.
.
“Healthy and Successful Teams Need the Bench”
—or plan to do so. Now…raise your hand if you’ve ever read a book about the unique role of coaching “bench players.”
Yeah—me neither. I’ve never read anything like this. (My bad.)
So how about you just trust me on this one—and read the book and then inspire others to read it. It’s perfect for your next nine weekly staff meetings.
Brandon Bakke writes that this book is for players, coaches, and anyone who’s ever been part of a team—on the court, in the workplace, or in life. He notes that “hundreds of books have been written about how to be a successful team and teammate [he notes two
Lencioni books including
The Ideal Team Player]. But almost none of them address what it’s like to stay motivated, connected, and still contribute meaningfully from a role like the one I held for much of my time playing for Jerry Tarkanian’s Fresno State Bulldogs."
How about you—and your colleagues? How are they (and you) labeled? Backup? Benchwarmer? “Riding the pine?”
“Sometimes we get a more dignified name like ‘role player’ or ‘supporting cast.’ Regardless of the label, we know who bench players are—team members who are not the stars. We don’t get the postgame interviews. We aren’t the captain. We don’t play as much, if at all.
We’re not the ones leading boardroom meetings, delivering keynote speeches, making the major business deals or becoming the face of the company.”
No—this is NOT a downer book. Just the opposite. Bakke adds, “
Lessons from the Bench will explore what I learned from my time on the bench and what other athletes and coaches I have encountered have shown us from their experiences—
that healthy, and successful teams need the bench.”
WARNING! This book needs two reviews, maybe three (stay tuned this summer)—but trust me—you’ll thank me. And the people you’re coaching and mentoring now and in the future—they’ll thank you.
Ditto your kids and grandkids and their coaches.But for this first review, enjoy this transparent story from Brandon Bakke on
“Bench Lesson #2—Embrace Your Role.” (One of nine bench lessons—all insightful.)
Brandon Bakke on “Coach Knows More Than I Do”
As a young player, I needed a wake-up call. I needed to better grasp that I simply didn’t know as much as the coach.
One day, Coach Tark was frustrated with what he perceived to be players questioning
the coaches. So he stopped practice, grabbed a basketball and called us together.
“This ball,” he said, holding it up, “represents all the knowledge there is to know about
basketball.”
Coach took out a pen and drew a circle on the ball, about the size of a softball.
“See this small circle?” he continued. “This represents all I know about basketball.”
Then he put a tiny dot inside the smaller circle.
“This dot isn’t what you know about basketball,” he said. “One microscopic spec of ink on that dot is what you know about basketball. Stop questioning the coaches!”
Questioning coaches happens all the time—even Coach Tark, a hall of famer and national champion, faced it.
Bench players are notorious for it, but it’s really a universal challenge. In schools,
workplaces, teams and families, we sometimes operate as if we know more than the principal, the CEO or whoever is in charge.
It is a hard pill to swallow: accepting that the coach might see something we don’t—that the situation is more complex than we understand. But learning to make that mindset shift is a critical step toward embracing our role from the bench.
OH, MY! Don’t wait for my second review (and maybe a third review) this summer.
Read the book now and learn why
Brock Huard [NFL backup QB] wrote the foreword, and why some coaches allocate “fun tickets” to some players unequally (is that fair?).
And why “great bench players are masterful nugget thieves.” (Brilliant concept!)
Bakke, by the way, leverages his three decades in business, education, and athletics—as a high school and college basketball coach, teacher, and principal and as a former bench player for “Coach Tark’s” FSU men’s basketball team. (Learn more and download resources from his website at
Lessons from the Bench.)
TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for
Lessons From the Bench: Unlocking the Impact of Bench Players on Teams and in Organizations, by Brandon H. Bakke. Listen on
Libro (5 hours).
See my short reviews of three short coaching books:BOOK #1: Ten Marks of a Coachable Leader, by Gary P. Rohrmayer (Sept. 4, 2024, 92 pages). Order from Amazon.
BOOK #2: Coaching the Other Way: How to Effectively Coach and Be Coached, by Brian Burman and JD Pearring (Nov. 27, 2025, 191 pages). Order from Amazon.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:#1) Brandon Bakke is quick to acknowledge coaches and others he’s learned from, including his uncle Dennis Bakke, author of the bestseller,
Joy At Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job (I named this my 2006 book-of-the-year).
Question: Describe a “bench-warming” period in your life—and what you learned from your coach, your boss, and/or your colleagues.#2) Brandon Bakke writes, “My issue as I entered this final college season is I quietly doubted that there was much improvement left in me.” (Read “Bench Lesson #4—Don’t Underestimate How Much You Can Improve.”)
Question: Can you think of two people in your life that have put the brakes on improvement? How about you? Have you stopped growing—or is there any improvement left in you?
SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic BooksYou have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time!Book #45 of 99: Tales from Q SchoolFor your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #45 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea:
REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring.
Tales From Q School:
Inside Golf’s Fifth Major
John Feinstein (May 2, 2007)
If you enjoyed golf’s spring extravaganza, the Master Tournament this last weekend, you’re reminded of all the great golfers that did not make the cut this year. There’s more to the story in this page-turning book by celebrated sportswriter John Feinstein.
•
Read my review in Issue No. 41 (June 11, 2007).
• Order from
Amazon.
• Management Bucket #5 of 20:
The Book BucketJohn Feinstein, the bestselling sportswriter, chronicles the agony and the ecstasy (to borrow a cliché) of the winners and the losers at the 2005 PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, often described as professional golf’s fifth major tournament. It’s an annual competition for the 30 new spots available each year on the PGA Tour. In 2005, more than 1,200 already-vetted golfers paid up to $4,500 each for a shot at the big time.
The book is a page-turner and the management and personal insights are frequent. You’ll read about the classic golf “catastrophes like Joe Daley's two-foot putt in 2000, which somehow went to the bottom of the cup and then popped out like a jack-in-the-box (he missed getting a card by one stroke).” The golf stories are memorable,
but if you’re not a golfer, you already know not to buy this!See also my 2023 review of
Feherty: The Remarkably Funny and Tragic Journey of Golf's David Feherty, also by John Feinstein. I slotted this one in the
Hoopla! Bucket.
CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN
On page 57 in the Book Bucket chapter of the Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook, you'll find Scott Vandeventer’s wise insights about “management-by-bestseller syndrome," which he says is "due to a kind of corporate attention deficit disorder, probably systemic to its leadership.”
No comments:
Post a Comment