Jim Tunney

Biography

Jim Tunney had an exemplary career as an NFL referee (1961-1991). The first official to be named to the All-Madden Team, Jim also won top honors from the National Association of Sports Officials, the Gold Whistle Award (1992) and is in the National Football League Hall of Fame. In his 31 years as an NFL official, Tunney received a record 29 postseason assignments, including ten Championships and three Super Bowls. Highlights of his career include these classic games: Super Bowl VI, Super Bowl XI, Super Bowl XXII. Some of his most memorable games include: "The Fog Bowl" - Philadelphia at Chicago (12/31/88), "The Final Fumble" - Cleveland at Denver (1/17/88), "The Snowball Game" - San Francisco at Denver (11/11/85), "The 100th Game" - Green Bay at Chicago (11/19/83), "The Catch" - Dallas at San Francisco (1/10/82), "The Kick" - Detroit at New Orleans (11/08/70), "The Ice Bowl" - Dallas at Green Bay (12/31/67), and "The Field Goal" - Baltimore at Green Bay (12/26/65). Still active in NFL affairs and many sports issues, Tunney regularly suggests rule changes and ways to improve the game. He continues to serve his community in many ways. He is the Chair of the Monterey Peninsula Community College and serves on several boards of directors: namely the Central Coast Chapter of the National Football Foundation and on the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. A celebrated and respected speaker, Tunney's credentials place him in the top 1% of professional speakers working today. A past-president of the National Speakers Association, he is a mentor to many members. Known for his ability to educate, motivate and entertain, Tunney works with national and international corporations and organizations, helping them to build winning teams, develop leadership skills and increase personal productivity.

Publications

Adding to the best-selling series, Chicken Soup for the Sports Fan's Soul, delivers stories that are not only true, but true-to-life about the wonderful panorama of sports. These powerful, personal stories come from athletes (Steve Young, Bill Bradley, Dan Fouts, and others); coaches (Pat Riley, Tom Flores, John Wooden and others); sportscasters and sportswriters (Jim Nantz, Lesley Visser, Rick Reilly and others); and everyday athletes from backyards, local parks and the school gym. Collectively, the stories present a perspective on life that can come only from the heart of sports, and each yields a lasting insight into the biggest game of all - the game of life.

Titles

T*E*A*M BUILDING Involving Everyone in the Process - Build teams by building people Loyalty rolls on a two-way street. This truth is evident in every human relationship that grows. From childhood through job changes, to the selection of a spouse and all the choices we make that involve forming a team, trust arises as the most important issue when we hope the relationship will endure. Without trust, there is no incentive to invest our emotions and we become vulnerable to the goodwill and constancy of another. The relationship between management and its athletes is no different than other relationships that have a superior-subordinate component-parent-child, teacher-student, employer-employee. In order for the inevitable issue of position power not to become divisive, both sides must bring to the association a feeling of trust. They must sense an atmosphere of fairness and respect. There can be no feeling of "bad," but that only "good" will come of a discussion of how to achieve our goals. The spirit of "win-win" must prevail. This requires self-confidence and flexibility. If either side enters the relationship with a feeling of arrogance - a sense of "I am more powerful than you" or "You need me more than I need you" - not only will the needed flexibility become arthritic, but arrogance may cause the other person to take a defensive posture. Zap, there goes the chance for loyalty and trust to strengthen. Trust is one of the strongest emotions in humans if both sides respect its value and strive to provide the emotional atmosphere that allows it to grow. Trust is also brittle. It is tough, but can be broken fast with a strong shock at the right angle. When trust breaks, it is difficult to mend. The repairs almost always show. All collaborative effort, whether in team sports, marriage, parenting, schools, or making a movie, is premised on trust. LEADERSHIP Six Essential Qualities of a Leader -It's more about responsibility than ability Leadership begins with setting a strong example. It was Jim Tunney's job, as the NFL's most-respected referee, to be "on" for every game - alert, prepared, precise. If he expected his crew to be ready, he had to be. Organizational behavior is reflective. Just as essential; in leadership are the skills of team building. The ref can't do his job alone, nor can you. Optimum professional growth, and fiscal gain, are premised on everyone involved executing at their position, excellently, every time. Jim Tunney will present an entertaining and motivating education on how to lead others, improve their real-time performance, and transmit enthusiasm and willingness to others. CUSTOMER CARE Exceeding Customer Expectations Every Time - Customers don't care how much you know until they know how much you care Customer service isn't enough anymore. The times have changed. The customers have changed. The minimum goal now is customer care. The drive for quality started it. As customers' dollars shrank during the recession, customers started asking a lot more questions. They would stand there reading the fine print on warranties. They would come back at you with blunt questions about financing plans. They might buy, but they couldn't be sold, at least not as readily. Selling in this environment requires more than just knowing your product, and believing in it and your services enough to project yourself with confidence. Selling has become customer-centered, not product-centered. The minimum goal is, clearly, Exceed the Customer's Expectation Every Time. Twenty-seven percent of American companies already use some measure of customer satisfaction in their sales-incentive programs. Another twenty-three percent are weighing which measure to add. At some companies, as much as forty percent of the salespeople's commissions are determined by assessment of customer satisfaction. Some companies are becoming as blunt as the customers became: They ask their major customers to grade their account reps from "A" to "F" Reps expecting an "A" had better reach out with the goal of customer care. WELLNESS Living Every Day for Peak Performance To sustain top performance, we must develop and maintain balance in our lives - between work and play, between the fiscal and the physical, between duty to others and duty to ourselves. In today's fragmented and pressured pace, achieving wellness - the combined condition of your physical and mental health - is often an early casualty of too many options. It takes a smart, even artful, integration of lifestyle and workstyle to create a balanced life, one that is smoothly conducted with vigor, intelligence, and individuality. If you don't take care of your mind and body, where else are you going to live? THE POWER OF THE WILL Improving Employee Enthusiasm and Resourcefulness When thinking about how to correct self-defeating patterns, it helps to ask yourself: "What would I think of the choices I have been making if a teenager I loved were making the same ones?" We don't allow our children to adopt habits that are damaging to themselves or others. All too often, though, we are more lenient with ourselves than we would be with our children. Perhaps this is because we have the mistaken idea that self-defeat is a victimless crime. One lesson we learn from football is that the more self-discipline you apply to yourself, the better you will be and the better off those around you (crewmates, teammates, etc.) will be. That interaction works in life as well. It is especially paradoxical that self-destructive behavior hits even in sports where fitness and mental control count for so much. One would think that the discipline and patience necessary to make it into the NFL would provide insurance against the easy-out decision. Yet, the NFL doesn't exist in a vacuum. Drugs are a problem in sports because they are a problem in society. There's no way to keep them out of NFL locker rooms any more than you can keep them out of the schools. It is a modern tragedy that a wide receiver, say, who uses his God-given talents to out distance a defensive back and catch a touchdown pass with the screams of 77,000 fans in the air, might then go out after the game and resort to drugs to "take the pressure off." That says, if nothing else, that adulation and money aren't enough. Sometimes, only self-respect and self-esteem will do. There's no rational explanation for a person seeking cocaine instead of self-esteem, for downing liquor instead of learning to love, or for gorging instead of running an extra mile. Self-abuse develops in many different personalities and for a variety of reasons. Self-abuse isn't the only way man is irrational, but it is in vogue. Still, self-abuse is no excuse. I suggest we go back to the basics and remember the athlete's maxim: "The harder you are on yourself (that is, the more self-discipline you apply to yourself), the easier the game (or life) will be on you." HERE'S TO THE WINNERS The Basics of Increasing Productivity Tom Peters tells a story about Lee Iacocca that demonstrates Iacocca knows purpose and when now begins. One day Iacocca went to his chief engineer and said, "I want to add a convertible to our line." The engineer responded, "Yes sir. We can have a design ready for you in about nine months." Iacocca fired back, "No! You don't understand. I've made a decision. I want action. Take a car and saw the damn top off." Whether true or not, this story emphasizes the dispatch that should follow immediately upon naming a goal.