Monthly Archives: August 2011

Create Effective Leaders Using This 5 Step Process

Captains, Leadership

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“The basic principle in leadership development is that an organization should never give a team leadership role or position to someone without training.”—John Adair

That quotation says it all! We can give our team leaders a great experience by training them to do their job well…or we can just wing it and hope it turns out okay. I’m sure we can all agree that we’d rather them be successful than not. So let’s see what we can do to train our leaders up right!

5 requirements for effective leadership training

  • Simple. I’ve heard of coaches who put their captains through a formal training, but I’ve also heard of those that meet with their team leaders on a regular basis to “check in” with them. I favor the latter method, though I’ve used Jeff Janssen’s Team Captain’s Leadership Manual with my entire team before. It served two purposes: my captain’s knew what was expected of them and it trained any future leaders we had in our midst.
  • Practical. Which just means that it’s got to make sense for your team and your leaders. If you’ve got a group of captains that held that role the previous season, your teaching and training will be different than for a brand new crop of leaders.
  • Relevant. If you’ve got a team full of freshmen, but you’re training your leaders for a team full of returners…well, that won’t work too well! At the beginning of each season, we should have an idea of what our pitfalls are going to be…though we’ll get surprised by some things for sure. If you’ve scheduled a tough tournament or long road trip, that’ll be something to talk to your leaders about. Once you make it to the post season, have your captains talk to the team about managing emotions, classes, etc.
  • Have variety. When I first starting coaching, I had a weekly meeting with my captains in my office. I thought they were discussions, the captains thought they were lectures. Lesson learned! I’m sure things would have gone better if some of the meetings were in my office, others in the gym, and still others on their turf. Nowadays I just grab them at the end of practice and ask how they’re doing, how the team is doing, and if there’s anything I need to be worried about. They feel free to do pop-ins at my office just to chat.
  • Be a dialogue. Like I said in the previous point, my venture at lecturing my captains about what they should be doing was an epic fail! There’s got to be back in forth to keep them engaged and excited about their duties.


We have a real chance to impact our team leader’s lives here! We can show them how to be leaders and that’s something that they can take with them after their time on our courts and fields has passed. With quality leadership training, we can create teams of people who are comfortable both leading and being led.

According to the back cover of John Adair’s book, How To Grow Leaders, he is the world’s leading authority on leadership and leadership development. Join me for a three-part leadership series discussing leadership qualities, leadership levels, and leadership training.

The 3 Levels Of Leadership

Captains, Leadership

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The tagline to John Adair’s book, How to Grow Leaders, is “The seven key principles of effective leadership development.” I’m going to have to write about those later, because there was so much good stuff in the first half of the book! Many times, folks talk about “born leaders” and I believe that those people are out there…but I also believe that it’s a skill that can be taught. I also believe it’s the job of the coaching staff to give the athletes the tools they need in order to lead their teammates effectively. Let’s check out the three levels of leadership…they each progress nicely into the next.

Level 1: Know the basics. What are those, you ask? You can look all around the internet (heck, all around this blog!) and find different answers, but this is my favorite based on my research. Here are the basics: the followers should understand the task, trust the leader, and know how to do what is required. Those three things are action items for the coach. We’ve got to make sure we’ve equipped our captains with knowledge, so that they appear knowledgeable in front of their teammates…which will engender trust.

Level 2: Get a difficult job done. As all of us know, leadership is sometimes hard. And when we come upon one of those difficult tasks, Adair says the adept leader will get the job done “well, quickly, and willingly—even enjoyably.” Think of your toughest practice…the one that you know will be a butt kicker. Then think of how an amazing captain and team leader would react to that difficult situation. Hopefully she will encourage her team to step up to the plate, face the difficulty…together.

Level 3: Extenuating circumstances. During most seasons, we’re going to face even tougher times that will require the team leaders to rise to the occasion. Adair details them for us: “courage in defeat, inspiration in apathy, clarity of mind in confusion.” When do we lean our leaders more than at these times? Losses will come, lack of enthusiasm may invade the team, and the athletes may take their eyes off of their goals. It usually takes a collaborative effort between the coaches and the team leaders to refocus the team.

Ideally, with the leadership traits from yesterday’s post (link below), our team leaders and captains will be able to navigate these three levels of leadership!

According to the back cover of John Adair’s book, How To Grow Leaders, he is the world’s leading authority on leadership and leadership development. Join me for a three-part leadership series discussing leadership qualities, leadership levels, and leadership training.

7 Qualities Every Leader Must Have

Captains, Leadership

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All of us want to equip our captains and team leaders with the skills they need in order to be effective. I believe that the success our leaders experience is in direct relationship to how well we train them to lead the team. According to John Adair, a world-renowned leadership trainer, “leadership is both a role and attribute.” Using that as a jumping off point, let’s look at what we need to give to our team leaders…beyond just a “C” on their shirt.

7 attributes we’ve got to give our captains to ensure their success

  1. Enthusiasm. They’ve got to be excited about what they’re doing! If you’ve got captains who are fired up about creating great relationships with their teammates and having a successful season, then you’ve got some great leaders in the making.
  2. Integrity. A while back, I had the opportunity to watch a group of captains of another sport try to set stringent rules for their team. The rules weren’t out of bounds, certainly in keeping with what the other teams in the department were doing…but a culture change to say the least for this group. The rules never stood a chance, though, because the captains weren’t willing to operate under the new rules and therefore lost the trust of their teammates.
  3. Toughness, coupled with fairness. As Adair says, “leadership is not a popularity contest”. The coaching staff should be able to count on the captains as another level of accountability for the team. Surely the captains should be friends with their teammates. But they have the added responsibility of cracking the whip when necessary.
  4. Humanity. I’m sure I’m not the only coach who gives her captains the job of keeping an eye on the team. While part of the captain’s job is to be tough and “above it all”…it’s also to look out for their teammate’s well-being. If they’ve noticed a player who’s struggling with homesickness or classwork or their role on the team, hopefully the captains know that being a good leader means showing that you care…and trying to help.
  5. Confidence. We all want our athletes to be confident, so this isn’t a news flash. Ideally, our captains would have a quiet confidence that comes from quality training by their coaching staff and solid relationships with their teammates.
  6. Humility. If we’ve done a decent job of training our captains, they’ll realize that it’s literally impossible for them to be right all of the time. That realization should make them a great leader because they’ll listen to suggestions from their teammates as well as coaches.
  7. Courage. No matter how great our relationship with our captains, they’re probably still a little nervous when they have to come to us with concerns from the entire team. I’m sure the same is true when they have to confront a teammate about poor behavior.


Hopefully this list reminds us of what is required of us as the coach to make sure that our team leaders aren’t just filling a role, but exemplifying the characteristics of leaders.

According to the back cover of John Adair’s book, How To Grow Leaders, he is the world’s leading authority on leadership and leadership development. Join me for a three-part leadership series discussing leadership qualities, leadership levels, and leadership training.

What Are You Worth? Valuing What You Know

Coaching career

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  • How much have you spent on professional development in the last couple of years? (Clinics, seminars, conventions)
  • Are you a member of any groups designed to make yourself a better professional? (AVCA, NACWAA, ToastMasters)
  • Do you pore over leadership and team chemistry books so that you can be the best possible coach that you can be?
  • Have you attained any certifications that make you more marketable?


If you can answer yes to any of those questions, then you are a valuable asset to your institution/company. And not just to your company, but to other folks as well! Don’t believe me?

  • Have you ever had a good friend “casually” mention that their daughter plays your sport and they’d love for you to give their kid some pointers?
  • Do coaches come to you with a coaching issue and asking your opinion on how they should proceed?
  • Do groups ask you to come speak to their teams because you’ve been successful?


If you can answer yes to any of those questions…and they get their answers for free, then you may not be valuing yourself as highly as you should. Professional development costs money, as does being a member of professional associations. You may say, “But Dawn, my college pays for all of my professional development, so it’s not really money out of my pocket.” To that I’d say, congrats! You’ve negotiated a wonderful contract for yourself that your employer deems you worthy of…but those are still costs. You’re working for that “free” money!

When folks ask to pick your brain, what they’re really asking is for you to give them something freely, even though you paid a high price for it! In a fabulous article, No, You Can’t Pick My Brain. It Costs Too Much, the author talks about protecting her investment: herself.

I think it’s hard for coaches to think in this manner, but we charge for lessons, camps, clinics, etc. They may have different names, but they all come down to our knowledge. If this is sparking anything in you, then I’d suggest you read the article linked in the paragraph above. The author has ten ways that will help you value the knowledge you’ve acquired over the years.

Giving things away is good for the soul, I believe it’s why so many people do community service…it just feels good. But there’s a time and a place for it. Make sure that you’re in charge of who receives freebies and that you’re not getting bullied or tricked into giving away what you should be charging for.

What’s your knowledge worth?

Like this post? Check out What Are You Worth? How to Negotiate Salary.

7 Personality Traits Of Top Coaches

Coaching philosophy, Personality tests

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The always informative folks over at the Harvard Business Review hit a home run with this one! Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople was a great read…with a very lively comments section. I’d suggest you check both of them out.

In 10 Reasons Coaches Should Embrace Their Inner Salesperson, I suggested that most coaches are in sales and the sooner we get comfortable with that, the better we’ll be. We’re selling our institution and program to recruits, selling playing time discrepancies to our teams, we’re selling what our program needs to our bosses.

So if we’re going to be in sales, we’d might as well be good at it!

Let’s check out what it will take for each of us to become a top coach.

  1. Modesty. I know a coach at a large institution who’s done a fabulous job of turning around her team. As a player, she was an all-American at a top school…not to mention a starter on a national championship winning team. She’s coached some of the best players in the nation, beaten some of the best teams in the country (with lesser talent), and is quite the hot commodity right now. And you’d never know it by talking to her. Perhaps that’s why she’s a top coach.
  2. Conscientiousness. Much of the job of the coach is to interact with others. Having a high sense of duty and being responsible and reliable are wonderful traits that people are always looking for in leaders. Our players don’t always have to agree with our decisions, but they should respect and understand where we’re coming from.
  3. Achievement orientation. We’re in athletics, if we’re not high achievers…then we’re in the wrong profession!
  4. Curiosity. Are you always picking your coaching friend’s brains? Do you love reading about leadership and team chemistry? Are you a subscriber to coaching blogs like this one? Then you’re on your way to becoming a top coach! Leaders are learners.
  5. Lack of gregariousness. This was surprising to me, because when I think of salespeople, I think of people who are just a hair too chatty. Though coaches are salespeople to a certain extent, we don’t want to come off as “salesy”. We don’t want recruits, parents of recruits, our current players, alums, our bosses…we don’t want anyone we encounter to think we’re being anything but genuine with them.
  6. Lack of discouragement. As the leader of the pack, we can’t get down too easily. And when we do get down, we can’t let it show to our teams. I certainly haven’t achieved “top coach” status, but I do have this trait down. After a particularly crazy season of ups and downs, one of my seniors said that I never looked worried about the season and that helped them to not freak out. As a matter of fact, I was quite worried during that season…but that didn’t stop me from teaching, coaching, and preparing the team to be at their best.
  7. Lack of self-consciousness. I’d bet most coaches have this particular trait down pat. How many other professions have to live out their successes and failures in front of a crowd…with the results being published online, in the paper, and on the news for all to see? Coaching is like the world’s original reality show! Because of that, I can’t imagine that many of us embarrass easily.


So hopefully, reading that list made you feel good about where you are as a coach. We may not have achieved “top coach” status (yet), but the journey to get there will make us better each day!

 

3 Ways To Make A Transformative Difference

Coaching career

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Doing quiets empty wanting. –In Praise of Doing

“Less talk, more do.” That was the answer I gave to the president of our college when he asked what my personal philosophy was…luckily he’s a doer as well!

So many times we talk about what we want to do, but never end up actually doing anything. I don’t want to think about the hours of my life that I’ve wasted in pointless meetings that take this path! So you can understand the sheer giddiness I felt when I read the title from the quotation at the beginning: In Praise of Doing. Awesome!

As the author states, “Passionate sincere wanting without performance is cheap, easy, and self-deluding.” In other words, talk is cheap. Worse than that, when we constantly talk about what we want to do (rather than taking steps to actually do it), we feel like we’re actually doing something. Crazy huh?

Now, I’m not saying there’s no place for contemplating the next step your life will take, your next career move, or whatever it is that’s in your heart. But at a certain point, you’ve got to become a doer.

Here are three areas “doing” can have transformative power

Our teams. As you sit down and think about your upcoming season, do you have goals in mind? What are the easy to reach goals? What about the ones that will be a stretch for your team to accomplish? Many times I hear coaches talk about the things that are out of their control as reasons for their lack of success: opponent/conference strength, lack of budget, injuries. Surely those things can have a significant impact on a team, but in theory, they should affect every team similarly. Instead focus on the things that you can do today, this week, this season to prepare your team to accomplish their goals.

Our careers. Rome wasn’t built in a day…and it certainly wasn’t built because the Romans sat down and chatted about it! If your goal is to be a coach on the Olympic team, then you’d better get to work. First things first, start coaching. Then let the right people know that you’re interested in moving up the coaching ranks. And last, but not least, be good. If you’re constantly talking about how awesome you are at coaching (without actually being awesome), then you won’t go far. Results matter. Whatever your goal is, sit down and figure out a step by step plan to accomplish it.

Our lives. You’re going to think I’m taking the easy route on this one, but I believe this to my core: I was put on this Earth to coach. Not because I think I’m God’s gift to coaching, but because it’s my chance to make a difference. I believe that most folks have a desire to impact the world in some significant manner…for me, it’s coaching. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that athletics can have a life-changing effect on its participants. They learn to work in teams, to win and lose with grace, to be leaders, to balance multiple important projects…so many things! As a matter of fact, I devoted the entire month of July to talking about how much I love coaching. Whatever path you choose to take in order to make your difference, it all begins with taking that first step.

As the author so succinctly puts it, “What you do makes a difference, not what you want to do.”

4 Steps To Communicate Competently With Your Team

Coaching strategy, Female athletes

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“The ability to communicate is one of the most critical skills in becoming a successful coach.”

The quotation above comes from a study titled, “Female athletes’ perceptions of head coaches’ communication competence” from the Journal of Sport Behavior. If you’ve been a reader of mine for any length of time, then you know that I jumped up and down and did the happy dance when I read that title! It’s very rare that a study will focus on the mental side of athletics, let alone female athletes…so I was stoked to dig in.

What I found buried in the article, were four ways that will help coaches navigate the communication waters with our teams.

4 ways coaches can effectively communicate with their teams

  1. Listening ability. In my opinion, this doesn’t mean that we do everything our teams suggest (that’s silly talk!), but I do believe that they should believe they are being heard. I usually tell my team this right at the beginning of the “coach-I-just-had-a-great-idea” chat. As long as they don’t tie my adoption of whatever plan they’ve hatched as success, then we’re okay. Regardless, I typically let them know why I thought their idea was brilliant or, um, not so brilliant…that way there’s no confusion.
  2. Perceived ability to disclose. Whatever that means to you. Some coaches post their practice plans ahead of time so that their athletes know what to expect. Others have a visible running clock for each drill so that the players know how long they’ve got to focus. That’s disclosure. Disclosure is also sharing what will warrant significant playing time. Our players should never be confused about why they’re not playing. They should never wonder why they are getting punished an opportunity for fitness in a practice. Disclosure is having clear and concise team rules. It also means having a clear chain of leadership command, from the players on up to the head coach.
  3. Ability to cope with anger. I believe that all of these tips apply to every coach of any team, regardless of gender. But (there’s always a “but”) female coaches have to be careful. Angry men are “passionate”, while angry women are “irrational”. This is what I do when I have to pull the anger card with my teams. I make sure that I verbalize that my anger isn’t personal (I still like them), it isn’t illogical (I will give them a long list of corrections they haven’t made), and it isn’t emotional (I’m not ticked, I’m angry…those are two different things). I firmly believe that our teams can respect a reasonable, but angry coach who sets a high bar for her teams.
  4. Ability to handle differences in opinions. This is where knowing how to deal with different personality types comes into play. On a team, differences in opinions can happen between coaches, between coaches and players, and between the players themselves. I just worked with a team this summer with what I’d call “bad mojo”. They were super talented, but their team chemistry was off…like way off! The head coach didn’t see that he had a major problem in one of his star players. The assistant coach was trying to push the envelope schematically…but I wasn’t sure if that was the direction that the big guy wanted to go. And the players would fight openly on the court. Letting all of this stuff fester will, in my opinion, eventually lead to a severe lack of respect for the head coach. Not to mention a really crappy season. Managing all of these things are why we get the big bucks, right? Competent communicators understand that our job is more than X’s and O’s.


The role of communication between athlete and coach is critical. If it’s both fair and clear (a much shorter way of saying all of those points above), we’re on the way to communicating effectively with our teams.

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3 Ways To Keep Your Studs Studly

Coaching strategy, Mental game

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Coaches rarely talk about these players, perhaps for fear of stating the obvious. But all of us have a player on our team that is good enough to carry the lion’s share of points. The opponents know it, they game plan for her. Our teams know it, they want her to have the ball in crunch time. She even knows it and hopefully accepts the extra burden that it represents. But coaches? We don’t like to “tier” our athletes, so we act like everyone’s operating on an equal playing field.

But that’s not true.

Just like some students can stay up all night studying for a math test and get a C-, while their roommate (the math genius) doesn’t crack open the book and gets an A…the same is true in the world of sports. Some folks, given the same amount of practice and coaching, will achieve a higher level of skill. Those are our studs.

Here are three things your superstar will need to stay super

Managing expectations. It seems obvious, but the stud carries the burden of being the stud…all the time. Even when she’s tired. Even when her game is off. Even when she got in a fight with her parents. Always. Our job as her coach is to guide her through what that will look like. We should be sure to talk to her about those scenarios I mentioned before, but we can also give her a partner in crime, so to speak. If your stud is a captain, make sure she’s not the only one so that part of the leading the team burden can be shared. Even if the only things your other captain does is plan off-the-court get togethers and crack the whip with the newbies, that’s one less thing your stud will have to worry about.

Being competitively great. John Wooden describes competitive greatness as being at your best when your best is required. Quite frankly, I don’t know if someone can be called a stud if they aren’t competitively great. There are a lot of players who are amazing at the beginning of the season or the first few minutes of the game. Competitive greatness comes into play when winning and losing are on the line…when everyone expects them to be great (the coach, the teammates, the opponents) and they are. Without a doubt, studs are great when greatness is required. I believe this is a conversation that should happen between stud and coach, as well. We’ve got to give our studs license to be studly, they’ve got to understand that they won’t be stepping on anyone’s toes by demanding the ball in crunch time.

Leaving it better than they found it. Each year that I’ve been coaching, I’ve challenged the seniors in my program to leave our team better than they found it. Now that could mean increasing our win total, of course. But it can also mean raising the competitiveness of our practices through her play. Or making sure that the team always supports one another in their off-the-court endeavors. Or that we gain a reputation as hard to beat. Whatever it is in their head, I challenge them to accomplish it. That will be tough for your stud, because she’s already got a lot of pressure on her. But again, I talk to her. I ask her if she’d like for me to be able to talk to the team after she’s gone and say, “Everyone knew Susie was going to get the ball, but she still got the kill”, or “Whenever we had to run in practice, Susie was always the first one finished.” A true stud opens up possibilities for her teammates, she shows them that it can be done.

Let’s all go out and cultivate our studs so that they feel comfortable in their studliness!

4 Habits Of Highly Ineffective Teams

Team chemistry

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How’s your season looking? Are you excited about the possibilities? Well, keep your eye out for these four characteristics that could derail a successful season if left unchecked.

If your players do these things, they need to stop now!

  1. Unreliable. Years ago, I had an athlete who was tremendously talented. Athletic, skilled, and dynamic…when she felt like it. Other times she would go halfway in practice and intimidate her teammates with her silence. Am I saying that everyone should come to practice with pom poms? Certainly not, but a player’s teammates and coaches should be able to reasonably guess which person will enter the gym each day. If you’ve got a player who is outgoing and engaging one day and sullen and silent the next…she can really wreak havoc on your team’s chemistry.
  2. “It’s not my job”. Do you have any of those players that are happy even when your team loses, because their personal stats line looked good? Yeah…that’s annoying. Or those young ladies who are quick to point out that they performed their responsibilities properly, so Susie was actually the reason your team lost the point? In team sports, there is never a time to draw lines in the sand. Of course each team member has in-game responsibilities, but things happen and I’d hope that our teams would be willing to exhaust their abilities to help the team win.
  3. Resistant to change. Was there ever a phrase more likely to send steam shooting from a coach’s ears than, “But another coach told me to do it this way”? I never argue with players when they say that, I just tell them that I’d love for them to try it my way. If you’ve got a player who doesn’t immediately alter their behavior when you give a correction, then you’ve got a resister. In my opinion, that means they’re not a team player. I need to see an effort at behavior change. If not, it’s beyond annoying and we’ll have to sit down and have a chat.
  4. Negative attitude. We’ve all heard it before from our players: I’ll never be as good as Becky, I’m the best player on this team…I don’t have to work that hard, this team is undefeated…we can’t beat them. Ugh, Negative Nellies and Nelsons are energy sucks. All of us experience the occasional negative thought…that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean those athletes who you dread correcting because you know that something self-defeating will exit their mouths. Everyone needs the occasional pick up from the folks around them, but when you feel your second job is making that player happy…you’re in trouble.


These intangibles could take your team from contender to pretender very quickly. Keep an eye out for these four annoying habits and stop them before they take hold.

Adventures Of A Bad Coach: Variations On A Theme

Coaching strategy, Leadership

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I can’t imagine you’d take the time to read this blog if you weren’t fired up about being a coach. I’m sure you are a fabulous coach who knows how to motivate your players to excel.

Then there are the other coaches. The *whispers conspiratorially* bad coaches.

I’m sure you’re wondering what exactly constitutes a bad coach. Well, I read this great article over at bnet.com called 5 Bad Bosses and thought I’d bring it over here and put a coach spin on it. If you fall into one of these five categories, I think it’s time to change some things up!

5 signs you might be a bad coach

Are you vague? If your answer to one of your players’ request for feedback on their playing ability is to tell them they need to “get better”, then you might be a bad coach. I’m sure they realize, based on their time spent riding the bench, that they need to get better. Our job, as coaches, is to give our athletes one or two concrete things that they can do in order to become a better player. Not only does vagueness frustrate the player, it makes the coach look like they don’t know what they’re doing…and that’s never good.

Are you a micromanager? This one is a tough one for me! I have to remember to teach and step back…especially when we’re in the learning phase of our team building. As we teach skills, we have to remember to give our athletes room to spread their wings and succeed or fail without hearing our voices chirping in their ears about every little thing. We can’t will our players to perform a skill, they’ve got to find their way to the promised land on their own…we’re just the tour guides.

Are you a bully? I see this sometimes and it always makes me cringe. It’s not necessarily a mean coach, but the coach who peppers their instruction with sarcasm. In the best of times (when the team is new, or on a winning streak, or everyone is getting along), a team can overlook sarcasm…but it never should be the preferred method of communication. So when you say, “Nice play, Sherlock”, and everyone laughs…what exactly have you accomplished? I’m all for humor in practices (sometimes), but not at a player’s expense.

Are you a narcissist? When your team wins, was it because of a great coaching move you made? And when you guys lose, is it because of the crappy effort the team gave? The coach that thinks this way is a narcissist…it’s all about them. I’d ask the same question from the previous point, what do you accomplish with this line of thinking? You haven’t boosted up your team or created a shared experience. You’ve done exactly the opposite…you’ve separated yourself from the normal ups and downs of a season because of vanity.

Are you a BFF? Are you Facebook buddies with your players? Do you text them when you hear “your song” (oh, that’s my song!) on the radio? How about going for afternoon runs with your favorites? Then you’re a BFF…and you’re treading on thin ice! Why? You’ve eliminated the line that should be between coach and athlete. You’re not their friend. I repeat, you’re not their friend! You’re in a position of power which automatically eliminates your right/opportunity to be their friend. You can be friendly, but not a friend. In addition to that, the players on your team who aren’t your besties will feel totally left out…and that certainly doesn’t create a feeling of “team”.

Like I said at the beginning, I’m sure none of you reading this are bad coaches. But maybe you can forward this on to some folks who you think could stand to read this article!