Leadership Thought Wise Words from a Professional Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Dear Friends,

One of the athletic volunteers while I was on church staff at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale was Ian Pyka.  Ian had been the strength and conditioning coach for the New England Patriots, and he was doing some strength and conditioning for some of our athletic teams. This morning I pulled out a  response I had saved of his to a message on encouragement that I had shared with our athletic department.

I quote, “Quick story with pertinence to your devotional today. In my first year with the New England Patriots, we had the monstrous job of turning around a 1-15 team. I will never forget the first coaches’ meeting when Dick MacPherson addressed the coaches after our first practice. He said, in his New England accent, “Men, these players have been beaten down by the previous staff much like a dog getting hit cross the nose with a newspaper each time he misbehaved. We must encourage and teach them by patting them on the back, the helmets, and the butts whenever they accomplish something worthwhile. And when they screw up, point out the problem, make the adjustment and encourage them to do it better the next time.”

“We got every juice from that lesson. The team won 5 games that year and most believe we did it with mirrors because we really didn’t have the talent to win that many. One of those games was against the Buffalo Bills, the eventual Super Bowl contenders...”

I’ve lost track of Ian, and don’t know if he is back in professional football, but I have never forgotten the significance of his message which I stored away in my encouragement file.

It made me think of another coach’s expression that I have often over the years. “A pat on the back in only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, but it is miles ahead in what it accomplishes."

I learned early in my coaching career that discipline is important and when necessary, it should never be avoided. But, when possible, I always tried to follow up my discipline with some form of encouragement, for as someone wrote, "Encouragement after censure is like the sun after a rain shower.”

To appreciate someone is a form of  encouragement. The word appreciate means "to raise in value." and that’s what encouragement does. It raises another’s value.  

The late philosopher/psychologist William James said that “The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

Noted author and pastor Chuck Swindoll says, “We live by encouragement and we die without it-slowly, sadly and angrily.”

“Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Prov. 16:24).

I would like to encourage each of you receiving this e-mail  to become a member of the “compliment club.” It is a club where every member always makes two people happy whenever they fulfill the club’s charter which reads, "I will always be on the lookout for someone to compliment/encourage." How are two people made happy, you ask? The person who is encouraged and the encourager. Try it and see if it doesn’t work that way.

I believe that encouragement is one of the greatest gifts you could give  anyone, and you don’t even have to wrap it up. Just open your mouth and say something kind, helpful and encouraging. It is so easy and inexpensive; it won’t even cost you a dime.

And yes, don't forget that almost everyone loves the taste of honey.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom