Business, Sports & Gaming
Building Trust and Giving Feedback
Lesson time 14:04 min
Geno has always been known for his brutal honesty, but this lesson illustrates how it is necessary to first build trust so you can create a safe space for direct communication, confrontation, and critical feedback.
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Topics include: Build a Foundation on Trust • Losing Trust: Equal Treatment vs. Fair Treatment • Balance Tough Talk With Compassion • Critique the Action, Not the Person • Choose Carefully Between Public and Private Criticism
Teaches Leading Winning Teams
Legendary basketball coach Geno Auriemma teaches you how to lead any kind of team, inspire others to new heights, and build sustainable success.
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[FUNKY MUSIC PLAYING] GENO AURIEMMA: Now we're going to talk about trust. Building trust, gaining trust, how to balance that out with positive negative reinforcement to players. Getting, receiving tough criticism, and how to keep that trust while you're doing that, because that's not easy to do. [FUNKY MUSIC PLAYING] Every single thing is based on trust. Every family, every organization, every group, small, big. There has to be a high level of trust that what I'm saying is what I truly believe, and that you believe that what I'm saying is meant to help you. Whether you like it or don't like it, I don't worry about that. I'm the messenger here. I'm delivering the message to you. How you receive that message tells me all I need to know about you. It takes time to build trust. It takes time. And yeah, you can lose it like that. [SNAPS FINGERS] But it takes time to build it. And over time, the more people you build it with, you're kind of creating an army of trustworthy people that will have your back all the time. They will always give you, the leader, the benefit of the doubt, so that they'll follow you wherever you say. The worst thing you can have is teams that don't trust their coach, their leader, their boss, and are skeptical of everything that you say and are reluctant to follow you. So if you're going to lead, you have to lead, and it takes a lot of one on one stuff with each player. Each person. And then collectively you've got a fighting chance. [FUNKY MUSIC PLAYING] The quickest way to lose the trust that you need to have between you and your team is lie. Lie to them, false hope, give them the feeling that there's a chance when you know there's no chance. Tell them that they're going to get an opportunity when you know you have no intent to give them any opportunity. Treating players differently, what's acceptable and unacceptable for this player, those rules don't apply to this player. What you need, that trust, is no longer there. There's this feeling that everybody has to be treated equally. That's not possible. Not everybody is created equal. They have way different skill levels, but everyone needs to be treated fairly. So that's what we do in our program. We are fair in our approach to everyone. [FUNKY MUSIC PLAYING] As the leader, how do you balance tough talk and compassion? How about I say to you, one of my people-- your employees, my players-- listen, if you were me, how would you coach you? How would you talk to you? What would you be saying right now about what we're talking about? Would you be patient with yourself? Would you be understanding all the time? How would you be? Tell me, help me help you. Help me coach you. But I think the number one thing you can do with a player or employee maybe is say to them I understand. Sometimes that's all you have to say. Listen, I understand what you're going through. I understand why this is hard. I unde...
About the Instructor
With 11 national college basketball championships and two Olympic gold medals, Geno Auriemma has coached some of basketball’s most iconic teams. Now he’s showing you how to build and lead any kind of team—at home, work, or in your community—and achieve sustainable success. Learn strategies for being an empathetic, resilient leader so you can inspire others to push past their own barriers and reach their highest potential.
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Geno Auriemma
Legendary basketball coach Geno Auriemma teaches you how to lead any kind of team, inspire others to new heights, and build sustainable success.
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