In this transcript, Business Coach Clay Clark (US SBA Entrepreneur of the Year) discusses with David Robinson (NBA Hall of Fame basketball player and founder of the $300 million Admiral Capital Fund) the process of becoming an effective leader on Thrive15.com, one of the most affordable business coach programs.
David: As a leader I’m looking out for them, I’m supporting them because as the leader presumably I know a little bit more about the overall plans and what’s happening and I’m going to put you in a position where you can succeed.
Clay: If you’re a business coach watching this right now what I’m getting out of this is why we want to listen, we want to not just talk over our staff or finish their sentences for them, or make them feel like we already know what they’re going to say.
David: Right, or making them feel like their opinions aren’t valuable, they are very valuable. You may not agree with them, they may not be useful at the time, but their opinions are valuable.
Clay: If we didn’t value their opinion maybe they shouldn’t be our employee if we truly did. It’s kind of responsibility to listen to people who don’t have a business coach.
David: Absolutely.
Clay: Then the second is you want to respond, once we hear what they said we need to respond based upon that and then finally we support other people who don’t have a business coach, we support them and we really get in there and we show …
David: We look into their lives. We try to figure out, “What are your dreams? Where do you want to go?” At the Carver Academy we looked at our teachers and we said, “What do you want to accomplish? How can we help you accomplish those things? Can we help you get a continuing education? How can we help you be a better teacher?” We try to support them in many different ways and if they wanted to leave then we would support them in that, of course we wanted them to be there and especially if we put the training and the time in there we want them to be a part of our organization, but at the same time my interest is your well-being.
Clay: David, I think this is, hearing this, to me it’s more inspiring than ever that anybody can be a great leader, but I think we have to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “Are we a great leader? Are we a great leader?” If we’re not we need to probably go back to these three principles and make sure that we apply them.
There is a book that I wanted to make sure I’m not getting the title wrong here, but it’s called The Man Who Talks With Flowers.
David: That’s a great book about George Washington Carver and it really just talks about his life and his perspective on growing up, on appreciating what nature had to offer and utilizing his talents for good.
Clay: Awesome. Dave, I appreciate you for being a guy who’s not only been a great leader, and somewhat of a business coach, on the court but you’ve actually grown up a whole, a flock, if you will, of leaders. It seems like there’s been hundreds and hundreds of kids who’ve gone to school there now.
David: Yes.
Clay: How many years schools has the school been around?
David: 12 years now.
Clay: How many kids have gone through?
David: Probably about a 130, 140 kids have gone through the process there. It’s been … We had two graduating classes going into college now. It’s very, very exciting.
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Clay: That’s amazing. Have you started to get some letters or some follow-ups to see where these kids are?
David: I get lots of feedback, absolutely, and I see kids getting scholarship. A couple of kids I saw last year got athletic scholarships.
Clay: Really? As a business coach, I love that.
David: One for basketball, one for lacrosse. I saw quite a few kids that are getting academic scholarships. It’s a lot of fun for me to follow these guys and to see their motivation go on and continue as they go through high school and college now.
Clay: Thank you for being the guy who’s raising a generation of leaders. I appreciate it very much.
David: My pleasure.
Clay: Thank you so much.
David: Thanks Clay.