I will be sharing some thoughts during this critical time in my and your history. It will be free flowing, A good friend and partner in my early EAP career, John Castleberry, used to call me “Kid” because I was young at heart or just childish. As I have shared, I choose to decide how I feel and the emotional state I want to be living in at any one time.
My walks, thoughts and diversions will be things that interest me and maybe some of you who choose to follow my site. This time is similar to when I lived in Parma, Michigan, alone alot with time to fill. I played hours and hours of baseball, always beating the Yankees, being #6, Al Kaline or Yankee Killer Frank Lary. Having an active imagination fills time that could not be filled by my i-pad in those years. My youth was not better, just differnt than today.
That is it for 4/8/2020-Frank
Another morning walk, 24 hours later and 30 degrees cooler, such is Michigan. My photo for today will be posted on Facebook. As another news cycle moves through it is clear that without a vacine this virus will hang on and create more pain, sufferring and deaths to people we love. Human nature wants to go about our mormal pattern and this is the exact opposite of being told to stay home and away from our friends.
Americans will, and do suck it up and look our for each other but we need a clear path ahead and that is not definite today. I can control my actions, especially when it protects those that I love and myself as well. I have no magic wand to help you do your best so I ask that you try. When I coached football, I told my players if you do your best and fail, that is all we can ask. It is important to give that type of effort as that is what life demands today. Be safe.
That is all for today. 4/9/2020 Frank
Today’s walk took me past Kalamazoo Christian Elementary and Middle Schools. Behind the schools is the football and soccer field. Doorn Field brought back my memories of coaching at the high school. Great coaches love their players. Paraphrasing one of my favorite lines about coaches, “players do not care how much you know they want to know how much you care about them as men or women.”
The primary quality in leadership is the concern about those that they lead. Whether it is in the military, business, or athletics, leaders accomplish the team goals through those that they lead. In Jim Collin’s book, “Good to Great”, he notes that the Level 5 Leader puts all their efforts into their people and the organization as a whole. It is Never about them as an individual. When you take care of your players, they will take care of the wins.
When organizations promote people to lead they are allowing that person to represent what they stand for as an organization or a team. They demonstrate embracing the true values of the organization when they walk the walk, not just the with the talk. Having worked with many top executives and coaches over my years as a consultant and psychologist, the worst trait I have experienced in leaders is ego. Ego is about the indiviudual and not the team or the organization. The Level 5 Leader epitomizes the standard that it is always about the team or the organization. Value centered organizations consistently do the right things in the right way and win.
Being allowed to coach and lead is an honor that stays with you, and it is most often remebered through the names and accomplishments of your players. The Doorns are one of many names of people who are worth remembering for not only what did on the field but also by the kind of people they are and were.
That is it for today, 4/10/2020 Frank
