My Thanks to Coach Chuck Daley

If you have been in any of our “Total Immersion” or “Leading a ToPS Team” courses lately, you have heard me talk about NBA coach Chuck Daley who passed away a week ago on May 10. Coach Daley won back-to-back NBA titles as coach of the Detroit Pistons and then was tapped to coach the 1992 USA Olympic Basketball “Dream Team.”

I found myself with Coach Daley about two years ago at Pebble Beach when he happened to sit down next to me for dinner during a “Coaching Clinic” for business leaders which featured some of the greats in professional sports including Coach Daley, Joe Montana among others.

During our two hour dinner, I got an entire clinic in coaching from one of the best. What he shared could take up volumes, but here is one that is memorable and unusual:

“It’s a player’s job to play, but it is a coaches’ job to make sure that they win.” Coach Daley reminded me that great players love to play. They love the game and love to play the game for the sake of playing the game. But even the best players lose sight of the goal sometimes, and that is where a great coach comes in. The coach makes sure the team stays focused on the goal. He illustrated his point in 1992 when just weeks before the Olympics he staged a “controlled” game with the Olympic Dream Team vs. an unknown team that consisted of a group of college basketball players. The college team won over some of the best in the NBA. It was a humbling lesson to some of the best including Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson, etc. that just because you have a collection of good players, it does not make you a winning team. Good coaches make a winning team out of good players.

So who is your coach? If you as the dentist think you are the coach, think again. You are a player….the lead player. Call yourself the team captain if you like, but the coach you are not. A coach maintains an objective viewpoint, strategizes and directs the team on the right path to success.

Each week, I meet with our ToPS team of Practice Advisors who are some of the best “coaches” in dentistry. Each week they spread across the country to coach some of the best teams in dentistry onto even higher levels of performance. Their results are impressive and I consider myself fortunately to work with them. Which brings up another Coach Daley..ism: "It's a players' league. They allow you to coach them or they don't. Once they stop allowing you to coach, you're on your way out."

Daley understood that leadership is earned not granted. That someone can be hired to be the coach of an NBA team is a given. But whether or not the players will be willing to be coached by that coach is another proposition. Respect is earned by the coach, not granted by the team owner.

That same rule applies in any leadership situation. The willingness of those who are being lead is what creates the leader.

So, who is your coach? And what are you doing to earn the respect of your “players.” The answers to both of these questions can be found when you give us a call at the Total Patient Service Institute at 1-877-399-8677 and ask for your free coaching call with one of our Practice Advisors and ask for more information on our Leading a ToPS Team course…two musts for any team who wants to be ToPS in dentistry.

My thanks again to Coach Chuck Daley for his wisdom and example. He is yet another great mentor who has had a positive impact on my life.