The former basketball and football coaches on understanding your team, managing talent and diminishing the need to please.
Lou Holtz, former college football analyst and Notre Dame football coach, and Bob Knight, former college basketball analyst and head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers, discussed their coaching philosophies at the Becker's Hospital Review 6th Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Below are some of the most memorable pieces of advice they shared with the attendance of hospital and health system leaders.
Lou Holtz
1. "I don't think you can win without great talent, but I think you can lose with it, and that's where coaching comes in."
2. "If I ran a hospital, I'd run it the same way I run a family, with three simple rules: Do the right thing. Do everything to best of your ability. Show other people you care."
3. "The difference I see in athletes today is everybody wants to talk about their rights and privileges. Forty years ago, people talked about their obligations and responsibilities."
4. "Leadership is getting people to achieve far more than they thought they were capable of doing. A lot of people can win businesses and make a lot of money. But when you're in a management position, you have a chance to be significant, and that's when you help other people be successful."
5. "You never attack the performer, but you attack the performance."
Bob Knight
6. "Never have a correct answer for a dumb question."
7. "It's really important that you understand the capabilities of your people. You don't give them something they're just not capable of doing. Change your approach a little bit. Really work at knowing their capabilities and knowing your own capabilities."
8. "One the most important things in dealing with people when you're the man or woman in charge is that you understand you just can't please everybody. When you try to please everybody, it just doesn't work."
9. "I would promise you your kid is going to graduate [when he came to play for me]. He'll either graduate or I'll kill him. That was really important to me. I think when you require the people working for you to produce, they do their job a lot better."
10. "A leader with self-reliance is a very important thing. You have to have confidence in yourself and not just rely on something somebody else said."