Putting the Soul into Sports

I recently attended a Coachville Corporate Coaching Intensive conference in Virginia, and while the conference itself was interesting and I made many contacts doing the ol' conference "Here's my card, can I have yours?" tango, I still was left at the end of the conference day with a bit of frustration. Because after all the keynote presentations and "in the trenches" stories from other coaches, when it came to corporations embracing any sort of introduction to personal development issues as a tool to buff up leadership styles, the general feeling among corporate clients, at least as reported by coaches at this conference, was a Mr. Bill-like "OHHHHH NOOOOOO! followed by the client commenting that this area is "Too touchy-feely for me" or a "Let's not go there."

O--kay... But as a coach, I have experienced the huge rate of return that occurs with my executive clients when they work on personal development (PD) issues. Have a work-related roadblock? 9.9 times out of 10, I find that the work obstacle is deeply connected to a PD issue that once worked on, gives the client a huge shot of productivity juice which also inevitably flows into a happier personal life. So what's not to love about PD?

Today at lunch, while reading the October issue of Fast Company magazine, I happened upon an article about a football coach in Concord, California whose team has not lost a game since December 7, 1991. Yep. Bob Ladouceur's De La Salle Spartans football team enjoys an unbeaten record longer than the pro football record of 17, the college football record of 47 and John Wooden's amazing college basketball streak of 88 games won by his UCLA teams. In fact, according to the article's author, this streak is quite possibly the world's longest streak in any level, in any sport. 

So how did he do it? By strengthening his team using some personal development tools like "soul", "be yourself" and "be something bigger than work."

I don't know about you, but I'd sure like to lead a company with a winning streak like Ladoucer's.

2:57:29 PM    comment []