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The Leadership Lessons of Coach John Wooden with Swen Nater

Swen Nater has one of the most unlikely paths to success. He was born in the Netherlands where he spent several years in orphanages. When he came to America as a boy, Swen fell in love with the game of basketball. Despite never playing in high school, he became an All-American at Cypress College, a two-time national champion at UCLA, and he played 12 years professionally. He is the only player in history to lead the ABA and NBA in rebounding. When Swen’s playing days were over, he went on to coach Christian Heritage College to a national championship.

In this interview, Swen talks about his difficult childhood and the journey that led him to play professional basketball. He shares the leadership lessons he learned from his legendary leader at UCLA – Coach John Wooden. Swen talks about Coach Wooden’s approach to time management, giving feedback, discipline, conditioning, and the tremendous care he showed for his players. Swen finishes the interview by talking about the mentorship he received from Coach Wooden in the decades after playing at UCLA.

Swen Nater still holds the California Community College single game rebound record at 39. After becoming a community college All-American, Swen played for two undefeated, national championship teams at UCLA. He went on to become the ABA Rookie of the Year, a two-time All Star, and led the league in rebounds and field goal percentage. When he jumped to the NBA, Swen led the league in rebounds, becoming the only player in history win both the ABA and NBA rebounding titles. After playing basketball, Swen Nater became athletic director and head coach at Christian Heritage College where he led the Hawks to a national small college championship. Swen is author of five books including "You Haven't Taught Until They Have Learned.” Swen has been inducted into the Orange County Hall of Fame and The San Diego Hall of Champions Hall of Fame. Swen is currently a buyer for Costco Wholesale.

The Power of Failure with Dr. Amy Edmondson

In this interview about failure and growth, author and Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School Dr. Amy Edmondson upends our understanding of failure and shares how we can more effectively make it work for us. Based on the research from her book “Right Kind of Wrong,” Dr. Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely. Outlining the three archetypes of failure - basic, complex, and intelligent - she describes how to minimize unproductive failure while maximizing what we gain from missteps at all levels.

Dr. Edmondson goes on to talk about her pioneering work in the space of psychological safety. She demystifies failure by distinguishing between good failure from which we can learn and the bad failure that should have been prevented. Dr. Edmondson makes it clear that when organizations provide a safe environment for failure during the process of experimentation, both knowledge and innovation are gained. She finishes the interview by giving advice for how leaders, teachers, and even parents can use failure as a learning tool.

Dr. Amy Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society. She has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #1 in 2021; she also received that organization’s Breakthrough Idea Award in 2019, and Talent Award in 2017.  She studies teaming, psychological safety, and organizational learning, and her articles have been published in numerous academic and management outlets, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review and California Management Review. Her 2019 book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth (Wiley), has been translated into 15 languages. Dr. Edmondson’s latest book, Right Kind of Wrong (Atria), builds on her prior work on psychological safety and teaming to provide a framework for thinking about, discussing, and practicing the science of failing well. First published in the US and the UK in September, 2023, the book is due to be translated into 15 additional languages.

The Performance Paradox with Eduardo Briceño

In this interview about growth and development, author and growth mindset expert Eduardo Briceño shares how leaders, teams, and organizations can create a culture of growth, where experimentation and feedback are encouraged, and learning is integrated into the everyday. Integrating learning and performance is the central idea behind Eduardo’s book “The Performance Paradox.”

Eduardo shares why people in any profession should embrace the “Learning Zone” - a space where they can be deliberate about improvement - rather than constantly focusing on minimizing mistakes and peak performance. He talks about how leaders and coaches should create psychological safety so members of a team can experiment, and even fail, without negative repercussions. He makes the case that people should approach their work with two goals in mind - getting things done and improving. They can do that by proactively soliciting feedback, performing trial and error activities, and reflecting on mistakes. Eduardo gives advice for how leaders should handle mistakes and how they can best model being a learner. He shares how companies like Microsoft, General Mills, Skratch Labs, New York Life, and Bridgewater Associates have benefited from welcoming the “Learning Zone” and how CEOs like Satya Nadella and Ray Dalio have openly celebrated their own mistakes and learned from the feedback they received after those mistakes.

Eduardo Briceño is a global keynote speaker, facilitator, and guide supporting leaders cultivating growth mindset cultures. He is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow, a member of the Aspen Institute's Global Leadership Network, and an inductee in the Happiness Hall of Fame. For over a decade he was the CEO of Mindset Works, which he cofounded in 2007 with Stanford professor Carol Dweck, Lisa Blackwell, and others. Earlier, he served as a technology investor with Credit Suisse's venture capital arm the Sprout Group. Eduardo grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. He holds bachelor's degrees in economics and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MBA and M.A. in education from Stanford University. He was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award in 2023.

Leading with Gratitude with Chester Elton

Research indicates that showing gratitude helps us improve our health, handle adversity, and create stronger relationships. In this interview, Chester Elton, who co-wrote the book Leading with Gratitude, shares how expressing gratitude can also lead to extraordinary business results. He discusses some of the myths about gratitude that are holding leaders back and Chester shares the most powerful gratitude practices that can both help you create a grateful life and excel in the workplace.

Chester and his co-author Adrian Gostick also wrote the book “Anxiety at Work” - one of 14 books they have written together. Chester closes this interview with an overview of what leaders can do to mitigate anxiety at work and create an environment that is safe to discuss mental health challenges.

Chester Elton has spent two decades helping some of the world’s most successful businesses engage their employees to execute on strategy, vision, and values. He is co-author of multiple award-winning New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling leadership books including All In, The Carrot Principle, The Best Team Wins, and Anxiety at Work. His books have been translated in more than 30 languages and have sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.

Reaching Peak Performance with Sports Psychologist Dr. Rick Aberman

When the lights are on and the ball is in play, we tend to forget that athletes are human too. They have families, friends, bills, obligations, and commitments like everyone else. And their jobs are really, really stressful. Failure can lead to the scorn of fans in the arena and on social media. Pundits can be unusually cruel. Coaches and General Managers can be fickle when players underperform and losses mount.

To deal with these pressures, collegiate and professional athletes often turn to a sports psychologist to help them overcome their doubts, regain their confidence, curiosity and purpose, and strive toward performing at their potential. One of those sports psychologists is Dr. Rick Aberman. He is a pioneer in the field and has been working with elite athletes and corporate executives for 30 years.

In this discussion, Dr. Aberman talks about how business leaders and sports coaches can more effectively assess talent, help team members move past failure, manage emotions, build healthy work cultures, and help their people live full, well-rounded lives. One of his most powerful tools is simply asking the people he works with “how good do you want to be?”

After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Aberman became one of the first psychologists in the country to be hired as a member of a sports medicine staff. He initiated a program designed to specifically meet the needs of high performing competitive student-athletes, coaches, and administrators at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Aberman served as the Director of Peak Performance on the medical staff of the Minnesota Twins. In addition, he continues to be a long-standing advisor to athletic teams and coaches at the University of Minnesota. He utilizes the latest thinking in psychology, motivation, neuroscience, and peak performance.

Progress, Not Perfection with Basketball Legend Coach Ray Scott

This interview is so much more than a discussion about leadership. It’s a reflection on the incredible progress that has been made in the United States and the work that still needs to be done. Born in South Philadelphia, former professional basketball player and coach Ray Scott discusses a formative trip he took as a 12-year-old boy to the segregated South in 1950. He talks about the bravery amid intimidation and death threats of the first African American players in the National Basketball Association. He shares what he learned from pioneering leaders he was fortunate to meet and get to know like Muhammad Ali, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Aretha Franklin, and his mentor and coach Earl Lloyd.

Additionally, Coach Scott talks about his role as a leader during his playing and coaching career in professional basketball. Ray discusses the importance of forming habits, being a pioneer, establishing the right mindset in very difficult circumstances. mentorship, determining individual readiness to lead other people, building a self-reliant team, and coaching former players.

In 1961, Ray Scott was drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the #4 overall pick in the National Basketball Association Draft. His professional playing career spanned 11 years with the Pistons, Baltimore Bullets, and Virginia Squires. He became an assistant coach and eventually the head coach of the Detroit Pistons during the early 1970s. In 1974, Ray became the first African American Coach of the Year. He went on to become the head men’s basketball coach at Eastern Michigan University and then had a long, successful career in business. Ray is the author of The NBA in Black and White: The Memoir of a Trailblazing NBA Player and Coach.

Leadership and Love with MGySgt Scott Stalker

Master Gunnery Sergeant Scott Stalker joins the show again to discuss the topic of leadership. In his first appearance back in 2020, he shared his thoughts on “The Future of War.” This time, he shares what he has learned about leadership during his nearly three decades as a member of the United States Marine Corps.

In this episode, MGySgt Stalker and host Don MacPherson talk about developing culture, the importance of values, giving and receiving feedback, dealing with failure, motivating and inspiring a team, sacrifice for the good of the team, onboarding new leadership, building trust, and leading in battle. They end the conversation with a discussion about mental health and why “Love” can be the most important leadership trait.

Master Gunnery Sergeant Stalker is Command Senior Enlisted Leader of US Space Command in Colorado Springs. For nearly 30 years, he has served in the United States Marine Corps.

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