A suggestion for coaches, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

I fell in love with and married a language arts teacher. 

That may seem like a strange way to introduce you to a blog post, but I promise, it has relevance. 

But to explain why I have to talk first about my first few years in coaching and human performance. I would go to work early, come home late, make dinner, and put whatever was the most popular sporting event on the TV that night before heading off to bed. I would then get up the next day, and repeat. Mix in a little amateur basketball and that was pretty much the Mon-Fri routine. I loved my career more than anything else and was willing to do whatever it took to become a better coach for my athletes. The problem was, I thought just showing up, working long hours and bringing energy is all it would take to be great at what I did. I would say I was a passionate "doer" but not necessarily a passionate "learner."

In college, a couple of teammates convinced me to get a Twitter account and my passion for learning actually first started to grow through social media. I started to recognize how much quality information people were sharing for free and I started to develop a system of mentors via Twitter, Instagram, and FaceBook. These people were scattered all across the country and have no idea who I am, but all identified with a similar persona. They were all highly respected nationally and some internationally in the field of Human Performance. I slowly started to groom my social media accounts to become predominantly a channel of learning and tried my best to eliminate anything (outside of friends and family) that I deemed a distraction from my professional development or my personal life.

As my social media accounts evolved I started to pick up on one more significant trait all these mentors seemed to share. They were all doing two things outside of the field of Human Performance: they were all READING and WRITING.

Those of you who know me personally also know my wife, Courtney. You also probably know how passionate she is about reading. The reason I mentioned her in the introduction of this blog is because she has undoubtedly had the most influence on me as a reader and is always pushing me to become a more frequent writer. If you had seen the look I got the first time I flipped the game on while she was in the heart of one of her favorite books, you would read every night too. Now as a married man, I’m learning to pick my battles, and as the old cliché goes; “If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em.”

Since Courtney and I started dating I’ve gone from a near “non reader and writer” to a near “non TV watcher” and it has had a bigger impact on me professionally than any other implement I can think of. I am firmly convinced that not only is the ability to read and write a skill that can be learned, but the ability to ENJOY reading and writing is equally as learnable. When I first started reading on a consistent basis it would take me a couple of months to finish a self-help or professional development book. Now I listen to audiobooks when I mow lawn, drive in the car, or clean the house and I try to dig into one of my books to do some traditional reading at least once a day. I can usually get through 2-3 books, depending on content, per month. 

I used to think that being in touch with popular culture would make me a better coach, because it would give me common ground and conversation pieces with my athletes. I’ve found out quickly, however, that it really isn’t a necessity. Sure I miss out on all the world changing news like that hot new mixtape 2 Chainz dropped and whatever Tomi Lahren is currently berating the public about, but what I’ve realized is this: When you don’t really give a damn about what the Kardashians are up to, you’re forced to ask real meaningful questions that spark real meaningful conversation. I’ve found that it’s those conversations that often create the relationships we crave most.

I'm not trying to pretend I don't love to BS about fantasy football or who the best defender in the NBA is with my athletes, but I think making sure we take time to ask someone about their day, their opinions, their problems, their concerns, and how you might be able to provide help or advice is what really resonates. Especially with our youth. 

While on our honeymoon in Italy, Courtney was pushing me to share more about what I’ve been reading. I generally jot notes while I read, but have never actually written a book review. Unless we're counting those 7^th grade book reports I half assed in Ms. Erdahl’s English class (that I now wish I would have taken more seriously). I think I’ve always avoided it, because I think (and it makes me sad to say) a lot of people would take posting all the books you’ve read as pompous showmanship. I’ve come now to understand that if you have a genuine desire to get quality information out to your community in order to accelerate its position in a field you care dearly about, those who mind, don’t matter and those who matter, won’t mind.

All that being said, instead of writing book review by book review, I would like this blog to be a suggestion piece to anyone who is interested in becoming a more proficient in the fields of leadership, coaching, or entrepreneurship. The books on this list are ones that have had a big impact on me as a coach, entrepreneur, and person.

There are a ton of books out there that I haven’t even cracked that I have seen incredibly positive reviews on and am trying to get to. For the purpose of this blog, I'll only recommend the ones I've been through myself but encourage you to start with one and build your own bath. Of the books I will list, I have all but two on the shelf at my gym for ANYONE who would like to borrow them.

Here are the books I would recommend for anyone looking to improve their leadership skills (the final 2, I only own on audio, sorry):

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

The 21 Indispensible Qualities of a Leader by John C. Maxwell

Start with Why and Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

More Than a Season by Dayton Moore

 

 Legacy by James Kerr

Mindset by Carol Dweck

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

 

Grit by Angela Duckworth

Here are the books I recommend for anyone looking to improve as a coach. The first 7 are a bit more Strength and Conditioning specific, but would still make great reads for all coaching realms. The rest I would recommend to anyone who is interested in learning about how to help any athlete at any level, improve.

Before We Go, Intervention, and Can You Go? by Dan John

The Naked Warrior by Pavel Tsasoulline

Athletic Body in Balance and Movement by Gray Cook

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CEO Strength Coach by Ron McKeefery

 

The Champion’s Mind by Jim Afremow

The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

The Sports Gene by David Epstein

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

The Talent Code and The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle

Here are the books I recommend for anyone looking to improve as an entrepreneur.

How the Wise Decide by Bryn Zeckhauser & Aaron Sandoski

Freakonomics, Superfreakonomics, and Think Like a Freak by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey

 

The E-Myth by Michael Gerber

Decisive by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

I tried to attach a centralized theme for each book to help you see if anything sparks your interest. 

I spend a lot of time around current and former high school and college athletes and I see a genuine desire to learn every day. Finding avid readers, however, is still pretty rare. I can honestly say that, as a former athlete, reading is the one thing I wish I would have given more of a chance when I was competing in college and high school. 

All thanks to my beautiful wife, reading and writing have had an incredibly positive impact on me as both a coach and entrepreneur and I'm forever in her debt. If this blog or these books get just one young person in our community to skip "The Bachelor" to go outside and play, do some exercise, dig into good book or fall in love with the field of Human Performance, it will have done its job and I'll be happy.

As always, thanks for reading.

Caleb Heilman

"The only thing I know is I'll never know everything." - Jason Green