Good morning and welcome to the Increase Your Impact Podcast. I'm Justin Sua, episode 1224. I just read a

powerful article in The Athletic about Greg Popovich. It's written by Ben Strauss. And it reminded me of

how important it is for a coach, for you, to have hard conversations with your staff and with players, but oftentimes

we don't know how to do it.

In this article, Strauss tells us a story about Pop back in 2007.

He knocks on the hotel door.

They're in Miami, playing against the heat,

and inside the room is Keith Langford. Langford's a fringe player, and he's waiting to hear

if he made the final spot on that Spurs roster. Now, normally, someone from Pop staff is the one

that delivers the bad news, but this time

it was actually Pop himself.

He walks in, he sits down with Langford, and he says this, quote, I really think you're a good

player and you've got a chance to be high level.

But right now, I couldn't get you to be aggressive enough.

I think Darius showed a little more aggression than you did.

You just aren't ready. But I can tell you're really trying, close quote. Pop stood up and he hug

Langford and Langford ended up being cut that night. But he says in that moment, he says that

moment stayed with him for almost 20 years because Pop told him

the truth. He told him the truth of clarity, with care, and he gave him the respect that he felt

that he deserved. And when the Spurs brought him back later on, Pop remembered every word of that

conversation in that hotel room. Now, there's also science

behind this. Researchers, Tanya Cohen and Emma Levine, they did this study and they asked,

...