I remember reading about a college basketball scout who, whenever he heard of an incredible talent, would naturally go watch the kid play. The interesting part was that the scout would go to the game hoping that the kid would play poorly. 

Seems counter-productive, right? The scout, however, was most interested in assessing elements of the athlete’s game that had little to do with technical skill, but so much to do with achieving consistent levels of high performance. 

The scout wanted to know about the athlete’s habits when things were going south. He wanted to see the body language of an individual who was struggling to find success. He wanted to witness the true character of the person. 

The scout already knew that if the player’s name made it across his desk, skill was no longer the most important part of the assessment.  He actually wanted to know if the player had the chops to contribute on a daily basis, knowing that every day on the path to success is not a good day.

This story stuck with me as a reminder of what matters most when trying to sustain, and explain, consistent performance over the long-term. It made me think about my past experiences and also my future plans. 

It led me to develop a framework, which I thought I’d share today in case someone might benefit from it. 

It’s called the CHOPS Test. 

CHOPS is an acronym that stands for Character, Habits, Opportunities, Priorities, and Skills.

The framework is a performance planning and evaluative tool that could be used by coaches, athletes, teachers, students, and organizations. The framework is useful for daily or long-term planning and evaluation. It works for individual self-assessment or external assessment. 

And it’s easy to use.

Here’s what the simple template looks like:

The CHOPS Test

Event/Goal:

Character C	1.  2.  3.	Notes
Habits H	1.  2.  3.
Opportunities O	What opportunities can I seize? What opportunities can I create for others?  What opportunities are there for support?
Priorities P	1. 2. 3.
Skills S	1.  2.  3.

What I like about this framework is that it still acknowledges the obvious importance of skill development, but it puts a heightened focus on other important core elements of high performance and goal execution that are sometimes overlooked even though they are major predictors of longstanding success. Plus, if you take care of what’s listed above skills in the framework, there’s a much better chance that the skills will take care of themselves.

Below are a couple examples of the template that I created for plans I have:

CHOPS Test Example #1

Goal: Run a personal best half-marathon time on October 15^th, 2023 at the PEI Marathon

Character  C	1. Self-Control (for training, food choices, and race pacing)  2. Patience (running is a sport of gradual, incremental, improvement)  3. Self-Awareness (follow a training plan and race plan but listen to my body)
Habits  H	1. Persisting (months of training one day at a time. Setbacks are expected and accepted)  2. Managing impulsivity (resisting desire to stray from healthy food choices, to shorten workouts when my mind is telling me to quit, or to stay up late)  3. Taking responsible risks (wanting to challenge myself in a way that pushes my limits but doesn’t risk burnout or injury)
Opportunities O	1. What opportunities can I seize? Opportunity to live a healthier lifestyle and push myself outside my comfort zone.  2. What opportunities can I create for others? Opportunity for my two young kids to see me active and competing. 3. What opportunities are there for support? My running partners and Siobhan are always there for motivation and support.
Priorities  P	1. Sleep (over screen time)  2. Stretching (over sitting on the couch)  3. Healthy food/hydration choices (over the alternative)
Skills  S	1. Focus on form (toe strike, lean forward)  2. Strength training (3x workouts per week)  3. Hit weekly mileage targets and high intensity workout targets

CHOPS Test Example #2

Plan: Coach the Under 6 Stratford Foxes Basketball Program for the 2023-2024 season

Character  C	1. Kindness  2. Patience  3. Fairness
Habits  H	1. Communicating with clarity  2. Finding humour  3. Remaining open to continuous learning
Opportunities O	What opportunities can I seize? Opportunity to give back to a sport that provided me with a lot of joy. What opportunities can I create for others? Opportunity to help young people have fun and be active. What opportunities are there for support? Work collaboratively with other coaches and continue to search online for new ideas.
Priorities  P	1. Fun (over competition)  2. Progress (over perfection)  3. Movement (over standing still)
Skills  S	1. Basketball Skills  2. Teamwork Skills  3. Growth mindset strategies

This planning/evaluation framework can be used for any goal or event, such as:

• Becoming a better teammate 

• Having a good week of practice/work

• Preparing for an interview

• Studying for upcoming exams

• Being a more productive student 

• Learning a new skill

• Preparing for a tough conversation at work

Here’s how the template works:

1. Identify the goal or plan
2. Choose your moral/mental qualities from the list (or add your own)

Character: Moral and Mental Qualities

Calmness	Courage	Compassion	Integrity	Kindness
Justice	Humility	Honesty	Respect	Loyalty
Forgiveness	Tolerance	Acceptance	Gratitude	Responsibility
Fairness	Patience	Self-Control	Self-Awareness	Love

3. Choose your Habits (I used the 16 Habits of Mind from Art Kosta and Bena Kallick, but you could use others too)

Habits: The 16 Habits of Mind

Persisting	Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision	Managing impulsivity	Gathering data through all senses
Listening with understanding and empathy	Creating, imagining, innovating	Thinking Flexibly	Responding with wonderment and awe
Thinking about thinking (metacognition)	Taking responsible risks	Striving for Accuracy	Finding Humor
Questioning and posing problems	Thinking interdependently	Applying past knowledge to new situations	Remaining open to continuous learning

4. Fill out the template

5. Review, assess, adjust as needed.

If you try giving the CHOPS Test a shot, I’d love to hear how it goes! If you found this article helpful, please share the post.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for leading!

Leadership: No Title Required

Many people have asked me, “What made you decide to write a book?” For years, I would give varying convoluted answers to what is a fairly straightforward question. 

To be honest, sometimes I wasn’t sure why I felt I had the authority to release any book, let alone one that was titled, The Superstar Curriculum: How to Shine in School and Create Your Brightest Future. 

To this day, it still seems like a bold endeavor on my part. I’m not an expert writer. I’m not an expert teacher. I’m not a leadership expert, and I’m still very much fumbling and struggling my way through my own life. Was it that I am a narcissist with some grandiose sense of self-importance? (It’s okay, I wondered about it too). 

Finally, I’ve reached a point where I am able to explain why I wrote The Superstar Curriculum. Thankfully, where I landed has nothing to do with narcissism and everything to do with my ongoing understanding of leadership. 

The Complexity of Leadership

When I was completing my MBA in 2013, I had a professor who quipped that there are as many definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it. His comment always stuck with me as I dove deeper into the complex topic of effective leadership.

Well, it’s now time to add myself to the list.

If you google “Characteristics of an effective leader”, 24 qualities immediately pop up:

communication	accountability	creativity	self-awareness
delegation	learning	intelligence	empathy
emotional intelligence	decision-making	problem-solving	strategy
resilience	innovation	courage	decisiveness
integrity	confidence	humility	goals
active listening	transparency	positivity	honesty

Within the search result links that follow the above table, you’ll find that even more characteristics appear on more lists. For instance, when you visit the Harvard Business School Online, “ability to influence others” is added to the list. When you visit Forbes online, you’ll find “managing complexity” and “promoting teamwork” as top considerations. The Center for Creative Leadership has “gratitude” on its list. Visit more websites and find even more exceptional qualities. 

All the traits listed above are tremendous; however, when looking at the list in its entirety, it’s daunting. Few people would read the list and say “yes, that pretty much sums me up!” So what can happen is that, instead, we make leadership out to be something that is bigger than ourselves. The notion of becoming a leader becomes something that is designated primarily for a select group of other people, not us.  

Then we need to account for the varying leadership frameworks and styles. If you google “leadership styles”, there are 13 different leadership styles that immediately appear in the results:

Democratic	Transformational	Coaching	Transactional
Autocratic	Servant	Affiliative	Charismatic Authority
Strategic	Charismatic	Authoritarian	Bureaucratic
Direct

Within the subsequent google links, even more leadership styles like  “laissez-faire”, “delegative”, and “visionary” emerge. Each style has its own unique elements, pros, and cons. 

There are so many different leadership styles, frameworks, characteristics, and qualities that the concept of leadership can become more complex than it is accessible.

But what if there was a way to simplify leadership?

Simplifying Leadership

We can’t demonstrate all of those effective leadership qualities at once, but we can demonstrate any one of them at any time. As a result, here are my simplified definitions of leadership and effective leadership. 

Leadership: Acting on the genuine belief that you can generate positive reactions for others and/or yourself.

Effective Leadership: The degree to which your actions generate positive reactions for others and/or yourself. 

Let’s unpack this definition. 

Effective leadership is not a style. It’s not a designation. It’s not a set group of characteristics.

Sometimes it’s communication. Sometimes it’s courage.

Sometimes it’s persistence. Sometimes it’s patience. 

Sometimes it’s laissez-faire. Sometimes it’s authoritarian. Sometimes it’s democratic. 

Sometimes it comes from the president of the company. Sometimes it comes from a stranger on the street. Sometimes it’s a monumental initiative. Sometimes it’s a small act of kindness.

Leadership is any action based on a genuine belief that you have the ability and opportunity to positively affect and influence those around you (yourself included – the best leader in your own life should also be you).

I wrote The Superstar Curriculum because I genuinely believed that the act of doing so could create a positive reaction in the lives of others. And consequently, that’s what the entire book is about – the genuine desire to develop and contribute, which is The Superstar Mindset. The alternative to writing the book was to not write the book, and my genuine belief reached a point where that was no longer an option. Releasing the book was no longer a risk to take but an opportunity to seize.

The more I believe in my ability to create positive reactions, the more opportunities I will seize. The more I will lead.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m not a psychologist. I’m not a professor. I’m not a leadership expert. I still continue to fail at things I’m trying to accomplish. I’m sure some people don’t even like my book, and I know I’ll miss future opportunities to lead.

But I still genuinely believe that my next move can be one of positivity. I do still consider myself a leader.

And here’s the thing: I consider you a leader, too, whether you believe it or not! I have no question that your actions can create positive reactions in the lives of others. For any moment of leadership, there is no title required – only a genuine belief in your ability to act positively in a given moment.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for leading.