question. That's what I do, is think about this stuff all the time and the answer's yes.

Like, I always tell our team, we'll be as good as our senior leadership, and because they should be your seniors, sometimes you'll, you'll get a, a, a special one that like Del Avo was leading when he was sophomore, he was one of the leaders as a freshman. But you just kind of had to figure out where you could fit in, but.

Anyhow. He was, he was running the show as a junior for sure, and he was outstanding. But usually it's your seniors and we tell 'em that cuz it's the truth. But, uh, by that time they should know your program. They should have witnessed some other good seniors leading before them. So it's, uh, it's huge If you want to be good and hopefully you're developing leadership all the way up.

With your guys. So when they get this opportunity, by the time they're junior, senior year, it's, it is not just talk. It's it's gonna happen and they're gonna care about it and they're gonna be doing what you've been telling, you know, preaching to your guys since they were freshmen, heard the same old stories, the same messages, but.

Now they're carrying the message, they're taking care of it. Because you're not, as a coach, you're not around it, you, you're not, you're not with them Friday, Saturday nights when, uh, they need to make good decisions. I mean, there's, you can, there's more than win games on the court. You have to win 'em off the court too.

And, uh, anyhow, and then with your coaches, at least with our staff, like, I want guys that, I mean, a lot of our, top of my coaches, Assistants they played here and they were leaders here, and they were captains here. So they're very good because they, they've been through it. They did it when they talked to players.

Players know that, hey, they, they've gone before me and done it. So they listen anyhow. You want, you want your assistants to be thinking like head coaches. They have a lot of responsibility and with that, hold people accountable. You, you want that? I don't want assistants that are just standing around and, and they don't get a lot of responsibility, a lot of opportunity.

I, our staff, my assistant, it is totally a team effort. I, it's, I wouldn't go anywhere without 'em. Like I, I couldn't get anything done without 'em. So I'm careful who I hire because I want guys that are gonna be capable of doing that as soon as I get enough experience. And so, yeah, it's, we will be as good as my staff is and will be as good as our leadership within our program primarily are older guys.

Jeff Hunt:

Randy, before we switch into the some lightning round questions, what's been your biggest learning over the past 22 years at St. Mary's?

Randy Bennett:

Yeah. I would say patience and perspective. I think a lot of young guys, I was no different. You think you have it figured out and everything's pretty much black and white and it's, it's not, it's, there's a lot of gray cuz everybody doesn't see the world the way you see it.

Even like, I think it should go this way and, and you could do all you want to make sure you get guys that are. Coming into that and they know what they're getting into, but they don't necessarily know until they're in it and they may have some different views on how things should be handled or how they should be treated and things like that.

So I think, uh, yeah, there's a lot of gray and when you're young, you don't understand that. As you get older, I think you're a little more patient. Makes sense.

Topic 6. Lighting round questions (31:09)

Jeff Hunt:

Okay. Some lightning round questions. The first one is, what are you most grateful for?

Randy Bennett:

A lot of things. I mean, I've been blessed in so many ways, but I, I would say, uh, most grateful for my family and, you know, my parents, my sister, and then my immediate family that I have now with my two sons, chase and Cade, my wife, Darlene.

Yeah, you're not getting anywhere without them. And so that's what I'm most grateful for.

Jeff Hunt:

What's the most difficult leadership lesson you've learned over your career?

Randy Bennett:

I think the one I just told you to be patient. And everything's not black and white. There's gray areas and there's certain things you have to, Hey, these are standards that have to be upheld, but there's just not many things that are just black and white.

And, uh, so I think I, I, you learn that through experience and you don't even know you're learning it. Eventually you look back on it and you figured out, well, that was pretty, pretty important. I made that adjustment.

Jeff Hunt:

It's amazing what a few clicks on the odometer can do, right? Yes, exactly. Okay. Randy, who, who's one person you would interview if you could living or not?

Randy Bennett:

Yeah, great question. Uh, one guy I have, you know, I was able to spend time with, so I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna say, and that was John Wooden. He is unbelievable. Yeah. Unbelievably sharp guy, but. As good as there's ever been. But Bill Russell's the guy that I wish I would've been able to, and I knew it probably 20 years ago and I just never got it done.

So he, he definitely, that guy is, he was a really sharp guy and he saw a lot. And I would say he, he would have great perspective on life and not just basketball, life and life, leadership, character, the whole deal. So that'd be the guy, bill Russell.

Jeff Hunt:

Do you have a top book recommendation? Any books, leadership or otherwise?

Randy Bennett:

Yeah, so there's a lot of good ones. I think, uh, one that comes to mind and I, I actually read it about every two years is, uh, life of Observations by John Wooden. And it's just a, it's a quick read and if, for coaching and leadership, it's, it's great and I recommend it to any, I, when I speak at things, I recommend it to.

Coaches and parents. It's an easy read and there's so, so many little simple, have you ever read it?

Jeff Hunt:

Yeah, I've got it on my podcast website. Under the recommended books list.

Randy Bennett:

There are so many simple things that you're like, gosh, that's so simple that you'll, it just reminders. That's why I read about it every couple years and, uh, anyhow, that guy obviously knew what he is doing at a high level.

There's another book. Practice makes perfect, but not it's perfect. Practice makes perfect and it's just, uh, the 20 thou, 20,000 hours deal is in there. And this is the, the whole book on that. I'll get you the name of it. Um, but I read it and I wish I would've read it earlier in my coaching career.

Basically it talks about the guys that are like Tiger Woods. He's swinging a golf club with his dad, watching him in his garage when he is like three, four years old. And you get. What is it?

Jeff Hunt:

10,000 hours? 10,000 hours? Yeah. Yeah.

Randy Bennett:

I don't know if the hour amount is exact or right in reality. But the perfect practice is right.

Like there's going in the gym and shooting and there's going in the gym and shooting correctly and have some eyes on you. So everything I try and do with our program, our players is that, I mean, I constantly, you know, I get. Work beats talent less talent works. And I'm a big believer in that. And that book, um, kind of doubled down on that for me.

So I asked me, you have to work and, but there's more than just working. You have to work.

Jeff Hunt:

So, as we wrap up, you gave us some amazing leadership principles today, and I'm wondering if a few rise to the top. Can you just remind our listeners what are some of the, the most important takeaways from our conversation?

Randy Bennett:

Well, I, I think one of 'em is, is just life. Like treat people the way you would only be treated. The golden rule, and again, it's such a simple concept, but just look at problems we have in everyday life and across the country. It's, let's just get back to that. Let's treat people right, treat people the way you would want treated.

So I think, and so that, yeah, that carries over to coaching, that carries over to leadership. Um, People know, kids know, kids know they're, they're not dummies. They know if they'll know if you're treating another player, right? Much less them. Like they see that and those are observations they make, and they're gonna, if they know you care about them and care about the people you're working with it, it's gonna go, it's gonna go a long way as far as you being able to lead them and them giving their best shot for your, for you or for your organization.

So I think those are the, I I think it's, so much of it is, uh, is that how you treat people, how you care about people and, and I think this goes in with it, but having perspective you in so many ways. You, yeah. You lose a game. You think it's end of the world may maybe step back. You lost, lost on a buzzer beater, the number one team in the country.

Maybe you really did play great. But your immediate reactions, Hey, we lost that game. I'm just giving you things in context to my world. But you have those, I don't know, you missed a big sell, whatever, but you almost had it. You, you just have to have constantly, you have to have perspective and constantly you have to, uh, I think have good relationships with people and show 'em that you care.

Jeff Hunt:

Randy, thank you so much for bringing all this great wisdom to the podcast and for coming on the show today.

Randy Bennett:

Thank you.


Outro (37:20)

Closing music jingle/sound effects

Jeff Hunt:

Thanks for listening to Human Capital, if you like this show please tell your friends and also take the time to go rate and review us. Human Capital is a production of GoalSpan, your integrated source for performance management. Now go out and be the inspiration to other humans, and thank you for being human kind.

Human Capital — 62. Leader As Coach
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