Page 189 - Leadership Format System

Director of Motivation
Bobby Knight’s Standards for an Indiana Basketball Player:
“I decided that we had better put together an idea of what we were going to need to win,” Knight said. “The first thing that we had to structure was the kind of person we were going to win with.”
• An Indiana basketball player can be any size, shape or color. There is no common denominator except for a love for the game and a desire to get the most out of his abilities. He is not only proud of his strengths, but understands his weaknesses. He is first of all concerned with the good of his team, and knows that individual recognition will come through team excellence.
• An Indiana basketball player must have the enthusiasm of an evangelist, the heart of a warrior and the discipline of a monk, and never loses the honesty and character of a little boy. He appreciates the support of thousands of fans, but he is much more aware of the example he is setting for some small boy on the sidelines. He is happy when he scores a basket, but never forgets it was a teammate who passed him the ball, enabling him to do so. While he never lets up at either end of the floor, the other team is not his real opponent. It is the full extent of his own potential that he is always playing against. He lets the referees, with occasional assistance from his coach, do the officiating.
• An Indiana basketball player is made, not born. He is constantly striving to reach his potential, knowing that he will bypass others who cannot withstand the strain in this quest for excellence. He realizes that the challenges and competition of today’s games will better prepare him for tomorrow’s world. He knows that the true measure of his performance is not recorded in wins and losses, but how much of himself he has given to the game.
• An Indiana basketball player never realizes when the odds are stacked against him. He can be defeated only by a clock that happens to run out of time. He is what a small boy wants to become, and what an old man can look back with great pride that he once was.
“If we can play in our business with people that have these ideals and goals in mind, I think that we can succeed in any business with those same kinds of people.
“I think that once we decided what kind of people we were going to win with, then I think we have to make the most out of time. I don’t think that you or I have any greater enemy than time. We have got to learn how to master time, we’ve got to learn how to fight it, we’ve got to try to defeat it — it’s an elusive opponent, it’s a tough opponent, and we don’t always win. But if we’re going to be successful, we do have to defeat time.”
You’ve Got to Pay the Price
The incomparable Vince Lombardi, whose winning percentage ranks No. 1 in the history of the NFL, won five league titles and the first two Super Bowls. Everybody knew where he stood on winning.
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-the-time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit.
“Running a football team is no different from running any other kind of organization — an army, a political party, a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win — to beat the other guy.
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