What does a leader look like and how profound are their convictions in creating a healthy and growing environment? Many folks will answer by calling out various titles such as: naming politicians, presidents, senators, and scientists, governors, military leaders, business leaders, and… successful athletic coaches.
Why are coaches included in this list of esteemed individuals? Because all “good coaches” are leaders and coaching effectiveness is maximized by understanding how to lead people to greatness beyond where they thought they could ever venture on their own. But an effective coach has to have a convicted belief that the team and it’s individuals can and will excel.
In a way, the relationship between coaches and players is a consensual agreement or contract. PlayersChuck will follow the coach’s directives, wishes or demands and in return they expect their reward, whether that is winning, playing time, positive reinforcement, skills improvement, increased self esteem or some other benefit.
With that in mind, just like selling a customer, a coach has the distinguished and profoundly important obligation to find out what each of his or her team members “wants and desires” are. Find these out early and leading becomes easier and much more effective. I visited a store not long ago and asked several managers about their sales people. The managers could rattle off numbers and stats but none of them could really tell me much of anything about the personal lives of their people because they never take the time to do “one on ones” and find out what truly drives these folks. Find out what their dreams are and you find the secret to their motivation.
The real leaders can and do effectively get their team members to “believe” in the ultimate team and individual goal fulfillments. The great coaches believe in the law of expectation which simply stated says you most full heartily “expect” things to improve, must expect to win, must expect yourself to become better at what you do, must expect the right things to occur and so on. It is with the thoughts of convicted expectation that we can actually attain greatness at anything.
When we look back on our lives growing up most of us can identify a few people who influenced and enriched our lives. Most often, that person was an athletic coach. Various reasons lead us to that conclusion; common goals – win, improve, help team mates become their best, feelings of good self esteem (if you had the right coach), you left better than you came. These are a few of the good feelings we came away with and as a consequence we anchored the feeling that this coach was a leader. Mine was a baseball coach who continually told me I had more talent to give and after a while I began to believe him and then a strange thing happened; I became a darn good third baseman who rounded out his career batting 419. Sure there were days we had to receive a little discipline and maybe get a little chewing on but this “leader” always left us with the positive good thoughts of expectation and that was “hey next time you will get it right now get out there and give your best because you are a winner”. What thoughts of expectation are you leaving your players with?
There are four reasons most managers compromise their leadership convictions when in a tight spot:
- They fear criticism
- They fear rejection
- They fear failure
- They fear loss
“When the pressure comes, preferences give way while convictions hold firm” – Edwin Louis Cole
Here are some simple playbook ideas for specific convictions of what the coach as a TRUE Leader should be consistently reinforcing on a daily basis:
Master and Apply Current Knowledge. Be willing to learn and willing to take the time to understand correct mechanics, strategies, and the fundamental principles of the game (business). You better be getting trained along with them so you will know what they do.
Develop Interpersonal Skills. Develop interpersonal skills especially communication skills. Have a sense of humor but scrap the sarcasm. Players need to feel that they can approach you, if they don’t feel that way problems can multiply.
Training, Training, Training. The best leaders know and recognize the importance of “proper” training to improve batting averages as well as growing professionals in business. The lazy ones don’t because they have done things a certain way for so long that they rarely take the initiative to define better ways at improving training techniques. Complacency. It is easier to redefine “If I could, would ya” four or five different ways; “If you could, I would, “If we could would you”, etc. This incidentally is just another way to ask “just how low do I have to go before you say yes?” Debug your team and replace training with the new 21st Century professional selling & communications techniques. The new consumer deserves and demands this.
Eliminate all Dehumanizing Language. Treat each person with the dignity and respect that they deserve. Give positive reinforcement rather than negative feedback. Offer solutions when criticism is required and remember to leave them with an “up” statement like “I know that’s not like you and I am certain that next time you will do it much better”. Some managers I have seen treat their dogs better than their people.
Control Your Emotions. Athletes treat the coach as the role model and will emulate their behavior. If coaches are on the sidelines yelling at officials and throwing chairs, what message is that sending to the players? Watch your mouth because everyone else is.
Help Your Players Set their own Goals. Goals need to be established as a team and as an individual. Goals should be something that the individuals can actually achieve. Coaches are there to guide players in the goal setting process as well as the evaluation of the goals but they are not there to tell the player what their goal is or what their goal should be.
Live in the Present. Players don’t need to be consistently reminded how good you and/or your team was last year or in prior years. You may use the past as an example but don’t compare your players or team to prior years. Too many managers hang their hats on yesterday. Ok that is past now let’s do it again but even better.
Provide Opportunities for Success. Provide good practices, time for game planning, sensible scheduling and a pleasant atmosphere. The administrative aspects of the job are just as important as any other aspect. Planning, preparation, training and budgeting are very important functions. A coach must be a leader, teacher, friend, mentor and an administrator all at once.
Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. —Sam Walton
Every coach has the ability to lead and grow their people but it takes conviction and hard work to become a good leader. By following and living by these guidelines, you will be on your way on your path to becoming a better and well respected leader. And maybe, just maybe you will be on someone’s roster of the best leaders who affected their life and made it better. If you would like a list of coaching ideas, send me an email to chuck@impactgroupcrm.com and I will make certain you get it.