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Pivotal coaching moments in sports are great metaphors for business and life, because we’re all trying to win, make progress, or get to the next level. The best coaches—and the most inspirational speeches—strip away all the distractions and remind us that accomplishing goals is completely possible if we own our greatness.
In this small-town sports film, Matthew McConaughey plays Marshall University’s new football coach, Jack Lengyel, who arrives in the aftermath of a 1970 plane crash that claimed the lives of 75 Marshall team members and boosters. Lengyel encourages his team, telling them that even though they are vastly outmatched, if they play with all their heart, they can never lose, regardless what the scoreboard says. Marshall goes on to win on the final play of the game. The message is clear: accomplishing goals—even difficult ones—is possible when you believe in yourself and your team.
One of the most memorable underdog stories to play out on the international stage, the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s improbable victory over the seemingly invincible Soviet team, was made for Hollywood. Kurt Russell is Coach Herb Brooks, who delivers the stirring “This is your time” pregame inspirational speech that sparked the team’s gutsy gold medal run. This is movie offers plenty of inspiration for anyone facing impossible odds.
High school basketball coach Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) benched his entire undefeated team in 1999 due to their collective poor academic performance. His role as a tough, principled mentor has its shining moment when, after a defeat, he tells his team in an inspirational speech that he’s watched them mature into men who have achieved victory within themselves by excelling as students. Coach Carter is a great reminder that success is a journey, not just an end goal.
The pressure is on Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) and the Permian High School football team to make the playoffs in light of the local community’s high expectations. In his halftime inspirational speech during the final game of what would be an undefeated season, Coach Gaines sheds new light on the true meaning of perfection: being a person of integrity in your relationships.
This Oscar-nominated movie about a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that ends up winning the state championship excels, offering on-the-court lessons about dedication, determination, and redemption. Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) gives an intense pregame speech, imploring his players to forget about winning or losing and instead, play to their potential. If they do that, the results will come. This movie is sure to inspire anyone who believes that hard work, passion, and grit can take you anywhere you want to go.
Newly appointed African-American high school football coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) must lead his team’s first racially integrated season in 1971. Battling lingering racial prejudice from the community while breaking down barriers between his own players, Boone takes his team out to the site of the Battle of Gettysburg to deliver an inspirational speech about unity. This movie sends a powerful message about the importance of supporting each other in accomplishing goals.
These coaches emphasize the value of having heart, sound principles, integrity, unity, and seizing the moment when it’s go time. In sports, and in life, coaching can make all the difference. The next time you find yourself facing adversity, seek inspiration from these examples of great coaching to up your game when it comes to accomplishing goals.
Since retiring from General Electric in 2001, Jack Welch has stayed busy. Welch led the company for forty years, challenging the competition and learning the best ways to run a large company successfully. With Winning, Welch has written the bible of business, examining the answers to the most difficult challenges people run into on the job and in their personal lives. Welch's words speak to people at every level of business, no matter the size of the company or the importance of the role. Welch's optimistic, no excuses, get-it-done mind-set keeps readers engaged. Winning offers deep insights and solutions to the problems that many people in business face today.
Why Cydcor Reviews recommends this book to future leaders:
Welch begins Winning with an introductory section called "Underneath It All," which describes his business philosophy. He explores the importance of values, candor, differentiation, and voice and dignity for all. Those interested in the human side of great leaders will find this last section especially appealing. In it, Welch answers the most interesting questions that he's received in the last several years while traveling the globe addressing audiences of executives and business school students. Perhaps the funniest question in this section comes at the very end, posed originally by a businessman in Frankfurt, who queried Welch on whether he thought he'd go to heaven (we won't give away the ending). Welch's down-to-earth writing style that helps you understand these timeless principles in a fresh way. As you're reading, you can almost picture him speaking the words in some business school auditorium or a Fortune 100 management retreat.
Our favorite part:
The bulk of Winning is devoted to real situations that many run into while working in business, and it’s split into three sections. The first section analyzes the company, from leadership to choosing employees who can make change happen. The second section looks outside at the competition, with chapters on different strategies that work. The final section of the book, arguably the most important, is about taking your career to the next level. This includes finding the perfect job and achieving a solid work-life balance.
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Here is Cydcor's review of Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn By John C. Maxwell.
About Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn: This book looks to tackle the universal fear of failure. Whether big mistakes or small missteps, author John C. Maxwell takes you through how to learn from experience and apply that insight into the future.
Why Cydcor recommends it to future leaders: When we hear about books on leadership, most of the time, we think about big companies, CEOs, and entrepreneurs. However, Sometimes you Win, Sometimes You Learn deals more with the topic of losses, as that is an experience that goes across all cultures and types of people.
Author John C. Maxwell shares personal experiences about his own losses and their consequences in his own life: financial, emotional and professional. He uses these as examples that can also point towards the lessons learned.
The main point the book tries to convey is that it doesn’t matter if you’re in a position of leadership or if you believe you’re a leader or not. If you’re a student, worker, parent or just someone who is willing to take action and start learning in every situation, good or bad, this book is for you.
Our favorite part: Overall, the best parts of the book are the incredibly helpful and practical frameworks Maxwell provides the reader, offering solutions that everyone can apply to their unique situation. The best part of the content is that one can learn from the stories in the book and see how someone can take a negative situation and launch it into a power opportunity for success.
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