YOUR DAILY MOTIVATION
Taken from John C. Maxwell, Attitude 101
The Impact of Attitude
How Does Attitude Impact Leadership?
Attitude is always a "player on your team.
Growing up, I loved basketball. It all started for me in the fourth
grade when I saw a high school basketball game for the first time. I was captivated.
After that, I could usually be found practicing my shooting, and playing pickup games
on my small court at home.
By the time I got to high school, I had become a pretty good player.
I started on the junior varsity team as a freshman, and when I was sophomore, our JV
team had a 15-3 record, which was better than that of the varsity. We were proud of
our performance - maybe a little too proud.
The next year, critics who followed high school basketball in Ohio thought our team
had a chance to win the state championship in our division. I guess they looked at the
players who would return as seniors from the previous year's varsity team, saw the talent
that would be moving up from the JV, and figured we would be a powerhouse. And we did
have a lot of talent. How many high school teams in the late 1960s could say that all but
a couple of playerson the team could dunk the ball? But the season turned our far different
from everyone's expectations.
Continued from Tuesday - From Bad to Worse)
From the beginning of the season, the team suffered problems. There were two of us
juniors on the varsity who had the talent to start for the team: John Thomas, who was the
team's best rebounder, and me, the best shooting guare. We thought playing time should be
based strictly on ability, and we figured we deserved our place on theam. The seniors, who had
taken a backseat to previous year's seniors, thought we should be made to pay our duesand wait
on the bench.
What began as a rivalry between the JV and varsity the year before turned into a war
between the juniors and the seniors. When we scrimmaged at practice, it was the juniors against
the seniors. In games the seniors wouldn't pass to the juniors and vice versa. The battles became
so fierce that before long, the juniors and the seniors wouldn't even work together on the court
during games. Our coach, Don Neff, had to platoon us. The seniors would start, and when a substitution
became necessary, he'd put not one but five juniors in the game. We became two teams on one roster.
I don't remember exactly who started the rivalry that split our team, but I do remember that
John Thomas and I embraced it early on. I've always been a leader, and I did my share of influencing
other team members. Unfortunately, I have to confess that I led the juniors in the wrong direction.
What started as a bad attitude in one or two players mad a mess of the situation for everyone.
By the time we were in the thick of our schedule, even the players who didn't watnt to take part in the
rivalry were affected. The season was a disaster. In the end, we finished with a mediocre record and
came close to reaching our potential. It just goes to show you, rotten attitudes ruin a team.
