Coach Pinedo’s has spent considerable time building effective teams in the military, in business, and on the basketball court. His philosophy is built upon building each team member into their best versions, allowing them to add value to the team. Coach Pinedo is not a player’s coach, but a player leadership coach. Leadership is the life-blood, and Coach Pinedo develops leaders by empowering them to have a voice and take ownership of the team.

Inspired by Coach Wooden’s famous “Pyramid of Success”, Coach Pinedo built his own Pyramid. His “Pyramid of Life” takes the shape more of a mesoamerican pyramid found in Mexico, where many of his family still resides. The name of the pyramid is the first point of emphasis – instead of emphasizing “success” as Coach Wooden did, we are emphasizing “life”, as these principals impact all of life.

There are three main portions to this mesoamerican style “Pyramid of Life”. The foundation is defining success. The middle portion is leadership principals. And the top portion is winning principals. The image of the pyramid will be displayed throughout this page as we dive into it.

Everything begins with defining success. If you do not define success, how do you know what success will look like? If you do not define success, then someone else will, and that will most often not be where you want to go. And if you do not define success for yourself well, you might be setting yourself up for failure, unable to achieve the “feelings” you seek in doing whatever it is your are working towards. Coach Pinedo inserts his definition to give an example and to provoke thought, ultimately encouraging everyone to come up what their own definition of success. Coach Pinedo’s definition is: achieving a self-determined goal at a level that brings self-satisfaction regardless of other’s opinions. This can be broken into three main parts that are worth consider for your own definition. The first is “self-determined goal” – this allows you to make your own goals, not someone else. If you are not bought in, then you will never put forth the effort necessary to overcome obstacles needed to succeed. The second is “at a level that brings self-satisfaction” – the truth is, not everyone can be number one, not everyone can be “the greatest” – but everyone can be “their greatest”. This has strong correlation to the principal of choose to be great today. Being your greatest should bring self-satisfaction. If your metric is to be better than others, then you are setting yourself up for failure, as there will always be someone better. The last portion is “regardless of other’s opinions” – because people will always have their opinions of you. There will always be naysayers. You cannot please everyone. A great example is politicians – every president of the United States had people who loved them and people who hated them. As an individual, you should focus on those things that are important to you, and not allow yourself to be shamed to do or become something or someone you do not want to become or do, just because of outside pressure. Again, if you are not bought in, how will you have the strength to overcome and succeed? In conclusion, make sure you put the effort to put pen to paper and make a definition of success for yourself!

The middle section is leadership principals – six blocks that are critical to becoming an effective leader. From the bottom up, they are: its not about you – listen, set expectations with continuous mentorship, inspect what you expect with on the spot corrections, profit from shortcomings with learning attitudes, empower – don’t micromanage, and finally, value every member.

The very foundation of my leadership principals is one of the most common flaws I see in leadership and something that is worth remembering often: Its not about you – Listen! Leadership is not about you, its about those you are serving. They are the most important element, otherwise you would not be in a position of leadership. Some leadership positions are more natural in this than others. For example, in business, if you do not listen to your customers, you will soon no longer have a business. In politics, if you do not listen to your constituents, you will soon no longer have an elected position. On the flip side, in coaching a sport, its easier to make it “my way or the highway” since coaches are in a position of undisputed authority. In the military, leaders are given service members to lead, making it easier to make decisions in a vacuum – leading to the old saying of “salute the rank and not the man.” That is why I am emphasizing this point – to listen! – as its not about you, but who you are serving. Remember: they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. How do they know how much you care? By listening to them, make them feel like the priority, listen to them and see where things go from there. Because once they know you care, anything is possible.

The second step is setting expectations with continuous mentorship. Without setting expectations, how will your team know what is expected of them? Without continuous mentorship, how will they know if they are headed in the right direction? Saying “you are doing just fine” or “keep doing what you are doing” is not good enough – make it important. Make mentorship formal. Give clear examples. Show progression. Team members crave roles, they want to know what they need to do to help the team. Team members crave honesty, they want to know where they really are at and how to improve. Team members crave to be spoken to like men and women, not boys and girls that need parents, so be clear and to the point. There is nothing worse than assuming expectations and then constantly being disappointed over and over again. If you do not set expectations, then you are inviting assumptions to be made, doubt to cripple the team, and disappointment to sink some team members. If you set expectations and do not continuously mentor, then they will feel like their efforts to improve are not being noticed, or worse, they go in a direction you do not want them to go. This step can feel uncomfortable for some young leaders, but you cannot be a great leader without knowing how to set expectations and continue to mentor your team members. Set your team up for success! Tell them what success looks like!

The third step is to inspect what you expect with on-the-spot corrections. This one definitely came from the Marine Corps – you cannot just assume! There is another saying from the military: assumption kill people, as assumptions are often the culprit in military disasters…You must inspect to make sure your expectations are being met – and if they are not – make on the spot corrections at the moment, to avoid wasting time, effort, or giving the impression that things are being done correctly. Setting expectations is no good if you do not ensure your purpose is being met. This step can be equally as uncomfortable for young leaders as the last step, but if you do not make corrections in the moment, you are passively giving your approval. In addition, bad news does not get better with time. Make the correction, be consistent in your approach, and keep the team growing!

The fourth step is to profit from shortcomings with learning attitudes. Shortcomings are part of the journey, and as painful as they might be, they can be an instrumental part of the story if you take the opportunity to see struggles as an advantage! Often, shortcomings will tell you your limit, or show you areas of weaknesses that must be overcome to reach the ultimate goal. Often times shortcomings can come in the form of a bad loss in the middle of the season – better to learn that lesson during the season than in a one-and-done tournament setting! But as a leader, you must have the right attitude. Your team will follow your emotions, so help your team profit from every shortcoming with a learning attitude. Attitude is one of the few things every person has control over – so many things are outside of your control. But a winning attitude, an attitude of greatness, allows you to learn from your wins and your setbacks. Be that leader, who has humility and can learn from setbacks. In the same way, you must give your team an atmosphere to make mistakes. If you do not allow an atmosphere of making mistakes for growth, you will give the incentive to perform in fear. Team members will be more concerned about not losing than of winning. The fun factor will disappear. Individual members will lose the drive to support the team, the mission, and leadership. As leaders of flawed human beings, we must understand that the only consistency is inconsistency – people make mistakes! So allow the atmosphere for mistakes to happen and embrace them with learning attitudes. There are many things in life that will not tolerate mistakes – but your team should be one of those special places where mistakes are embraced as steppingstones for growth.

The fifth step is empower, don’t micromanage. Every team member is there for a purpose. If they are not, they would not be there. Micromanaging often comes due to a feeling of anxiety, insecurity, or lack of confidence as a leader. If a leader can do the first four steps of the pyramid, then micromanagement should not be something to fall back on. If micromanagement becomes a backstop, then perhaps you need to be a better leader – spend more time listening (step 1), spend more time mentoring (step 2), spend more time correcting (step 3), and spend more time learning from set-backs (step 4). Empowerment means giving each team member the tools, the voice, and the autonomy to perform in their role and given capacity with full trust and confidence. A leader should always remember to set their team in a position of success – not only the team, but each individual. Give them opportunities to shine. Use their individual strengths. Let them have ownership. If you do these things, the team will flourish and accomplish much more than anyone ever thought possible. Remember, the whole point of a team is that the sum should be greater than the individual sum of their parts!

The final step in this portion of the mesoamerican pyramid is to value every member. By now, this step should be easy to understand. Feeling valued is a natural emotion that every human desires. In a team setting, everyone wants to feel like they have impact on the team – that they matter – that their contributions matter – that is the desire of feeling valued. As leaders, we must ensure that everyone feels valued by recognizing their roles and contributions on a regular basis. And if your team has support staff, don’t forget about managers, trainers, janitors, facility personnel, media, volunteers, and anyone else who has impact. Just like my wife likes to hear “I love you” regularly, so too does every team member want to feel valued. And if you, as a leader, have been able to implement the first five steps of this portion of the pyramid, then expressing value should be simple and genuine. This is an echo from the first step – that its not about you – its about them! When you have a team full of members who feel valued, they will run through brick walls for you, they will storm the beach for you, they will take the fort for you. A highly valued team can do anything!

In conclusion, the six blocks that I have for leadership principals from the bottom up are: Its not about you – listen, set expectations with continuous mentorship, inspect what you expect with on-the-spot corrections, profit from shortcomings with learning attitudes, empower – don’t micromanage, and value every member. Being an effective leader is not easy; it is extremely taxing. But for the right person, it can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life!

Finally, lets look at winning principals. This is at the top portion of the mesoamerican pyramid since these principals apply to everyone who wants to be in a position to win. They are from the foundation up: establishing winning standards, consistency through discipline and accountability, finding enjoyment through the process, becoming mentally unstoppable, and taking ownership.

It begins with establishing winning standards. This is very similar to my section on choosing to be great today. What does a winner look like and what do they do? Being a winner is not about what you accomplish, it’s about how you live your life; it’s a lifestyle. You must have purpose in every winning standard – they must lead to something greater. They must be something you can do every day/week/period of evaluation. Standards are the rudder for your ship. This should include what in this journey makes you happy and how you define success. Unless you identify what is important to you, you cannot begin your winning journey.

The second step is consistency, consistency through discipline and accountability. Consistency is the difference between good players and great players. Standards are no good unless you live them every day. Discipline is you choosing to hold yourself to your standards. Accountability is having others help you in your quest to hold your standards. Discipline can be as simple as marking a weekly calendar on Sunday night, and making sure you follow your plan every day. Accountability can be as simple as sharing your calendar with a buddy that Sunday night, and following up the following Sunday on what you fulfilled and what you failed to complete. And do not think accountability ends within the team – having a good support structure outside of your team is so important and often overlooked. You must ensure you have a support system identified, that those people know they are your support system, and that those people know what you need from them to help you in your journey. That what is measured is followed. Remember, amateurs work on something till they get it right; professionals work on it till they don’t get it wrong.

The third step is finding enjoyment in the process. You must find enjoyment along the way, otherwise why are you in? Passion, love of the game, and love of brotherhood are a few ways to keep you going. Remember to focus on the body, mind, and spirit. If all you focus on is the body, but not the mind and spirit, its easy to go internal when things go hard that could lead to depression and larger losses. You cannot take yourself too seriously, especially in the game of basketball, as it is at the end a game. Nor can you make your journey your identity. Playing basketball will end. Your career in the Marine Corps will end. Racing motorcycles at the highest level will end. If you make “it” your identity, you will do anything to protect that identity, compromising integrity and values. If you make it your identity, you impact your value negatively, often avoiding failure for the sake of self-esteem. You must enjoy the journey, because playing basketball is about playing the game, not about starring at trophies. Enjoying the process is acknowledging the fortunate circumstances to participate in a short-lived journey of (fill in the blank, example: college basketball). Enjoying the process is working as hard as you can while having as much fun as you can. Enjoying the process is sharing your joy with those you care about, as good relationships are a hallmark of a happy life. When you enjoy the process, you will perform at a higher level, and no matter the outcome, you will be a winner.

The fourth step is often the difference maker between good and great: learning to have grit, or in other words, becoming mentally unstoppable. Having grit allows you to overcome adversity when others will stumble, struggle, or give up. Building mental toughness takes challenging yourself over a significant period of time. You must become comfortably uncomfortable. As humans, we crave comfort, as it means survival. But to become great, we must challenge ourselves on a regular basis to build the mental strength to overcome difficulties that arise – on the court or in life. Challenge yourself physically every day. Find the best competition you can. When we become physically exhausted, our mind starts to fail, leading to poor decision making. Sharpen your body, sharpen your mind, sharpen your spirit. The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. Building mental strength gives you confidence when you are challenged. That’s why every enlisted Marine goes to boot camp; the process of earning the title “Marine” was earned through the most difficult journey leading to the crucible, and if they can conquer that, they can do anything. Once you have realized your mental potential, you will be unstoppable. You will be able to overcome things you never realized. This is the separator. This can be you.

The last step in the entire mesoamerican pyramid is ownership. This is at the top of the entire pyramid for a reason. Ownership acknowledges that it is up to you, every day, to be great. Ownership allows you to bring in your strengths, your personality, your passion, and fuel everything you need to do with the building blocks to be in a position to win. Ownership acknowledges that many things are outside of your control, but those that are in your control are the things that you will own – such as your effort and attitude. If you own it and take responsibility for those outcomes, you will do your best. Its only when you start to blame other people, other situations, other institutions, other events, anyone/anything outside of yourself, that you start to lose ownership of your path and start giving that journey, that outcome to someone/something else. You either own it all or you own nothing. You either accept success and failure or you give that responsibility to someone/something else. You cannot only take the credit for success but blame failure elsewhere; that is the sign of weakness and a sign that you are not ready for larger challenges, responsibilities, or opportunities. “Ownership” being at the top of the pyramid also means it is the hardest principal to achieve. But it is also the most satisfying. Once you understand and acknowledge those things that you can own, and focus on doing the best of your ability on those things, accepting whatever the result, then you will find the most satisfaction and success, whatever success looks like for you. Then you will be happy to be on the journey. Then you will perform better because you are enjoying the journey. Then you will be able to live in peace with yourself, something all humans crave. 

In conclusion, the building blocks that I have built for winning principals from the bottom up are: establishing winning principals, consistency through discipline and accountability, finding enjoyment in the process, becoming mentally unstoppable, and taking ownership. It’s a long journey, but if it is important to you, then take advantage of the opportunity. You may not have it tomorrow!

This covers the most important portion of Coach Pinedo’s Coaching Philosophy. Basketball is more than a game; it is an analogy of life!

If you follow this portion of the pyramid, the winning principals portion, then you are choosing to be great today!