Want you to think back to one of the first teams you were on…what did it feel like? How did it operate? The context here is sport, use the optic here through sport but also the corporate work environment. The first team I remember, would be my high school football team. If I had to define this team, I would say this team was selfish, didn’t respond well to hard, didn’t handle conflict well, players were focused on themselves, no performance feedback was given or received, the coaches did the heavy lifting regarding structure, rules, guidelines, expectations. Would say development was low, we didn’t win very much, there were cliques/silos, and the players looked to the coaches for motivation and leadership. Coaches “micro-managed” during practice and games. This is an example of a “coach led team.”
When I think of the first team, I played for that was “player led”, I’ll take you to my freshman year at The Ohio State University. All that was written above would be the opposite here. The coaches or the “C-Suite” had worked hard to create, develop an environment that allowed “players” to lead. The coaches would do things to touch on these already created guidelines, but the heavy lifting went to the team…the older players, the players who had been with the team for a year or more. This team did the following very well:
· Handled hard well
· Selfless…thought went into others before oneself
· COMMITTED not interested
· Focused on team goals
· Intentional about the little things…largely self-directed work
· No cliques or silos
· Behaviors that aligned with mission, vision and values
· Truth was spoken
· Performance feedback was given and received
· Resolved internal conflict well
· Fostered leaders and leadership
Through my experiences as an athlete (Player and coach), a professional soldier, the years I spent in city government, and the corporate work environment, I would say everyone WANTS a player led team, but not everyone knows exactly how to create, develop, and foster one. Going to explore six variables you can create to develop a “player led team.” As we navigate this think about your team(s) and how they feel and operate today? Navigate this with a likert scale, quantifying where your team stacks up here.
1. Be the standard -
a) Don’t just set the standard — be the standard. Model what is most important (Define this). As much as possible, avoid double standards, hypocritical actions, or inconsistent messages (Awareness of Emotional Intelligence). SHOW your athletes and/or employees how to be a good leader (Often we assume this is or will be intuitive to others). Give them a blueprint for what healthy leadership/relationship(s) looks like. How well do you connect? Do you stay curious? Are you genuine/authentic? Do those you lead feel that you care about them? Are these relationships transactional or transformational?
Few areas of focus…This starts with YOU and your staff.
Explore being contagiously CALM
Be coachable (Respond well to performance feedback)
Serve other team members
Don’t act like a big shot…find ways to be hungry, humble, and smart
Listen more to understand rather than to RESPOND
Show an attitude of gratitude
Be patient with others
Show vulnerability
See other perspectives…show emotional intelligence
Follow your own rules, standards, and guidelines
Treat people right
Make others better…develop
Focus hard on development
2. Teach
a) In Corporate America when a person starts a new job, they often go through on-board training to include their first 30-60-90-120 days are laid out to create clarity for both parties (alignment). They learn how to execute their core competencies at a fundamental level. Team leaders shouldn’t be any different. You must train your athletes and/or employees to be leaders. Your athletes and/or employees know the skills and have the training to perform their sport and/or job function, but being a leader is entirely different. How can we coach them here? Teach them on how to be a leader. Show them what it means to be a leader. Let them know what you expect. How often do we talk about this with our team leaders and/or team? What does leader look like here? Create and set the expectations.
Areas of leadership development you might want to provide an athlete and/or employee may include:
Program core values…what are they and how well do we live them out each day? Find ways to talk about them? How often do we talk about them? How have you created them…did they have a say in this?
Team rules/expectations…who developed them and how often do we talk about them? How can we make these real?
Define a leader on or within your team using qualifying words? Might be surprised how your team defines this? Create clarity here so its brough to their Reticular Activating System (RAS).
Everyone can be a leader. What does this look like in our program or company?
Team member roles. How can we define these? Create clarity?
What leadership is and isn’t…how can you define this with your team?
Why player-led teams are important here? Again, allow the player(s) and/or employees to take ownership here.
No matter what level of sports you coach, or company you run your athletes and/or employees will have a certain understanding of what a leader is and what leadership looks like. Great way to create clarity here is by staying curious and allowing them to identify this through questions in the 1v1 setting and/or small groups or as teams. “Player-led team” is a unique concept for many, and you’ll need to educate them on what it encompasses and how they can be a part of that.
3. Tools to lead
a) After you teach what it means to be a leader and why a player-led team is critical, you need to make sure that you’re equipping them with the tools and resources to be a leader. There will be issues, drama, and situations that occur, and they’ll need to be prepared. You’ll need to provide them with the knowledge or things to carry out the team’s mission, vision, core values and goals. When “issues” break out in the locker room, court, field, cafeteria, back of the bus, hallways, dorm rooms, weight room, or cafeteria, office your athletes and/or employees need to have the tools to nullify plausible issues.
Sometimes coaches and/or bosses leave it up to chance or assume their athletes and/or employees know how to put out those issues and will put out those issues, but that is not normally the case. What if they aren’t prepared to deal with these issues…do we want to leave this to chance? This “what if” could have a tremendous negative impact on your culture.
Few things you can do or provide to help equip your athletes and/or employees…
What to say in certain situations…how to use/leverage emotional intelligence
How to act in certain situations…same, how to use/leverage emotional intelligence
How to take a “tactical pause or reframe” to make the best decision
Think outside the box training to create a higher level of preparedness…role playing
Necessary phone numbers programmed in their phones
Signs, posters, or flyers in appropriate areas to carry messages
Clear policies, procedures, and standards and venues to discuss
Training sessions (in-house or outside – camps, clinics, conferences, summits, etc.)
Don’t leave them to figure it out all on their own. Don’t assume that they’ll know what needs to happen, who to talk with, or how to do something.
4. Upgrade
a) Even though your athletes and/or employees might have the physical and/or technical skills to be on your team, you still work with them to improve their skills. You make their strengths unstoppable and their weaknesses manageable through a culture of performance feedback. It’s the same with their leadership skills. Once you’ve educated them and provided the tools for them to be a leader, you’ve got to help them improve, grow, and develop. What does this look like for you and your team(s)?
Leadership is not a destination, but a journey. Becoming better is a constant goal. Every day, week, month, quarter and year will provide opportunities for leadership growth.
Here are a few ways you can upgrade your athlete’s and/or employees leadership skills …
Learn from others through performance feedback and mental reps…how do you create this? Talk about it, give examples, live feedback in all that you do
Bring in experts to work with your team…the average professional is in his/her career for a decade before they receive a leadership development opportunity
Send players/employees and/or peers to conferences
Create and participate in a focused team activity…allow team or employees to draft ideas/concepts “ownership”
Debrief and discuss things that occur during your practices or games...don’t shy away from vulnerability early
Get ahead of plausible issues that’ll occur…smell or see smoke get on it
Take personality assessment and use as a TOOL…how can we use this?
Conduct a culture of self-evaluations…starts with you
Utilize accountability partners or groups. Create a “leadership committee” on your team and/or division at work
Think outside the box to illustrate learning i.e. role playing, work simulations, which creates environment to learn and give feedback
Slow down and TEACH…don’t delegate
Just like your athletes and/or employees will be at different levels with their physical or technical abilities, they’ll also have varying degrees of leadership skills. Your athletes and/or employees won’t all be the same, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help them improve and strengthen their skills through a sustainable approach to leadership development while they are under your leadership. Think about the bell curve here…you will have 10% that are above average, 80% that are average and 10% that are below average. One thing I can promise you, which is they won’t all be the same despite how hard you recruit, hire and on-board. How will you strengthen the top 10%, pull some 80% folks into the top 10% and lastly pull some bottom 10% folks into the average or top 10%? Won’t happen unless you are intentional here.
5. Authorize
a) If you’re a football coach with an elite runner, but never call a play for that athlete to get the ball, then you’re under-utilizing their talents. It’s the same with leadership. You need to give your athletes and/or employees opportunities to use their leadership skills. You can’t have a player-led team if you the coach and/or supervisor are constantly making the decisions or being the voice of the team, program, division, department, or company.
Few thoughts on how to provide your athletes and/or employees with opportunities to lead:
Consider allowing your team to create, develop and administer a pre-season or prior to the FY development retreat. What do they feel is important to discuss and/or learn about? What would be valuable to them? Neat opportunity for your players or employees to take ownership a critical step each season and/or year.
Split your athletes and/or employees up on various committees or sub-groups. In addition to being on a committee, each athlete and/or employee could lead one. They could be the committee captain or chair. These committees can be for swag, fund-raising, development, community service, pre-game music, travel gear, meals, social media, or how to get more fans to your games.
Establish a leadership council. These representatives can establish rules, make disciplinary decisions, or provide feedback to the rest of the team and/or employees. This can be in lieu of captains or work together and complement your system of team captains.
Plan training sessions. Depending on the situation, athletes and/or employees could plan as much or as little of your training as you want. At the least, they could offer suggestions or name certain drills, or exercises. On the opposite end of the spectrum, they could plan (or even run) entire sessions.
Have them conduct aspects of leadership training sessions to include leadership development…define the difference.
Let them plan community service event. This allows them to take more ownership in them.
Have them plan some (or all) of your team activities. If you have a meal, they could plan that meal, buy the food, and cook it.
Represent the team at various events such as Rotary, Kiwanis, or at local schools. They could even be the people that get interviewed by the media.
Come up with ideas for competitive games and events. Again, allow your leadership team or committee create and develop these with limited guidance…create a feedback loop to ensure all elements are connected.
Look for ways to allow your athletes to provide input in all aspects of the program. This way they take ownership in what happens. Creates a high degree of buy-in.
Remember that here it’s also equally important to allow them to make mistakes during these processes…if they solve for X, but it’s different than you had in mind…who cares. Allowing them to create and find solutions just builds a strong level of trust and ownership, which we all desire on our teams.
Develop an environment that not only provides opportunities but also allows them the freedom to make mistakes. A player-led team doesn’t worry about who’s right or wrong — it doesn’t look for “I told you so” moments, but instead SOLUTIONS and GROWTH.
6. Inspire
a) Being a leader is not a natural or intuitive aspect for many athletes and/or employees, so you’ll need to consistently encourage them to utilize their skills and potential. Be careful not to assume that they “get it” or that it’s easy for them even if they appear to be very skilled as a leader. Leadership is hard…especially for young people who are trying to positively influence their teammates and/or other employees. How can we show empathy and grace here?
Here are some ways that you can encourage your athletes and/or employees to be better leaders:
Catch them being good and talk about it either 1v1 or in a group setting
Praise them in public, not just in private (Might consider DiSC style)
Laugh frequently…humor is the great connector
Create positive energy
Create opportunities for performance feedback early
Show grace when mistakes happen (They will)
Focus on solutions driven by them…make them think and problem solve
Progress and growth are more important than who’s right and/or who’s wrong
Be aware who sees you complain
Pay attention to non-verbal communication i.e. tone, pace, high fives, body language
Give out awards
Celebrate together
Acknowledge small wins and accomplishments
Send personal notes (Power of a handwritten note)
Comments