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Inspire loyalty like great sports coaches.

Written by: Keith Ferrazzi

Article Overview: Whether you want to recruit and retain dedicated, talented people for your organization or you just want to cultivate great friendships in your personal life, you can't just ask for loyalty from those around you. You have to inspire it within them.

Inspire loyalty like great sports coaches.

Whether you want to recruit and retain dedicated, talented people for your organization or you just want to cultivate great friendships in your personal life, you can't just ask for loyalty from those around you. You have to inspire it within them.

In Never Eat Alone I shared how Mike Milken taught me the three most powerful keys to loyalty are health, wealth, and children. Well, here, from Dr. Mark Goulston, are some additional insights on how you can inspire loyalty by copying great sports coaches.

What do coaches Pete Carroll of USC and John Wooden of UCLA have in common? They had incredibly talented players such as Matt Leinart and Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) who could have played anywhere, but chose to play for Carroll and Wooden over the immediate gratification of money, adulation and other perks.

Why did they choose fierce loyalty over self-interest? They realized and seized that rare opportunity to play for Carroll and Wooden for whom it was such an honor, that they wanted to extend the experience as long as they could. What was so special about Carroll and Wooden was:

* their fierce determination to be successful based on "steak" rather than just "sizzle" (a simple but not easy commitment in Los Angeles/Hollywood);

* their living their lives by the above values and not turning out to have feet of clay;

* their players knowing that Carroll and Wooden would "kill" for them to any outside detractors especially those who would take cheap shots;

* and, finally, their players knowing that Carroll and Wooden would also "kill" them if they did anything less than they were capable of or dishonored the fact that the team was more important than them.

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Article Tags: adulation, cheap shots, detractors, dr mark, feet of clay, friendships, great sports, health wealth, immediate gratification, kareem abdul jabbar, lew alcindor, loyalty, mark goulston, matt leinart, mike milken, personal life, pete carroll, rare opportunity, self interest, talented players



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a legacy - sounds like your grandfather left a real legacy. It reminds me of Dale Carnegies famous quote, 'people dont care how much you know, until they know how much you care' An interesting side bar is the idea of customer loyalty. I recently worked with a large bank on their new 'loyalty' program. I called it like I saw it, they didnt have loyal customers....they had hostages. If anyone reading wants to learn more about delivering great customer service, they should read "Raving Fans' by Ken Blanchard and "how to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie Two of my favourite resources... The third resource I can always count on was my dad. Although he died almost 18 years ago, he raised me and my 5 brothers and sisters with a strong work ethic, a respect for people of all backgrounds and a healthy respect for time. In fact, I am often teased for always being early or at least very punctual and I find it sad that in today's world, we seem to have lost a lot of the basic tenets of common sense and courtesy.
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Re: a legacy - [quote="TheRainmaker":36ce5c3z]sounds like your grandfather left a real legacy. It reminds me of Dale Carnegies famous quote, 'people dont care how much you know, until they know how much you care' An interesting side bar is the idea of customer loyalty. I recently worked with a large bank on their new 'loyalty' program. I called it like I saw it, they didnt have loyal customers....they had hostages. If anyone reading wants to learn more about delivering great customer service, they should read "Raving Fans' by Ken Blanchard and "how to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie Two of my favourite resources... The third resource I can always count on was my dad. Although he died almost 18 years ago, he raised me and my 5 brothers and sisters with a strong work ethic, a respect for people of all backgrounds and a healthy respect for time. In fact, I am often teased for always being early or at least very punctual and I find it sad that in today's world, we seem to have lost a lot of the basic tenets of common sense and courtesy.[/quote:36ce5c3z] Very true - its important to create loyal customers and I've always felt that great customer service is a great way to start that process. If I deal with a company and its clear they don't care about my business and they don't support me, I look around for someone who does. Why support a business that won't support me? Chris


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