I watched the Sinek video first. I thought his ideas were very accurate, and it's something that we see in recruiting all the time. A team becomes really unified when everyone's "why" is the same. Because our actions reflect our beliefs, on a team when not everyone shares the same "why" their actions reflect that and take the team in different directions. Communicating from a belief, a value, or a purpose is much more meaningful and powerful than just communicating for the message. The first way involves passion for what you believe, the second feels more hollow. I found Simon Sineks talk to clarify and streamline these ideas really well, it was a really interesting and applicable talk. Jim Valvano's talk was also very passionate. He came across as a man passionate about life, and not just because his time was limited. His passion was apparent when he talked about his first job, he wanted to the the best coach so he went to imitate that coach. Even when things were not going as planned he tried to imitate Lombardi. I really enjoyed that story he told because it showed that you can't be the best leader or coach you can be if you're trying to be someone else. It also showed how mistakes are made by everyone but as long as you believe in what you are doing you can get back up and keep moving forward. He also showed that when you believe in something you do it for other people, not yourself. His cancer certainly prompted him to care about raising funds to find a cure, but he wasn't looking for himself but everyone else that had cancer. I think this shows a lot of passion because it he recognizes that in the end it doesn't matter what happens to him as long as he can help other people.
I really liked how Sinek created a logical, definitive formula that puts people on the road to success. While he left things open-ended on how to reach success, he emphasized the importance of starting at the question “why?” rather than “what?”
It really resonated with me when Sinek said something along the lines of, “don’t do business with people who need what you have, do business with people who believe what you believe”. I was instantly able to apply this to my sport. Most high school seniors at a certain caliber want to be recruited, attend a top school, and swim fast. None of these wants answers the question “why?”. When a team has a belief that unifies them towards a common goal, they are more likely to achieve it. Everyone wants to swim fast, but sharing why they want to swim fast creates a more cohesive team with a vision of something bigger than themselves.
On a more emotional note, Jim Valvano expressed his enthusiasm for life, and his passion for his family, team, and battle against cancer. He was unforgivably himself, and led me to reflect what I am passionate about. As I was thinking, I realized that having immense passion creates vulnerability, something I am not good at subjecting myself to. While I do have passions and goals, I need to work on sharing them with those around me. Instead of being afraid of what would happen if I don’t achieve my voiced goals, I need to use them to inspire those around me to achieve their goals.
Rather than subjecting himself to cancer, Valvano used it as a means to help those that will face the same battle in the future. He may not ever benefit from the money he raises from cancer research, but knowing he could help future patients was his driving force. His selflessness and passion was electric, inspiring, and a great example of how important it is to be your authentic self.
Jim Valvano has an incredible passion for life. This he got from his loving family environment and his experience from being diagnosed with cancer. He talks about laughing, crying and thinking in a day makes for one heck of a full day. This is true, one needs to find the emotion and passion in everyday life and the little things you do. He is giving his life to other people through foundations raising money that could someday save someones life. This link to the servant leadership ideal. Living your life to serve and help others, making another persons life better brings true purpose and appreciation to ones actions. Jim Valvano made me realize once more how precious life is, how little time we have on this earth and how meaningful our lives have been thus far. He knows this because of cancer and probably how he was raised but we can't all wait for a tragedy to hit us or a life crucible to tap us on the shoulder. No, we need to take action and control of our lives now and live it to the fullest extent we can every single day.
Simon Sinek's Talk just summarized to me how a team can really come together more when they all know each others' "why" for their goals and visions individually and for the the team. This is what I learned coming to America and joining the team in college swimming.
Simon Sinek's talk opened my eyes to why a good leader inspires action. It truly is a belief sort of outlook. I liked his reference to the Wright brothers. It was their passion and belief that drove them to success... not a paycheck. Their pursuit for flight was driven by a "why" and not a "what". It opened my eyes to my own leadership pursuits. Sometimes I think I have acted in a "what" manner. Instead, I should try to inspire action on my team by presenting things in a "why" manner.
Jim Valvano, and his speech, reminded me about the importance of finding enthusiasm in every day life. I really connected with how he said each day should be filled with laughter, thinking, and emotions. Sometimes, especially in sports, we get caught up in the final product, and winning, and forget to just laugh and enjoy playing a collegiate sport. His statement regarding how cancer was incapable of touching his heart, mind and soul was really inspiring. This man has cancer and still seeks the positive aspects of life in every way.
I really enjoyed both videos. I think in summary, they both revealed that great leaders have an enthusiastic outlook on life, driven with a belief and purpose, and seek laughter and emotions every day. They walk their talk and act on their beliefs; in turn, people follow.
I found both of these talks to be very inspiring in different ways. In Simon Sinek's talk, I liked that he shared a visual (the golden ball) that people could see and understand. When explaining the golden ball, I liked his use of history and examples to explain it. My favorite part was the connection to biology. Before he talked about the three different layers of the brain, I partially believed the golden ball theory, but I wasn't convinced. When he started talking about the brain works and how humans think, I really bought in to what he was saying. After watching this clip, I immediately thought about my coaches and how they recruit. Over the past two years, the soccer team as seem at least 15 players transfer to play at different schools or quit soccer. It is interesting thinking back because many of these players were very talented, but they were not ready for the commitment and vigor of playing division I soccer at an SEC school. When I think about these kids going through the recruiting process, I would imagine that they were initially driven by the “what”. They were driven by the idea of playing soccer for one of the top athletic universities in the nation. They were driven by the benefits and status quo of being an SEC athlete. While they also probably thought about how they were going to accomplish the task of becoming an SEC caliber athlete, I doubt they thought about the why. Why did they really want to play soccer at Tennessee? I think this would be a great video for my coaches to watch, and possibly change the way they recruit. I think they sometimes recruit players solely because of their raw talent. I think if our coaches started recruiting girls who knew why they wanted to play soccer and whose beliefs lined up with the culture and beliefs of our team, the transfer rate would decrease and our success would increase. When reflecting on the Jim Valvano speech, I found his speech very inspirational simply because of his personal story he was able to add His positivity through out the speech showed his strength, and the fact that he didn’t care that they were telling him he only had thirty seconds left showed his passion. I really liked that although he recognized cancer research might not save his life, he was very optimistic that it would save many lives in the future.
I watched the Sinek video first. I thought his ideas were very accurate, and it's something that we see in recruiting all the time. A team becomes really unified when everyone's "why" is the same. Because our actions reflect our beliefs, on a team when not everyone shares the same "why" their actions reflect that and take the team in different directions. Communicating from a belief, a value, or a purpose is much more meaningful and powerful than just communicating for the message. The first way involves passion for what you believe, the second feels more hollow. I found Simon Sineks talk to clarify and streamline these ideas really well, it was a really interesting and applicable talk.
ReplyDeleteJim Valvano's talk was also very passionate. He came across as a man passionate about life, and not just because his time was limited. His passion was apparent when he talked about his first job, he wanted to the the best coach so he went to imitate that coach. Even when things were not going as planned he tried to imitate Lombardi. I really enjoyed that story he told because it showed that you can't be the best leader or coach you can be if you're trying to be someone else. It also showed how mistakes are made by everyone but as long as you believe in what you are doing you can get back up and keep moving forward. He also showed that when you believe in something you do it for other people, not yourself. His cancer certainly prompted him to care about raising funds to find a cure, but he wasn't looking for himself but everyone else that had cancer. I think this shows a lot of passion because it he recognizes that in the end it doesn't matter what happens to him as long as he can help other people.
I really liked how Sinek created a logical, definitive formula that puts people on the road to success. While he left things open-ended on how to reach success, he emphasized the importance of starting at the question “why?” rather than “what?”
ReplyDeleteIt really resonated with me when Sinek said something along the lines of, “don’t do business with people who need what you have, do business with people who believe what you believe”. I was instantly able to apply this to my sport. Most high school seniors at a certain caliber want to be recruited, attend a top school, and swim fast. None of these wants answers the question “why?”. When a team has a belief that unifies them towards a common goal, they are more likely to achieve it. Everyone wants to swim fast, but sharing why they want to swim fast creates a more cohesive team with a vision of something bigger than themselves.
On a more emotional note, Jim Valvano expressed his enthusiasm for life, and his passion for his family, team, and battle against cancer. He was unforgivably himself, and led me to reflect what I am passionate about. As I was thinking, I realized that having immense passion creates vulnerability, something I am not good at subjecting myself to. While I do have passions and goals, I need to work on sharing them with those around me. Instead of being afraid of what would happen if I don’t achieve my voiced goals, I need to use them to inspire those around me to achieve their goals.
Rather than subjecting himself to cancer, Valvano used it as a means to help those that will face the same battle in the future. He may not ever benefit from the money he raises from cancer research, but knowing he could help future patients was his driving force. His selflessness and passion was electric, inspiring, and a great example of how important it is to be your authentic self.
Jim Valvano has an incredible passion for life. This he got from his loving family environment and his experience from being diagnosed with cancer. He talks about laughing, crying and thinking in a day makes for one heck of a full day. This is true, one needs to find the emotion and passion in everyday life and the little things you do. He is giving his life to other people through foundations raising money that could someday save someones life. This link to the servant leadership ideal. Living your life to serve and help others, making another persons life better brings true purpose and appreciation to ones actions.
ReplyDeleteJim Valvano made me realize once more how precious life is, how little time we have on this earth and how meaningful our lives have been thus far. He knows this because of cancer and probably how he was raised but we can't all wait for a tragedy to hit us or a life crucible to tap us on the shoulder. No, we need to take action and control of our lives now and live it to the fullest extent we can every single day.
Simon Sinek's Talk just summarized to me how a team can really come together more when they all know each others' "why" for their goals and visions individually and for the the team. This is what I learned coming to America and joining the team in college swimming.
Simon Sinek's talk opened my eyes to why a good leader inspires action. It truly is a belief sort of outlook. I liked his reference to the Wright brothers. It was their passion and belief that drove them to success... not a paycheck. Their pursuit for flight was driven by a "why" and not a "what". It opened my eyes to my own leadership pursuits. Sometimes I think I have acted in a "what" manner. Instead, I should try to inspire action on my team by presenting things in a "why" manner.
ReplyDeleteJim Valvano, and his speech, reminded me about the importance of finding enthusiasm in every day life. I really connected with how he said each day should be filled with laughter, thinking, and emotions. Sometimes, especially in sports, we get caught up in the final product, and winning, and forget to just laugh and enjoy playing a collegiate sport. His statement regarding how cancer was incapable of touching his heart, mind and soul was really inspiring. This man has cancer and still seeks the positive aspects of life in every way.
I really enjoyed both videos. I think in summary, they both revealed that great leaders have an enthusiastic outlook on life, driven with a belief and purpose, and seek laughter and emotions every day. They walk their talk and act on their beliefs; in turn, people follow.
I found both of these talks to be very inspiring in different ways. In Simon Sinek's talk, I liked that he shared a visual (the golden ball) that people could see and understand. When explaining the golden ball, I liked his use of history and examples to explain it. My favorite part was the connection to biology. Before he talked about the three different layers of the brain, I partially believed the golden ball theory, but I wasn't convinced. When he started talking about the brain works and how humans think, I really bought in to what he was saying. After watching this clip, I immediately thought about my coaches and how they recruit. Over the past two years, the soccer team as seem at least 15 players transfer to play at different schools or quit soccer. It is interesting thinking back because many of these players were very talented, but they were not ready for the commitment and vigor of playing division I soccer at an SEC school. When I think about these kids going through the recruiting process, I would imagine that they were initially driven by the “what”. They were driven by the idea of playing soccer for one of the top athletic universities in the nation. They were driven by the benefits and status quo of being an SEC athlete. While they also probably thought about how they were going to accomplish the task of becoming an SEC caliber athlete, I doubt they thought about the why. Why did they really want to play soccer at Tennessee? I think this would be a great video for my coaches to watch, and possibly change the way they recruit. I think they sometimes recruit players solely because of their raw talent. I think if our coaches started recruiting girls who knew why they wanted to play soccer and whose beliefs lined up with the culture and beliefs of our team, the transfer rate would decrease and our success would increase.
ReplyDeleteWhen reflecting on the Jim Valvano speech, I found his speech very inspirational simply because of his personal story he was able to add His positivity through out the speech showed his strength, and the fact that he didn’t care that they were telling him he only had thirty seconds left showed his passion. I really liked that although he recognized cancer research might not save his life, he was very optimistic that it would save many lives in the future.