It is well known that Hall of Famer Roy Williams worked on Dean Smith's coaching staff at North Carolina from 1978 to 1988. In 1969 Williams enrolled at North Carolina so he could watch Dean Smith's practices and learn how to coach. He would have his first conversation with Coach Smith in 1973. The persistence Roy Williams demonstrated that resulted in that first conversation is inspiring!
 
Williams made the freshman team at North Carolina as a walk on but being a player was not his focus. In Hard Work, his terrific book with Tim Crothers, Coach Williams describes his mind set.
 
"By then I knew for certain that playing wasn't my goal. My goal was to learn to be the best coach I could be. My freshman year I started staying after our team's practices to watch Coach Smith's varsity practices. I tried not to be a pest. I didn't want to be underfoot, getting in everybody's way. I sat high up in the bleachers to keep my distance and have a good view of everything happening on the court. I had a legal pad and a pencil, and I wrote down every drill and diagrammed the alignment of the players. I wrote down whatever Coach Smith or Coach Guthridge said. I wrote down what time each drill began and how long it took. I was writing out my own practice plan. I knew that was what I wanted to learn more about."
 
After his freshman season Williams worked 24 hours a week his entire college career. Despite his schedule, he continued to attend as many practices as he could. After four years of studying practice from the bleachers, Roy Williams had his first conversation with Dean Smith, Coach Williams described it this way:
 
"I had always enjoyed math and working with numbers. During my senior year at North Carolina, I was still watching as many of Coach Smith's basketball practices as I could squeeze in around working for intramurals. One day one of the varsity team managers came up to me in the bleachers and said, "Coach Smith would like to ask you a question." I was scared to death, but I walked down to meet Coach Smith. He said, "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to be a statistician for us and keep a points-per-possession chart. I really need somebody to do that who's going to concentrate and do a good job and know what's going on in the basketball game." I said, "Coach, I would love to." I was trying my best to act normal, but I couldn't really believe what was happening. It was the first conversation we'd ever had. I think it was Coach Smith's way of challenging me and I took it very seriously. That season I was asked to keep the stats at some preseason scrimmages, and Coach Smith liked what I did. I was precise and he could read my writing. When the season started, I did that for every home game and any of the road games in the state that I could drive to."
 
This was the beginning for Roy Williams and Dean Smith. The rest made basketball history!
 
How persistent are you about your passion?

​Inspiration from just one person can start somebody on the path to amazing results in a chosen field. The inspiration that started Hall of Fame Coach Roy Williams on his path came from his High School Coach, Buddy Baldwin.
 
As a 5'3" freshman at T.C. Roberson High School in Asheville, N.C., Williams was a reserve on the JV Basketball team. He had finished the season strong but planned on continuing with baseball (his first love) in the spring and basketball in the fall. This all changed thanks to the encouragement he received during the spring of his freshman year from Buddy Baldwin. In his book, Hard Work with Tim Crothers, Coach Williams describes how he decided to be a basketball coach:
 
"I was walking down the hallway and Coach Baldwin stopped me. "You really finished the season strong," he said. "If you work hard over the summer, you've got a chance to do some big things." That was one of the best things anyone had ever said to me. It made me feel so good, and at that moment I made the decision that I was going to outwork everybody.
 
I switched almost all my attention from baseball to basketball. I still played baseball, but I stopped working as hard on it. That spring I'd take 10 swings in batting practice and then I wouldn't take 10 swings again until practice three days later. In the meantime, I'd shoot 1,000 jump shots. Over that summer, I played in Babe Ruth baseball games, but as soon as the game was over, I'd go straight to the basketball court at Biltmore Elementary, change into some sneakers, and play pickup basketball with my baseball uniform still on. I was so excited about the basketball season starting. I remember one afternoon I had stayed around to do some extra drills after everybody else left the pickup game. I was absolutely worn out. I was just sitting on the sidewalk before I got up to walk home when I thought, "How good must Coach Baldwin feel to make me feel this good? And I'm not the only person he's done this for. I want to be like Buddy Baldwin. I want to be a coach."
 
After a successful high school career, Roy Williams passed up scholarship offers to play basketball so he could attend The University of North Carolina to try out for the freshman team and work his way through school. He attended North Carolina so he could watch Dean Smith's practices and learn how to coach.
 
Coach Williams described his inspiring coach this way: "Buddy Baldwin, the coach who made me want to be a coach."
 
Kind words of encouragement and a good example can change the life of a child.
 
Who are you inspiring?

​As a head coach Roy Williams led Kansas to 14 consecutive NCAA tournaments and four final four appearances in fifteen-years. In sixteen years at North Carolina his teams have won three national championships and gone to 15 NCAA tournaments.
 
He is the only coach in NCAA history to have led two different programs to at least four Final Fours.
 
In addition to being incredibly organized, detail orientated, and knowledgeable Roy Williams is hard working, dependable, honest, considerate of others, positive and loyal. His character starts with his hero and first mentor, his mother. In his terrific book with Tim Crothers, Hard Work, Coach discusses this truly inspirational lady:
 
"My mother's name was Lallage. I thought she was an angel. She was intelligent. She was sweet. She was shy. She appreciated the simplest things in life. She lived by the Golden Rule: treat folks like you'd like to be treated. She had stopped school in tenth grade to go to work. Family was all that mattered to my mother. Family was her priority first and second, third, fourth, and fifth. Nothing ever got in the way of that. She always put the rest of the family ahead of herself. All she cared about was providing, having a roof over our head, clothes for us to wear, and food for us to eat.
 
My mother and father split for the first time just after I'd finished first grade. My mother took us away and the three of us lived all summer in a single room at the Shamrock Court Motel, which my aunt Doris owned. My mother would go off to work and my sister Frances was off doing odd jobs for somebody, so I would go around with another of my aunts, Leona, who was a maid at the motel. She paid me 25 cents a day to take off the dirty pillowcases and put on clean ones.
 
My mother was so strong, and she took such good care of me. When I started going to town by myself, she would always say, "You just do the right thing." One time, I said, "Mom, how do know what's right?" "You'll figure it out," she said. "You just make sure you do the right thing."
 
And so, one Saturday I didn't save a nickel for the bus ride home from the YMCA. I told the bus driver, Mr. Haynes, "I don't have a nickel. Can I ride the bus home and I'll give you back the nickel next week?" He said, "Come on in here, son." I got on the bus and rode home. The next Saturday morning I wasn't going to the YMCA until 9, but I knew the first bus would come to my stop at 7:30. I waited out at the bus stop and when it came, I walked up the stairs and gave Mr. Haynes a nickel. "I'll see you in an hour or so," I said. "I'm not riding this bus." He said, "Why didn't you just wait and bring it to me then?" "I didn't want you to think I wasn't going to pay you back."
 
Hard working, dependable, honest: for Roy Williams it started with his amazing Mother.
 
Who are you inspiring?

When you are recruiting a new team member it may be helpful to tell them about the history of your school or company. If you are recruiting a student athlete tell them more than just the history of your sport. Tell them about the history of the school itself. If you are hiring a new employee in a business don't just tell them about the company. Tell them inspirational biographical facts about the company's founder/founders.
 
This is the first step in welcoming a student athlete to a program, not just a team. It is the first step in inviting a new employee to have a career, not just a job.
 
Jay Wright does a wonderful job of this at Villanova. In his great book "Attitude", Coach Wright describes the value of tradition:
 
"Recognizing the individuals who came before us is a building block of team culture. People want to be part of a team they are proud to be a member of."
 
He expands on this idea when he talks about Villanova beyond the basketball program:
 
"The Augustinian traditions at Villanova inspire a lot of our alumni to give back, either financially or by volunteering to serve (or both). A lot of Villanova engineers work with the Peace Corps in Africa before coming back to start a lucrative career in the States. Business students do volunteer work before they go on to Wall Street. It's just a part of the Villanova culture: We want to excel and be our best, but we believe that being our best individually comes from being a part of a community. By giving back, we actually help one another to achieve the best of ourselves."
 
Coach Wright does an extraordinary job of connecting players of the past with his current teams. He describes it this way:
 
"Celebrating legendary teams is very much business as usual at Villanova. One of our core values is, "We play for those who came before us." Each time we have the chance to celebrate the coaches and players who helped build this tradition, it's a thrill."
 
In 2015 Coach Wright had the members of the 1995 team join his current team on the court to accept the trophy for the Big East regular season championship. The tradition of recognizing the efforts of the past as contributions to the success of today at Villanova is referred to as Tapping the Rock. Coach Wright describes it this way:
 
"There's a line from a poem that is so important to our program that we have it painted on the wall in our practice facility, there for all to see, every day, every time any member of our basketball family comes in or out of the Davis Center. The line is: Tap the Rock. It's a line from a poem about a stonecutter. The message is that everyone recalls the strike that breaks a rock apart, yet no one remembers the multiple blows that seemed to do no damage. We tell our guys that each of those first five hundred or one thousand or ten thousand taps are as important as the one that finally breaks the rock. "Stay focused on the process each day," we tell them, "even "if there appear to be no immediate results".
 
"Everyone's role is different, but their status is the same."
 
How can you help add tradition to the culture of your team?

​One of the topics often discussed in Sports and Business is how to build a great "Culture". The definition of a Culture may come from a slogan or set of values.
 
A very successful chain of retail grocery stores takes pride in their Culture that is stated as a: Positive work environment with a friendly staff that creates a WOW customer experience every day.
 
In one location, the staff is friendly with each other and friendly and helpful to customers. In another location, the staff is friendly with each other. They often have energetic happy conversations with each other but are not always friendly with customers and in fact sometimes get annoyed if you interrupt their task trying to access a product. It is a different kind of a WOW customer experience. These two stores have the same Culture Statement but very different Cultures.
 
The Culture Statement is only meaningful if it is made a reality with the consistent behavior of team members.
 
In his great book "Attitude" , Coach Wright wrote about a key element of the Villanova Culture:
 
"Find a role for everyone. A leader's job is to make sure everyone feels confident in their role and that the role is valued. The invisible contributions can matter the most. Try never to overlook the humble efforts made by members of your team. It is a leader's job to identify those instances that others might not see and emphasize that a seemingly simple gesture can generate many positive ripples."
 
Coach Wright makes this Culture idea a reality starting with his own behavior.
 
In the Acknowledgment Chapter of his book, Coach Wright thanks by name over 70 people from the Villanova Athletic Department and over 60 outside of it. His acknowledgements range from the School President to the Travel Coordinator, to the Director of Equipment, to the Director of Tickets, to the Public Safety staff and to the Undergraduate Office Assistants. Coach Wright doesn't leave any invisible contributors.
 
"The Villanova end-of-the-year Basketball Banquet has been described as: "900 attendees, 800 shout-outs from the podium." Near the end of the banquet each graduating senior offers a few remarks. This includes walk-ons and a representative of our student managers too, since they all play such important roles."
 
Coach Wright does not limit the acknowledgement of others to the basketball staff. In his book he describes an annual ritual:
 
"At the Annual Team Christmas Party, we ask each player to write a Christmas thank-you letter to three people who have impacted their lives positively. The notes don't have to be lengthy. A simple Merry Christmas and thank you usually gets the job done. But it brings us all back to the notion that we aren't in this alone and that we have had help getting where we are."
 
Real team basketball players hand their warmups and towels to the team manager with a thank you. They don't drop them on the ground. Real team salespeople put things back where they belong and always thank the support staff for their efforts.
 
What specific consistent behaviors demonstrate your Culture?