Blog Curiosity as a Coaching Skill
February 17th, 2008From the latest issue of Fast Company:
Michael Harvey, writing in the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, identifies curiosity as a trait that “stimulates learning and, concurrently, increases the effectiveness of decision making and quality management…” Curious leaders excel at problem solving by intuitively filling gaps “between what one knows and what one wishes to know,” and they’re so important that Harvey suggests corporations administer curiosity exams.
A reader emailed to point out this passage in Grant Wahl’s article about Vance Walberg:
“Where do innovators come from? An original idea - the new new thing - can be sparked anywhere, but the majority of college basketball’s greatest innovators share a common trajectory… they became head coaches early, often in anonymous hoops outposts. (Gives examples of Pete Carril, John Beilein, Bo Ryan and Bob Knight using their offense creations early)”
“No matter how obscure the team, when you’re a head coach, you get to tinkering with what you want.”
March 4th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Great points about being the head coach early. I am at the end of my college career and have a couple options in front of me.
First, I could use some connections to try and get a grad assistant or director of operations for a d1 school.
My second is stepping right into a top assistant job at my d3 alma mater. I would have much more input and coaching practice at my school whereas I could develop more connections at the d1 level without much coaching for the first couple of years. Any thoughts on either course of action?
March 4th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Depends on your goals. If your goal is to be a DI coach, you should get into the DI club. If your goal is to be a Head Coach, being the top asst at a DIII will likely lead to a Head Coaching job at the DIII level quicker than working your way up the DI ladder. I’d say it also depends on the learning experiences available in each situation.