The axiom,“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” originated with Aristotle. In today’s culture this is perhaps more evident than ever. Leadership, human resources, and coach education programs emphasize the value of teamwork. Those who actively foster a team environment in their organizations are the ones who rise to the pinnacle of their chosen fields. Countless examples serve as evidence. Whether you are an athletic coach, business manager, or founder of a small start up, building an excellent team will sky rocket your success.

2 Leaders of High Performing Teams

Pete Carroll is the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. His coaching philosophy centers around relationships, brotherhood, and team commitment. One example of this is the “I’m IN” slogan that every player taps as they leave the locker room to take the field. In the 2013-2014 NFL season, the Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks did not have the highest paid talent, but they put a premium on playing as a team for the betterment of the team.

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success,” said Henry Ford. We see this philosophy play out in sports, business, and non-profit organizations. It is a fundamental concept. A leader must be able to bring his or her team together and work in unison toward the organization’s goals.

The Value of Cohesion

When it comes to building great teams, it starts with cohesion. Why is team cohesiveness so important?

Let’s begin with a definition for cohesion. Cohesion is comprised of multidimensional forces causing groups to stick together, resist disruptive forces, and unite in the pursuit of group goals and objectives (Festinger et al., 1963; Gross and Martin, 1952; Cota et al., 1995; Mudpack, 1989). When teams talk about having chemistry, having bonds, and gelling together, this is what they mean.

In a survey of 65 U.S. Olympic coaches from the 1996 Atlanta and 1994 Nagano Olympic Games, cohesion was identified as one of the top three factors influencing success (Gould et al., 2002).

Researchers have confirmed that, in sports, a team’s cohesiveness is linked to their performance. Carron et al. (2002) found that more cohesive teams outperform less cohesive teams. Furthermore, while cohesion leads to greater success, greater success also increases a team’s cohesiveness.

When it comes to group development, group maintenance and achieving group goals and objectives, Galembiewski et al. (1974) found that cohesiveness was the single most important factor.

Cohesion is the single most important factor for building a successful team.
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In your pursuit of building a high performing team, cultivating cohesion is an essential target area.

So, how do you cultivate cohesion in your team?

How to Cultivate Team Cohesion

To increase team cohesion, leaders must foster the group through the four stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, and performing (Tuckman, 1965).

When organizations struggle to perform (get results), leaders often focus on strategy and techniques, when the real problem is a lack of cohesion within the team.

Team building is the best way to walk a team through these progressive stages. Research by Carron and Spink (1993) demonstrate that a team building intervention program has a substantial impact on perceptions of cohesiveness and on individual’s desirable behaviors within organizations.

Why Invest in Team Building

Leaders should deliberately create team building opportunities for their teams.

I’m not talking about ice cream socials, trust falls, or a pilgrimage to the Andes Mountains. While those can all be fun activities, the purpose in doing them must be made clear.

Brawley and Paskevich (1997) define team building as a “method of helping a group increase effectiveness, satisfy the needs of its members, and improve work conditions.” Team building, whatever the event, is about bringing people together for common goals, communicating, growing, and then channeling this cohesion into organizational efforts.

The main goal of team building is to enhance communication, motivation, and productivity. Team building does that. However, there are numerous additional benefits to bolster the case for making team building a consistent part of your organizational development program. This is for athletes, employees, ministry teams, etc.

Additional benefits of team building:

• increases morale
• greater acceptance of roles and responsibilities
• increases engagement
• illuminates a team’s strengths & weaknesses
• identifies leadership skills
• improves problem solving
• enhances collaboration
• increases revenue

Leaders who intentionally engage in team building develop stronger teams.
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To help you cultivate high performing teams, check out my free download: “8 Essential Team Building Books Every Leader Needs.”

Great Leaders Build Great Teams

This is what success is built on. Great teams have high cohesion. Team building helps you get there. As a leader, your job is to make your team successful. In the case of team building, that might include getting out of the office, having some fun, and getting a little crazy once in a while.

Question: What is one factor that gets in the way of building team cohesion?

The post What Is The Essential Factor For Building Successful Teams? first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

One of the first evaluations made of an athlete is whether or not he or she is coachable. Many coaches will select a less talented player who is coachable over a more talented player who isn’t coachable. What is it that prevents an athlete from being coachable in the first place?

A fragile mindset

Like many coaches, I’ve had the unfortunate experience of coaching seemingly un-coachable athletes. It is a frustrating experience. One tennis player stands out in my mind. He was talented, but he was a bit of a head case. Watching his matches was often like riding a roller coaster. His emotions rose and fell with each point won or error made.

As his mental coach, I asked a lot of questions and observed his reactions in practice and in competition. It became evident that his outward confidence was mostly bravado. He clung to the identity of being a good tennis player. Yet, it was as if each point either confirmed or denied the validity of this claim. A mistake proved he was inadequate. A winner validated what he so desperately wanted to be true: I’m a good player.

A fixed mindset

Based on the work of Dr. Carol Dweck, author of Mindsets: A New Psychology of Success, I’d characterize the above athlete as having a fixed mindset. He believed that his tennis abilities were set. He had to make do with the hand he’d been dealt. Every instance proved or disproved whether or not those abilities were good enough.

Athletes in a fixed mindset don’t value effort, believe hard work is less valuable than talent and become intimidated by the success of others. To be clear, this doesn’t mean they can’t be successful players. So long as their abilities match the demands placed on them, they’ll often do very well.

However, when they face real challenges, their fixed mindsets cause them to cover up insecurities. They are likely to back out, self-sabatague or give less than their best effort to provide a convenient excuse when they don’t come out on top.

In a fixed mindset, an athlete’s motivation comes from upholding the image that he or she is skilled. Anything or anyone who is perceived as questioning that image is viewed as a threat. Threats infringe on their egos. Thus, athletes in a fixed mindset act defensive.

Why it’s tough to coach a fixed mindset

If a player believes his or her sport specific ability can’t change, then it makes sense why he or she would:

Consequently, players in a fixed mindset never reach their potentials.

If they don’t think they can improve, then why work hard and be receptive to a coach’s feedback? It is easy to see how a coach (or parent) could get frustrated by an athlete in a fixed mindset.

So, is that it? Is there nothing a coach can do to help an athlete in a fixed mindset become more coachable? In fact, there are at least two things you can do.

Foster a Growth Mindset in Your Athletes

By highlighting two specific aspects of a player’s performance, you can help foster a growth mindset – one in which players are highly coachable.

An example might sound like, “Look at all the time you’ve put in at the free throw line in practice. Based on your free throw percentage moving up to 85%, I’d say that hard work is paying off.”

An example might sound like, “Great job reading the different defensive looks that team threw at you. Throughout the season your decision making at the line has really improved.”

Highlighting a player’s effort & development helps them break away from a fixed mindset.
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To help you influence your athletes toward a growth mindset, I developed this free action guide with 10 things coaches can start doing today.

As a coach, you’ve seen players in a fixed mindset countless times before. They rely on talent and don’t like to get outside their comfort zones. But this mindset stifles their true potentials.

By highlighting their effort and development, you can encourage them to challenge their beliefs. Before long the evidence will be undeniable that indeed hard work does pay off and they can improve. Now, that’s coachable.

Question: What frustrates you most about a player who isn’t coachable? Leave your comment in the section below this post. 

• Book: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck 
• Post: Why Is A Growth Mindset Required To Reach Your Potential?

The post How To Reach Athletes Who Are Not Coachable first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Why is effective communication essential for team success? Communication builds empathy and understanding and gets people on the same page. Effective communication breeds synchronization, an alignment of purpose and effort. Highly effective teams, regardless of context, thrive because team members are synchronized with one another.

Synchronization in a Kayak

Some say that putting a married couple in a tandem kayak is risking their marriage. My wife and I have tested this theory on several occasions. It’s been a great exercise in communication.

There are 3 actions I found tremendously helpful in our tandem kayaking adventures:

1. Stating a clear and specific goal (that we both understood) such as where we were going.

2. Awareness of each other’s efforts. If we both paddled on the left side, we’d turn in circles.

3. Allowing for open and nonjudgmental feedback.

When these 3 actions took place before we began paddling, we got to our destination. When they didn’t, we were ineffective, zig zagging across the water. Or, we made small and unnecessarily tiring progress, countering each other’s effort.

What Synchronized Teams Have That Others Don’t 

The same actions apply to building successful teams. When teams apply the three actions above to become more synchronized, 3 specific benefits drive them toward success.

1. Efficiency: When team members understand the clear and specific goal of the team, they are on the same page. When they are on the same page, they waste less time, energy and effort. Each action smoothly moves the entire team closer to its stated goal.

2. Effectiveness: When team members are aware of other’s efforts, they reduce redundancy and maximize forward progress. Effectiveness is all about getting results. When teams are synchronized they become highly effective at achieving their given objectives.

3. Momentum: When team members are synchronized, they exhibit Newton’s First Law of Motion. Put simply, it says that objects in motion remain in motion. Open feedback allows for minor course corrections along the way. When that feedback is welcomed and helpful, it moves the team forward, building upon previous successes.

Synchronized teams gain efficiency, effectiveness & momentum which drives results.
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Whether in business, sports, family or just paddling a tandem kayak, synchronization drives results. Effective communication and being aware of what others are doing are essential components to get in sync. When you establish clear goals, work together and build momentum through quality feedback, you greatly increase your chances of reaching your destination. Synchronized teams go further faster than their competition. Not convinced? Maybe it’s time to grab a paddle.

Question: What else does synchronization do for your team? Share your thoughts below the post. I’d love to hear from you.

The post 3 Ways Synchronization Drives Results first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Championships are won on the practice field. Yet not all teams practice like champions practice. The truth is, practice doesn’t make perfect. The way in which we practice makes all the difference. So, how can you increase the quality of practice?

Edited in Canva

As a coach and NCAA athlete myself, I’ve put in my time on the practice field, court, etc. Like many of you, I’ve seen players just go through the motions. On numerous occasions I’ve observed two tennis players rallying with one another, just hitting the ball back and forth with no real intent or purpose. They were not trying to see how many consecutive shots they could hit in a row. Nor were they focused on cross-court rallies, or even constructing points.

These are what some coaches call “junk reps.” I’m sure you’ve seen it too. As a coach, I told my players that in practice they were either (1) getting better or (2) getting worse. Junk reps generally fall into the “getting worse” category. So, how can you establish practice conditions that foster a focus on continuous improvement?

The key is to increase the amount of focused effort each athlete brings to his or her practice. Goals are the best way to increase focus and effort, making every repetition and drill count.

Players who set goals for practice will improve faster than those who don’t.
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Coaches can help their players get more out of practice by applying this 3 part structure.

Part 1: At the beginning of practice, tell your players what the objectives are.

• What is the focus of practice going to be?
• What areas do you want to see improvement in?
• Set your expectations.

Part 2: Based on the intent of the practice plan, have each player set an individual goal.

• What specific element of their game do they want to improve?
• It should stretch his/her comfort zone.
• He/She needs to identify a way to measure progress and/or success.

Part 3: Have coaches and other players provide feedback to each athlete based on his/her goal.

• Did you achieve your goal?
• Why or why not? (no excuses)
• What can you do to make improvement going forward?

This may sound too simple to make a difference, but you’ll notice an increase in focus and effort toward improvement in every drill if you stick with it. Beyond collective goals for practice, setting individual goals helps team members take responsibility for their own improvement. They can be held accountable to it.

Better yet, as they see tangible evidence (through evaluating their practice goals) that they are getting better, their confidence grows. As teammates see each other getting better, the confidence of the team grows. That is a powerful force when it comes game time.

Use index cards or a large whiteboard to capture and track each day’s individual practice goals. One volleyball team I worked with used this strategy to hone their fundamentals and improve player consistency. Champions don’t leave getting better up to chance: they are intentional and relentless with their pursuit of improvement. Deliberate effort applied on the practice court pays off huge when you go toe to toe with your opponent.

Question: How can you encourage your team to set practice goals to help them get better today? Please share your great ideas in the comments section below.

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