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Is your team always in the middle of the pack…never breaking into the top of the conference standings? Do your practice plans look eerily similar to those you used years ago? Is your team getting better? I like to ask myself those kinds of questions periodically and this article (How to Boost Confidence and Success) over at Inc.com had some good tips to challenge us to get better by breaking out of our comfort zones. Check out these three steps that will help you take risks and hopefully become an even better coach than you already are:
Take these 3 steps to be better this season than you were in with your last
1. Recognize your strengths and successes. Too often we harp on the things that we didn’t do well or could have done better. This step is about giving yourself a pat on the back. Grab a sheet of paper and pen, sit down with a cup of coffee, and think about all of the great stuff you’ve done with your team. It could be a community service event you sponsored, challenging your players to give their best every day in practice, or advocating with your boss for a better schedule or nicer locker rooms. As you look forward to the next season, think about how you can use those qualities that made you successful for even greater opportunities. We’ve got to free ourselves up to admit we’re sometimes good at what we do.
2. Do it your way! It’s great to compare ourselves to the great coaches out there…the Russ Rose’s and John Wooden’s of the world. I love studying their coaching styles and trying to understand how they got the best out of their athletes time and again. Eventually though, we’ve got to figure out our personal successes so that we’re not discouraged. As the article says, we don’t want to study the greats and become overcome with “a flurry of fear, envy, and doubt.” We want to study them to become the most awesome coach that we can be.
3. Tell your story. I like talking to my team about my volleyball life. Our teams only see where we are now…but I think they benefit from hearing the whole story. I tell them about my first year in college where learned that I wasn’t as awesome as I thought I was…about how I had to come in to practice early and stay late because I just wasn’t good enough. But I also tell them that the hard work eventually translated into a starting spot on the team. I make them laugh when I tell them about some of my epic failures in coaching. I tell them these things because I think it’ll make them better people (successful people don’t just happen upon their success…there’s usually quite a bit of failure along the way), better teammates (hopefully more patient), and better able to navigate their careers when they’re finished with school.
I liked this article from Inc.com! Even though its focus was on entrepreneurs, I think that it can easily be converted to the coaching world. We all want to reach our greatest potential…perhaps that comes after breaking free from our comfort zones.
