Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-On ... - always yours

DEVELOPING OTHERS TOOLS AND STRATEGIES 197
BUSINESS APPLICATION
• What rituals do you have to bring your team together?
• How do you encourage your team to get to know each other?
• Do you have a team formation process to start a new project
or orient new players to each other? (See Chapter 4, Coach’s
Corner for some ideas of things to do with your team.)
• What is your process for orienting new employees? Are they
able to quickly feel connected to people and your company’s
culture?
4. RECRUITING STARS
In the business world, hiring the wrong person can cost a company
three times his or her annual salary. For UCSB’s Women’s
Basketball team, the wrong player can affect the team chemistry
and the success of the season. The coaching staff has an elaborate
process for selecting and recruiting their future Stars. They have
to be able to have “successors” for all the positions, and naturally
they go after their recruits in a focused manner. The pinnacle of the
recruiting effort is the home visit. According to NCAA rules, a prospective
player can only have five home visits from universities or
colleges. UCSB is competing with Stanford, Virginia, Georgia Tech,
and other top-tier basketball schools for these players. The visit is
limited to two and a half hours and is highly orchestrated.
In order to structure their visit, the coaching staff spends a
great deal of time researching the specific recruit to understand
what is important to the recruit and his or her family. The research
results in a three-page outline for each visit, followed by role-playing
the visit while videotaping it. To cap things off, they review their
efforts. A win for Coach French results in the family having had a
positive experience and saying, “This was a nice visit and a great
conversation.”
Some families wonder if their child can keep up with the academics
at UCSB. Coach French and his top assistants will talk about