Coaches Toolbox

6 Ways to Develop a Winning Team Culture

by

This article was provided by Inner Drive, a mental skills training company

The post is written from the perspective of a soccer coach, but the lessons on developing a winning culture are applicable for all coaches regardless of the sport you coach.

Why do some teams outperform others? Why does the sum total equal more than the parts? For many, the answer refers to the ‘team culture’. But what exactly does this mean? And more importantly, how can you best develop it within your team?

A BAND OF BROTHERS

This year has been described by many as the year of ‘the underdogs’ (think Leicester City, Iceland and Walespunching well above their weight). Many have attributed their success to their team culture, often describing the players as a ‘band of brothers’. But what drives individuals to come together as a team?

Leading researchers explain organisational culture as ‘shared values, beliefs, expectations, and practices across the members a group’. Culture is defined as something everyone feels, but cannot see; existing as an unspoken understanding of ‘how we do things around here’. Sport specific studies and reviews show this can include traditions, rituals or symbols unique to the specific team.

It is shown that the adaptive qualities of being open to new learning and flexible to change prevent performance stagnation. Conflict, which inevitably happens, can be managed to enhance growth and creativity, problem solving and have positive effects on team effectiveness.

THE SECRET TO DEVELOPING A SUCCESSFUL CULTURE

If teams can encourage a culture that is adaptable and open to conflict as a form of innovation and new learning, they could expect to see more optimal and improved performance.  Through my research I suggest 6 tips to encourage a better team culture:

1. Have awareness of your team own culture

Take time as a team to consider what your culture is. What are the important values, beliefs, behaviours and the vision you encourage and work towards?

What kind of performance do you usually see (e.g. positive or negative) and what does it do (e.g. does it grow or is it stagnant / promote new thinking or not)? How does your team handle setbacks, conflict or challenges? In order to improve or change a culture, you must first understand how you operate as a team

2. Encourage team responsibility for the creation of your team culture

Culture is not rigid and neither will it necessarily always stay positive or negative. It becomes dependent on mindset (growth or fixed) and psychological momentum of everyone in your team.

They say positivity or negativity is infectious – the same is true of culture. Everyone holds responsibility for how they want the team to be, and they need to know this.

If you really want your team to buy into a particular culture, then they need to be the ones to take ownership, generate it and put it into practice.

3. Encourage team experiences together

The way majority of athletes said their teams learnt to be adaptable was to experience different things together. These experiences are completely dependent on the priorities of the team. However, what became clear was that if a team learns to deal with challenges together, they will learn to overcome them together (as noted by Wales captain Ashley Williams below).  This is more effective than them learning in separation; it keeps them cohesive and promotes confidence and reliability in one another, which all favour better performance.

4. Recognize team conflict as a natural and necessary occurrence

Do not prevent conflict from happening – it shows to be a very constructive way of resolving unspoken doubts or concerns within the team. It encourages individuals to think of alternative ways of solving a problem or overcoming challenges. Remember, conflict works when it is managed effectively – constructive criticism and discussions are the more positive ways of dealing with conflict.

This approach is one of the cornerstones of the successful New Zealand Rugby Team. Being able to talk openly, honestly and constructively, without taking personal offence is an important part of the process. (You can read more about how The All Blacks develop their team culture, in our blog here, ‘Why Are New Zealand So Good at Rugby’).

5. Encourage athletes to contribute ideas and opinions to group discussions

This links into using conflict effectively. Involving the whole team (e.g. athletes & coach) in the decision process not only encourages adaptability, it helps build team cohesion and can empower your athletes through the opportunity to make decisions. A healthy team discussion about which direction to take and why can help squash doubts and make sure everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal.

6. Include everyone in the culture (make sure the team knows who the ‘team’ is).

As has already been mentioned, culture is everyone’s responsibility – it does not just stop at the athletic team. Whilst leaders or coaches have a big role to play in setting the expectations, visions and morals, especially for younger teams, you need other members of the team to help you spread the message.

For many this involves the welfare and support staff. All the other individuals that work to optimize the athletes’ performance need to buy into the same culture, led by the same expectations, in order for it to truly become alive. A great example of this was seen by the many different component parts at Leicester City coming together to work towards a single goals.

FINAL THOUGHT

Developing an effective team culture is difficult. Getting players to sacrifice the ‘me’ for the ‘we’ can be challenging. However, the rewards are worth it. As Aristotle, and later Gestalt psychologists noted, ‘the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts’.

If you’re a parent trying to best support your child, check out our blog How to Help Your Child in Sport.

We would like to thank Alex for writing this blog. For more information about her research, you can contact her on 

[email protected].

The (W)inner Game

by

This article was written and submitted to me by Björn Galjaardt. The article has application to coaching regardless of the sport that you coach.

With a flirt to water polo…

Who didn’t hear about Vince Lombardi’s quote; ‘Winning is not everything, but the will to win is’? Months or years of effort to achieve a certain goal, fueled by a driving will. But how do we create a will to win (process), rather than the focus on the outcome of winning itself (product)?

Correcting automatically to achieve best performance.

In 1974 Tim Callwey wrote about certain principles in which an individual uses non-judgmental observations of critical variables, with the purpose of being accurate about these observations. If the observations are accurate, the person’s body will adjust and correct automatically to achieve best performance(1). Below I summarised these principles of the ‘inner game’ and provided some thoughts. Triggering and shifting a thinking process in relation to process and product and having a deeper understanding in, what I think should be called, the (w)inner game.

  • Self 1+2. Listen to your subconscious mind. Everyday actions are imbedded in our subconscious mind. Our conscious mind will tell us what to do and how to do it (eg. look at the ball, bend your elbow). Often we only listen to our conscious mind. However, in our subconscious mind we already know what we are doing and we doing it perfectly fine (eg. thinking, walking). By trying to listen to our subconscious mind (self 2), we can actually lead our conscious mind (self 1) and let it eventually take over.
  • Quiet. Be quiet and observe. Instead of focussing on the result of the action, look at the action and process that action. That is where the bus stops. Not thinking about the how to react, will refocus the mind on what is actually happening. Be non-judgmental, only note what happens. Sport example; the ball bounces. Focus on how it bounce, what speed, where, etc. Don’t anticipate, no further actions required.
  • Act the part. Ask for qualities. How would it look like when a certain action is perfectly executed? What are the motions and emotions? Express it and literally perform that. Repeat until you can match the quality. Business example: the body language, the smile and posture for the connection with audience when presenting.
  • Challenges. Embrace challenges. Be excited. A challenge is an opportunity to show your skills or qualities. A challenge is where you could meet your flow. Flow is where challenge meet skills. Adapt and adjust qualities till you acquire the skill needed for the challenge. Break challenges down and build up qualities to reach a balanced level.
  • Don’t fight. Improve what you are good at. Don’t fight bad habits, work with them. Convert thinking into a challenge. Example: I am going to create a new technique. I am going to be excited to learn it. How can I make it work (better for me) to perform. Note the difference; I am not good at this or I will give it a go.

Currently ‘positive coaching’ and ‘leader vs boss’ are hot topics. Observe the principles above. There is a correlation between process and product and how it changed managers, leaders and coaches. Focus on the do’s, matching skills with challenge and adjusting these accordingly. This is relevant in Sport and Business, although the principles aim to improve body movement, it has the same result. The mental and physical outcome are changing positively to achieve best performance.

Focus on the do’s, matching skills with challenge and adjust these accordingly.

The principles so far have described the (w)inner game, however what is the difference between (w)inner game and outer game? Basically: the outer game are all the external factors that could shift the focus from the (w)inner game. Perhaps I brand it the (w)outer game, way outer game, since performances decline when you allow to let outer game influences come closer to your conscious and subconscious mind. Sport examples; the score, opponent, the exclusion earned and the venue (in Rio 2016, the colour of the water). Business examples; deadlines, competitors, market changes, and IT-support. Below a comparison of where inner game and outer game could fit. Included is a mixed array of desired attitude and mindset examples.

Finally, compiling the information, the main question can be answered. How can we create a stronger will to win? The direct answer will be: by applying the principles above. Performance can be enhanced by growing potential and minimising interference(2). There need to be a focus on improving the individuals process and centralise the journey to the goal. Fueling the importance of the will to win. An olympian once said; “Climbing a hill can be much more excited than reaching the top. The journey of becoming an olympian was more challenging than becoming an olympic champion”.

Using the principles above as a guideline I draw the following conclusion. The goal, winning, works as a milestone (by-product). The journey, will to win, works as a vehicle (main-product within the process). Focus on what is happening, perfecting this and make it a habit of the subconscious mind. Base actions on facts and be excited for challenges. Don’t waste your time fighting bad habits and outer game influences.

#innergame #winnergame #will #win #winning #goal #process #product

(1) Gallwey, W. Timothy (2000). The Inner Game of Work New York: Random House. p. 27.

(2) Gallwey, W. Timothy (1974). The Inner Game of Tennis (1st ed.). New York: Random House.


Tending the Mental Garden

by

This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

By Tone Lanzillo

Tone Lanzillo is a mental skills coach to athletes. He works with athletes in such sports as softball, boxing, field hockey, football, soccer, basketball and lacrosse and writes for FirstDown Playbook, Coaches Training Room, Ultimate Hockey Source, Lax Playbook, Online Soccer Coaching, World of Basketball, Lacrosse All-Stars, Coaches Clipboard and Coach Book. He welcomes questions and comments through email at: [email protected]

An important goal of any mental skills training program is to help athletes become more self-confident and believe in themselves. To do that, they need to be able to have and hold on to positive thoughts about themselves—as a person and as an athlete. Yet, there are athletes who have a difficult time doing this because they are carrying around negative thoughts and beliefs that they don’t want to acknowledge or can’t let go of.

Many athletes forget to identify and address the negative thoughts or beliefs they are holding on to. And what these athletes don’t realize is that they will have a very difficult time constructing positive thoughts about themselves if they are still walking around with negative thoughts. If an athlete believes that he is a failure and thinks he will keep making mistakes in practices and games, then no matter how often his coaches or teammates try to encourage him or to build up his self-confidence, the positive comments or feedback won’t stick.

Here is a simple exercise you can use to show your athletes how to address and release negative thoughts or beliefs, and at the same time, identify the positive thoughts or beliefs they want to keep. This exercise is called “Pull and Plant.”

First, ask your athletes to picture a garden that has been overrun with weeds. Then ask them what would happen if they planted some flowers but didn’t take out the weeds. You want them to start thinking and talking about how the weeds obstruct the view of the flowers and how roots sap energy and leave no space for the flowers to grow.

Explain to your athletes that their mind is like a garden. If they want to plant positive thoughts and beliefs in their mind, then they have to pull out the negative thoughts and beliefs—especially if they want the positive thoughts and beliefs to take hold and grow. If they don’t pull out the weeds (negative thoughts and beliefs), then the flowers (positive thoughts and beliefs) won’t survive.

Invite each athlete to identify any negative thoughts or beliefs they currently hold. Then, ask them to find the “root” of that thought or belief. At what moment in time, or during what situation or experience, did the negative thought or belief take root?

Maybe a pitcher has come to think or believe that he is a terrible player because in one game he couldn’t strike out any batters and gave up three home runs. Or maybe a wide receiver dropped several balls in a playoff game and now thinks that he can’t perform in key games. These athletes have to change their perception of that difficult or challenging experience.

Let’s say a baseball player is going up to bat in the ninth inning and his team is behind by one run. As he walks up to the plate, his batting coach reminds him that he will be fine. The coach tells him to just focus on the ball, make contact, and follow through on his swing. But the player is telling himself that he is going to strike out because he struck out in the first inning. What this baseball player has to do is to take what he thinks is a negative experience (striking out) and put it into a positive frame of reference (I’m a smarter batter because I now know this pitcher’s best pitches).

The overarching idea is to teach athletes how to take what they perceive as a negative situation and put it into a positive frame of reference. When they do this, they are essentially pulling the weed out of the garden so they can plant flowers that will live and grow. They are pulling out the negative thoughts or beliefs so the positive thoughts and beliefs can become a stable part of the athlete’s mindset.


Why Student-Athletes Don’t Lead

by

“Who am I to…”
Why Student-Athletes Don’t Lead

Dr. Cory Dobbs

One of the deepest needs within people is belonging.  If you’re a coach you belong to the coaching “fraternity” or “sorority.”  And it feels good to belong.   These are your people, your friends, colleagues and confidants.  They think much like you do which makes it easy to be around one another.  There are coaching and administrator associations that hold annual events that you love to attend to be around others just like you.  Belonging is natural.

Your student-athletes—team captains or team leaders—want to belong too.  They seek an inner congruence for order, harmony, and peace with their teammates.  They too want the team to be like a fraternity or sorority.  They want to belong.  So when it comes time to lead, the typical team captain or team leader is afraid to do something that seems incongruent with their values and beliefs.  Their first thought is “Who am I to tell her she needs to stop doing that.”  They feel a real mental conflict.

Dr. Leon Festinger, a researcher and professor at Stanford University, coined the term “cognitive dissonance” to explain this mental conflict that the team leader feels.  Cognitive means the mind, the way we think.  Dissonance means conflict.  Cognitive dissonance literally means to have a mental conflict.

According to Festinger, and subsequently many other researchers, when an individual experiences cognitive dissonance they quickly search for a way to reduce the incongruence causing the dissonance.

The person with the conflict is motivated to reduce the inner turmoil in some manner.  For example, the thirty-five year old factory worker who smokes a pack a day on his breaks knows (doesn’t everyone?) that smoking is bad for you.  So to reduce the psychological tension he adopts the position, “My aunt lived to one-hundred and she smoked a pack a day so it must not be that bad for you.”  This cognitive maneuver reduces the internal tension caused by his actions—smoking—and his knowledge of facts—smoking is bad for you but it can’t be that bad if my aunt could smoke and live to one hundred.

Why is it that student-athletes fear leadership roles and responsibilities?  Simply put, when a student-athlete is asked to perform a peer-to-peer leadership action, it is, by default, inconsistent with his or her existing values, beliefs, and perceived skills.  This causes a conflict—dissonance—that inhibits the likelihood of the peer leader taking action.  The internal dialogue of “Who am I to do this” will generally rule the day.

How then can you change the outcome of inaction?  Practice, practice, practice.  Just as you practice your offensive and defensive systems, you must practice your leadership system.  To change internal beliefs is a challenge, it takes time and commitment.   Is it complicated?  Yes, of course!   But if you don’t make a deliberate effort to address the issue of cognitive dissonance, your team is vulnerable to the costs that come with the lack of team leadership.  «

To find out more about and order Sport Leadership Books authored by Dr. Dobbs including a Leader in Every Locker that this post was taken from, Click this link: The Academy for Sport Leadership Books

This article was written by Cory Dobbs, Ed.D., President of The Academy for Sport Leadership.  The Academy for Sport Leadership is a leading educational leadership training firm that uses sound educational principles, research, and learning theories to create leadership resources.  The academy has developed a coherent leadership development framework and programs covering the cognitive, psycho-motor, emotional and social dimensions of learning, thus addressing the dimensions necessary for healthy development and growth of student-athletes.

About the Author

Cory Dobbs is the founder and president of The Academy for Sport Leadership, a national leader in research‐based curriculum for coaches and student‐athletes. Dr. Dobbs is a college educator, a coach to successful coaches (helping coaches attain a higher level of success), and an accomplished human performance specialist whose expertise is in the field of leadership, team building, and creating a high‐performance culture in the arena of team sports. Cory blends social‐personality, psychology, and applied social psychology, which means he studies how people’s thoughts, behaviors, and preferences are influenced by both who they are and the situations they’re in. He uses Teamwork IntelligenceTM to help teams explore how the mix of perspectives brought by their individual members influences their work together.

About The Academy for Sport Leadership

The Academy for Sport Leadership is a leading educational leadership training firm that uses sound educational principles, research, and learning theories to create leadership resources.  The academy has developed a coherent leadership development framework and programs covering the cognitive, psycho-motor, emotional and social dimensions of learning, thus addressing the dimensions necessary for healthy development and growth of student-athletes.

The Academy for Sport Leadership’s underlying convictions are as follows: 1) the most important lessons of leadership are learned in real-life situations, 2) team leaders develop best through active practice, structured reflection, and feedback, 3) learning to lead is an on-going process in which guidance from a mentor coach helps facilitate learning and growth, and 4) leadership lessons learned in sport should transcend the game and assist student-athletes in developing the capacity to lead in today’s changing environment.


Relationship Building

by

This article was provided by Coaches Network

 

By Dr. Wade Gilbert

A great way to learn about quality coaching is to listen to coaches and athletes talk about the coaching styles they believe are most helpful for achieving success. Coverage of recent sporting events such as the women’s World Cup, and the NBA and NHL finals, provided many opportunities to hear some of the world’s most successful athletes and coaches share their insights on this topic.

Whether coaching females or males, and regardless of differences in coaching styles, these championship coaches all share one thing in common: they make building relationships with their athletes a top priority.

U.S. women’s national soccer team coach Jill Ellis, who led the American team to their first World Cup championship in 16 years, has been lauded by current and former players alike for her open and honest communication style. Moreover, she places great emphasis on learning how to connect with players in ways that are uniquely meaningful and relevant to each one of them.

Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quennville has gained the trust of his players, and led them to three ice hockey championships in the past six years, by keeping an open-door policy and showing a genuine interest in listening to his players.

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, in just his first year of coaching the team, built a culture of trust and engagement by making relationship building a regular part of his daily routine en route to the team’s first basketball championship in 40 years.

A quote from coach Kerr perhaps best summarizes the emphasis these championship coaches place on relationship building with their athletes: To me, the X’s and O’s … they’re an important part of coaching but a relatively small part. Eighty percent of it is just relationships and atmosphere.

Successful coaches have long known that the time and energy invested in building quality relationships with their players pays huge dividends. For example, one of the winningest college football coaches of all time Eddie Robinson proclaimed that showing genuine care for each of his players was the cornerstone of his coaching approach. More recently, Cameron McCormick – longtime coach of the world’s hottest golfer Jordan Spieth – revealed that building quality relationships with athletes was at the top of his the list for becoming a successful coach, based on his study of the world’s best golf coaches.

The surest way to show players that you care about them is to ask them about their lives and then give them your undivided attention. Never forget that you are coaching people first, and the sport second. Keep a file for each athlete to record notes about things and people that are meaningful to them. Regularly check in with each athlete and update their ‘life’ file.

Some high coaches like to give their athletes a survey to complete at the start of the season, with questions about their dreams, passions, favorite subjects in school, and family. Other coaches find that setting aside a few minutes before practices for ‘social time’ allows them to speak with athletes about their lives while athletes are starting to warm-up.

However, for relationship building to work, coaches must also be willing to share information about people and things that are meaningful to them. If you want your athletes to share with you, you must share with them. Ultimately, building relationships with athletes is an act of courage – both for the coach and for the athlete. Each must show the courage to be vulnerable.

Coaches show courage, and build relationships, when they create emotionally safe environments. Giving frequent encouragement and helping athletes pull the lessons from performance failures creates an environment where athletes feel safe to risk failure.

Ask any championship coach to reflect on what they cherish most from their career and they’ll tell you it was the relationships they built with their athletes along the way. Take a page from the playbooks of the world’s most successful coaches, and set aside time in your daily routine to make a personal connection with each of your athletes. This simple strategy not only leads to better performance, but makes for a more enjoyable and enriching sport experience.

 

This article is adapted from an article on the Human Kinetics “Coach Education Center” website.  Click here to read the full article.