When I was working at Michigan, Brandon Naurato would talk about a saying that Steve Yzerman had when he worked with him at the Red Wings.
“Aces in their places”
What Yzerman meant was hiring the best people, giving them a role, and giving them the freedom to do their job to the best of their ability.
When you do that, there’s no need to micromanage as a leader. You trust your people to do their job within the structure of the team and your people will love the autonomy to add value and make a positive impact.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what an ACE means lately. When I think about the leaders and high achievers that I’ve been fortunate to work with, what makes them special?
I always try to take the complex and make it simple. And as I continued to ponder the ACE, I didn’t have to look further to the acronym right in front of me.
A – Authenticity
C – Consistency
E – Enthusiasm
All great leaders I know have these three things in common. They are authentic. They are consistent. And they bring enthusiasm to what they do and who they lead.
I’ve been really fortunate to work with and learn from some amazing people in this game. Below I have some stories and other tidbits from the ACES I’ve been around.
Authenticity
One of the biggest things I’ve learned in all of the team building I’ve done with the Hockey Think Tank is that there is not one right way to build a culture. I’ve traveled and worked with upwards of 20 college programs at the D1, D3, and D1 club levels – many of them being elite programs – and it’s by far the biggest takeaway I have.
Whether working with their program for a day or working alongside them every day, I’ve seen legends in the college game like Mike Schafer, Jerry York, Rico Blasi, and Mark Dennehy in action. I’ve been alongside some of the best up and coming head coaches like Brandon Naurato, Jason Lammers, Brent Brekke, and Ben Syer. I’ve also worked with some of the top programs at the D3 and D1 club levels whose coaching and culture building could land them opportunities at higher levels if they chose to pursue them.
There are commonalities to the great leaders I’ve been around – a passion for what they do, a love of teaching, and a unique ability to get their players to buy into TEAM over everything.
But ultimately how they live it, how they preach it, and how they communicate it are so unique to each person.
For example, I had the opportunity to lead some culture building at BC with Jerry York, the winningest coach of all time in college hockey. Their culture was so player driven, he made sure I had dinner with their captains on my trip so I got a sense of the culture from them.
At Miami working with Rico Blasi as a grad assistant for the year it was all about the culture of the “Brotherhood”. My year at Michigan with Brandon Naurato it was “Good Dudes Only” where everything centered around player development. With Schafe, Brekks, and Benny at Cornell it was holding players to a standard of excellence on and off the ice, in their own way, every day.
Every leader understands who they are, what’s important to them, and how they can authentically communicate it to the people they lead.
When I first started to travel the country working with college teams, the first two programs that had me in were Utica and Oswego, two Division 3 powerhouses that every year are in the running to win a national championship. And I’ll never forget how different both of those visits were.
Utica was first and the team was loose, it seemed like the guys had a lot of fun, a little more laid back, and we really let it rip and had some great conversations. At Oswego, all of their players came in wearing the same polo and khakis, it was very professional, we got right down to business and also had great conversations. Gary Heenan at Utica and Ed Gosek at Oswego are different leaders with different cultures, but both have been incredible for years at what they do.
If there’s any takeaway that coaches or leaders can take out of this – it’s be yourself.
Don’t try to be somebody you’re not when you become a leader. I know a lot of leaders, myself included, that have learned that lesson the hard way.
The team takes on the personality of their coach. Be introspective, lead from your heart, and the best thing you can do for your players is to bring the best version of you every day.
Consistency
This is your hardest responsibility as a coach. At the end of the day, the standard starts with you. And if you expect consistency to the standards you set from your players, you better live the standards yourself first.
The season is long. It’s a grind. There are times when you just don’t have your 100%.
But one of the best lines that Vechs and I have heard on our podcast recently was this:
Even if you don’t have your 100%, bring 100% of whatever you have.
One of your most important jobs as a coach is holding people accountable to the standards that you set as a team. Every single day. And if you want to be a championship program, those standards are going to be really, really high.
The consistency to which you hold your players, your staff, and yourself to those standards is ultimately going to be the lifeblood to the strength of your program. As a coach, if you give an inch, those you lead will take a mile because human nature wants everything easy. If you let your foot off the gas pedal with your own work ethic or attention to detail, the ripple effect down to everyone else will be substantial.
The best coaches that I’ve been around…there’s no wiggle room for anyone in the program to bring anything other than their 100% every day. If you’re not giving your best, you’re going to hear about it. The consistency in which the standard was held was the absolute gift these coaches gave their players and staff. It wasn’t always easy, but you appreciated being pushed to be better every day.
I tell players all the time that the best compliment a coach can give you is calling you an “Every Dayer”. You’re someone who shows up consistently and everyone knows what to expect out of you. You’re someone that the team and the coaches trust because they know you’ve consistently put in the time to make yourself and your teammates better.
I think it’s the same for a great leader. You know what to expect from a great leader on a daily basis and you can expect to be held accountable to the high standards that have been set every single day.
Life’s hard, man. And that’s why consistency is so hard. We have so many responsibilities in our lives, so many stresses, so many things to do and seemingly so little time to do them. It’s damn near impossible to bring your best every day.
The best leaders NEVER use that as an excuse and FIND A WAY to show up with the best of what they have. They take responsibility for being the person to drive the bus through how they live and how they hold people accountable to the standard that continues to make their programs better every day.
Enthusiasm
The best leaders I know have a genuine love for what they do and who they do it with. That energy is contagious and makes for a great environment to come to the rink every day.
Honestly, there is nothing like being a part of something where the people you are around absolutely love what they do.
The best coaches love the game. They love to teach the game. And they love the people that they get to teach it to.
Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best – “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
Passion is the one of the greatest assets you can pass onto the people you lead. That example brings a contagious positivity to the group that raises everyone’s level and leads to a thriving culture that people want to be a part of and contribute to. And when you can get a group of passionate people following that lead by bringing their own passion and enthusiasm to the mission – that’s when special things happen.
Authenticity. Consistency. Enthusiasm.
A great roadmap to being the best leader you can be.
