June 21st Coaching Tip: Six Weeks of Practice.
Today I shot basketball for 30 minutes. Practicing my basket shooting will be a priority daily since it’s just six more weeks until the National Senior Games in Des Moines, Iowa. I’m registered to shoot in the free throw shooting contest (I will shoot 25 consecutive FT’s) and the 3-point shooting contest (I will shoot three shots from five locations at 19’9″ three-point line). The key here is consecutive. Although 25 and 15 consecutive shots doesn’t sound like a lot, I’m noticing that as I practice, these amounts can become fatiguing. My goal is to hit over 80% of my FT’s and 50% from 3-pt line at the competition. I’ve got some practicing to do, but I’m committed to do it for six more weeks.
June 22nd Coaching Tip: Stay Cool, Heat Kills.
Yesterday and today were dangerously hot in the Midwest and it’s expected to continue until June 26th. We are avid watchers of The Weather Channel and learn so much. We learned this weekend that more people die annually due to excessively high temperatures than tornadoes, hurricanes, and water/flooding. We stayed in throughout the day or in the shade; we said no to friends who wanted to go out on the lake during middle of the afternoon. We drank alot (water, tea, vitamin water, etc.) and did activities in the early evening, before the sunset. Stay cool, stay hydrated, stay charged up (your cell phone or device), and stay in touch. Excessively hot temperatures are nothing to mess around with: heat kills. Be intentional about staying cool when it’s dangerously hot; it’s not worth the risk.
June 23rd Coaching Tip: Plan The Midyear Review.
Today a coaching discussion revolved around a team that is looking to develop a new career path for one of their colleagues. This teammate doesn’t know it’s about to happen, nor does the office leadership team. The team’s leaders were leveraging me and our confidential prep conversation to start figuring out how they were going to message this to their colleague and their office leadership team. Immediately in to our conversation, I could tell that they were not thinking through this “exception” as an exception. For example, when you are asking for an exception, you had better have put together a rock solid, exceptional business case justification. They had not done that at all. They were assuming a lot and being secretive.
We worked together on this situation with focused purpose for approximately 45 minutes; we agreed for them to work on it some more and then come up with a timeline on when they would present it and to whom. More to come, but it’s midyear. Don’t be surprised; be ready and prepped for those midyear reviews.