Mission Based Coaching

Mission Based Team Selections

Today my thougts have turned again to the topic of making team selections. When facilitating Leadership and Coaching workshops in my role as Senior Trainer for the Positive Coaching Alliance, it seems that topic of chosing teams and its relative, "making cuts," is a common line of questioning I get. Also interesting is that it is one of the most hotly discussed topics amongst the students in the Masters Degree in Coaching program I coordinate.

We start by asking the coaching students how do they decide who is going to be on their teams? The responses are amazing similar once you get past the variable of the individual v. team sport. It seems like the individual sport coaches are rarely involved with actual cuts and in some sports, the bigger issue is trying to recruit more. For the team sports (sometimes football is an exception) the issue is typically about "weeding out." Soemtimes this is simply cutting down to a certain number, sometimes it is selecting various squads (Varsity, JV, Travel, Scout, A, B, C, etc.) When selection is an issue, most intial answers follow the same pattern: (1) Try to get as many to quit as possible through vigorous physical tests, (2) Look at the physical attributes as they relate to position. You got to have a couple of big kids to play in the post or be linemen, a couple of quick kids to be attackers or running backs or point guards. If the kids you need for their physical attributes want to quit keep trying to talk them out of quitting. (3) The kids that remain are put through some kind of "head to head" or "side by side" activity, with an emphasis on current skill level. (4) Once you got your starters for each position then the toss-up, last couple of spots go to the kids with the intangibles: work ethic, unselfishness, great attitude, and even sometimes good grades.

The majority of the discussion amongst the students that follows has to do with how this selection process relates to later problems. There are several, but the classic is the one where the kid that was a lock in your selection process (usually big, and fast, and with a nice shot) is getting his butt out-worked everyday by the kid you thought you were doing a favor just giving a jersey. The typical phrase is "if John would just work half as hard as Bill, he would really be something special." This is almost immediately followed by the question "what is the best way to motivate a kid that has a lot of potential, but does work hard?"

We ask the students to read Good to Great by Jim Collins. Particularly the section title "First Who, Then What." If you are not familiar with the book you can find more about First Who, Then What and the Bus concept at JimCollins.com. Even though it is marketed as a book about business, it is one of my most highly recommended reads for coaches. More on why will follow when I publish my Coaches Reading List.

One of the most powerful statements in that chapter is that "the wrong people can't be motivated to do the right thing."

Based on that, we ask the coaches to reflect on doing their selection process in reverse. (1) Figure WHO you want on your team. A simple process is to ask yourself, "what adjectives do I other people to use when they talk about my team?" Many coaches I know would like their teams to be referred to as "discplined, hard-working, fundamentally sound" to name a few. (2) When you get the right "whos" take a look at where they are skill-wise, what are their strengths and weaknesses. Here is where you figure out the "what." How can YOU give this group the best chance to be succesful. (3) Design your practice activities to maximize their acquisition and mastery of your "what," and (4) now that you got the right people provide both the physical and mental challenges that will help them grow.

How does this relate to Mission Based Coaching. Actually it is pretty simple. The WHO that you are looking for are the people that most match what the mission of your institution. Look at the mission statement of your school, church, youth sport organization. What does it say that you are trying to instill? Next look at how your process supports (or competes) with the mission of your organization. Will this reverse process take courage? Probably, you certainly will get second-guessed if ten 5' 4" girls make your volleyball team and the 6' 1" girl is told she is not the right person for your bus. However, her best chance of becoming a right who will come from seeing that you are serious about the kind of program you are building. Secondly, how many nights will you lose sleep stewing over how you are going to discipline her for being disrespectful, for missing practice, etc. versus how many nights will you lose sleep because she isn't on your team. One thing that mission based coaching will do is make it easier to sleep.

A good friend of mine once said about a All-American Swimminer that he eventually had to kick off the team "The three days I thought it would be nice to have her [namely the conference championship meet] never would out weigh every other day I hated having her on my team.

If you agree or think I am off my rocker. I look forward to to comments.

out,
Dr. K

posted by R. A. King @ 10:33 AM