Having a front row seat to the winningest coach in Seahawks history was something I never took for granted. I also never expected to learn so much about leadership and communication.

I’ve been the Seahawks radio sideline reporter for the last 15 seasons. I talked to Pete regularly for pregame interviews, during press conferences and when we bumped into each other at the facility. I can attest to the fact his energy never waned. What you saw on TV was exactly what we saw every day. After watching him throughout his tenure these are the five leadership lessons that stand out for me.

Leadership can be fun. If you were to ask Pete Carroll he would say football should be fun and he regularly told his players that if it wasn’t fun he was doing it wrong. It’s one of the reasons he blared music at practice and held free throw shooting competitions during team meetings. Pete proved to me that “fun-loving” could be and should be on the list of great leadership...

Whether you created goals, resolutions or intentions for 2024 I’m willing to bet that meeting them and following through on them require communication skills. Success doesn’t happen in a vacuum and your talent and want-to are part of the equation, so are your communication skills.

So with that in mind use small talk to build the skills you need for bigger conversations. Be intentional with how you approach small talk and what you want to get out of interactions because all of it can help you reach your goals/resolutions/intentions this year.

These sports conversation starters can get the ball rolling this week.

Records were made to be broken and  every streak comes to an end.

Last week was the first time in more than decade I didn’t post a version of conversation starters. It was somewhat of a last minute decision and an opportunity I’d been looking for.

I pride myself on consistency, but I wanted a little bit of a break and I wanted to alleviate the pressure of keeping a streak alive.

Here’s something to consider as we start the new year focused on new habits, goal-setting and creating new opportunities - the streaks you stop are just as important as the ones you start.

And here are few sports topics you can consider in small talk this week.

You’ve got enough going on this week. No need to create more work for yourself, and that includes in your conversations. A few conversation starters will make small talk easier and more productive. If you’re stuck coming up with a few, these sports topics can help.

Every week when you glance at these sports conversation starters the nuts and bolts of the game or the story probably stand out. That’s on purpose. I want you to have enough information to join a conversation and build your knowledge base.

You could also look for the business connections and ways to springboard into larger conversations. This week I would point to the Heisman voting and Heisman award winner as a way to talk about the criteria you use to judge success or maybe the note about the MLS Champions as a way to start a conversation about the talent you need to get to the next level.

Sports is more than stats and scores – if you want it to be. And you can use these sports conversation starters however you want this week.

MVP discussions in sports often turn into debates because there are different schools of thought on how those awards should be determined. The outcome depends on which criteria you use and which school of thought you follow. Which is also true when it comes to performance reviews and goal setting for 2024.

Make sure your team is on the same page and knows the criteria you're using. If you haven't been specific or need to have that conversation again this sports conversation can help you start the discussion. It's just one way to use sports to think outside the box score and improve business communication. 

It’s so awkward but I’ve got to do it.

That was part of a text from a friend contemplating her next round of networking emails. I totally understand both the anxiety and the awkwardness. My suggestion was to shift the focus of the conversation and use an alternate conversation starter to initiate the interaction.

Here’s why I offered that approach: Preparing ahead of time for the objective you want to achieve helps make the conversation more productive and less uncomfortable. 

To that end, these sports conversation starters might come in handy this week.

You can encounter any number of tough conversations throughout the day in your professional and personal life. We all approach those interactions differently and often bring our own baggage into the exchange. It’s not intentional it just comes with the territory when you encounter real emotions from a real human being.

Or as I often think about it -when you see the real humanness in someone.

It’s something I think about every single time I walk into a locker room after a loss. I’m an NFL sideline reporter and I’ve worked in professional locker rooms for more than 20 years. It’s my job to get interviews after every single game win or lose which means some weeks I have up to six tough conversations in a 30-minute time frame immediately after a loss. 

There is a lot of emotion surrounding 53 pissed off, frustrated, disappointed and exhausted men.

None of them really want to see me walking toward them with a microphone. All of them understand...

When it comes to small talk if you yourself don’t want to answer the question (or can’t answer the question) you’re asking, you should probably change your approach.

If you don’t want to talk about your Thanksgiving weekend you might not want to ask someone else about theirs, because there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to flip the conversation back to you thereby forcing you to have a conversation you didn’t want to have in the first place.

If it’s difficult for you to answer a question about your favorite Thanksgiving or holiday tradition it’s best to rethink the question you would ask.

If you’re looking for a broader conversation topic this week, start with sports. Even a yes/no question like “Did you watch any games this weekend?” can lead you to a number of different conversations.

Here are a few sports headlines making news this week that you can use to spark small talk.

Conversations on Thanksgiving usually take care of themselves, but just in case you need a few additional topics these sports notes are just the trick.

When you’ve had your fill of football and turkey consider a cooking show binge-fest of I Cook, You Measure presented by Safeway. I’ll drop a new episode Friday!