Former basketball performance coach Alan Stein Jr. shares tips for becoming an exceptional leader and teammate.
Alan Stein Jr. is a former basketball performance coach who has worked with some of the best athletes in the world, including Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. Now a keynote speaker and author, Stein Jr. takes the lessons he learned in sports to help business leaders and their teams develop winning mindsets.
Here are seven leadership lessons from Stein to improve your game and maximize your performance.
Lesson One: You’re Never Too Good for the Basics
One time, Stein went to a gym to watch the late Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant work out. When Stein arrived, he was surprised to see Bryant doing basic basketball footwork drills. When Bryant finished, Stein asked why he was doing something so elementary. Bryant answered: “Why do you think I’m the best player in the world? I never get bored with the basics.”
Never being too good for the basics is applicable to everyone from athletes to business owners. “Just because something is basic doesn’t mean it’s easy,” Stein says. “If it were easy, everyone else would be doing it. We live in a world that tells us it’s OK to skip steps. But the basics work. They always have and always will.”
Some advice from Stein.: “Spend this weekend on the basics you need to focus on to raise your game.”
Lesson Two: Adopt a Winner’s Mindset
“The winner’s mindset wakes up every single morning making a conscious commitment to be the best you can, with what you have, wherever you are,” Stein says. By committing to this mindset, Stein says this automatically eliminates a trilogy of behaviors that will undermine your performance: blaming, complaining and making excuses.
“You will never, ever improve your life or move you or your team forward by blaming, complaining or making excuses,” Stein says. “As leaders, the sooner you can untether from the very real temptation to do those things, you’ll immediately become more emotionally agile. And if you’re not emotionally agile, you’re emotionally fragile. As leaders, you simply can’t be emotionally fragile if you want to make a meaningful and maximum contribution to everyone and everything around you.”
Lesson Three: Focus on the Next Play
When Stein worked with some of the best basketball players in the world, he helped them improve their physical capacity, of course, but also taught them how to be present. How? By telling them to focus on the next play.
“Why would I want my players to focus on the next play?” Stein asks. “There’s nothing they can do about the play that just happened, it’s now over. It’s in the past, it’s in the rearview mirror and it is unchangeable. Any time or energy or focus you waste on something that is in the past or that is unchangeable means you don’t have the time, energy or focus for the present moment where you can still make a difference.”
At any given moment, Stein suggests taking a breath, pausing and asking yourself, “Am I choosing to place my attention on what I believe is most deserving of it at this moment?” To recenter, ask yourself “Where do I need to focus?”
As Stein says, there’s always a time and a place to look forward, prepare and plan. But the majority of one’s time, attention and focus should be in the present moment. As a leader, he says it’s one of the most important skills you can develop. This echoes advice he’s heard from former University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban and media mogul, Oprah Winfrey: “Be where your feet are.”
Lesson Four: Control What You Can
When focusing on the next play, focus on what you have control over.
“I believe there’s only two things in this world we have 100% control over 100% of the time, and that’s our effort and our attitude,” he says. “If you take effort and attitude mixed together, you get preparation. You’re absolutely in control of how prepared you choose to be.”
Stein says don’t be stifled by perfection. “There’s not a single human being on the planet, myself included, that is at 100%, 100% of the time. When it comes to effort, give the best effort you’re capable of, as consistently as possible,” he adds.
Lesson Five: Don’t Confuse Function with Purpose
“Don’t ever confuse what it is that you do for what it is that you actually provide, because they’re not the same thing,” he says. For example, he references international shipping company DHL. DHL’s mission statement is simple but impactful: “We don’t deliver brown boxes; we deliver promises.” He says the Bonn, Germany-based company has incredibly high buy-in and low attrition because the leadership helps all of its employees feel connected to the mission. “Because it’s not just a brown box you’re putting on a truck, it’s a little kid’s birthday gift, a future bride’s wedding dress or someone’s medicine,” Stein says.
According to Stein, purpose has a much deeper meaning than function. Make sure your business — and everyone who works there — is connected to its purpose. Remember, you’re not just selling mattresses, you’re selling a better night’s sleep and in turn, good health and more energy for the things that are important to your customers.
Lesson Six: Define Your Core Values
What do you stand for? What do you believe in? What are the nonnegotiables that you use to make the most important decisions in your life? For leaders, it’s important to get crystal clear about your core values.
Every time you make a decision, run it through the filter of “Is this in alignment with my core values or not?” Stein says. If the answer is yes, do it immediately. If not, pause, reflect and ask yourself “Do I want to proceed in saying or doing something that is not in alignment with my core values?”
“When you learn to lead, you learn to sell, and you learn to make decisions based on your core values and not based on the ebb and flow of emotions and feelings that we all experience as human beings,” he says.
Lesson Seven: Shift Your Focus
Like Stein says, by learning to lead, you learn to sell. To increase your sales skills, try reframing your mindset.
“You need to look every single customer in the eye and say, ‘It’s not about me; it’s about you,’” he says. “As leaders, when you learn to shift your focus off of what you want from people, and you shift it to what you want for people, you become the most magnetic person in the room immediately.”
To learn more about Alan Stein Jr. visit AlanSteinJr.com.
Read more selling tips and strategies at SleepSavvyMagazine.com.
