Toronto Maple Leafs (1960s)

Inscribed in the original Toronto Maple Leafs dressing room at Maple Leaf Gardens: "defeat does not rest lightly on their shoulders."

Core Values: USA Basketball (2008) (The Players)

Gold Standards

1. No Excuses
- We have what it takes to win

2. Great Defense
- This is the key to winning the gold
- We do the dirty work

3. Communication
- We look each other in the eye
- We tell each other the truth

4. Trust
- We believe in each other

5. Collective Responsibility
- We are committed to each other
- We win together

6. Care
- We have each other’s backs
- We give aid to a teammate

7. Respect
- We respect each other and our opponents
- We’re always on time
- We’re always prepared

8. Intelligence
- We take good shots
- We’re aware of team fouls
- We know the scouting report

9. Poise
- We show no weaknesses

10. Flexibility
- We can handle any situation
- We don’t complain

11. Unselfishness
- We’re connected
- We make the extra pass
- Our value is not measured in playing time

12. Aggressiveness
- We play hard every possession

13. Enthusiasm
- This is fun

14. Performance
- We’re hungry
- We have no bad practices

15. Pride
- We are the best team in the world and we represent the best country

Man On A Mission: Brother O'Connell And The Rise Of Kenyan Athletics

In The Gold Mine Effect, one of the talent 'gold mines' Rasmus Ankersen examines is St. Patrick's High School in Kenya, specifically their athletics program coached by Colm O'Connell. Here is a great documentary featuring O'Connell and the world champion runners he's coached:

The Man Who Thinks He Can

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. Sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.” 

- Vince Lombardi

Core Values: Boise State Football (Chris Petersen)

1. Accountability
Make decisions with the knowledge that your actions control not only your own destiny, but the program's too.

2. Unity
Understand and embrace your role; use it to lift others.

3. Integrity
Do unto others as you would have them do to you; free yourself of pride arrogance and falseness. 

It's About Belief

Here is Colm O'Connell, godfather of Kenyan running, discussing the role talent plays in the success of world champion marathoners (taken from The Gold Mine Effect by Rasmus Ankersen):

“People make a big mistake when they believe that the discussion is about good and bad genes. In reality, it’s about belief. What do you think is possible? There is no more running talent in Kenya than in Britain, but the British believe there is. And if you believe you are limited by your genes you will probably never invest what it takes to become good. You’ve excluded yourself.” Here in [Kenya], nobody is in doubt.

Core Values: Pittsburgh Riverhounds (Dave Brandt)

1. Team is conditional.
2. Team is first.
3. We are not entitled.
4. We look to help.
5. We ask for nothing.
6. Everyone leads.
7. We ‘sweep the sheds.’
8. We don’t complain.
9. We show no weakness.
10. We finish.
11. “If you work your balls off, you’re going to get rewarded.”

Core Values: Messiah Men's Soccer (Dave Brandt)

1. We dare greatly.
2. We work hard.
3. We choose to be positive.
4. We mean no offense and take no offense with each other.
5. We show no weakness.
6. We finish strong.
7. We walk like champions.
8. We support the team mission regardless of our circumstance.
9. We are a collection of friends first, soccer players second.
10. We seek excellence in all areas of our lives, not just soccer.
11. We want our four-year experience to have an unspeakable impact on our lives.

Core Values: Cal Rugby (Jack Clark)

Jen Sinkler conducted a great interview with Cal rugby coach, Jack Clark. In the interview, Clark shares 10 values that drive his team's winning culture:

1. Love conditionally
2. Be thoroughly accountable
3. Share a vocabulary
4. Practice resiliency
5. Expect everyone to lead
6. Improve relentlessly
7. Get a great coach
8. Value team

Core Values: Navy SEALs

The Seal Code
1. Loyalty to country, team and teammate
2. Serve with honor and integrity on and off the battlefield
3. Ready to lead, ready to follow, never quit
4. Take responsibility for your actions and the actions of your teammates
5. Excel as warriors through discipline and innovation
6. Train for war, fight to win, defeat our nation’s enemies
7. Earn your trident everyday

You're A Weber Boy

Below is a story I've heard Coach Brandt repeat often. It's told by Stu Weber, former Green Beret and now pastor of a church in Portland, Oregon.

Grandpa and Grandma and I were seated in the kitchen nook, at the old, yellow Formica table, playing Parcheesi. To my frustration, I had fallen well behind in the game, and I was becoming desperate. The last thing a scruffy little boy would ever want to do is lose to his own grandma. So I cheated. And I got caught.
 
The game stopped. So did the chatter. My grandma turned her eyes to my grandpa, and the mood in the kitchen turned very serious. I felt my face getting hot. Grandpa dropped his glasses down to the tip of his nose, and he looked directly into my eyes. “Stu,” he said, “you’re a Weber boy. And Weber boys don’t lie, cheat, or steal.”

The story is about identity. Stu Weber is a Weber boy. And because he is a Weber boy, he must not lie, cheat and steal. His actions are rooted in his identity. 

Stu Weber goes on to talk about the impact that moment had on him later in life:

Twenty years later, when a superior officer in the Army directed me to falsify a report, I refused to lie. That night at the Formica table flashed through my mind, and I remembered my grandpa’s words: “Weber boys don’t lie, cheat, or steal.”

Later, quite apart from any initiative on my part, the inevitable investigation (which deception always breeds) was launched. Not only was my own name clean, but the senior commander actually commended me.

Gus' Toy Box

Here is an awesome excerpt from Run with the Horses by Eugene Peterson:

I once knew a man who had come to this country after World War II as a displaced person. He had been a skilled cabinetmaker in his home country but after the war he had to settle for a job as sexton in a church. Not long after I became a pastor in that same church I also became a father. Toys began to accumulate around the house. Knowing of his dexterity with tools and lumber, I asked Gus if he would throw together a toy box for me when he had a few minutes. I wanted a storage bin for the toys; I knew Gus could do it in an hour or so. Weeks later he presented our family with a carefully designed and skillfully crafted toy box. My casual request had not been treated casually. All I had wanted was a box; what I got was a piece of furniture. I was pleased, but also embarrassed. I was embarrassed because what I thought would be done in an off hour
had taken many hours of work. I expressed my embarrassment. I laced my gratitude with apologies. His wife reproached me, "But you must understand that Gus is a cabinetmaker. He could never, as you say, 'throw' a box together. His pride would not permit it." That toy box has been in our family for over fifty years now and rebukes me whenever I am tempted to do hasty or shoddy work of any kind.

Peyton Manning's Summer School

Peyton Manning's Summer School is one of the best documentaries I've seen:

Core Values: New Zealand All Blacks

The First XV
1. Sweep the Sheds
2. Go for the Gap
3. Play with Purpose
4. Pass the Ball
5. Create a Learning Environment
6. No Dickheads
7. Embrace Expectations
8. Train to Win
9. Keep a Blue Head
10. Know Thyself
11. Sacrifice
12. Invent your own language
13. Ritualise to Actualise
14. Be a Good Ancestor
15. Write Your Legacy

*For more, read Legacy by James Kerr or this article by Ian Brookes.

Core Values: Ohio State Football (Urban Meyer)

Our Purpose is Clear: NINE UNITS STRONG

1. I am member of an elite team of warriors, a group of men with an uncommon commitment to a common purpose.
2. Our brotherhood has been forged through rigorous training, unrelenting discipline and painful adversity. We train to fight and we fight to win.
3. I have an obligation to hold my unit accountable and be held accountable for our actions.
4. I will do my job. I will hold my point.
5. Nothing is more important than my connection to my unit.
6. My actions, my words, and my attitude are all in alignment with our purpose.
7. I trust my unit leader and his vision for our unit.
8. I seek no glory for myself but for my unit and for my teammates.
9. To be a brother in such a unit is a privilege I must earn every single day.
10. The culture of our unit begins with my character.
11. The team's core values are my core values.
12. I am not perfect and strive to fix the problem areas in my life.
13. I behave in a way that shows my unit that they can count on me in the most difficult of situations. 14. My response will be greater than any event I face.

*For more read Above the Line by Urban Meyer. 

Core Values: San Francisco 49ers (1979 - 1988) (Bill Walsh)

Standard of Performance

1. Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement.
2. Demonstrate respect for each person in the organization.

3. Be deeply committed to learning and teaching.

4. Be fair.

5. Demonstrate character.

6. Honor the direct connection between details and improvement, relentlessly seek the latter.

7. Show self-control, especially under pressure.

8. Demonstrate and prize loyalty.

9. Use positive language and have a positive attitude.

10. Take pride in my effort as an entity separate from the result of that effort.

11. Be willing to go the extra distance for the organization.

12. Deal appropriately with victory and defeat, adulation and humiliation.

13. Promote internal communication that is both open and substantive.

14. Seek poise in myself and those I lead.

15. Put the team’s welfare and priorities ahead of my own.

16. Maintain an ongoing level of concentration and focus that is abnormally high.

17. Make sacrifice and commitment the organization’s trademark.

*For more, read The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh.