Get the Right People on the Bus

Several years ago, my superintendent brought a dynamic speaker and author named Jon Gordon to our school. By now, most people have heard of Jon Gordon. If you haven’t, grab his book The Energy Bus or Stick Together now. You’ll thank me later.

If you’ve ever coached a team, you know the importance of who is on your bus. Jon Gordon teaches, in simple fashion, how to successfully work with whoever is on your bus, and most importantly, how to get the right people on it.

Coach long enough and you will face the situation where an athlete brings great skill to your team but also brings great drama or conflict. What do you do? Is it worth having him or her on your bus? How does it affect the other 10 or 11 players? Does this athlete make your bus more pleasant or more divisive?

One word of caution and pause. I do believe a coach can put up with a little more abrasiveness from a standout athlete who makes the team better on the floor, as long as the athlete can stay within the general walls of expectation and rules. He may rattle side to side, testing the walls every day, but as long as he doesn’t go beyond the walls and makes the team more competitive, don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. We need great athletes. Bobby Hurley Sr. humorously noted, “If winning were just about having good kids, everybody would win.” Sometimes we have kids who make the team better who we wouldn’t necessarily let babysit our kids. That’s okay.

But when a great athlete actually HURTS the team through their behavior, attitude, or speech, regardless of the numbers he or she puts up, it is time to pull the bus over and drop them off. You have to have the right people on the bus.

Many times, a bus full of connected, motivated, and committed athletes will outperform a bus full of more skilled athletes carrying selfish or negative attitudes.

We are all traveling on a bus in our careers. We interact with the people around us, in our “bus” of offices, teams, and groups. We have to learn how to work successfully with all of them. But we also have to learn how to pull the bus over and let some off and let others on. As the head coach or athletic director, you are the bus driver. You are in charge of getting the right people on your bus.

Some of my fondest memories of coaching were on the bus. It smelled, it was hot, it was cold, but it was fun. I’m amazed listening to former athletes talk about our teams and their favorite memories. Often they don’t talk about the games or the victories. They talk about the bus rides. After all the stress and work we put into coaching our teams, what they remember most are the bus rides.

That ought to tell us something about the journeys we are on. The destination is important, but the journey will be remembered, for the good and the bad, far more than the final destination ever is. We need to be intentional about who is on our bus.

Speaking from experience, I got on a pretty great bus when I joined the team at Ballogy after retiring from coaching. The right people in the right seats really do change everything.

Is your bus filled with the right people? Is your journey a memorable one for the right reasons? Grab a Jon Gordon book today. Get the right people on your bus, then have a great journey and create awesome memories!