Aaron Glenn said, "Culture is about people." "The best form of leadership is influence. The guys we brought in, they really influence everybody within this organization, within this team." Your culture is demonstrated every day through your attitudes, behaviors, and values.

Admiral William H. McRaven gave one of the best explanations for dealing with unfair situations I've ever heard. Everyone has heard him talk about making your bed, but this story might be even better... "Get over being a sugar cookie." The Sugar Cookie Story:

3: Persevere - It's how you respond to setbacks and failures. Great performers don't avoid failure - they learn from it. They take ownership of their mistakes and use them to get better. It's not about never falling down, it's about how quickly you get back up

2: Preparation - Preparation is your work ethic in action. It takes discipline to show up consistently. It means look at how you show up, compete, and stay consistent. Excellence lives in your preparation. It's about having discipline and holding yourself accountable.

1: The Process - Your process determines everything. Focus on the systems and habits that lead to excellence, not just the end result. Think about growth. Start with owning your focus and your process. Your habits affect actions which affect outcomes. nitter.cf/thewinningdiff1/status…

Coach K gave one of the best definitions of success I've ever heard. But here's the twist - he said you should never focus on success. His reframe completely changed how I think about success and achievement. Here's what he said and why it works:🧵 (📌Bookmark this)

Steve Sarkisian with a masterclass on process over outcome. "We have to focus on the task at hand, the daily process so that everybody walking into this building...is focused on being the best version of themselves." Process is what you do. Outcome is what you get.

Phil Jackson said, "Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We." Great teams know how to come together. • They connect. • They communicate. • They trust each other. 8 Things that Bring a Team Together:

Bill Cowher explains how he balanced pushing players hard with genuinely caring for them. "Get comfortable being uncomfortable because I'm gonna make you uncomfortable. That's the only way you can be as good as you can be." "It doesn't mean I don't love you. I love my kids, but I make my kids uncomfortable at times too 'cause I push them to be as good as they can be." Pushing someone hard and caring about them aren't opposites. They go together. It shows you believe in them and their potential. "It doesn't mean I don't care about you as a person. They won't care about you until they know you care about them." "My conversations to them wasn't always about football. It was about how they were doing at home, how their wives were doing, how their kids were doing...Because they were still individuals. They're still people. And I loved them like they were my own sons. I mean that." You have to balance being demanding with being warm. It means you care about the person and their growth. Then he said something that captures it perfectly: "I had 3 girls at home and 53 boys at work." That's leadership. High standards and high care. Push them to be their best. But never forget they're people first. (🎥Half-Forgotten History )

Julius Peppers shares what being a Hall of Famer really means. "It's not about how many touchdowns you scored or how many Super Bowl rings you have - even though those things are nice." "It really comes down to who you are at your core and what's in your heart." "Are you resilient? Do you stand tall in the face of adversity when things get tough or do you quit?" Greatness isn't measured by stats - it's measured by character. And then he said something everyone needs to hear: "Everyone can't play in the NFL. And everyone can't have a bust here in Canton. But everyone can be a Hall of Famer in your own life." "You can be a Hall of Fame dad. Hall of Fame student. Teacher. Spouse. Co-worker. Friend." Your character is what you do. "Whatever it is that you do - do it with respect, integrity, passion, resilience, dedication, and gratitude." "That alone will make you a Hall of Fame person. And you too can have a legacy that lives on forever." You don't need a gold jacket to be a Hall of Famer. Be great where you are. That's the legacy that matters. (🎥NFL Network)

Rick Pitino was asked what stops people from being great. His answer was one word. "Ego stops greatness. I call it edging greatness out." "In a spiritual sense, ego is edging God out. But ego is edging greatness out." And he made a key distinction: "I'm not talking about confidence. You have to be a confident person." "But ego really gets you to where you think you've arrived. You think you know it all. You stop learning. You stop listening." That's the trap. Confidence keeps you hungry. Ego convinces you that you've already made it. You lose your hunger and humility. "Learning and listening are important for great leaders. Great leaders have to listen and they have to continue to learn and surround themselves with people that are better than them." EGO = Edging Greatness Out The moment you think you've arrived is the moment you stop growing. Stay confident. Stay humble. Never stop learning. (🎥@LewisHowes)

Mindset lessons from the great John Wooden

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shares the greatest lesson that Coach Wooden taught him about winning, losing, and effort. "There are disappointments for any competitive athlete because you can't win all the time." "Coach Wooden taught us that you can only come out and give your best effort. That's all you can do." Focus on what you can control. "The outcome is not determined by anything that you have control over. Only thing you have control over is your effort and then the effort of your group, your team." You can't control the outcome, but you can control your input and how you show up. "When you put together a good effort consistently, you have a chance to win." "As long as you put your best effort out there, you should be satisfied with that and not be down on yourself." Excellence is the habit and the mindset, not the destination. The goal is excellence in everything you do: Compete, commit, and always look to get better. (🎥 Academy of Achievement)

Nick Saban shares what transformational leadership really looks like and the trap most leaders fall into. "If you're in any kind of managerial position, I think you should define your job the same way: Provide the leadership to develop the relationships to help people create and accomplish the opportunities that they have, and help them establish the discipline they need to do it." Then he broke down what leadership actually is: "Leadership is about helping somebody else, affecting somebody else for their benefit. Not for your benefit - for their benefit." "If you're doing it for your benefit, it's manipulation. And people can see right through that." That's the line right there... Leadership serves others. Manipulation serves yourself. "You gotta develop a relationship, because they gotta know you care. Hard to affect people if they don't think you care about them." Then he called out where most leaders spend their time: "How do you spend all your time? If you're a manager, you spend all your time with the people who don't do the right things. I call them energy vampires." "We got 5 guys on our team - they don't go to class, they don't do the right thing in practice, they loaf all the time. Those are the guys I meet with every day. They're energy vampires." So he made a commitment: "I'm gonna meet with 3 guys who didn't do anything wrong every day to see how they're doing. To make sure they know I care about them, their family, and what's happening in their life." "I wanna have a relationship with those people, so that when I need to affect them, I have a chance to do it." "People gotta know you care. If they think you only care about yourself, they're gonna think you're just a manipulator and you're not really going to affect them in a positive way." "You gotta serve other people." The core of servant leadership is wanting to see others at their best. It's not about control, it's about serving others. (🎥 CBT Automotive)

Dan Campbell shares the one word that defines Detroit. "What makes us what we are? And what we're going to be? I think it's that right there. It's GRIT." "It means we're unbreakable." GRIT isn't talent or luck. It's your ability to endure.

PJ Fleck said, "Bad teams, no one leads. Average teams, coaches lead. But elite teams, players lead." The best teams are player-led. • They hold everyone accountable. • They lead by example. • They own the process. The standard can't live with just the coaches.

Steve Nash shares the truth about the journey to greatness. "You don't have to be the chosen one." "The secret is to build the resolve and spirit to enjoy the plateaus - the times when it doesn't feel like you're improving and you question why you're doing this." Most people quit during the plateau. Learn to embrace it. "If you're patient, the plateaus will become springboards." Progress isn't linear. The flat moments aren't wasted - they're building. "Never stop striving, reaching for your goals until you get there." "But the truth is, even when you get there - even when you get here, standing on this stage - it's the striving, fighting, pushing yourself to the limit every day that you'll miss and you'll long for." "You'll never be more alive than when you give something everything you have." The destination isn't the reward - the journey is. Enjoy the process and fall in love with the climb because that's where life happens.