Monthly Archives: April 2011

Follow This Trick To Become A Strong And Well-Liked Female Leader

Coaching career, Leadership

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I think we ladies get a bum rap. If we’re the old-school, June Cleaver, kind of a woman…folks will say we’re too soft to command respect. If we’re tough and opinionated, we’re described as cold if the person is being kind…b*tches if they’re not. I wrote this article that gave three tips for women to get ahead and not tick everyone off. Check that one out and then read this article from Bnet.com, titled Office Politics For Strong Women: How To Be Assertive And Liked. It talks about the one thing that women should do in order to be assertive, and still be able to chat with her coworkers at the water cooler.

What is that one thing?

Being able to self-monitor at a high level.

Well, I’m sure you’re thinking…what does that mean?

Here’s a quotation from the article: Women who could “self-monitor” and regulate their so-called “masculine” behavior — changing chameleon-like from being aggressive and confident to using a more traditionally feminine approach — fared the best. Better even than hard-charging macho guys.

The author goes on to say that these chameleon ladies got more raises and were more liked than the women who couldn’t navigate as well between their more masculine and traditionally feminine traits.

How can we use this information?

  • Talk to your players about this! Imagine if your athletes are able to manage this tightrope and begin feeling comfortable negotiating salaries and advocating for themselves. They will start at a higher pay grade at a younger age…and that will pay dividends in the future as they continue to move up the ladder.
  • Use it yourself. If you pride yourself in being one tough cookie, but your players don’t feel comfortable around you and your coworkers shirk by your office…perhaps you need to loosen up a bit. It’s not being soft, it’s being adaptable. That’s a trait without gender!
  • Tactfully share this with those that could use it. I think that says it all. Have you ever met someone and thought, how did her friends let her out of the house dressed like that? I think the same goes for interpersonal skills. If you’ve got a friend who’s holding herself back through her interactions with those around her, find a nice way to talk about this article or the study.


I think it’s good news that through self-regulating ourselves, we can make gains in our professions. Huzzah!

How To Identify Advanced Leaders On Your Team

Leadership, Team chemistry

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What’s an advanced leader anyway? I read a great article on the Harvard Business Review’s blog about them and thought it’d be great to put the coaching spin on it. Here’s the author’s take on the difference between leaders and advanced leaders: “Fred Astaire was certainly a great leader. He had a goal. He could see where he was going. He was clearly in charge. He set direction. He led Ginger Rogers around the dance floor flawlessly. But Ginger Rogers was an advanced leader. She had to do everything Fred did, while backwards and in high heels.” Keep reading to find out why I think we all need advanced leaders on our teams.

3 ways to pick out the advanced leaders on your team

1. They are able to work in complex systems. The article talks about being able to lead where there are many leaders… and that’s most certainly any team. You may have identified leaders or captains, but there are bound to be other leaders on your team. They may be freshmen or sophomores or they may not get much playing time, so they’re lying in the weeds waiting for an appropriate time to assert themselves. The person who understands time and place, who has their team’s respect, and who is willing and able to present their concerns or ideas to you is most certainly an advanced leader. Even if they don’t have a “C” on their shirt.

2. They dance to their own tune. And this is why they may ruffle a few feathers of their older, more established teammates. All of the things that your team has “done for years”…those are the things your advanced leaders will challenge. They aren’t the folks quietly waiting until their senior year for their time to shine…advanced leaders want to (and will!) shine now. The upside is that your current leaders will learn to lead true followers rather than folks just waiting for their turn to lead. Also, you’ll get to groom your future leaders before they’re actually on the hot seat.

3. They challenge established patterns. I know I just talked about how awesome these advanced leaders are because they’ll challenge the status quo, but that’s also why they’ll drive you crazy! Your older players will think these advanced leaders are arrogant and not “team” players and complain to you about them. In my opinion, the more nuanced view is that they’re leaders in need of an acceptable way to spread their wings. That’s where the creative coach gives these advanced leaders ways to express themselves that aren’t off-putting to their teammates. That same coach will remind them that their teammates have to like them in order to listen to them. Perhaps that coach will tell them that they’ve got to create relationships before they’ll be allowed to challenge the way the team operates.

Your team needs advanced leaders. I don’t know you, I don’t know your team, but I do know that you need this type of leader. It will keep you on your toes and will guide your team to new heights.

How Great Coaches Leave Their Mark

Coaching career, Coaching philosophy,

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Leaving your mark. It’s something I talk to my teams about a lot…but what about for us coaches? How do we leave our mark on our teams. Based on an article titled, How Great Business Leaders Leave Their Mark, check out these three ways that we can inject our philosophy and personality into our programs.

3 ways to create a culture you can be proud of

  • Write down your philosophy. I’m a big proponent of having a coaching philosophy. I’m of the camp that asks, “how will you know where you’re going if you don’t have a map?” Having a philosophy written down is good for those days when things aren’t going according to plan…it will keep you on track. It’s good for those days when your team may question what you’re doing…it will remind them of what your personal goals are. Having a written philosophy is good for when you’re on the phone with a recruit…it will help you to maintain your integrity.
  • Have visible reminders. Put your personal philosophy somewhere in your office where you can see it. Make sure your team’s goals are somewhere that they can see them every day. Here’s a great quotation from the article: “If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.” Obviously, we’re not hiring, but we are recruiting. We should be sure to recruit student-athletes who move us forward. In addition to that, we’ve got to convince our teams that the way to get our teams good (and good for a long time) is to recruit players who are better than they are. A hard sell to be sure…but a necessary one. If the team is more worried about playing time than the team, those goals will be awfully hard to accomplish.
  • Celebrate your backstory. The story talks about how to inject your personality into your organization in some tangible way. I think that’s something we coaches already do! Every year, we have a hall of fame induction dinner for those athletes who excelled at a great level during their competition years. Even though I don’t know the folks who get up to the podium and thank their families and professors and coaches, I still love every minute of it. Because it shows that the love, patience, kindness, toughness, caring, and character of that coach they had years ago still has an impact on their lives. It’s pretty remarkable.


There’s a Bible verse that says to not get weary in doing what’s good. So I’ll say the same thing to you. The folks in our profession do good things daily. Let’s not forget it! Remember that fact when your eyes are tired from looking at film, your throat hurts from talking at practice, or you don’t get the pat on the back that is well deserved.

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How To Make Sure We Keep Our Athletes First

Coaching philosophy

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Students on our college campuses aren’t learning. That’s a very general summation of a study called, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning On College Campuses”. Since I see myself as part of the teaching stratosphere at my institution, I was pretty interested in the results of this study.

“While higher education is expected to accomplish many tasks, existing organizational cultures and practices too often do not prioritize undergraduate learning. Large numbers of college students report that they experience only limited academic demands and invest only limited effort in their academic endeavors.”

I see athletics as an “existing organizational culture”…are we putting enough emphasis on teaching our student-athletes and making sure that learning is taking place? Are we demanding enough of our student-athletes? How can we determine their level of effort? This post will discuss the core findings of this study in the context of athletics.

4 different ways to discuss what being “athletically adrift” means

1. Defining athletically adrift. In transferring what the study says about being academically adrift, the athletic version would look like this: the student-athletes spend little time in film study, they don’t understand the intricacies of their sport, they have little meaningful interaction with their coaching staff…they play their sport for the social cache or scholarship money. They aren’t engaged. Since the coaching staff is so worried about putting W’s on the board, they can’t be bothered with making sure each of their athletes are learning, getting better, and actively engaged in their sport.

2. Are your players getting better? This is a great way to ascertain whether or not your team is athletically adrift. Has their knowledge of the game increased? What about their desire to learn? Are they hungry to sit down with you and watch video? Are you excited about their critical thinking in regards to your sport? If your answers to those questions were positive, then you’re on the right track with your team!

3. Inequalities in sport. One of the more frustrating things about my sport (volleyball) is the money required to get good at it. I’m sure you’re thinking, “um, Dawn, all you need is a volleyball.” On the surface that’s true. But to get good at our sport, you’ve got to play age-group volleyball…which requires money, and a lot of it! It makes the sport classist and elitist…not the best combo in the world. I worry that volleyball will become associated with a certain segment of society and those inequalities will continue to grow. In addition to that, I’ve written before about the disparities of women in coaching and administration. I believe all of this is something to keep our eye on.

4. All isn’t lost! Just as the study found that some institutions are doing a great job…I believe that there are teams and programs out there that are doing an amazing job of teaching and leading their student-athletes. If you’re reading this, then I assume you’re part of that bunch. I’ve been continually excited by the feedback I’ve gotten on this site from fellow coaches…I’m not the only coaching nerd out there!

So let’s agree to keep learning and keep getting better. We owe it to ourselves and more importantly, to our student-athletes.

4 Timely Tips To Help You Lead Your Team With Integrity

Coaching philosophy, Leadership

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I’ve written about integrity a couple of times because I believe it’s integral to leadership. Whether you need 10 ways or the top 5 qualities of leading with integrity…I’ve written about them. That’s why I was interested in this New York Times article which talked about the leadership lessons learned by a CEO…all of which sounded a whole lot like, “lead with integrity”. Check it out and see if you agree with these four tips for team leadership.

4 pieces of advice to help us become better leaders for our teams

1. Don’t make any promises you can’t keep. If you’re one of those folks that hasn’t said “no” in eons, this may apply to you. I know we all want to be available to everyone and help everyone out, but when we overextend ourselves, we start to make promises that become lies. This is true when speaking with our athletes before they’re on campus during the recruiting process and when they’re on campus with playing time issues. It’s true when offering to be on committees on campus. It’s especially true when speaking honestly with our families about our work’s time commitment.

2. Keep every promise you make. Now that we realize that we don’t have to overextend ourselves to the point of breaking promises, we have to strongly consider what we commit ourselves to. If we really can’t see that player in her high school game, we should be straight forward with her…no “maybes” or “possiblys”. This is how we gain credibility with our teams. They may not like what we have to say, but they should at least respect it.

3. If you don’t know the answer, say you don’t know the answer. As the author says in the article, “People will accept that you don’t know the answer. But what they can’t accept is if you tell them something that’s wrong, because they’re going to act on that. And then if you have to come back later with a different answer, you’ll lose credibility.”

4. If you say you’re going to get back to me with an answer, get back to me. We’ve all been in this position, right? We’re on the phone with someone and they get another call and say, “oh hey, let me call you right back…I’ve got to take this call.” And then you wait. And wait. And then you start getting annoyed. We’ve got to sure not to be “that guy”. If we tell someone we’ll call them back in an hour with an answer, we’ve got to be sure to call them back in an hour with an answer.

I thought these were great tips, not just for leading our teams, but for leading our lives with integrity!

Coaches Clinic In A Box—Bringing Coach Dawn To Your Group

Coaching community, Coaching nerds

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I came up with the idea of a coaches “traveling clinic” after numerous amazing interactions with folks who read this blog from all over the globe. The clinic is an opportunity to meet face to face and dig deeper into what it means to coach and how to excel, achieve, and win at a consistent level.

I’ve written before about steps that successful coaches take and getting better is one of those steps. Anytime we can get together and talk about how to make our teams better…then we’re getting better.

I’d love for you to shoot me an email at coachdawn[at]hotmail[dot]com to set up a clinic wherever you are…with topics you choose, but here’s an example:

Sample clinic agenda
8:30 – 9 am…Registration
9 – 9:30 am…Introduction
9:30 – 11 am…The Intangibles: Team Chemistry, Goal Setting, & Leadership, Oh My!
11 am – 12:15 pm…Incorporating John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success into your coaching philosophy
12:15 – 12:30 pm…Break
12:30 – 1:30 pm…Working lunch: Q & A with coaches
1:30 – 3 pm…Why personality testing can increase the competitiveness of your team
3 – 3:30 pm…Closing

Since I’m coming to you, your group won’t have to incur the expense of traveling to lovely Wisconsin to hear me speak…I’ll be wherever you are with a clinic tailored to your needs. Whether you’re the director of a club, an athletic department, or the head of a coaching association…this traveling clinic will be great for your group! Get in touch with me so that you can get on my calendar before the open slots fill up.

7 Things Successful Coaches Do

Coaching career, Goal setting

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Coaches love to talk about success…it’s what we do! I came across a great article on the Harvard Business Review’s blog that I’m sure you’ll love. Nine Things Successful People Do Differently was written by a motivational psychologist (whatever that is) who has written a book about achieving goals. You should check out the original article by clicking on the link above after you read my take on how it applies to us coaches.

7 things we can do right now to ensure our success as coaches

1. Get specific. I think all of us coaches know this one already. We can’t just say that we want our team to get better. We’ve got to have SMART goals…specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. So, saying that you want your team hitting percentage out of serve receive to go up 10% by the end of the season is a better goal than just saying you want your team to hit better.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. We’re all doing so much that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You’ve got to plan practice, a student just popped into the office, you’ve volunteered for one too many committees, and your kid’s got an orchestra concert tonight. Hopefully you have some personal goals that have nothing to do with work. I know it sounds crazy to some folks, but we’re supposed to have a life outside of coaching. Did you really not have time to pray this morning? Or go for a run? Or eat healthier? Maybe it’s time to put yourself on your to-do list.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Just like we meet with our players to access how they’re progressing, we should do the same things with ourselves. With our professional and our personal goals. How would the five-years-ago you feel about where you are in life? Are you getting closer to those goals you had five years ago? Have you moved on to new goals? Do you have a plan in place to accomplish your goals?

4. Be a realistic optimist. The first team I coached was not super skilled. So when one of their goals was to win conference (in a very tough conference!), I had to ask them how they were going to go about accomplishing that task. Because they didn’t have a very good answer, we reworded that goal. As coaches, we’ve got to be just as realistic with our goals. If you’re in the first year of coaching, you might not want to send in your resume to be the national team head coach.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. To me, success is defined by getting better each day. “Good” is too hard to define. “Better” is easy to define and hard to accomplish. “Good” has an end point, whereas “better” is constantly morphing and changing. “Good” looks to the past while “better” looks to the future. “Good” says that there’s only one conclusion, “better” understands that we need to be flexible in order to accomplish our goals.

6. Have grit. The author says it best in the article: “Effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed.” It’s not who you know (though that’s helpful) or some innate skill that you have (that’d also be helpful)…it’s your ability and willingness to work hard.

7. Build your willpower muscle. I have this idea in my head that everyone wants to hear my opinion, but for whatever reason, that turns out to not be true. So when the desire to give unsolicited advice comes upon me, I’ve learned to zip my lips. It hasn’t been easy and it’s a skill that I’ve had to practice in other areas of my life so that I can maintain positive relationships in my life. What are some of my self-control “practices”: developing a workout plan and sticking to it, cutting out sweets (VERY hard for me), or training for a half marathon. Just like we ask our teams to sacrifice now for something great that will hopefully happen in the future, we’ve got to do this as well.

With our crazy hours in the coaching field, the line between our personal goals and professional goals sometimes gets fuzzy. I believe as long as we’re pushing forward on each front, we’re putting ourselves in a good place to be successful.

How Knowing Your Personality Type Will Help You Manage Your Team

Coaching philosophy, Personality tests

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I think personality assessment should be a must for every team. Why? Because I think the cause of most conflict is expecting others to act like you do. I’d written before about the DiSC assessment I use, focusing on your team’s interactions with one another. Now I want to talk about coach-player interaction. Even though most people are a mixture of more than one letter type, see if you can find your top one or two personality types here. I believe it will help you as you work with your student-athletes.

The 4 DiSC personality types and how they impact your coaching style

D’s are dominant and like to be in charge. I’d hazard a guess that a lot of coaches are D’s. On the positive side, D’s enjoy solving problems and trust their ability to produce results. At their best, D’s can mobilize teams to solve a problem or achieve a goal. That sounds awesome right? As Newton said though, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. D’s can be blunt to the point of being rude and may make rash and reckless decisions. At their worst, D’s can be bullies, loud mouths, and tyrants.

What to do: Understand that not everyone thinks as quickly as you do…give them time to mull things over. D’s could do well to build bridges and relationships rather than expecting people to comply just because they say so. I mean, your team will comply because you’re the boss. But if you want your team to play for you and not in spite of you, D’s should see the value of cooperation.

I’s are influential and the life of the party. These are your extroverted folks who love to be around people. I’s are charming, optimistic, and outgoing…those we’d call a “people person”. At their best, I’s can be inspirational and communicate a vision or goal in a manner that motivates others to work toward it. I’s see the best in others and help them to believe in their abilities. Sounds like an awesome coach, huh? On the other side of the coin, I’s dislike details and can seem scattered. I’s can sometimes lack follow-through, rarely finishing what they begin…they overpromise and underdeliver.

What to do: Understand that you can get folks super fired up with your words…so that means that you’ve got to deliver on those promises. You don’t want to have a group of ten freshmen who you told would be starters…and your sport only starts five! I’s should try to listen more and talk less.

S’s are the steady Eddy’s out there. S’s are loyal, friendly, and supportive…they are team players. At their best, S’s can calm tensions and stabilize unsettled situations. S’s work hard to create stable and harmonious environments. Does this sound like you, Coach? Well, on the flip side, S’s are too hard on themselves and take criticism other their work very personally. Creatures of habit, S’s enjoy their daily routines and are resistant to change.

What to do: Understand that flexibility is the name of the game. It’s great that S’s will have a routine and a to-do list prepared for each day…you’ve just got to be prepared for things to go sideways every now and then. One of your players might get sick (on the day where she’s a big part of your practice plan!) or it may rain when you were planning on taking your team outside. S’s can have their beloved plans…just be willing to adjust it.

C’s are conscientious and careful. If you’re a C, you like to be right and are a stickler for details. You have very high standards for yourself…and those around you. Where I’s are outgoing and boisterous, C’s are quiet, reserved, and business-like. C’s are fair and objective and will always maintain high standards, even when asked to compromise. That’s pretty good, right? At their worst, C’s can get bogged down in details…some would call them a nit picker. C’s prefer to work alone and need to analyze all available options before making a decision.

What to do: C’s should understand that some decisions have a timeline and need quick action. Your assistants understand that you’ve charted stats for all practices during the season and the numbers say that you’ve got the right lineup out there. But right now it’s not working and you’ve got to make a change. C’s are cautious by nature, so you should surround yourself with folks who are more adventurous.

Each season, we try to create team chemistry among our athletes and help them to get to know one another, but it’s just as important that the coach knows their personality type…and how it’ll interact with each player.

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3 Ways The Effective Leader Builds Confidence Within Each Team Member

Mental game, Movies

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Remember the movie Inception from last summer? I wrote a post about it back then wondering aloud what would happen if we could create confident athletes. Check it out and then come back and read this post because it’s the next step. The first step is agreeing that we should try to Jedi mind trick our athletes into having confidence in themselves…and this is the next step. Here are three tangible ideas coaches can use in order to create self-assured athletes.

3 gifts the forward-thinking coach can give to instill confidence within their athletes

1. Give them words and actions for when they fail.
For our athletes to truly believe in themselves, failure can’t sway their confidence. In my mind, there’s nothing more empowering than knowing why I did something wrong. If I know why I did it wrong, that means I know how to do it right and I can correct it. I remember on my first interview to be a college coach, the AD asked the typical “what are your strengths and weaknesses” question. I’ll never forget what I said: I talk too much. And it was true! While there’s something to be said for explaining the ins and outs of your sport, we’ve also got to train our athletes to respond to key corrective phrases. “Platform to target”, “eyes up”, “finish”: those are all power phrases to guide corrective behavior in game-like and stressful situations.

2. Give them opportunities to be successful.
This means practice, practice, practice. Obviously, opportunities for success are also opportunities for failure, but we’ve already talked about how to handle those situations. Too many times, our athletes are results-focused rather than process-focused. I’d rather my athletes perform an activity technically correct and fail than perform it poorly and “succeed”. It all comes down to defining what success means to you. Success means being technically correct, success is repeatable, and it’s understandable. Success is perfecting the process and believing that the results will be positive. Do you see how that’s a different mindset than just trying to get it done…no matter what? Once our athletes understand this principle, their opportunities for success will skyrocket!

3. Give them the knowledge that is in your head.
One of the things I say to my team a lot is that I’ve finished my playing career. I had my chance to be a collegiate athlete and now it’s my turn to give them everything I’ve learned over the years. If the players are willing to put in the time, I am too. There are some coaches who feel their status as “coach” comes from knowing some secret technique that others don’t. I disagree. I think it comes from sharing what I know with my athletes! My ideal athlete is autonomous and doesn’t need me…but I know that takes time. Though I like to speak in power phrases with my team, that’s the end and not the beginning point. I typically explain the physics of how things in our sport work and why doing the right thing consistently will consistently yield positive results. Hopefully after their time with me is finished, they are equipped with what they need to know to be a coach of their own team…or at least feel confident that they achieved their highest potential.

Now let’s all go out and give our athletes some Inception-style confidence!

5 Reasons Why Nerds Will Take Over The Coaching World

Coaching nerds, Coaching philosophy

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I’ve got this idea in my head that we coaches are all insane about our sports. We work crazy hours, drive all over looking for new players, and we’re (hopefully) always trying to learn and get better. The first time I wrote about coaching nerds was in my post, Coaching Nerds Unite! Study Up On Your Craft. So what’s a coaching nerd? Quite simply, folks who love their sport and are fanatically focused on getting better and learning more. In case you need a little more convincing before you’re willing to call yourself a coaching nerd, here are five good reasons why being a nerd is cool.

5 reasons why you should get on the coaching nerd bandwagon

1. There’s too much information out there to be bad at what we do: With the power of the internet at our disposal, there’s really no reason not to find out anything that you’d like to know! If you follow some of the major business leaders, they typically advise folks to be avid readers…and therefore, avid learners.

2. Knowing your stuff matters: Who does it matter to? Your boss, who wants to be able to promote a successful program on the rise. Your recruits, who want to feel confident that they’ll get great coaching and get better over the course of time they’re with you. Your alums, who want to be able to look back with pride at the state of the program.

3. We all want our fruit to be good: There’s a Bible verse that says each tree is judged by its fruit. Big, fat, juicy fruit is from a good tree; dry, withered, small fruit comes from a bad tree. So the question is, what does your fruit look like? Do your players enjoy the sport? Are they fired up about practice…even in the middle of the season? Do your players get better: day to day, week to week, month to month? How about your team chemistry…is it good? All of that (and more) is your fruit.

4. The game is constantly changing: No matter what your game is, it’s constantly changing and the true coaching nerd will stay on top of things. Whether it’s new ways to perform old techniques or learning how to incorporate a new position or how to handle scoring changes, we’ve got to learn how to use every possible way to put our team in position to be successful.

5. Players dig the smart coach: You see that play on words there? Much like chicks dig the long ball, players dig the smart coach. There’s something special about a coach that cares enough to learn about their craft. The learning coach will always hold their players’ respect…even if what they say is contrary to what another coach has taught them. Plus, the learning coach is usually so enthusiastic about their sport that it rubs off onto their athletes. Which will hopefully lead back to #3…your fruit will be a group of lifelong learners!

There you go folks! Let’s all go out and try to be the best coaching nerds we can be. We’ll be better coaches and our players will benefit from our knowledge.