When standout student-athlete Stephen Jermyn was applying to colleges, his high school basketball coach, Bill Farden, walked him through the process of picking a college that matched both his particular ambitions and level of comfort. Stephen wound up choosing the University of Albany, where he captained his team and graduated with a degree in political science.
Stephen went on to become a successful businessman and is now the vice president of Alliance Technology. And he’s never forgotten his coach’s real lesson to him. “What mattered then, and still matters, was not that Coach got me into a college but that he cared enough about me to know who I was and where I would fit. I came to him with a specific question about college hoops, but his advice to me helped me in life, not just sports. Get to know your team!”
In this episode, Stephen shares how he is paying his coach’s example forward at Alliance through principles and practices such as:
- Keeping things fun and upbeat at meetings and other business gatherings.
- Using goal setting rather than quotas in professional development because “nobody sets a quota on the basketball court”.
- Practicing “self-care” by clearing out time for himself to just sit and think, “pencil and paper in hand and no electronic distractions whatsoever,” so that he can come up with a game plan and turn them into actions.
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2:30 The value of competitive spirit in practice.
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5:45 How to motivate your team and create a safe environment.
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11:00 How to simplify your goal-setting process.
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19:30 How to bring excitement to weekly meetings
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20:00 A great post-meeting question to get to know your teammates.
Resources:
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Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn.
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Learn more about Alliance Technology.
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