Tag Archives: Bo Schembechler

Servant Leaders Take Orders

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By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to cement team building and enhance trust. Reading time: 2:38

You’re a nobody. At least you feel that way as a third stringer. You’re sitting on the sidelines of life. You never get in the game. No one ever cheers for you. No one cares. Then suddenly you find yourself sitting in first class. Even the first stringers –the stars—defer to you. Dreaming?

No. Leading with class.

Take it from a highly successful leader – Bo Schembechler – former head football coach at the University of Michigan especially if you’re trying to reinforce values like commitment and loyalty over the long-erm.

On charter flights to away games all 20 of the seats in first class were reserved for senior football players. No coaches. No alumni. No fat cats. Just seniors. No matter if you played third string.

And no matter if you were a highly recruited top player but NOT yet a senior. Continue reading →

Grab the Tiger of Success by DeTAIL

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By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to add discipline to your decision-making process. Reading time: 2:57.

Still looking for that magic wand to make your next project an overwhelming success? Look no further. It’s right in front of you. In the details.

Leaders know how to handle their magic wand. They grab the tiger of success by “detail.”

Consider the detail in the piece of bubble gum in the making airplane history. Or the significance in folding socks to become a champion collegiate basketball coach.

No detail is too small in the eyes of a leader-from the 82 different prototype models that factored into the final design of the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles to the 98,178 storyboards used in the movie WALL-E — twice the 43,536 storyboards used in the movie Finding Nemo.

Leaders know the more they pay attention to the details the more their mission and vision will pay off.

BUBBLE GUM MAGIC:

Charles Lindbergh climbed in his airplane for what would become the first solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927. Then he realized for the first time he could not see the compass. An extra fuel tank, positioned in the cockpit, blocked his view.

Lindbergh climbed out of the cockpit. He asked a woman bystander for her compact .Then he asked another bystander for a stick of gum. He used the gum to stick the mirror from the compact on to the cockpit wall so that he could see the compass. Charles Lindbergh grabbed the tiger of success -by detail.

SOCK MAGIC:

John Wooden, UCLA’s legendary basketball coach, would teach his players how to put on a new pair of socks by first smoothing out all the wrinkles that could cause a blister. He even had someone measure the feet of each player -both left and right- to assure the best fit basketball shoes. He did not merely asked each player his size. them inside out to remove a small clump of cloth that could cause a blister. His focus on detail even include the temperature of water served at team dinners (no ice) to avoid cramping and substituting orange slices for chocolate squares served at halftime because he said chocolate seemed to create “phlegm.”

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