Chasing Greatness Blog

Great Winners Are Desperate For A Chip On Their Shoulder

Don Yaeger January 11, 2016

Heading into tonight’s college football national championship game, the Clemson Tigers are undefeated and ranked number one. Still, if you listened to Clemson players and coaches in the last few…

3 Team-First Lessons From America’s Most Entertaining Sports Bench

Don Yaeger January 4, 2016

First, a Monmouth Hawk basketball player slam-dunks a basket on the court and the crowd’s attention immediately turns to…the bench! There, two backup players lift another player—who forms a basketball…

5 Lessons From A Navy SEAL To Make Your Resolutions Stick

Don Yaeger December 28, 2015

In a few days, you and the rest of the world will pen ambitious New Year’s resolutions…but only a fraction of people will ever accomplish them. We all know the…

Celebrate This Season By Appreciating Others – That’s What The Great Ones Do

Don Yaeger December 21, 2015

It begins like this: The Golden State Warriors—reigning NBA champs—take the court like phantoms, diving for loose balls and swishing pull-up jumpers; manic fans pulse the stadium with each scored…

3 Tips To Close Out The Year Strong From The Best Coach In College Football

Don Yaeger December 14, 2015

‘Tis the season to be…stressed. If you’re reading this blog, most likely you’re doing so on a smartphone while flying by the seat of your pants, trying to meet deadlines…

Lessons In Humility From America’s Favorite Airline

Don Yaeger December 7, 2015

The Great Teams in sports and business all know that cockiness precedes a fall, and that a modest approach to competition always breeds success. Southwest Airlines—the world’s largest low-cost airline…

How Being Thankful Will Make You More Profitable

Don Yaeger November 24, 2015

I’ve never understood why there is just one day called Thanksgiving. What if we were committed to being THANKFUL every day? Imagine what our lives–and our workplaces–would look like. My…

3 Lessons From One Of America’s Great Culture Builders

Don Yaeger November 16, 2015

I’ve spent the past four years studying the greatest sports organizations in America—from the San Antonio Spurs to the Kansas City Royals—in a search for the shared characteristics of great…

Leadership For The Long Haul: A Lesson From Thomas Jefferson

Don Yaeger November 3, 2015

As much as I enjoy studying sports and business leadership, I love the opportunity to delve deeply into what some of history’s greatest leaders can teach. They don’t come much…

To Build The Organization Your Team Deserves, Diversify

Don Yaeger October 28, 2015

As the Kansas City Royals face off against the New York Mets in the World Series—with both teams featuring an international roster of talent—I am reminded of how diversity can…

Want To Keep Winning? Keep Your Commitments – Here’s How

Don Yaeger October 21, 2015

Bob Ladouceur, former head coach of the most successful high school football dynasty in American history—once dubbed by ESPN as “the greatest prep football coach of all time” and subject…

Discovering The Humanity Behind Your Heroes

Don Yaeger October 17, 2015

There’s an old saying in sports writing that you should never meet your hero because they’ll always let you down. And in our current world of sports scandals and tarnished…

Cal Ripken: Building A Legacy One Baseball Diamond At A Time

Don Yaeger October 15, 2015

The 2015 MLB Playoffs are a battle of legacies, and one of the biggest match-ups so far involved the Chicago Cubs—a club seeking to escape a history of post-season disappointment—and…

Lessons In Resiliency From The Heart Of A Champion

Don Yaeger October 1, 2015

Simon Keith is, literally, a walking miracle. In 1989, the former soccer standout for at UNLV, made history by becoming the first heart transplant recipient to play professional sports. Keith…

How An 18-Year-Old And His ‘Army’ Are Marching To Defeat Cancer

Don Yaeger September 23, 2015

Cancer sucks. These were the words inscribed on wristbands and given away by 18-year-old Adam, who had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Adam and his cousin had ordered…

3 Lessons To Turn Your Team Around From Coach P.J. Fleck

Don Yaeger September 2, 2015

During the opening week of college football, fans are always on the lookout for the perfect upset. And if this Saturday’s game between top-10 ranked Michigan State and little-known Western…

You Don’t Get Participation Awards For Showing Up At Work

Don Yaeger August 25, 2015

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison is not a guy that I would normally offer as a model for life lessons. Sure he became an NFL starter after going undrafted, proving…

Sitting Tight In A Job-Hopping Culture: Tommy Lasorda’s Tips On Greatness

Don Yaeger August 19, 2015

If you look at the most successful franchises and head coaches in sports today, they have one common characteristic: stability. And in our job-hopping society, nobody embodies stability like Tommy…

Do Unto Others: The Only Leadership Advice You’ll Ever Need

Don Yaeger August 5, 2015

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is this weekend. There have been many inspiring speeches delivered at the HOF over the years, but the greatest of all time occurred in…

Vision, Value, And Voice: The Real Magnet Of Team Success

Don Yaeger July 28, 2015

As the U.S. Women’s National Team celebrated their World Cup victory a few weeks ago, many of the athletes talked about how connected they were, how much they enjoyed and…

Three ‘Team-First’ Lessons From One Of This Weekend’s Hall-Of-Famers

Don Yaeger July 23, 2015

Many of us have been asked to take on a new role on our professional teams in the past. Change is the nature of today’s workforce but, if we are…

Great Teams Always Do Common Things Uncommonly Well

Don Yaeger July 9, 2015

Everyone wants success rapidly. In our culture of instant gratification, waiting simply isn’t an option for many people. Dayton Moore, general manager of the red-hot Kansas City Royals, knew that…

The Great Ones Play The Clock, Not The Score

Don Yaeger June 25, 2015

Tonight is the 2015 NBA Draft. A handful of young men—and maybe a few basketball teams—will see their futures change dramatically over the course of a few hours. The players…

Bring Your ‘Lunch Pail’ To Work If You Want To Win Championships

Don Yaeger June 18, 2015

Becoming a champion is hard. Doing it twice in a row…there are reasons it happens so infrequently. To win continuously, one of the hardest things to overcome is a sense…

Chasing Greatness Blog

Weekly leadership lessons learned from the world of sports.

Great Winners Are Desperate For A Chip On Their Shoulder

3 Team-First Lessons From America’s Most Entertaining Sports Bench

5 Lessons From A Navy SEAL To Make Your Resolutions Stick

Celebrate This Season By Appreciating Others – That’s What The Great Ones Do

3 Tips To Close Out The Year Strong From The Best Coach In College Football

Lessons In Humility From America’s Favorite Airline

How Being Thankful Will Make You More Profitable

3 Lessons From One Of America’s Great Culture Builders

Leadership For The Long Haul: A Lesson From Thomas Jefferson

To Build The Organization Your Team Deserves, Diversify

Want To Keep Winning? Keep Your Commitments – Here’s How

Discovering The Humanity Behind Your Heroes

Cal Ripken: Building A Legacy One Baseball Diamond At A Time

Lessons In Resiliency From The Heart Of A Champion

How An 18-Year-Old And His ‘Army’ Are Marching To Defeat Cancer

3 Lessons To Turn Your Team Around From Coach P.J. Fleck

You Don’t Get Participation Awards For Showing Up At Work

Sitting Tight In A Job-Hopping Culture: Tommy Lasorda’s Tips On Greatness

Do Unto Others: The Only Leadership Advice You’ll Ever Need

Vision, Value, And Voice: The Real Magnet Of Team Success

Three ‘Team-First’ Lessons From One Of This Weekend’s Hall-Of-Famers

Great Teams Always Do Common Things Uncommonly Well

The Great Ones Play The Clock, Not The Score

Bring Your ‘Lunch Pail’ To Work If You Want To Win Championships

Contact Don Yaeger