Smart Coaching Blog

Solutions for Smart Coaches and Athletic Directors

nathangstanley

Five Essential Elements for Your Coaches Professional Development

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As leaders of school-based athletic programs, coaches and athletic directors understand that their coaches are one of the most important factors in both the success and SIGNIFICANCE of their respective programs. Despite the critical nature of hiring and retaining elite coaches, the reality is that oftentimes open coaching positions receive little attention from the caliber of candidates that we might hope for. While the importance of hiring the right people for your program shouldn’t be understated, we understand that we may be limited in the choices we have for our coaching staffs.

Regardless of the background and experience of our coaches who we oversee, it is essential that we as leaders do everything that we can to utilize their strengths while addressing their shortcomings. Developing and implementing a comprehensive professional development plan is necessary for us to ensure the long term growth and innovation of our coaches and therefore our programs.

(Note: the following five points are adapted from George Couros’s infographic 8 Things to Look for in Today’s Classroom)

To do this, I believe there are several elements that are critical to developing a meaningful and intentional plan. They are:

Voice: I believe it is important for us to provide our coaches with an opportunity to share their input for the direction of professional development for your program. Creating systems for feedback is important not only for keeping the program leader aware of what the “temperature of the room is,” but also to provide them with valuable insights they may not otherwise be aware of.

Choice: What they are in on, they will be into. Providing people with autonomy is critical in increasing intrinsic motivation, especially when you are in a position where you may not be able to easily remove a coach who isn’t compliant with department initiatives.

Reflection: Allowing coaches an opportunity to reflect on their coaching practice is an important part of the learning process. As George Couros says in his book, The Innovator’s Mindset, “I reflect, therefore I learn.”

Self Assessment: Whether you have your coaches set personal/professional goals or you use a self assessment tool such as the Positive Coaching Alliance’s Double Goal Coaching Self Assessment or that of 3D Coaching, self assessment is an important component of a coach’s ability to take ownership of their own growth.

Connected Learning: Helping coaches build a network of people they can collaborate with and rely upon for advice, feedback and inspiration is a valuable part of a comprehensive growth plan. For myself, being able to connect with peers from around the country as well as interact with athletic leaders from across the spectrum of experience has allowed me an invaluable opportunity to grow as a coach and an athletic director. Any opportunity you have to connect your coaches with one another as well as other “learning leaders” is well worth the effort.

Including the above five elements in your program’s professional development is an excellent way to build comprehensive and meaningful growth opportunities for your coaches. By incorporating voice and choice, you will increase both the relevance and buy-in of your coaches while time for reflecting and self assessment are integral in the learning process. Finally, connecting your coaches to others who can serve as a valuable resource can serve as a catalyst for their personal and professional growth.

Who is Packing Your Chute?

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Charlie Plumb, is a graduate of the Naval Academy, former Navy Fighter Pilot captain and an ex-POW.  On his 75th mission, with five days before he was to return home, his plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile, resulting in his capture and torture. He spent a total of 2,103 days in an 8 x 8 foot cell as a POW in North Vietnamese prison camps.

This epic podcast with Jocko Willink and Charlie Plumb is excellent listening

During the nearly six years of captivity, he distinguished himself by devising creative methods of underground communication, enabling he and his fellow POW’s to resist their captors and support one another.  He also served for two years as the camp chaplain.

When we was released from captivity he found himself several years later eating dinner in a restaurant with his wife when a stranger came up to him and said, “You’re Plumb!  You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.  You were shot down!” 

“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb.”I packed your parachute,” the man replied.

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked!”

Captain Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, “I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said ‘Good morning, how are you?’ or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.”

Captain Plumb experienced the realization that there are countless people that have had an impact on our lives that we may never know.  As we go through our days, asking, “Who packs my parachute?” may help us be aware of those around us whose contributions to our lives may otherwise go unnoticed or unappreciated. 

You may have heard or read about a notable example of this gratitude for those whose contributions to our lives are often times overlooked when Los Angeles Rams Wide Receiver Brandin Cooks paid for the flight and tickets of a team custodian to attend the Super Bowl in Atlanta.

Take a moment this week to think about who those people may be and what you or your student-athletes can do to thank them.

Using a Simple Desk Calendar with Your Smartphone “Reminders” to Maximize Your Productivity

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I have written some about strategies to maximize your potential. Over the past year and a half I have found that combining a few strategies have improved my time management and productivity in a way that is low maintenance but high yield for me in my position as an Athletic Director.

For starters, in my role as an Athletic Director, I have responsibilities that are both managerial in nature as well as those that I would characterize as being related to leadership. With the duality of the position, it can be difficult to balance both roles and be efficient and productive. Regardless of the nature of my position, the use of what Cal Newport refers to as, “Deep Work” or Gary Keller calls “time blocks” seem to be a best practice that creative people should be utilizing to maximize their output.

To do this, I use a simple desk top calendar to organize my day. My basic process is to create four time blocks for every day: AM1, AM2, PM1 and PM2. For each one of those time blocks, I write down a task that I have assigned to that period of time. To do this, I will consult my calendar to pencil in any meetings that may be scheduled or to write down event set-up time, etc. that will take up that basic period of time. For the rest of the time blocks, I select from my Task menu on Outlook. More about how I create my “Tasks” in a moment.

Before I go further into how I create a capture list using my iPhone’s “Reminders” app and the “Task” module withing Outlook, I want to just share how I use the calendar to track contact with my coaches. Basically, in season, I would like to have a meaningful interaction with each of my head coaches on a weekly basis.

In lieu of scheduling a standing meeting, I try and track when I am able to have that interaction with each coach by marking it down on my desk calendar. If I get to the end of the week and I haven’t had a chance to catch up with an in-season coach, I find a way to reach our and check in with them. For off season coaches, I try to check in on a monthly basis. For those of us with a large number of off-staff coaches, this allows us to intentionally address coaching our coaches that happens by default with in-building coaches.

In order to fill the time blocks on my desk calendar, I choose from the “Tasks” that have accumulated over the past several days. I do this by either entering a task directly onto Outlook or by making a note using the Reminders app on my iPhone. Anytime I think of something I need to do, I immediately enter it on my phone. When I get to my computer, I then try to prioritize tasks each day based on the Eiesenhower Matrix: how important/urgent a task is.

Note: I try to schedule tasks that require creativity and thought for the morning and activities that don’t, such as meetings for the afternoon. I find that if I spend time working on projects, researching an idea or engaging in professional development in the morning, I’m a) more productive in the morning, b) I’m less likely to have it interrupted and c) it has a positive impact on the rest of my day.

Additionally, each time I find myself without a designated task, I work through my capture list that I’ve created with my iPhone Reminders and Outlook Tasks. This really helps me eliminate dead time during the day.

The final strategy that I employ is known as the Ivy Lee Method. The idea is that at the end of each day, I try to list the five most important things I could do the next day to further my mission. I have used my desk calendar to record this prioritized list for the next day, or, if I’m away from my calendar, I’ll just try and assign those items for the next day which automatically prioritizes those in Outlook. You could also prioritize your Tasks in Outlook.

Using this simple method, time blocking using a desk calendar, iPhone Reminders and Outlook Tasks, has really improved both my productivity as well a my peace of mind that I’m covering all my bases over the course of the week.

What About Bob and the Plateau of Latent Potential

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In the 1991 Bill Murray comedy, What About Bob, Murray’s character Bob, an obsessive-compulsive neurotic is the patient of a therapist, played by Richard Dreyfuss, has written a self help book that instructs people like Bob to, “take baby steps.”

Along the lines of baby steps, I was sharing with a friend recently about the slow progress that was being made with an initiative I was participating in and he shared that when you are making big changes in an organization, especially major culture shifts, that much of what we do is about incremental change.

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear writes about a phenomenon of the delay between when we start working toward a goal and the time it takes before we are able to see measurable progress. He refers to this as the Plateau of Latent Potential.

There are several metaphors to illustrate his point: that of the stone cutter and that of melting an ice cube.

Many teams have used the metaphor of the stonecutter pounding away at a rock with seemingly no progress toward his goal only to finally break the rock with one swing. Clear includes this metaphor in his book:

“Mastery requires patience. The San Antonio Spurs, one of the most successful teams in NBA history, have a quote from social reformer Jacob Riis hanging in their locker room: ‘When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.’”

Another metaphor that I have used is that of the giant bamboo tree. When farmers plant the seeds for the giant bamboo tree, they will spend the entire first year watering and fertilizing the seeds without any visible growth in the plant. This process is repeated for the next three years with the farmer watering and fertilizing the plant without any visible progress. In the fifth year after it’s planting, at some point, the bamboo will grow up to 80 feet in just six weeks.

So the question we ask is did it take six weeks for the bamboo to grow 80 feet or five years? The answer is that for the previous five years, the plant was establishing the strong roots that would be needed to support the massive growth it would experience in that brief six week period.

My favorite metaphor for this process of incremental change and the plateau of latent potential is that of the ice cube. If we have been given the challenge to melt an ice cube and the current temperature is 25 degrees, even if we find a way to raise the temperature 6 degrees, we won’t see any progress as the ice cube will continue to refuse to melt. It’s not until we’re able to raise the temperature to 33 degrees that we will see the ice cube melt and our hard work pay-off.

Clear writes: “Complaining about not achieving success despite working hard is like complaining about an ice cube not melting when you heated it from twenty-five to thirty-one degrees. Your work was not wasted; it is just being stored. All the action happens at thirty-two degrees. When you finally break through the Plateau of Latent Potential, people will call it an overnight success.”

Regardless of your goals, there will come a time when progress will become imperceptible. During those times when you know your process aligns with your mission, vision and principles, then baby steps may be as good as it gets. With a little time and an a different perspective, you may be able to see the massive growth that is happening in small increments.

Do You Want to be Affective or Effective?

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So much of the social media posts I see in the coaching world are skewed in one direction:  toward players.  These posts, tweets, etc., admonish athletes that if they aren’t getting the playing time, attention, points, touches, or whatever else is the object of their hearts desire, that this is a direct result of them not putting in the work or being coachable or having the right attitude.  The locus of control is placed firmly in the lap of the student-athlete, where in large part, it should be.

However, I think there is a part of the formula missing.  Absent from the conversation is what the role coaches should play in the equation?  What is it that we need to do in order for our athletes or teams to maximize their potential?  Retweet a provocative post from another coach?  Scream and yell at our athletes or even the officials when results are not happening at the speed or in the manner of our preference?  The criticism I would make of myself and others like me is that we often times fail to recognize that our actions often times may not help the cause in the way we think should.

Dr. Rob Gilbert has said many times that, “Your thoughts determine what you want.  Your actions determine what you get.”  Too often, I think coaches, especially young ones, act the way they feel rather than trying to understand what their players need and providing it.  Another way to phrase it is, your actions can be affective or effective.  Here’s a definition from Grammerly.com:

  • Affective describes something that has been influenced by emotions, is a result of emotions, or expresses emotion.
  • Effective describes something that produces a desired result.

I’ve seen a number social media posts where coaches have shared the press conference where Geno Auriemma talks about how he evaluates recruits on their body language during games.

What I don’t think coaches consider is whether their body language is effective in eliciting the response from their athletes that helps them maximize their potential.  Does this mean that we never raise our voice, or provide criticism to our athletes?  Absolutely not. But, if all we do is scream and yell, our athletes will become numb to what we say.  If we argue every single call an official makes, when are they to believe that we actually have a substantive argument that could change a call?

If we want for our actions to have the effect that we want, they must be intentional, purposeful and skillful.  A theatrical example of this that I like to refer to with coaches is a scene from the movie Miracle.  In the scene, Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, the coach comes into the locker room in between periods to challenge his team in a fairly negative manner.  While I don’t think the content of the speech would be appropriate for a high school or youth coach to use, as Brooks walks out of the locker room, he lets the viewer know that he was not out of control, or acting on emotion, but rather, giving his team what they needed to play their best.

Discussed much less than more notable demonstrations of uncontrolled negative emotions or what 3D Coaching refers to as “unpleasant/unhelpful” there is also coaching behavior which is “pleasant/unhelpful.”  While I think that telling coaches to be less emotional during contests, even when those emotions are positive, may be difficult to do.  I made the choice to tamp down my emotions while coaching after I felt like I was having a heart attack after getting so excited after we kicked a 37 yards field goal in a state quarterfinal play-off game.  At the time, I was only 29 years old.  I knew if I was going to have such extreme emotional reactions on a regular basis, it wouldn’t be good for my health long term.

The choice I ultimately made, was to try to be the coach that my team needed at the time.  When things were tough, I tried to be upbeat and encouraging in as authentic a way as possible.  When things were going unbelievably well, I tried to ground our athletes so that they understood that what was most important, was the next play.  When things were chaotic, I tried to be a calming influence.

An excellent, perhaps the best example I can share of a coach acting effectively, rather than affectively, is the Brad Stevens when we has the head basketball coach at Butler University.  Famously versus an NCAA tournament game, in the span of just a few real time seconds, the Bulldogs went from basically throwing away a chance to win the game to one of the most memorable finishes in recent NCAA tournament history.  Throughout the event, Stevens’ actions reflected the best version of himself in that present moment.  Here is a video and interview where you can both see the play, his reaction and here his explanation of why he coaches that way.

Stevens says, “You’re just trying to help put your team in the best position you can, and impact it as much as you can, which sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t.  If that shot goes in or that shot doesn’t go in, it has no impact to me on how we played.”  The follow up question by Brett Ledbetter is very important in my opinion.  He asks Stevens if people have misinterpreted his demeanor as a lack of passion.  I personally have had parents ask me why or how I was so calm during matches or games and there were instances where I know they felt I might not care enough about an outcome.  This underscores the important of building relationships with your athletes so there isn’t a question of whether or not you care.

Ultimately, each coach must ask himself/herself what it is that they want?  Do you want to act how you feel, or do you want to act for effect?  As I have told my team many times, it doesn’t matter what you feel but what do and if what you do is intentional, purposeful and skillful, you’ll have a must better chance of having the most positive impact as possible.