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WHAT COACHES CAN LEARN FROM GREAT MANAGERS : "BREAKING
ALL THE RULES" IN SELECTING AND COACHING YOUR ATHLETES
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by Kirsten Peterson, Ph.D., USOC Sport Psychologist
Coaches occupy multiple roles in children's lives as sport
participants. Coaches must be excellent instructors so
that youth learn and improve skills, increase knowledge
of strategies and tactics, and achieve their goals. Coaches
can also inspire children to maintain motivation for participating
in sport and, in so doing, allow them opportunities to
accrue such benefits as positive self-esteem, enjoyable
experiences, long-lasting friendships, and a positive
attitude toward the value of lifetime physical activity.
In short, coaches can ensure that youth want to continue
their sport involvement-that is, participate for intrinsic
reasons-rather than participate for primarily external
reasons such as feeling obligated to others to continue.
How can coaches maximize their positive impact on youths'
motivation in sport?
[Athletes] don't change all that much.
Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out.
Try to draw out what was left in.
That is hard enough.
This paraphrase is at the heart of a 1999 best-selling
management book entitled First, Break All the Rules.
Through numerous in-depth interviews of the best versus
average managers, the authors of this book question the
conventional wisdom about how to select for and develop
productive employees. The main findings of this book have
some interesting implications for coaches interested in
maximizing the performance of their athletes.
Understanding Skills, Knowledge, and Talent
Central to this book's message is that skills, knowledge
and talents are distinct and different concepts. The authors
argue that understanding these distinctions are critical
for coaches eager to tap their athletes' potential in
its entirety. One such distinction that great coaches
already know but that managers are just beginning to realize,
is that while skills and knowledge can be taught, talent
cannot. What is interesting for coaches is what falls
under the heading of "talent" and is therefore considered
unchangeable. For the sake of clarity, here is how each
of these terms is defined.
Skills are the "how-to's" of a role--capabilities that
can be transferred from one person to another. Knowledge,
on the other hand, comprises what you're aware of factually
as well as what you have learned from experience. Experiential
knowledge is what you pick up over time as you reflect
back on your experiences and draw connections and patterns
and includes, among other things, your unique perspective,
your biases, and your values. The athlete who is able
to analyze her competitive experiences to determine what
works best for her during competition is developing her
experiential knowledge.
Talent, the authors contend, is distinct from knowledge
and skill and is the product of how your brain's pathways
developed in response to your unique upbringing and which
kinds of thinking and behaving were rewarded or punished
along the way. In short, your talents are your recurring
thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. The authors have identified
three types of talents:
- Striving. This talent explains the "why"
of an athlete. What motivates her? Is she competitive,
achievement oriented, afraid to fail?"
- Thinking. This talent explicates the "how"
of an athlete. How he thinks. Is he disciplined? Organized?
Spontaneous?
- Relating. This talent explains the "who"
of an athlete-who he is drawn to or repelled by, is
he introverted or extroverted?
Great coaches, therefore, should find their players roles
that play to those players' talents and can do so in two
ways. They create the environment that allows each athlete's
talent to flourish. Second, they define the right outcomes
and allow each athlete to find his own route to those
outcomes.
 Some coaches might question the idea that qualities like "drive" and
"motivation" are unchangeable. There is little that is
as frustrating as the highly skilled athlete who is not
motivated to train or compete her perceived potential.
Few sport psychologists escape the question from coaches
wanting to know how to better motivate those one or two
gifted, but seemingly uncoachable athletes. Great coaches,
like great managers, have learned something from this
kind of frustration, and have learned to redefine the
issue. Accepting that an athlete's source of motivation
is unchangeable does not necessarily mean that you cannot
succeed with him. It may just mean that you have not yet
individualized your approach enough to help his particular
striving talent emerge.
Lesson #1: Individualize
Your Approach to Cultivate and Maximize the Talents of
Your Athletes.
Great managers will tell you to focus on each person's
strengths and manage around his weaknesses. Don't try
to fix the weaknesses. The lesson for coaches? Don't try
to perfect each of your athletes. Instead do everything
you can to help each athlete to cultivate his talents.
Help each athlete to become more of who he already is.
Keep in mind that this does not mean that athletes cannot
learn to do things differently. Skills and knowledge are
malleable. Talent, however, is not.
Great managers can describe in detail the unique talents
of each of their people: what drives each one, how each
thinks, and how each builds relationships. Great coaches
do the same. Ask your athletes about their goals, about
where they see their career heading, and how they want
to interact with you. Other great questions for your athletes:
- Do you want public recognition or private? Written
or verbal?
- Tell me about the most meaningful recognition you
ever received. Why was it memorable?
- How do you learn best?
- Who was the best coach you had? How did he or she
help you?
Great managers consistently reject the Golden Rule: Don't
treat your people as you would like to be treated.treat
them how each of then would like to be treated.
The hardest thing about being a manager is realizing that
your people will not do things the way you would. But
get used to it. Because if you try to force them to, two
things happen. They become resentful-they don't want to
do it. They become dependent-they can't do it. And neither
is productive over the long haul. (First, Break All the
Rules, page 151.)
Lesson #2: Spend Most of
Your Time With Your Best Athletes
| The harder
he works, the better he performs, and the
more leeway he gets from me. |
| --Jimmy Johnson,
NFL Coach |
Great coaches such as Jimmy Johnson break conventional
wisdom management rules by refusing to apply one-size-fits-all
approach to the athletes in their charge. They reject
the traditional approach that suggests the best use of
time is to bring up the lowest performers, and to assume
that their best athletes are doing fine without them.
Great managers agree, for the following reasons:
- It's fair. The only way to treat someone fairly
is to treat them as they deserve to be treated (not
treating everyone the same) bearing in mind what they
have accomplished.
- It's the best way to learn. You as a coach can't
learn about excellence by only spending time with
those athletes who need more work. Ask questions and
spend time with your best athletes. Listen to what
they do, watch how they do it. Replay it, dissect
it, and understand what happened and why it worked.
- It's the only way to reach excellence. The best
managers don't use "average" but "excellent" as the
standard to judge performance. Those who are already
performing above average are the ones most likely
to reach excellence.
Lesson #3: Be a Catalyst
Great managers refuse to limit their role to controller
or instructor. Instead, they spend their time trying to
figure out better ways to unleash their best performers'
distinct talents. Certainly all coaches would consider
teaching to be central to their role, since sport skill
acquisition is obviously critical to athletic success.
Taken on its own, however, skill is often not enough.
Consider Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who languished
as play-off non-contenders for several seasons before
Michael was persuaded to redirect his considerable skills
to put the interest of the team's success over his own.
Here are some ways that you become more of a catalyst
with your athletes:
- Strive to cut out a unique set of expectations for
your athletes that stretch and focus them.
- Highlight each athlete's unique style. Draw his
attention to it; help him understand how it works
for him and how to perfect it.
- No news is not good news for athletes-- it kills
behavior. Great coaches don't forget to continue to
reinforce the talents of their best performers. If
you see your stars acting up, it is a sure sign that
you have been paying attention to the wrong behaviors
and the wrong people.
As the authors of "First, Break all the Rules" rightly
point out in their introduction, there are more differences
than similarities between the world's best, be it coaches
or managers. Beyond these differences in style, however,
there do appear to be some universal truths in how best
to help your athletes achieve their best. Don't be afraid
to break some rules along the way.
Buckingham, M. & Coffman, C. (1999). First, Break
all the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers do Differently.
Simon & Schuster, NY.
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