Make Me Feel Important
So you’re a coach are you? Me too.
Designing practices, workout schedules, formations, putting those chess pieces in just the right spots on the field and readying them for battle. Coaching. Awesome.
But your best player isn’t quite right today?
The team is flat.
Our goalie is in outer space watching the game on the adjoining field.
The midfielder’s Mum seems unusually flustered.
You got the game time wrong and warm up has been cut short.
Only 6 girls showed up to training because they had a dance recital.
Coaching.
How you respond to these situations after a long week of work will often dictate results and atmosphere on the weekend.
What’s the solution to manage this type of scenario?
In my opinion it is a culture of caring.
You caring about the children and their families, and in turn allowing them to care for what you are building. Dennis Bergkamp of Ajax, Arsenal and Holland fame wrote about supporting players becoming caring people. It says a lot.
[Video: short vid on how Team Falcons built caring into their training/coaching.]
Amazing Liverpool FC manager, Brendan Rodgers, famously claims that every person has four words written on their forehead, “Make me feel important.”
And to get to that point where people feel important one must be real and honest. You need to connect and communicate. Our friends at Zoom Reports are experts at providing feedback and they can tell you what a difference it will make to your team culture. [Listen to my interview on feedback with the boys at Zoom Reports here.] Your best player isn’t going to be a “world-beater” every single match and it is up to you to support them on the more inevitable moments when they are low. Your parents aren’t going to be in good moods every time they show up to a rainy gravel pitch.
Be with them. Talk and listen. Be in their shoes.
With time you will find they will want to help you. The kids will show up more regularly when they know you care about their lives. They will show up more regularly when they care about being around those type of people. Their attendance will show you they have thought about it. Don’t be weak but make sure you communicate with each player and be honest about your abilities. Training well will be a bi-product of an excellent environment. One that comes from constant feedback. Emotionally, in their training and in their games.
Feedback is important.
The right feedback is most important.
Make them feel important and you will have a team that is worth coaching.
Play Better builds feedback directly into it so you are guaranteed to celebrate small victories, personally and as a team. It’s up to you to connect emotionally. Start providing your team feedback with the Play Better program today.
Go. Play Better.