Establishing Core Values Part 1 – Non-negotiables for the Athletic Department

A few years ago, I was involved in a conflict between a coach and a parent that was particularly ugly.  While I knew the coach was doing a good job generally, and feedback from players was pretty positive, there were definitely some areas that we needed to address.  Further,  it became clear that one of the major underlying problems was the culture within our  athletic programs in general.

I had read a Facebook post from Proactive Coaching about a high school program that had undergone the process of changing their athletic department’s culture using a three or four year process.  I was very interested and gave Bruce Brown a phone call to ask about the process and how to get started. During our phone call, Bruce advised me to do the following:

• Year 1: Develop a set of “non-negotiables” that all coaches and programs would be held to.
• Year 2: Get the highest performing programs on board by having them implement core covenants into their programs.
• Year 3:  Get all programs on board with core covenants.

To start that process, I sat down and brainstormed all of the problems that we were having in our athletic programs and then wrote down what I felt were the solutions.  It was a little like Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points and about as effective.  We had a department-wide meeting to go over the “non-negotiables” as well as some specific ways to implement those standards.  Here is a Google Slides presentation that I used to give the information.  The information was well received and I got a number of “attaways” from the administration and coaches but there was one problem:  no one could remember it.

Lesson number one I learned about implementing Core Values is that if you can’t remember them, and your coaches can’t remember them (or athletes if they’re for your team), you don’t have Core Values.  You have a piece of paper.  The non-negotiables I came up with were good ideas but they were tough for me to remember on demand so I know if I asked coaches about them, I’d just get blank stares.  Around December and January, I was looking to revise and refine what we would move forward with.

In trying to refine what our expectations were for our athletic programs, I came across two people who really helped me with the process.  This first was Randy Jackson, the Head Football Coach at Grapevine, Texas.  I had heard Randy was a master at intentionally building culture so I contacted him and set up a visit during their off-season strength and conditioning class.  We talked about what they were doing at Grapevine and he pointed me in the direction of Brian Cain Peak Performance.

Brian uses what he calls the “MVP” process (Mission, Values, Purpose) to help programs develop their “championship culture.”  We spent half of a day at an Athletic Director’s event learning how to do this so it would be too much for one blog post but, in a nutshell, the idea is to select three to five characteristics that your program is going to build upon.  For teams, this process involves meeting with the stakeholders and deciding a) what do you need to do to be your very best and/or b) what you want your program to represent.

Using what I learned from Bruce, Randy and Brian, I sat down and really thought about what I wanted our athletic program to be about.  First, I wanted the department core values to be an expectation between our administration, myself and our coaches.  I wanted them to be clear, concise and easy to remember so that when push comes to shove, we could return to our foundation and put things in proper perspective.  One of the major values in taking part in this process is that as Mike Smith and Jon Gordon talk about in the book You Win the Locker Room First, it helps us “focus on the root before the fruit.”

Ultimately, I decided that our department core values would be the following:

• Culture
• People
• Process
• Purpose

To help myself and our coaches to remember this, we’re using the abbreviation “C3P.”  My intent in selecting the above four core values was so that regardless of the sport, talent level, experience level of the coaches or players, I feel I can objectively evaluate the culture of a program, how a coach is building relationships with players and parents (as well as between players), whether or not and to what extent there is a process in place and finally, what is their purpose or core values.

I feel that if I can sit down with a coach and see these four things are present or developing in a program, we’re going to provide the athlete with a growth opportunity that is a positive extension of their overall educational experience.

One issue that I am worried about is “core value” burnout with multi-sport athletes.  My approach may not fit your situation.  You may find that a number of your coaches/programs want to share the same set of core values and in that case, you can dovetail that process with the process I’ll discuss in my next post on the development of team/program specific core values.