WINNING EDGE MOTIVATING YOUR PLAYERS
8 Sure-Fire Ways To Transform A Sports Program Value, culture and coaches matter for your long-term success
By Jeff Janssen, Janssen Sports Leadership Center
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need is the passion to take on the challenge of building a program. You also must have a high level of energy and passion to overcome the negative gravity holding down a de- clining or problematic program. You must have the necessary energy and enthusiasm to achieve escape veloc- ity with your team. Your passion and optimism need to be palpable and contagious with the rest of the team, who are likely stuck in a state of pes- simism and learned helplessness. To enlist their commitment, share your vision of what is possible for your program if people are willing to put in the necessary work. Further, building a program re-
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quires long hours and a full com- mitment. If the sheer passion for the challenge isn’t driving you, you will make very little progress. As Cred- ibility author Jim Kouzes says, “You can’t lead others to a place you don’t want to go yourself.”
fi rmly in place, the next critical step is to develop an effective plan. You need to have a clear understanding of what you are getting yourself into— the history, politics, challenges, key
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A strategic plan. Once you have the passion
ransforming a declining or problematic program into a rising program is defi nitely a
challenge. There will be many weeks when it feels like you are taking two steps forward and sometimes just as many backward as the negative grav- ity of the situation pulls you back down to Earth.
Use these eight strategies to begin your program’s ascent today.
A burning passion. The absolute fi rst thing you
players, resources, expectations and the administrators’ anticipated turn- around timetable. You need to de- velop a realistic and specifi c plan that helps you progress from where the program is now to where you would like it to be. Dartmouth volleyball coach Erin
Lindsey put together a comprehen- sive 17-page master plan for where she wanted to take the program and, specifi cally, what it would take to get there. It included her plan for recruit- ing, training, academics, leadership and marketing the program. Not only was the plan instrumental in help- ing her get the Dartmouth job, it also helped her team fi nish 8-6 in the Ivy League in her fi rst season after going 5-9 the previous season.
a clear set of core values for your program. You must determine what your program will be about and what it will stand for both on and off the playing fi eld. These core values will serve as your guiding principles in developing your team. They help you choose your staff, select your athletes and make the daily decisions that dictate your program’s success. For example, North Carolina
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men’s lacrosse coach Joe Breschi got tested early by his team. The coaches had established a very clear rule with the team about not drinking. Within a couple of weeks of taking over the program, every guy but fi ve on the team broke the rule one weekend. After getting the full story, Bres-
chi confronted the team about it. He said that his program was going to be about making a complete commit- ment to the team and that he was dis- appointed that the team chose not to live up to it. Because their social life was more important than the team, he had all but the fi ve committed players take their NC logos off their helmets. He also banned them from
Program core values. You also need to establish
using the locker room. He reminded them that if they wanted to treat the program like a run-of-the-mill intra- mural team rather than a respected Division I program, they would be treated as intramural players and not have the privilege of wearing the NC logo or use of the locker room. After a few of weeks of this, the
players got the message that nothing less than their full commitment to the core values of the program on and off the fi eld was expected and enforced. Establishing a strong but realis-
tic level of discipline, responsibility and accountability is a critical part of building a successful program. Details and discipline do matter. The little things are often the big things. You must get your players to un- derstand, accept, live and embrace your team’s core values. This almost always takes time but through regu- lar communication, repetition, rein- forcement, rewards and reprimands, you too will be able to eventually in- still your values into your team.
core values, you also have to create a strong positive culture and vibe around the program. You have to get your athletes to expect and, eventu- ally, demand success. You have to create a positive culture of success. This obviously starts with you
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and your coaching staff but should also extend through your captains and leaders. Find and develop the athletes who believe in what you are doing and have the respect of their teammates. Call out your players in a positive way when they exhibit the kind of attitude and effort you expect from your team.
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Purge the chronic negativity and naysayers.
As part of promoting a positive
culture in your program, you must also purge the chronic negativity and the naysayers. As Abraham Lincoln
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Promote a positive culture. In addition to outlining your
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