Program Blueprint

This article was written and contributed by Scott Rosberg

This is the next post in a series of posts that come from some ideas I have on coaches being teachers. The majority of this post comes from a section in an upcoming course on coaching that I will be offering later this year. I will have more information on the course as we get closer to its release later this summer.

Teachers and coaches both use a variety of communication methods when dealing with their students and athletes. While most teachers don’t yell too much at their classes, we do see this happen more often in sports with coaches yelling at their teams. Today, I want to talk about the concept of yelling in coaching. Should we or shouldn’t we?

There are some people who believe we should never yell at children, and there are some who seem to make it a daily habit. As with most things in my life, I believe moderation is probably the best course to take when it comes to this. Unfortunately, too many coaches seem to believe that this is the only way to communicate with players.

Think of the long-held stereotype of a coach or the concept of an “old-school” coach. There is a good chance that part of your thoughts have a coach barking at players in some fashion, trying to “motivate” them to perform. Many of you are probably seeing a specific face in your thoughts, too. That face is probably either a coach you had in your life or a famous coach. Is the image you have of this coach one where s/he is yelling?

While yelling in and of itself is not necessarily good or bad, some of the keys to consider when deciding to do it are the audience, the timing, the purpose & intent for your yelling, what you yell, and how you yell.

Audience

When considering yelling at a team, you must first consider who your audience is. If you are coaching high school boys on a football field, chances are they expect you to yell at them. I’m not saying that is necessarily right, but it is an image that many kids have of being on a football team. However, if you are coaching 3rd graders in any sport, you really need to be re-thinking your method if you are yelling at them.

Are there moments when you need to yell, no matter who the audience is? Sure. If you need to get a large group’s attention that isn’t paying attention to you, and they are somewhat spread out in a gym or on a field, yelling at them (or more likely to them) is an acceptable method to get their attention. But for the most part, you need to consider who you are communicating with before you start raising your voice at them.

Timing

Along with the audience, another critical thing to consider is when to yell. Have they just gone through a very frustrating time in a game where they lost a lead or lost a big game? Have they had an extremely difficult, physical or mentally draining practice? Are they being lazy? Are they not paying attention? Are they being poor teammates to one another? Are they getting in trouble in school? Did the team suffer a tragedy recently?

You need to consider each of these questions and hundreds more like them before you choose to yell at your team or individual players. In other words, what is the team going through at this particular time? Is yelling at them an appropriate response to bring out the best in them, or could it have the opposite effect and basically crush their spirit? Understand their psyche at this particular time and choose your words and methods for conveying those words wisely.

Along with this, consider how much you yell. The greatest chance for success for a coach who yells is if s/he only does it occasionally. Too many coaches make yelling at teams such a common part of their approach that the team tunes them out when they start yelling. This is not good, for there may be a very important message in the words, but because they have learned to tune the coach out when s/he yells, the team never picks up the message.

For the greatest impact to occur, it is better to pick and choose your moments when to raise your voice and yell than to deliver a steady diet of it to your teams. That way, when you do yell, your teams will subconsciously think, “Uh-oh. This must be really important because we never hear coach yell at us like this.” Again, moderation is a good guide when it comes to the amount of yelling you do.

Purpose & Intent

Why are you yelling? What is your purpose in choosing this form of communication? Is it the best method to elicit whatever it is you want as an outcome from your team? Are you yelling because you believe that this will benefit your team or this player with some motivation to perform, or are you yelling to benefit yourself because it makes you feel better to “get it off your chest”? In other words what is your intent when it comes to yelling at your team?

If you truly believe that it is an appropriate way to communicate to your audience, the timing is good, and your purpose is genuinely intended to help bring out the best (or stop the worst) in your team, then by all means yell. But always keep in mind that you can’t “rewind the tape” and take it back. So if you are yelling to help you feel better, or you are yelling while you are not completely in control of your words and emotions, you need to re-consider this method of communicating at this time.

What You Yell

When most people think of a coach yelling, their first thought is that the coach is mad and that s/he is scolding the players. However, there are lot of things that coaches yell at players that have nothing to do with being upset at them. Sometimes, it is based on the arena in which they compete. To communicate across a large field or in a loud gym requires coaches to raise their voices, so they yell. At other times, they are merely yelling instructions or words of encouragement. Of course, there will be times when coaches are upset and they will yell. When doing so, though, they must choose their words wisely so as not to hurt, belittle, demean, or embarrass their players.

How You Yell

Along with the words that you yell, you must also consider how you yell. What is your body language, facial expression, and tone like when you yell? Are these non-verbals expressing what you want expressed? You must consider how you yell what you yell. In fact, you should consider this dynamic even when you are not yelling. How one says what one says speaks volumes to the audience to whom one is speaking. Choosing your words carefully is important; choosing how you communicate those words can be monumental.

The idea of coaches yelling at their teams is ingrained into our image of being involved in athletics. However, there are some parameters that all coaches should consider and abide by if they choose this method of communicating with their teams. When done incorrectly, it can create a real disconnect between player and coach, and the team’s chance for success and the athletes’ chances at having a great experience can suffer. However, when it is done with the right intent and in the right way, yelling can be a part of the team experience that actually leads to some moments of inspiration, motivation, and success.

Do you see a place for yelling in coaching? Do you yell at your teams? I would love to hear your thoughts on this in the Comments section below or on the Coach with Character Facebook page.

About the Author of this Article

Scott Rosberg has been a coach (basketball, soccer, & football) at the high school level for 30 years, an English teacher for 18 years, and an athletic director for 12 years. He has published seven booklets on coaching and youth/school athletics, two books of inspirational messages and quotes for graduates, and a newsletter for athletic directors and coaches. He also speaks to schools, teams, and businesses on a variety of team-building, leadership, and coaching topics. Scott has a blog and a variety of other materials about coaching and athletic topics on his website – www.coachwithcharacter.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Scott is also a member of the Proactive Coaching speaking team. Proactive Coaching is dedicated to helping organizations create character and education-based team cultures, while providing a blueprint for team leadership. They help develop confident, tough-minded, fearless competitors and train coaches and leaders for excellence and significance. Proactive Coaching can be found on the web at www.proactivecoaching.info. Also, you can join the 200,000+ people who have “Liked” Proactive Coaching’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/proactivecoach. Scott can also be reached through Proactive Coaching at [email protected]

This article was written and contributed by Scott Rosberg

This is the next in a series of posts that come from some ideas I wrote about in my first two booklets A Head Coach’s Guide for Working with Assistants and The Assistant Coach’s Guide to Coaching. While those booklets were born out of some specific head coach/assistant coach issues I was facing with some members of a coaching staff for whom I was an athletic director, many of the ideas in them form the basis for good coaching principles in general. This post discusses the concept of being precise as we teach.

In the booklet A Head Coach’s Guide for Working with Assistants, I explain to head coaches that they need to consider how they will get their systems implemented into their programs through their assistant coaches. While we may know how we want things taught, we have to make sure that our assistant coaches know how to do this, too. Just giving assistants a drill book and sending them out to fend for themselves isn’t going to get it done. Head coaches need to make sure that assistant coaches understand how drills work and how to teach them properly.

For kids to attain a certain skill level or understand a certain concept, they must not only practice it; they must practice it correctly. The old saying is “Practice makes perfect.” A better way to put it would be, “Perfect practice makes perfect.” If you are practicing something the wrong way, you are just going to reinforce an improper way of performing a skill. You may have some type of positive result, but you are not going to attain the level of “perfection” that you are seeking.

Coaches must be demanding of their players that they perform the drills and skills the precise way, or they are setting the kids up for failure down the road. If I say to a kid that he needs to be at a particular spot to execute a certain move, I better make darn sure that he is at that spot each time that he is working on it. If he isn’t, I need to stop him and correct him to make sure that he understands the importance of doing it the right way. If I don’t correct him, it is my fault if he fails at that skill.

Early on in a season, I believe it is imperative that all the little things get corrected and taken care of right away. Then later on, you can give them a little more time where they try to work through things without correction because they have practiced it the right way so much up to that point, that now all you need to do is stop them occasionally and remind them how that skill needs to be done. At that point in the season, they will usually nod their heads, acknowledge what you are saying and go on. I don’t subscribe to the theory of “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” You need to sweat the small stuff, the big stuff, and everything in between. It is a key to your success.

Being precise is a necessity. Kids need specific direction in order to perform the way you want them to perform. By the same token, assistant coaches need the same kind of specific direction. Head coaches need to show them exactly how they want something taught, and then make sure that the assistants are teaching it that way. Head coaches need to help assistants understand the terminology and the steps of teaching the skill. Then they need to correct the assistants when they make a mistake. However, they should never correct the assistants in front of the kids. They must find a way to augment what the assistants have said, or they should have the assistants come back the next day and re-teach the skill the proper way. That way the assistants are not put into an embarrassing spot of having to explain why they taught something the wrong way.

In any situation where there is teaching to be done, it is always best to err on the side of being too precise than to not be precise enough. While I fully understand the importance of trying to be brief as much as possible, you cannot sacrifice quality instruction in order to be brief. Yes, coaches need to talk less and have players play more. I totally agree. But when it is fitting and necessary, they need to make sure they get as precise as possible. This means making sure that every word has meaning and power, so that you can pack the most power into your message in the least amount of words. This takes a lot of work for a coach to master this concept, but it is work that will be well worth it in the long run.

For more information like you find in this post, check out my blog posts on coaches being teachers and my booklets A Head Coach’s Guide for Working with Assistants and The Assistant Coach’s Guide to Coaching. Just click on any of these to be taken to that page on my website.

About the Author of this Article

Scott Rosberg has been a coach (basketball, soccer, & football) at the high school level for 30 years, an English teacher for 18 years, and an athletic director for 12 years. He has published seven booklets on coaching and youth/school athletics, two books of inspirational messages and quotes for graduates, and a newsletter for athletic directors and coaches. He also speaks to schools, teams, and businesses on a variety of team-building, leadership, and coaching topics. Scott has a blog and a variety of other materials about coaching and athletic topics on his website – www.coachwithcharacter.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Scott is also a member of the Proactive Coaching speaking team. Proactive Coaching is dedicated to helping organizations create character and education-based team cultures, while providing a blueprint for team leadership. They help develop confident, tough-minded, fearless competitors and train coaches and leaders for excellence and significance. Proactive Coaching can be found on the web at www.proactivecoaching.info. Also, you can join the 200,000+ people who have “Liked” Proactive Coaching’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/proactivecoach. Scott can also be reached through Proactive Coaching at [email protected]

Culture Trumps Everything
The Power of the Setting

By Dr. Cory Dobbs

*This Following is An Excerpt from the workshop workbook: A Leader in Every Locker.

Authors Note: The workshop workbook for A Leader in Every Locker(excerpt below)  provides a very disruptive approach to team building.  The idea of a leader in every locker is borderline laughable according to most coaches.  I know, I’ve been presenting this idea and approach to coaches for some time.  Most find it difficult to conceive of, but that’s the point.  It wouldn’t be disruptive if it fit with everyone’s thinking and practice.  The notion of a leader in every locker sounds like chaos.  It’s quite the opposite.  It is an organized learning system that shapes a high-performing culture by shattering long-standing socially conditioned traditions of leadership.

Why do some team cultures inspire energy and commitment, instilling loyalty and persistence, while others create individualism, in-fighting, diminish participant effort and tarnish the value of teamwork?  Do some coaches have access to a magical elixir for creating a high-impact context, while others haven’t a clue?  I doubt it.  So what’s going on?

The conventional view of student-athlete leadership is that of a strong preference for appointing or electing team captains.  The Academy for Sport Leadership’s research on the selection of a team’s captains reveals that close to eighty-percent of all captains are viewed by their teammates as extraverts.  So team leadership starts with extraversion, but it’s also linked closely to playing ability.  Likewise, our research shows that well over eighty-percent of all team captains are starters.  The very idea of a team captain being a starting player is somewhat of a sacred cow.  Thanks to this mythos, we find that players near the end of the bench are least likely to provide substantial leadership.  Also, according to the players, team captains are expected to motivate and inspire teammates, with their doing so mostly by acting as a model of what to do.  In other words, the defining criteria for choosing a team captain has more to do with one’s disposition—internal characteristics that reside within the individual—than fit together with the external context and the needs of the situation.

The central premise of this workshop workbook is that many of the leadership practices of sports teams are in fact backfiring because of the errant assumptions about who can lead.  The scheme of a leader in every locker explores the complex ideas about dispositional (personal) versus situational determinants of behavior.

It turns out that social forces subtly and profoundly influence attitudes and behaviors; more so than most people are willing to acknowledge. Social effects hold immense power to shape who we are, both at a moment in time as well as over time. This principle leads to the social phenomenon that where you are shapes who you are; which flies in the face of accepted thinking that dispositions are the drivers.  What’s more, student‐athletes are highly sensitive to the social forces, both explicit and implicit, embedded within an event, a situation, a context, and the team’s culture. Yet, too often coaches underestimate the impact of situational aspects—the context, the culture, and the circumstances—that evoke and guide a player’s behavior.  After all, it’s much easier to attribute an individual’s behavior to his or her personality than explore the complex social situational determinants of one’s attitude and consequently his or her actions.

Furthermore, when we encounter a social situation most of us seamlessly adjust who we are to accommodate the social setting, to fit into the context. That is, we adapt to the environment.  Such transitions are, for the most part smooth and seldom explicitly reflected upon.  Not long ago I was admitted to a hospital for a surgical procedure.  From the moment I walked in the door to check in I unconsciously acted like a patient. I played the role of a patient when the nurse was prepping me, willingly taking orders from someone I only met minutes ago.  This is why leaders of great organizations declare that culture trumps all.  The constant dynamic interplay between players and coaches holds great sway over the performance capability of a team.  Culture influences are many micro-actions, giving the setting potency to control our behavior in the moment.

Social psychologists tell us that too often we inflate the importance of such things as one’s personality traits and dispositions as a convenient way to explain the behavior of others.  When we do this, we fail to recognize and account for the importance of situational factors (immediate and cultural).  The point I want to make here is that understanding the context—situationism rather than dispositionalism—provides insights into the potent forces eliciting or constraining a player’s behavior.  For instance, in my observational research I have found that the players on the practice field closest in proximity to the coach are more likely to “mimic” the coach than those off in the distance.  For example, if a coach is encouraging her team with positive words those players nearest to the coach will offer similar encouragement too.  And if the coach is reprimanding a player, those closest to the coach are more likely to express disapproval to the offending teammate than those furthest from the event.  All this is done outside the consciousness of those involved, but triggered by the situation.  As you can see, the subtle nuance of the situation serves as a compelling force for producing behavior.

Add to this the factor that many coaches I’ve studied limit the ways in which they “describe” reality.  Too often they don’t account for the multiple ways in which a situation can be viewed.  “We didn’t rebound well last night,” says the head coach reading the game stats sheet.  Her assistants all shake their head in agreement.  However, maybe the other team shot really well making rebounds a casualty on the stats sheet.  Certainly this is a simple situation, but coach’s, like historians, have the power of defining reality.  Moreover, coaches often discount how their interpretations are shaped by an already constructed mental schema of a player, usually focused on the traits or disposition of the athlete.  “He’s too passive, that’s why he won’t challenge his teammates,” comments the coach, attributing the player’s behavior to his personality rather than the broader context in which the behavior takes place.

Simple truths are often the hardest to come to. The simple truth here concerns the power and subtlety of situational influences on behavior.  In the case of the team sport environment in which players perform and take action, the culture impacts the hearts, minds, and behavior—for good or bad.  And when it comes to leadership, if you develop a leader in every locker you change the culture.  Today, the more forward thinking coaches are adopting the approach of a leader in every locker.

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will care.” -Your Student-Athlete The world of coaching is changing. In Coaching for Leadership you’ll discover the foundations for designing, building, and sustaining a leadership focused culture for building a high-performance team. To find out more about and order Sport Leadership Books authored by Dr. Dobbs including Coaching for Leadership, click this link: The Academy for Sport Leadership Books

About the Author

A former basketball coach, Cory’s coaching background includes experience at the NCAA DII, NJCAA, and high school levels of competition. While coaching, he researched and developed the transformative Becoming a Team Leader program for student-athletes. Cory has worked with professional athletes, collegiate athletic programs and high schools teaching leadership as a part of the sports experience and education process. Cory cut his teeth as a corporate leader with Fortune 500 member, The Dial Corp. As a consultant and trainer Dr. Dobbs has worked with such organizations as American Express, Honeywell, and Avnet.

Cory has taught a variety of courses on leadership and change for the following universities:

Northern Arizona University (Graduate Schools of Business and Education)

Ohio University (Graduate School of Education / Management and Leadership in Sport)

Grand Canyon University (Sports Marketing and Sports Management in the Colangelo School of Sports Business)

by Scott Rosberg

This post is the second of a few that come from some ideas I wrote in my first two booklets A Head Coach’s Guide for Working with Assistants and The Assistant Coach’s Guide to Coaching. While those booklets were born out of some specific head coach/assistant coach issues I was facing with some members of a coaching staff for whom I was an athletic director, many of the ideas in them form the basis for good coaching principles in general. Today, I want to talk about the three messages that occur anytime we communicate with people.

As an English teacher for 18 years, I tried to teach my students many facets of good communication. Interestingly, most of the lessons on communication that I taught played a huge role not only in the classroom, but also in the athletic arena and elsewhere in life. One important lesson is that whenever we communicate with others, we need to be aware of three types of messages – Intended, Actual, and Received/Perceived Messages.

Intended Message

Every time we speak to someone, we start with a certain premise in mind that we are trying to advance. This goes for everything that we state to someone. Each time we speak we have what I call an “Intended Message.” Our intended message is what we are trying to get across to the listener. While we speak in conversations, every single utterance of ours has some intention that we are hoping to get across.

However, what we intend to communicate and what we “actually” communicate are not always the same thing. I may have a certain idea I am trying to get across to someone, but I may struggle to put into words exactly how to get that message across. Or the receiver of the message may miss out on some key element that is really important to fully understanding the message. Something may have interrupted the smooth flow of my intention and what was actually communicated.

Actual Message

This leads to the second type of message, the “Actual Message.” The actual message is what was actually stated. It is the words, phrases, and sentences that come out of the speaker’s mouth to try to communicate a given message to an audience. While this is a fairly simple concept to explain and understand, the problems in communication usually end up happening somewhere from this point forward into the next type of message.

Received/Perceived Message

The final type of message in communication is the “Received/Perceived Message.” This is the message that the audience takes in and then interprets. The Received/Perceived message is in some ways the most important message, for it is what determines whether or not the audience understands the speaker. It is in the Received/Perceived Message where we find out if our intended message actually hit home. Unfortunately, the speaker doesn’t always receive the feedback as to whether or not it did. This is often where problems occur in relationships – when an intended message does not actually end up being the received message. But how does this happen, and how can we work to avoid it? Also, what does this have to do with athletics?

Let me start with the last question first. This has a lot to do with athletics, for athletics is a relationship and communication endeavor. There is constant communication that is happening in the athletic world. Teams rely on clear communication to succeed. If people on a team do not understand each other, no progress can be made. So it helps to have a basic understanding of how communication works in order to achieve success.

So where does communication break down between the intended and the received message? Well, it can occur in a variety of places. It can occur in the intended message if the speaker is not completely certain of the message s/he is trying to get across, or if s/he isn’t sure of the best way to get that message across to the audience. For example, if I am an assistant coach, and the head coach wants me to communicate something to a player or players, I may not fully understand all of his/her intentions  with regards to the message, so I may struggle getting the message the head coach wants to be received properly by the players.

The next place the message can break down is in the actual message stage. One would think this would not be an area where a breakdown could occur. If you just say what needs to be said, there should be no problem here. However, just “saying what needs to be said” and actually saying it that way can be two different things.

For example, if my intention is to confront a player’s behavior that is unacceptable in our program, but I struggle with confrontation, I may mess up my intention by not clearly stating what the problem is. What I “actually” say and what I “intended” to say may have been different. I may have needed to be very direct, strong, and to the point, but because I do not like confronting in this manner, I may have softened my message to a point where the player did not realize the exact message and that what s/he was being told was a very big thing. What was actually said did not convey the severity and seriousness that the intention of my message demanded. This can lead to confusion and misunderstanding on the part of the player.

Finally, the message can break down in the “receive/perceive” stage. I may have had the right intention and said exactly what needed to be said, but the receiver may have been distracted or may have had a preconceived notion about me or about my message, and so s/he did not clearly understand the message. S/He is not a blank piece of paper onto which a message is written. S/He is a human being with her/his own thoughts, feelings, emotions, and ideas, and those all impact the messages s/he receives. S/he is reading my body language, tone of voice, inflection, past history with me, and any other number of things that affect how s/he processes the message. S/He may even “receive” the actual message, but s/he may “perceive” it differently due to some of those types of factors.

What Can We Do?

So what can we do to maximize the chances that our intended message ends up being our audience’s received/perceived message? The first thing is to recognize this dynamic of the difference between these three types of messages. Then as a speaker, make sure you consider exactly what you are trying to get across and then speak that message as clearly as possible.

Brevity and conciseness are important parts of communicating in athletics. We don’t always have time to go into much detail due to time and space constraints in an athletic arena, so this can often lead to breakdowns in communication. Coming up with a “common language and vocabulary” to use when coaching so all people understand the message better is an important step in keeping communications clear.

While brevity and conciseness are important in communicating in athletics, there are some times and situations where you may need to explain things in more detail to make sure that they “get it.” This just happened with this post that you are reading – my goal is to be in the 800-1,000 word range for these posts. However, this post demanded a bit more detail to explain it, so it is about 1,500 words.

Also, consider what type of message you are sending with your body language, tone of voice, and inflection as you speak. Are your actions backing up the exact words you are stating and how you want them to come across? Is the person to whom you are speaking picking up on these non-verbals? Are your non-verbals communicating what you want them to communicate?

When you are the receiver of a message, pay as close attention as you can to what you are being told. Consider body language, tone and inflection, but also make sure you focus on the words being spoken to you. Also, consider your own state of mind and biases as you are processing what you are hearing. Try to be as objective as possible as you process, so that you don’t perceive something that isn’t really there. Finally, ask clarifying questions to help you figure out if you are receiving the right message. Make sure to truly listen to the answers you get.

Coaching/teaching is communicating. The more you know about communication skills and how to use them, the better your chances of success as a coach/teacher occurring. If you have any stories of times when your intended message somehow got sidetracked by the time it got to be the received/perceived message of your audience, I would love hear them. Please leave your comment below this post on our website or on our Facebook page.

About the Author of this Article

Scott Rosberg has been a coach (basketball, soccer, & football) at the high school level for 30 years, an English teacher for 18 years, and an athletic director for 12 years. He has published seven booklets on coaching and youth/school athletics, two books of inspirational messages and quotes for graduates, and a newsletter for athletic directors and coaches. He also speaks to schools, teams, and businesses on a variety of team-building, leadership, and coaching topics. Scott has a blog and a variety of other materials about coaching and athletic topics on his website – www.coachwithcharacter.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Scott is also a member of the Proactive Coaching speaking team. Proactive Coaching is dedicated to helping organizations create character and education-based team cultures, while providing a blueprint for team leadership. They help develop confident, tough-minded, fearless competitors and train coaches and leaders for excellence and significance. Proactive Coaching can be found on the web at www.proactivecoaching.info. Also, you can join the 200,000+ people who have “Liked” Proactive Coaching’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/proactivecoach. Scott can also be reached through Proactive Coaching at [email protected].

Editor’s Note from Brian:  Not all of these ideas will apply to non-college level coaches, but there is a lot of good food for thought for coaches of all levels.

By Stephanie Zonars

If she doesn’t get outside help, she won’t last.

That was my friend’s closing thought about working with her head coach. She’s in a support role for a division I team and was lamenting the challenges of working with a coach who is unaware how her attitudes and behaviors impact the team and even athletic department.

The truth is, we all need help.

When I first started my business back in 2009 I hired a business coach to help me. It was one of my smartest moves.

I remember one time he called me while I was in the middle of something.

My tone was pretty flat when I answered.

He asked for permission to give me feedback. When I consented, he told me that potential clients want to work with people who are positive and enthusiastic, and added that I didn’t sound positive and enthusiastic when I answered the phone.

I’ve never forgotten that conversation. It helped me realize how much more I need to project enthusiasm in order for it to really show. I’m a work in progress, but getting better.

Projecting enthusiasm is a blind spot for me. Something other people see about me that I don’t see.

I know I have other blind spots (one reason why I just re-hired my business coach!).

You have them too.

The off-season is the best time to gain insight about blind spots. Here are three steps to get you started:

Acknowledge your need.

In the book Thanks for the Feedback, authors Stone and Heen denote the three types of feedback:

Appreciation: to see, acknowledge, connect, motivate, thank
Coaching: to help receiver expand knowledge, sharpen skill, improve capability
Evaluation: to rate or rank against a set of standards, to align expectations, to inform decision-making

One of the biggest mistakes coaches (particularly first-time head coaches) make is not realizing their need for coaching and evaluation soon enough.

Most coaches don’t get fired for a lack of strategic knowledge, but rather for leadership deficiencies. [Tweet That!]

Those gaps lead to culture issues, which result in fewer wins.

Washington women’s basketball coach, Mike Neighbors wrote a terrific article about the 418 mistakes he made in his first year as a head coach. In hindsight he realized, “I needed a better plan. I needed support. I needed help.”

Acknowledging your need and opening your heart and mind to feedback is the first hurdle.

Feedback is scary, humbling and sometimes it just plain hurts!

But when you remember that everyone on the planet has blind spots and that this one step alone can catapult your leadership, you realize it’s worth the discomfort.

Ask for feedback.

People avoid feedback conversations because they are uncomfortable.

Your boss may not bring issues up in an annual review, and your direct reports may hesitate to be honest with you for fear of damaging the relationship or even losing their job.

So even when you know you need and want it, it’s tough to get honest, helpful feedback in the form you desire.

That’s why you need to ask for the specific kind of feedback you want.

Penn State women’s basketball coach Coquese Washington uses a series of forms to gather that type of feedback for both her staff and herself. Staff evaluate themselves and one another, and assistant coaches also receive evaluations from position players.

Exclusive Download: Coquese shared her evaluation forms at the Penn State Striving for Excellence coaches workshops, and allowed me to make them available to you. Click Here to download the head coach, assistant coach and staff evaluation forms.

Hands down, the most effective feedback tool I’ve used is a 360° review, which gives a leader input from all directions (superiors, peers, direct reports) as opposed to just her boss.

If you’re a head coach, you may not work closely on a daily basis with the AD to whom you report.

So while the annual review is helpful, feedback from people in the trenches with you every day is even more valuable. And, the anonymous process of the 360° lends itself to more honest input.

If you don’t already have a system in place to receive feedback, ask your HR representative or direct superior for tools available on your campus. Or find a consultant with those resources. Which brings me to my last point…

Find a consultant.

Willingly opening yourself for evaluation can leave you feeling vulnerable, with a natural inclination to become defensive about any less-than-favorable feedback.

Walking through the feedback process with an objective consultant will lead to even better outcomes.

A consultant will assist you in assimilating the feedback, looking for themes and implementing action steps.

After all, there’s no point in going through the process unless you are willing to hear what others observe and make some adjustments!

Acknowledging your need for feedback, asking for it and finding someone to walk with you through the process of interpreting it is paramount in your personal and professional development.

And the benefits you reap just might save you from the heartache of losing your job.

One Mistake That Could Cost You Your Job appeared first on Life Beyond Sport.

Clinic Notes from:

These are some of the notes presented by Dean Lockwood. Dean is currently the Associate Head Women’s Coach at Michigan State. He was an assistant in the Tennessee Women’s Program for 15 years. He was also an assistant in their men’s program for 5 years. In between those stints at Tennessee, he has been the men’s head coach at Saginaw Valley State, and Northwood University.

How to Be a Great Assistant Coach

Know and Understand Yourself

Take some time to think about and write out answers to these questions:

1) Why did I get into coaching?
2) What do I love about coaching?
3) What do I dislike about coaching?
4) What are my present and future goals?
5) Why am I in coaching now?

Know This Profession

1) Job security
2) Stress
3) Scrutiny/criticism
4) Time-consumption
5) Things beyond your control that impact success
6) Limited flexibility/autonomy (as an assistant)

Features

1) Teach life lessons and impact people
2) Working at what you love
3) Competition
4) Each season and team is a new journey
5) Keeps you “young at heart”
6) Help people/teams mature, develop, and win

Non-Negotiables

1) Loyalty
2) Integrity
3) Passion for work/commitment to excellence
4) Love for people/your team
5) Love for the game

Approach

1) Support Head Coach and team mission
2) Reinforce program values, principles, and standards
3) You are always representing your Head Coach and your program–realize the power of your own example
4) Take pride in and fulfill your role
5) Check your ego at the door–be careful of your pride, it’s not about you
6) Servanthood–pour into the lives of others
7) John Maxwell’s 3 things everyone asks of leaders/staff:
A. Do you care about me?
B. Can I trust you?
C. Can you help me?
8) An assistant’s overall tone should be positive
9) It’s all about TEAM
10) Make the “Big Time” where you are

Communicationan

1) Use we/us/ous instead of I/me/my
2) Must have honesty in all interactions
3) Treat ALL staff as colleagues/peers/equauls–Head Coach is your boss, others are co-workers
4) Never talk to anyone (other than the Head Coach) about another staff member unless it is positive
5) DO NOT talk whenever the Head Coach is talking
6) NEVER undermine the Head Coach (Disagree in private, support in public)
7) Find out what the Head Coach needs from you
8) Pick your times to discuss certain things with the Head Coach–be aware of “Mind Space”
9) Don’t just point out problems…present some solutions
10) Be a buffer without being a crutch
11) Do not allow players to play you against the Head Coach or other staff
12) Don’t “write checks you can’t cash” (don’t overextend your authority)
13) Look for legitimate ways to encourage and complement
14) Verbally and non-verbally convey to players: “We believe in you.”
15) Check for consistency
A. Are we doing what we are saying?
B. Are we reinforcing it?
16) Develop positive relationships with other staff, department members, administrators, and faculty

Execution

1) Be at ALL presentations by Head Coach to team
2) Pith in–help other coaches/staff members when you can. Share burdens, nothing is beneath you. Everyone has a role
3) Make the job of the Head Coach easier–take on tasks that help the Head Coach focus on the team and recruiting
4) Anticipate–what does the head coach and team need? (See the need and fill it)
5) Share material and resources
6) Share information: team issues should be out in the open
7) Bring these every day: Energy & Encouragement–be a battery charger–your passion and energy should inspire others.
8) Time management: invest time where it matters most. Recruit, teach, develop, graduate, help team win
9) Attention to detail: Little things matter
10) Continually develop, hone, and evolve teaching skills (Your position group, phases of the game, within systems)
11) Teach every day (be demanding without being demeaning) Coach Newell-“The game is over-coached and under taught” Coach Lombardi “Blocking and Tackling”
12) Laws of learning: instruction, demonstration, imitation, repetition, correction, repetition
13) 33 years has taught me: Simplicity of the game and execution of fundamentals
14) Learn and use your program’s terminology
15) Be available for extra work/shots/film with players
16) Watch video of your team (Self scout)
17) When watching scouting video look for ideas and concepts that you can steal for your team
18) Program organization: Play book, Drill book, Criticals (Special Situations), Team notebooks, game notes
19) Game Management
A) Bench demeanor 10% emotional–90% analytical
B) Bench comportment of team
C) Staff interaction (positive, analytical, team-oriented, never allow players to hear anything negative about team or player coming from you
D) How do you need to feed information to Head Coach (How does Head Coach process info?)
E) MUST know/be aware of fouls, timeouts, possession arrow
F) Leave officiating issues to the Head Coach
20) Post game breakdowns
A) Watch game tape
B) Take emotion out of it; analyze what happened and how and why it happened
C) Know what hurt your team; know what was effective for your team
D) Notes/charts/stats
E) Suggestions for next practice/game/moving forward (support with video clips often)

Growth

1) Pat Summitt: You never arrive in this game. You are always learning and improving
2) Don Meyer: Get all the good ideas, but you can’t use all the good ideas
3) Growth is intentional. Become a better teacher and communicator
4) Continue to increase your value: recruiting, teaching, scouting, etc…
5) Be a lifelong learner
A) You can’t give away what you don’t have
B) The same principle that applies to your players applies to you-KEEP GETTING BETTER
C) Read, observe, listen
6) Seek out mentors and people who can help you learn and grow
7) Success is “rented” and the rent comes due every day
8) Realize that the one certain thing is change and uncertainty… things will change often in this profession
9) Talk to Head Coach about you long-term goals and aspirations (But always do a great job where you are. When the team wins–everyone wins)
10) Appearance and presentation
11) Leave it in better shape because you were there: Make it better. James Naismith
12) Take time to “Sharpen Your Saw.”
13) Be thankful and appreciative. Enjoy the journey