Negativity fills the gaps when there is a lack of communication. To cultivate a championship culture, built on trust and accountability, coaches need to connect with players one-on-one. Great teams begin with clear communication.

Where Do I Stand?

Every athlete wants to know where they stand. As a student-athlete I constantly craved more feedback and input from my coaches.

What did they see as my strengths? What needed improvement? How did I need to do to move up or get more playing time?

This may be even more important in today’s culture of immediacy. Athletes want continuous feedback, not just on how they executed a particular drill but evaluative feedback from those who matter most – their coaches.

Unfortunately, many coaches struggle with closing the feedback loop with players. Most coaches I’ve talked to want to do this better. But, it’s a challenge. They’ve got a lot on their plates…a lot that demands attention.

When athletes don’t know where they stand, their minds drift into uncertainty, speculation, and mind reading – not a championship mindset.

1-Minute Drill for Clear Communication

With 6 National Championship banners hung in the rafters, Penn State women’s volleyball clearly knows a thing or two about communication.

Specifically, Coach Russ Rose has implemented a communication tool every coach should adopt and adapt to foster clear communication with their athletes.

He calls it the 1-Minute Drill.

Rose schedules one-on-one meetings with each player at various points throughout the season. In these meetings he tells players:

1. What they are doing well
2. What they need to work on
3. What they need to focus on during the next segment of training

Lastly he invites them to ask questions. Meeting adjourned.

It may only last 3-5 minutes. In that short time Coach Rose provides direct feedback, re-establishes expectations, eliminates uncertainty, builds trust and protects their team culture. One player meeting at a time.

This simple 1-Minute Drill can transform any locker room.
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Use the 1-Minute Drill to Transform Your Locker Room

Don’t leave your athletes in the dark. Remember, gaps in communication get filled with negativity. Instead, build a team environment of trust and safety by providing clear feedback, praising the process, and building relationships with the people (i.e. players) you’re leading.

Question: What are other strategies to maintain clear communication with your athletes?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

• Post: Why Do Great Teams Focus on Culture First?
• Post: How to Build a Team Environment of Trust and Safety
• Post: What is the Value of Accountability in Sports?
• Post: “Good Job” Isn’t Good Enough: What It Means To Praise the Process

The post How This 1-Minute Drill Can Transform Your Locker Room first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

The search is over. Science has confirmed what separates mediocre teams from high performing teams – beyond talent. What many coaches (and leaders) know by the eye test, has now been validated by researchers. High performing teams have team chemistry.

Champions Have Team Chemistry

As Jon Gordon puts it, “Team beats talent when talent isn’t a team.” It is no coincidence that championship teams have a special quality previously deemed intangible. Coaches everywhere search for Team Chemistry for Dummies like a holy grail to secure more Ws and skyrocket their careers.

Teams who hoist championship trophies routinely spark inquisitive locker room investigations as others hope to learn the secret sauce. Quick turnaround stories like the Rams or Celtics spark interest. Dynasties like Carolina women’s soccer and Patriots are mined deeply with full length publications promising to satisfy big appetites.

Today, team chemistry can be scientifically measured and more importantly built.

What is Team Chemistry Made Of?

Every coach wants team chemistry. They know when its there – they see it. Teams with chemistry player better, they’re on the same page more often – as if they know what each other is thinking.

The big question is, “Where does chemistry come from?”

And more importantly for coaches, “How can I coach my team to have more chemistry?”

Many coaches have heard by now that teams that hive-five and fist-bump more play better than teams that don’t. Initial research done by the University of California found this to be true in NBA teams. Teams with more physical touches played more cooperatively and played better both individually and as a team.

However, there is more to team chemistry than high-fives and what happens on the court, field, or ice.

Daniel Coyle observed that high performing teams demonstrated a higher frequency of several measurable behaviors.

• Close physical proximity, often gathering in circles.
• Lots of eye contact.
• Physical touch including handshakes, fist bumps and hugs
• Everyone talks to everyone else (no one is excluded)
• Lots of questions
• Highly intent listening
• Lots of humor and laughter
• Lots of little courtesies such as thank you, excuse me, and holding doors

While all of these are observable behaviors, researchers from the MIT Human Dynamics Lab took the analytics to a whole new level. Using some crazy listening devices they were able to collect data on these behaviors, called proto-language.

Team chemistry is no longer a unicorn or mystery. Coaches can cultivate chemistry everyday.
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Specifically the MIT team found that team performance is driven by 5 measurable factors:

• Everyone on the team talks and listens in roughly equal measure, keeping contributions short.
• Team members maintain high levels of eye contact, and their conversations and gestures are energetic.
• Team members communicate directly with one another, not just with the team captains or coach.
• Team members carry on back-channel or side conversations with the team.
• Team members periodically break, go exploring outside the team, and bring information back to share with the others.

If team chemistry is measured in the micro-interactions between players that occur everyday in practice, training rooms, and beyond – how can coaches cultivate chemistry?

I’ve got you covered!

How to Cultivate Team Chemistry

1. Establish a culture of trust and safety. 

Teams built on trust and safety work harder, improve faster, and reach their potential quicker than those with less safe team environments. To build a culture of trust and safety listen more, rub shoulders, be available, invite input, and express gratitude.

2. Lead by example.

Today’s athletes respect coaches and leaders who are authentic. Don’t pretend to be perfect or know all the answers. Be vulnerable. Get outside of your comfort zone. Admit mistakes. Solicit players’ opinions and ideas. Ask, “What do you think?” Your athletes won’t reach their potentials without taking risks and being vulnerable – show them what it looks like.

3. Maintain a positive atmosphere.

Positive doesn’t mean cheery. Positive teams are united, committed, character-driven, selfless, hard working, driven, and resilient. Positive teams are more adaptive, cohesive, and committed. To stoke positive energy communicate your belief in your team, set clear expectations, and praise the process (effort, strategy, or skill) you want to see repeated.

Bonus Download

To help you with team chemistry and positive atmosphere I created this cheat sheet outlining 10 essentials you need to focus on to truly transform your team’s environment and culture.

Cultivate Your Teams Chemistry Every Day

As every coach already knows, coaching chemistry isn’t easy. But it is possible. Having a team with chemistry is no longer something you hope for, it is something you can assess and cultivate every single day.

• Book: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle
• Post: Why Should You Focus More on Building Trust and Safety?
• Post: How to Build a Team Environment of Trust and Safety
• Post: How to Establish a Positive Team Environment
• Post: 5 Proven Reasons to be More Positive With Your Team

The post The Secret is Out: How to Cultivate Team Chemistry first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

For better or worse, the environment surrounding your team impacts performance on game day. A talented team in a poor environment will not fulfill its potential. In contrast, a decent team in a positive environment can exceed expectations. Let’s look at how to build a more positive environment around your team.

A Positive Team Movement

As the positive coaching movement begins to flourish, coaches like you want to grow beyond being a supportive and demanding coach. They want to know how to build a more positive team. As Clemson’s Dabo Swinney puts it, “A team can do great things but a positive team can do extraordinary things.”

Admittedly, I don’t love using the term “positive” in this way. It can be misconstrued as soft or touchy-feely by those who aren’t familiar with it. To me a positive team is united, committed, character-driven, selfless, hard working, driven, and resilient.

A positive team isn’t built overnight. It requires discipline, intentionality, and consistency over time. Ask top coaches like Steve Kerr (Warriors), Dave Roberts (Dodgers), or Sean McCoy (Rams). Many more are rising through the coaching ranks, in part because they know how to build a positive team.

4 Strategies to Establish a Positive Team Environment

What coach doesn’t want a positive team environment? You can take your team to the next level by shaping an environment that supports a championship team culture. Here are 4 strategies to get you started.

1. Establish Trust and Safety

A positive team environment begins with trust and safety. When people feel safe being themselves, they are free to take risks within the team without feeling insecure or embarrassed. They can test the limits of their abilities without fear – a key to athletic development and performance.

To infuse your team with a greater sense of trust and safety, lean in and genuinely listen, share gratitude, and invite team member’s input.

For more practical strategies for establishing trust and safety, click here.

2. Set Clear Expectations

Players will rise and fall to your expectations. However, communication breaks down and assumptions fill the gaps when expectations are unclear. Get your team members on the same page.

As the coach, your athletes need to know what you expect of them. The more specific the better. Discuss their roles within the team. Talk to your players about expected positions, their place on the depth chart, and playing time. Discuss strengths and areas of improvement. Share what you expect from players as a teammates, leaders, and students.

Clear expectations empower your athletes to take ownership and responsibility to meet those expectations. This also makes accountability easier.

3. Demonstrate Belief

When coaches consistently communicate their belief and confidence in their players their athletes show greater effort and commitment.

Author Jon Gordon emphasizes this point. In You Win in the Locker Room First he shared, “I’m convinced one of the most important things a leader must do is to be positive and optimistic.” Communicating a positive and optimistic mentality demonstrates belief in your team’s ability to effectively navigate adversity and become successful.

The more you believe in your team, the more they’ll believe in each other and the better they’ll perform together.

As Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski put it, “I believe in you. These four words can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try.”

4. Praise the Process

Praising the process is calling out the effort, strategy, or skill that led to success or improvement.

When you praise the process consistently with your team, this focuses them on continued learning and development, pointing out what led to past success as the key to further improvement.

Praising the process, rather than criticizing mistakes, helps teammates identify and recognize the hard work everyone is doing to make the team better. This staves off negativity, helping your athletes encourage one another.

A positive team trusts and empowers one another to succeed.
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Bonus Download

To help you with establishing a positive team environment I created this cheat sheet outlining 10 essentials (including the 4 listed here) you need to focus on to truly transform your team’s environment and culture.

Give Your Team a Positive Advantage

Creating a positive team environment should be a top priority for every coach. It is the everyday actions of maintaining a championship team culture. The difference is in the details. Leverage the 4 strategies above to create a team environment where players can thrive. Help your team fulfill its potential.

Question: What are other strategies to establish a positive team environment?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

• Book: You Win in the Locker Room First by Jon Gordon
• Post: Is It Better to Be a Supportive or Demanding Coach?
• Post: Why Do Great Teams Focus on Culture First?
• Post: How To Protect Your Athletes From Your Low Expectations
• Post: “Good Job” Isn’t Good Enough: What It Means to Praise the Process
• Post: 3 Reasons Teammates Should Encourage Not Criticize

The post How to Establish a Positive Team Environment first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Managing the roller coaster of highs and lows can leave some teams prideful or depleted. Yet the best teams in sports find a way to maintain a healthy respect for their competition and a insatiable drive to get better. In short they choose to remain humble and hungry.

The Best are Humble and Hungry

Top teams in any sport at every level demonstrate two uncommon characteristics: being humble and hungry. This is no easy task for coaches, staff, or players. Below we’ll explore real-world barriers that make these two characteristics difficult to maintain for today’s athletes. We’ll also explore several strategies about how to be humble and hungry, including a few examples from a team who learned the hard the way.

Be Humble

This isn’t easy in today’s social media spotlight of selfies and me, me, me. Studies show that narcissism is on the rise. According to Dr. Jean Twenge, nearly 1 in 10 twenty-somethings experience narcissistic personality disorder.

While self-esteem and confidence are important, being self-absorbed is counterproductive to being a good teammate and even a top performer.

Instead, help your athletes develop a healthy self-concept and a growth mindset.

How to Encourage Humility

The New Zealand All Blacks have instilled two concepts which promote humility within their team:

Sweep the Sheds

They describe this principle as, “Never be too big to do the small things that need to be done.” The team leaders model humility as they literally sweep up after the team, using brooms to collect the mud, tape, and gauze left after a game.

Related to this, their “Black Book” states plainly that “No one is bigger than the team.”

For your team: In an effort to keep pride and narcissism at bay, ensure your team members do the little things like picking up the locker room and taking out the trash so that (as the All Blacks say) “no one else has to.”

Create a Learning Environment 

All Blacks promote a lifestyle of personal and professional development. James Kerr, author of Legacy, tells us, “They are curious and innovative when it comes to seeking out stimuli, knowledge, and insights from other people and organizations.” They consistently seek input from experts and other winning organizations to inform and refine their performance.

For your team: To promote learning within your team, encourage your athletes to pursue continuous improvement, share mistakes, and learn from others. This buffers complacency and fosters an environment of innovation as players search for ways to be better today than they were yesterday.

Be Hungry

You might think that all athletes are competitive and you’d be right. However, as you know, some are willing to work harder and longer to truly compete.

According to the work of Tim Elmore, author of Generation iY, the SCENE surrounding our young athletes has led to several unintended consequences.

If your athletes adopt these underlying beliefs it will inevitably squander their efforts to fulfill their potential. Elmore points out that the words slow, hard, boring, risk, labor, are the very makings of success.

Consequently, many athletes don’t demonstrate the effort, motivation, or commitment necessary to perform at a high level.

Refute these beliefs by helping your athletes believe they can get better everyday. Teach them to pursue excellence and get 1% better today.

How to Encourage Hunger

The New Zealand All Blacks have instilled two concepts which promote hunger within their team:

Go for the Gap

The All Blacks know that it is hard to become the best, but harder to stay the best. Therefore they’ve adopted the belief, “When you’re on top of your game, change your game.”

Kerr sums this mindset up for us in this way: “It isn’t just reacting to what’s happening in the moment, it is being the agent of change.” All Blacks have a continuous process for evaluating and adapting to stay ahead of the competition.

In recent years, the New England Patriots, Golden State Warriors, and Chicago Cubs have been great examples of this.

For your team: Whether you’re striving to become a winning program or you lead a title contender, encourage your team to bring observations, insights, and feedback they believe can help the team get better to the table.

Embrace Expectations

“Aim for the highest cloud,” captures the essence of embracing expectations for the All Blacks. They claim that their humility enables them to continuously ask, “How can we do better?”

It isn’t enough to be a good All Black. All Blacks strive to become a great All Black. They hate coming in second. Therefore the team sets its sights on the highest cloud (to be the best) and works their tail off to achieve it. Jim Collins, in his foundational book on organization success, Good to Great, called this a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (B.H.A.G.).

Some teams wish they could be the best. Others commit whole-heartedly to the task, relentlessly pursuing it with optimism, belief, and a double dose of effort.

For your team: Get your team to believe in themselves. Empower them to set lofty goals. Then equip them with the physical, tactical, and mental skills they need to reach those expectations.

Teams who remain humble and hungry will inevitably rise to the top.
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Humble and Hungry People

In a time when it’s expected that Millennials will take 25,000 selfies in their lifetime and instant gratification is feeding the dopamine addict in your athlete’s brains, you’ve got your work cut out for you. However, encouraging your team members to be both humble and hungry will not only make them better athletes – it will make them better people, better citizens. Or as the All Blacks profess, “Better people make better All Blacks.”

Question: What are others ways you instill these principles in your athletes?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

• Book: The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement by Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell
• Book: Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life by James Kerr
• Book: Generation iY: Secrets to Connecting with Today’s Teens and Young Adults in the Digital Age by Tim Elmore
• Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
• Post: Why Is A Growth Mindset Required To Reach Your Potential?

The post How to Encourage Your Team to be Humble and Hungry first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Coaches at every level battle inconsistency in their lineup. Those who instill a next level up mentality in their teams have the advantage. They prepare players to step up when their number is called. How can you foster this mentality in your team?

Prepare for the Inevitable

Then Lieutenant Colonel Harold (Hal) Moore was asked to prepare and lead his inexperienced troops of the 7th Calvary for combat in the Vietnam War.

Documented in his 1992 book We Were Soldiers Once…And Young which later turned into a Hollywood classic, Moore describes how he trained his Soldiers “two levels up.” This meant that every Soldier was required to learn the duties, responsibilities, and skillset of the person two levels of leadership above them.

He instilled a culture of learning and mentoring which was essential for the casualties their unit anticipated in Vietnam. While a difficult reality to face, Moore and others knew that preparing for those realities would be easier than denying them and being severely ill-prepared for what lay ahead.

4 Essentials for Fostering a Next Man Up Mentality

Whether you coach a high school team, a travel team, or a professional organization your team will experience attrition. Players move up to the next level. They graduate. They get injured. They get traded.

Prepare today for the inevitable adversity your roster will experience down the road. Here are 4 essentials for fostering a next man up mentality:

1. Set the Expectations

Players will rise and fall to your expectations. Tell your athletes that you expect them to step up when their number is called.

This starts by clarifying each athlete’s role. Within that role, let them know it is their responsibility to work hard, take initiative, and be prepared to help the team. Like General Moore, tell your troops to be ready to fill the gaps.

Expectations of players will likely change from season to season and possibly from week to week. Constant communication is imperative.

2. Challenge Everyone

A big part of keeping ALL players engaged throughout the rigors of a long season is to keep challenging them. Motivation wanes when athletes aren’t being pushed to get better.

To keep players (especially role players) from falling through the cracks, challenge athletes to get better everyday and track their progress. Or embrace Pete Carroll’s famed principle of “Always Compete” which keeps the Seahawks sharp, engaged, and in a competitive frame of mind.

3. Empower Players to Excel

As players step into new roles, potentially filling big shoes left by a starter, you have to communicate belief. Remember that athletes rise and fall to your expectation, so be sure and set a positive tone. Lead with optimism and model the “can do” attitude you need from your players.

Dabo Swinney led the Clemson Tigers to a College Football Playoff National Championship over the Crimson Tide by his tremendous belief in his players, coaches, and team.

As Jon Gordon writes in You Win in the Locker Room First, “I’m convinced one of the most important things a leader must do is to be positive and optimistic.”

4. Leverage Your Team Leaders

The responsibility of fostering a next man up mentality should not fall solely on the shoulders of coaches. Identify the leaders in your locker room and recruit them to be part of the process.

For the New Zealand All Blacks rugby club, this is a core tenet of their team and success. They call it “Pass the Ball,” meaning leaders create leaders. There is a shared responsibility and ownership throughout the organization of preparing players to contribute at the highest level.

Call on your team leaders [link to empower team leaders] to teach and mentor other team members in the principles of the team and the skills they need to excel.

A “Next Man Up” mentality is essential for teams to survive inevitable attrition.
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The Best Teams Embrace a Next Man Up Mentality

In the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship, perennial powerhouse Alabama was led to victory by Tua Tagovailoa, their backup quarterback. He finished the game 14 of 24 passing for 165 yards and 3 touchdowns. Not too shabby for being brought in to start the 3rd quarter.

Brad Stevens led the Boston Celtics to the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals against the Cavaliers earlier this year despite losing two All-Star starters in Kyrie Erving and Gordon Hayward. Terry Rozier and Jayson Tatum stepped into starting roles. Tatum set multiple Celtics rookie records, scoring 20 points or more in five straight playoff games, passing legendary Larry Bird.

The New England Patriots may do it better than anyone. Long-time Pat, Matthew Slater says it starts with Bill Belichick. “The way he’s prepared every man on this roster – from Tom Brady to the last guy on this practice squad – everyone is prepared the same way. The expectation, the bar, is the same for everyone and it’s like that every single day. So when…a guy’s number is called, it’s not new to him. It’s not totally foreign.”

Prepare your team to weather the storms that come between the lines of competition. Injuries, off-season moves, and graduations will leave your roster in constant flux. Create a next man up mentality in your locker room and never be caught off guard. Instead, empower your players to step up and contribute.

Question: How are you currently promoting a next man up mentality?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

Links:

• Book: We Were Soldiers Once…And Young by Lt Gen Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway
• Book: You Win in the Locker Room First by Jon Gordon and Mike Smith
• Book: Legacy: What the All Backs Can Teach Us About the Business of Life by James Kerr
• Post: How To Protect Your Athletes From Your Low Expectations
• Post: Why is it Important for Athletes to Know Their Roles?
• Post: 3 Reasons Initiative is Guaranteed to Make Your Team Better
• Post: How To Guarantee Your Athletes Get Better Everyday
• Post: Why Does the Best Team in Baseball Recruit Optimism?
• Post: 5 Proven Reasons to be More Positive With Your Team
• Post: 10 Secrets Every Coach Should Steal from Dabo Swinney
• Post: 3 Practical Reasons Every Team Needs a Leadership Council

The post How to Foster a Next Man Up Mentality first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Today’s top coaches know how to get the best out of their athletes. They do this, in part, by creating an environment of trust and safety where athletes feel comfortable being themselves, taking necessary risks, and speaking up. Researchers call this psychological safety and it impacts athletic performance.

How Do You Measure Team Chemistry?

While widely regarded as a team intangible, some coaches have been famed for creating team chemistry.

It turns out that researchers from the MIT Human Dynamics Lab found a way. They discovered a set of behaviors (called proto-language) that predicts a team’s success.

Proto-language is a set of behaviors we, as humans, use to communicate safety.

Belonging cues are the behaviors that make up proto-language and make us feel safe. They include eye contact, proximity, body language, attention, energy, taking turns, speech rate, and vocal pitch.

When belonging cues are sent and received consistently within your team, they send the message You are safe here. When your team members feel safe to be themselves (to be vulnerable) within the team, that creates chemistry.

How teams communicate, it appears, may be more important than what they communicate.

How Coach Pop Creates Trust and Safety

Gregg Popovich of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs gives coaches and leaders a great model to follow.

Author Daniel Coyle outlines how coach Popovich’s communication consists of 3 types of belonging cues any coach can use:

1. Personal, up-close connections (body language, attention, and behavior that translates as I care about you)
2. Performance feedback (relentless coaching and criticism that translates as We have high standards here)
3. Big-picutre perspective (larger conversations about politics, history, and food that translate as Life is bigger than basketball)

Coach Popovich demonstrates what it looks like to strike a balance of being both supportive and demanding. Building relationships or getting results is not an either/or proposition. Today’s top coaches do both.

According to Coyle, Popovich builds a relational narrative with each of his players, “You are part of this group. This group is special. I believe you can reach those standards.”

3 Strategies for Creating an Environment of Trust and Safety:

The research around building psychological safety in teams could be boiled down to a simple axiom: show you care. However, we all know that common knowledge is far from common practice. At the risk of stating the obvious, I invite you to consider these strategies from a fresh perspective, asking yourself, “Am I helping my team members feel safe?”

1. Really Listen

“Posture and expression are incredibly important,” said Ben Waber, founder of Humanyze, a social analytics firm. Lean in, maintain eye contact, and arch your eyebrows when your players or staff members are talking. And don’t interrupt. Show them you are truly listening. Show them you care and that their voice matters.

2. Over-Express Gratitude

Go out of your way to say, “Thank you.” Name specifics. Be genuine. Thank players for their attitudes and effort. Thank the little guys who can easily be taken for granted. According to research by Adam Grant and Francesco Gino, the expressions of gratitude change behavior, making the recipient more likely to offer help and generosity to others. Who doesn’t want members of their team helping each other out?

3. Invite Input

According to Amy Edmondson, of Harvard’s Business School and expert on psychological safety, “To create safety, leaders need to actively invite input.” When coaches and leaders solicit other’s opinions, ideas, and perspectives it lets them know that 1) you don’t present to have all the answers and 2) you value their opinion as a member of the team. Coyle recommends using phrases like, “This is just my two cents.” “What am I missing?” “What do you think?”

Inviting input also demonstrates humility.

Sending repeated signals that You Are Safe Here creates an environment of trust & safety.
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Build Trust and Safety to Maximize Team Performance

Coyle leaves coaches with one clear bottom line, “Group performance depends on behavior that communicates one powerful overarching idea: We are safe and connected.” If you want to bring out the best in your athletes, use the strategies above to create an environment of trust and safety. These are essential for building a championship team culture.

Question: What are other strategies for communicating trust and safety to your team?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

• Book: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle
• Post: Why Should You Focus More on Building Trust and Safety?
• Post: Is It Better to Be a Supportive or Demanding Coach?
• Post: Why Do Great Teams Focus on Culture First?

The post How to Build a Team Environment of Trust and Safety first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Creating a safe environment for your athletes is about more than good equipment and safe field conditions. Coaches like Brad Stevens, Dabo Swinney, Doug Peterson, and Gregg Popovich – seen as positive coaches – ensure their teams feel safe enough to take risks and go all out. Ultimately, this emphasis on relationships is a significant component that leads to success.

Who I Trusted

Throughout my years as an athlete, I had great relationships and mutual trust with some of my coaches. Others, I didn’t trust much at all.

• Didn’t know what they were talking about
• Criticized more than they coached
• Had my back and believed I had the ability to get better

It is no surprise which type I trusted more.

A Case for Safety

Trust comes from making your team members feel safe. They feel safe being themselves and when they can take risks within the team without feeling insecure or embarrassed.

Beyond trust is a factor of team performance termed psychological safety. Dr. Amy Edmondson of the Harvard Business School defines psychological safety as, “a climate in which people are comfortable being (and expressing) themselves.” Her research focused on what she calls team psychological safety – taking this concept to a team level where members of a team share the same beliefs, sense of interpersonal safety, trust in one another, and commitment to the team.

In a two-year study at Google, an internal investigation found that the factor that differentiates their top work teams from the rest was indeed psychological safety.

Edmondson’s research found that psychological safety predicts quality improvements, learning behavior, and performance. I would add that it also boosts motivation.

Bottom Line: This means that athletes who feel safe within the team will work harder, improve faster, and reach their potential quicker than athletes in less safe team environments.

Switching Circuits

To take this point a little further, let’s look at how a sense of safety changes an athlete’s brain and improves performance.

Typically the amygdala is known as the stress center of the brain. It continuously scans our environment for threats (real or imagined). The goal is to eliminate threats and preserve safety. When a threat is detected it sounds the alarm – the fight or flight response.

However, when an athlete feels safe among their coaches and teammates, the amygdala changes from a stress center to a connection center. When this happens the amygdala stops scanning for threats and starts to track those within the team seeking to preserve those vital relationships. That athlete now gains strength from the team, increasing his or her commitment to the team.

This means that rather than wasting energy monitoring their status on the team, managing perceptions, and watching out for themselves, athletes are free to be more selfless, doing what’s best for the team.

Coaching for Safety

As we all know, leaders must lead by example. Your team is watching and listening to calibrate their own attitudes and actions based on their leaders.

Coaches who want to promote an environment high in psychological safety should go out of their way to demonstrate these three behaviors:

1. Be Available and Approachable – if you aren’t accessible then it is difficult to build relationships and stimulate discussion within the team
2. Explicitly Ask For Input and Feedback – encouraging open participation, opinions, and the sharing of ideas fosters a safe environment
3. Model Openness and Falliability – if you want your players to demonstrate the vulnerability necessary to push the limits of their abilities, admit to mistakes, and feel comfortable discussing any topic, then you must go first.

Fostering safe and strong relationships is the day-to-day driver of a championship culture.
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Relationships Drive Culture

“Relationships are the foundation up which great teams and organizations are built,” says author Jon Gordon. For coaches, building strong and safe relationships with your athletes should be the number one priority. Those relationships foster trust, communication, commitment, and teamwork. Relationships drive your team toward a championship culture on a day-to-day basis.

As Daniel Coyle puts it, “Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are. It’s something you do.”

Question: What is the hardest part about creating psychological safety and trust in your team?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

• Post: How to Foster a Powerful Motivational Climate
• Post: Why Do Great Teams Focus on Culture First?
• Post: 10 Secrets Every Coach Should Steal from Dabo Swinney

The post Why Should You Focus More on Building Trust and Safety? first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Top performers take initiative. They take ownership for improving themselves and their teams. Are your athletes seeking ways to give their team an edge? Are they doing the little things to unify the team? Let’s look at three ways athletes can take initiative and gain a competitive advantage. These are the players who become your team leaders.

How to Go the Distance 

Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara is a model of what it means for a team leader to take initiative. The second oldest NHL player (41 years old) joined the Bruins in 2006, and was named the team’s captain. Since Chara’s arrival the franchise won four Division Championships, two Conference Championships, and the Stanley Cup in 2011.

What makes Chara so great?

He takes full responsibility for getting better. Why? Chara has told the Bruins more than once he wants to play at age 45. He wants to win a second Stanley Cup. He is also driven by an insatiable desire to fulfill his potential.

3 Ways Top Performers Take Initiative

Simply put leaders take responsibility. Across sports, business, or life, organizations are looking for those who take initiative. Those are the folks who demonstrate commitment, taking it upon themselves to get better and make their teams better.

Let’s take a closer look at Chara and other top performers to identify a few areas where athletes can take initiative and make themselves, their teammates, and their teams better.

Their Body:

As an athlete, taking care of your body is essential. Staying healthy, conditioned, strong, and operating at peak level is the goal.

To take care of his body, Zdeno plans his off-season workouts in excruciating detail. He has records of every workout, swim, ache and pain over the course of his whole career. Tom Brady is known for his super-strict diet and sleep habits (i.e., going to bed at 8:30 every night). Steph Curry utilizes all manner of scientific advances to keep his body in top form. The Seahawks offer yoga and meditation classes for players.

How much better could your athletes be if they fueled their bodies with better food and had better sleep habits?

Their Skills:

Some athletes wait for coaches to initiate developmental changes in their mechanics, tactics, or style. Team leaders and top performers don’t wait to be told what to do.

Many great athletes have support teams around them, including specialists outside their organizations to help them get better.

Chara sought advice from other Slovic-born world-class athletes. He got powerlifting advice from an Olympic weightlifter and footwork advice from ice dancers. His skills coach, Adam Nicholas, says of Chara’s drive for excellence, “He won’t stop until he masters everything.”

Tom Brady has “body coach” and TB12 partner Alex Guerrero. Steph Curry trains with Brandon Payne. Russell Wilson has worked with a Mental Conditioning Coach, Trevor Moawad, since 2012.

The Dallas Maverick star Dirk Nowitzki and private coach, Holger Geschwindner, picked an skill Dirk needed to add to his game every off-season. Matt Ryan uses a vision training device called NeuroTracker to help him think faster, see the field better, and make better decisions on the field.

Are your athletes taking the initiative to get the help of a mental coach (like me), skills coach, or other specialist? What edge could your players add to their games?

Their Team:

Who is responsible for building the team? Team leaders take the initiative to foster deeper relationships, build cohesion, and help teammates get better.

Chara has improved his leadership in the locker room over the years. Retired Bruins teammate, Andrew Ference says of Zdeno, the he went from “an Eastern European, pretty hardass approach” to “being more understanding.” He tries to include everyone on the team.

Portland Trailblazer Damian Lillard organized “a weeklong retreat to San Diego with beach barbecues, Padres games and touch football showdowns,” according to SI author Lee Jenkins. Lilliard’s mindset, “I was so hands-on about being the leader.”

Similarly, you’ve heard of QBs and wide outs hitting the turf in the off-season to work on timing. NBA players link up at off-the-beaten-path high school gyms to build chemistry. Shaquille O’Neal, NBA Hall of Famer, mentored rookies about all the off-court decisions, pressures, and challenges they would face in becoming a professional. All Black captains famously “sweep the sheds.”

How could your players take initiative to hold others accountable to the team’s culture, improve their leadership, or mentor their peers in becoming better people and better players?

Athletes who take initiative become leaders in the locker room.
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Empower Initiative

Taking initiative means going above and beyond what is expected. Empower your athletes to take initiative. Encourage them to find ways to make themselves and others better. That’s what team leaders do. And it makes the whole organization better.

Question: What could a little initiative make possible for your team?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

• Post: How to Get Every Player to “Own Your Role”
• Post: How to Convince Your Athletes to Get More Sleep
• Post: Why Are Top Teams Focused on Building Social Cohesion?

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Augie Garrido, five-time national championship baseball coach, put a premium on practice. According to Garrido, “Games and championships are won in practice first.” Many coaches may agree with this statement, but not all teams and athletes approach practice the same way. Let’s look at how to help your athletes train like the pros.

Don’t Settle for One-and-Done

My daughter loves to practice. While only a year and half old, she shows promising signs of mental toughness, grit, and a desire for mastery. Just in the last few weeks she has learned to put on her socks, climb into a chair, and play hide and seek. Girl has skills!

What I find most fascinating is what happens after she does something for the first time. Immediately, she has this compulsion to do it again…and again, and again. She gets reps.

She isn’t satisfied in knowing she can climb up on a chair (once). She wants to cement the process in her mind. She wants to ensure that she doesn’t forget. She has a drive to master the new skill.

Do Your Athletes Practice Like Amateurs or Professionals?

You can tell a lot about an athlete by how he or she approaches practice. You may have heard the adage, “Amateurs train until they get it right. Professionals train until they can’t get it wrong.”

I first encountered this working with the military. Since then, I have found it to be true across a variety of performance domains. While the origins of this adage dates back to 1902, it remains relevant today.

• Is it deliberate?
• Do they have a purpose for each drill?
• How much effort do they put into it?
• Do they seek feedback or ignore it?
• Do they merely want to look good or actually master their technique?

Essentially, do they have a fixed or a growth mindset?

This can tell you a lot about the player’s mindset, mental toughness, and potential.

Why Professionals Practice Better

At a neurological level, there is a lot going on when athletes practice. One component is the neurotransmitters that reinforce our habits.

Dopamine is a brain chemical that makes us feel good. It is, in part, responsible for motivating and energizing us. To an extent, it rewards our actions. When we do something that makes us feel good (releases dopamine) we want more of it. No surprise there. The issue is what triggers dopamine for different athletes.

Some athletes get a jolt of dopamine from practicing, regardless of quality. High performers, however, only get a jolt of dopamine after they see improvement.

When an athlete exerts a degree of discipline to repeat a skill over and over (i.e., not giving up when it gets hard) he or she taps into the staying power of serotonin. Serotonin increases self-esteem and confidence, and reinforces the progress an athlete made in practice.

Amateurs get their dopamine jolt and move on. Professionals crave more dopamine, and are persistent in their practice. Then, as those athletes see their hard work paying off – progress, serotonin feeds the habit.

Over time, athletes want more and more of these brain chemicals. This craving drives them to put in the work in the gym and on the practice court. They get better.

Help Your Athletes Practice Like Professionals

Now that you understand the chemical aspects of getting better, let’s get practical. Here are six strategies to help your athletes practice like professionals:

1. Develop Practice Goals:

What are your athletes working on today? In this drill? Everything needs a purpose (which also stimulates dopamine to motivate and energize them).

2. Immediate Feedback:

Praise the process to reinforce proper technique, effort, and strategy. Coach, don’t criticize.

3. Monitor Progress:

Athletes (like all of us) work harder when they believe their efforts have a return on investment. Track stats – even in practice – to show athletes how much they are improving.

4. Compete:

If you’re monitoring progress anyway, encourage athletes to beat their best stats (i.e., time, percentage, streak).

5. Multiply the Reps:

Integrate imagery into your practices to increase the number of quality reps your athletes are getting on every drill. This is a great way to minimize standing around.

6. Strive for Streaks:

Challenge players to make the same play multiple times in a row. This is great for closed loop skills like making a free throw, field goal, free kick, or throw.

When it comes to practice, amateurs are one-and-done while the best strive for mastery.
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Again: Train Like Professionals

During my time as a coach, one of my favorite phrases was, “Again.” Sometimes it followed praise, other times it followed coaching. Educate your players about how to approach practice. Never allow a one-and-done approach to practice. Use the six strategies above as you hone your practice plan to ensure your athletes stay motivated, challenged, and engaged in their own development for the betterment of the team.

Question: What tells you that your athletes have the right mentality in practice?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

The post Do Your Athletes Train Like Amateurs or Professionals? first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

A team’s culture shapes their common language. We outwork the competition. Always compete. Losing only happens when you give up. Team first. These statements are indicators of what a team values most, of what they hang their hat on. What does your team’s language say about the team?

Rebuilding a Champion

When rebuilding the culture of the Kansas City Royals, Dayton Moore developed a “Model Organizational Harmony.”

This model is comprised of small, yet powerful, reminders that reinforce the Royals culture, centered on family, integrity, and the Golden Rule.

Most teams have a common language. Often it is corrosive, limiting the team’s performance.

1. Words Matter

Athletes, like all of us, are shaped by their inner dialogues.

Is that dialogue positive or negative? Is it productive or counter productive? Is it based on lies or truth? Is it affirming or demeaning?

The answer to these questions shape the emotions, physiological responses, and ultimate performance of an athlete.

2. Beliefs Drive Behaviors

Based on scientific research, we know that athlete’s thoughts are shaped by their beliefs. Those beliefs are shaped by life experiences, relationships, and team culture.

It is true that every athlete joins the team with a personal set of beliefs and values. These impact how the athlete views themselves, their coaches and teammates, and the world around them. As a coach, you are responsible for creating a team culture that establishes and fosters a set of beliefs that allow your staff and players to thrive.

Or as author Jon Gordon puts it, “Culture drives expectations and beliefs. Expectations and beliefs drive behaviors. Behaviors drive habits and habits create the future.”

3. Language Reinforces Core Beliefs

Your mantras and repeated messages become part of the fabric of your team’s belief system.

This is why the military uses creeds, which are memorized and repeated hundreds of times until they cannot be forgotten. The intent is to instill a set of beliefs and values that will consistently shape each individual’s behavior.

What beliefs are you building in your team? That effort is paramount or that talent drives winning? That they have what it takes or that they aren’t good enough? That success relies on a few key players or that teamwork matters most?

Turn your team’s desired beliefs into an ethos or creed for your team.

4. Consistent Language Is Easily Repeated

Repetition is key. On average we are exposed to 5,000 advertising messages every day. As a coach, your message has to cut through the noise and resonate with your team. Centering on a few key principles streamlines your message for easy consumption.

For example, the Ohio State Buckeyes football team has a core value of relentless effort. To reinforce this belief they want players to, “Go as hard as you can, four to six seconds, point A to point B.” According to Urban Meyer, every practice is bombarded with guys shouting, “Four to six, A to B!” That is repetition in action.

Advertisers leverage a phenomenon called effective frequency, referring to how many times we have to hear a message before we respond to it. Historically, the magic number was seven, but it seems to be rising. No surprise.

With so many messages vying for your athletes’ attention, find creative ways to build in repetition on a weekly and daily basis.

Reinforce your team’s culture with a united language
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Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos highlights the importance of a united vocabulary, “When an idea becomes part of a language, it becomes part of the default way of thinking.” The question is if you want those beliefs (ways of thinking) to develop by default or design.

Create a Language That Drives Results

“The Great Teams see the value of speaking a different language, setting them apart from competitors,” according to Don Yeager, author of Great Teams. Be intentional. Identify what core values are essential for your team. Then create a team language that repeatedly reinforces those values. That’s how beliefs drive behaviors, habits, and ultimately results.

Question: How does your team incorporate a common language that supports the team culture?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

• Book: More Than a Season: Building a Championship Culture by Dayton Moore
• Book: Above the Line: Lessons in Leadership and Life from a Championship Program by Urban Meyer
• Book: Great Teams: 16 Things High Performing Teams Do Differently by Don Yeager
• Post: Why Do Great Teams Focus on Culture First?
• Post: How to Master Your Thinking: Think on Purpose
• Post: Are You Allowing Your Team to be Just Good Enough?
• Post: What Do Champions Believe To Be True?
• Video: How to Improve an Athlete’s Performance: A Proven Model

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