Leadership?

Lots of people talk about where leadership in sport is now.

But where did our current thinking on leadership come from? How did leadership in professional sport evolve?

And more importantly, where is leadership in professional sport going?

In the old days, there were no leadership teams or player groups or team representative groups or senior player groups or unity councils…….

In the old days you spelt leadership C.O.A.C.H. The head coach made the decisions, took responsibility for them and that’s where leadership began and ended in professional sporting teams.

Then along came the concept of captaincy and team leadership became shared – to some degree – between coach and captain.

As the demands on team leadership expanded in the professional era and the captain’s role grew to include media management, public appearances and sponsor servicing (as well as on and off field leadership) we started to see the emergence of vice captains and even co-captains to share the leadership load.

Over time, the philosophy of leadership in professional sporting teams evolved into the current popular model of leadership teams.

The leadership team has played an important role in professional sport providing players the opportunity to be more engaged with preparation and performance and to have some real input into the standards, values and practices of the team.

But now we a face a new leadership challenge in sport – it is the era of coaching by collaboration. It is the time where everyone associated with the team – players, coaches, staff and management – everyone – must take full responsibility for every aspect of their own preparation and performance.

Ask yourself, “What’s the long term – what’s the ultimate in leadership in professional sporting teams? Where is all this heading?”

Think about it for a moment and the answer is obvious….it’s leading by not leading.

It is the era where each player has to learn to lead themselves - to train, prepare and compete to their full potential by consistently taking full responsibility and accountability for their own standards, behaviours and performance – on and off field.

In the past, players could be professional during games but then rely on others to set and enforce standards of professionalism in other areas. Players could have some weaknesses in different areas and rely on others in the team to take up the slack….but no more! It is the era of individualised peak performance – there can be no weak links in professional sporting teams.

It is time for everyone involved in the team to ensure that everything they do: on field training, off field training (e.g. gym), social situations, recovery, nutrition, time management, values, sponsor commitments, public appearances and media management is as professional as their actual playing.

Successful professional teams demand the total commitment of individuals, each working to their own optimal individual performance levels to ensure that the team as a whole performs to it’s peak performance potential.

So, as is my custom to ask – what choice will you make?

Will you take a risk, embrace the collaborative coaching – “leading without leading” model and become an innovator in the evolution of leadership in professional sport or will you wait for someone else to do it, copy them and always be behind the cutting edge?

Take a risk – do it now – change the future!

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2010, Sports Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Go from Good to Great in Ten Easy Steps???

The Good to Great part is easy………it’s writing about it in Ten Easy Steps that’s the hard bit!

G TO G ONE: Excellence is not the issue – everything is excellent – it’s about relevance and context. It is no longer about what you know – the internet has made sure that everyone knows what you know – it’s now about how, when, where and why you do what you do;

G TO G TWO: The name of the game is living success – having a set of rules that guide the direction of your life, the decisions you make and the destiny of your dreams…everyday – try these four:

• P –  Persistance – Never, ever give up;
• A – Attitude – they can who believe they can;
• C – Consistency – it’s not about the end result every year (in the annual report) – it’s what you do everyday that makes a difference;
• E – Energy – Passion, excitement, enthusiasm – these things give you the energy to power success.

G TO G THREE: Change is critical. But – you need to accept that everyone is changing – the real challenge is to accelerate your rate of change faster than your opposition;

G TO G FOUR: All change is personal - all real change must be made at an individual level – so in the end change comes down to your ability to engage the hearts and minds of everyone in your team;

G TO G FIVE: The difference between good and great is simple: it’s about doing more – more often. Most people do the minimum standard – the great ones do more than they are asked – they challenge themselves to improve and get better – they do more than is expected. How can you be great if you do the “average” – being great is about doing more than the average;

G TO G SIX: Greatness means being different – it means being unique. It means being first. It means taking risks. No one becomes great by being the best copier or best at being someone else: be yourself – back yourself;

G TO G SEVEN: And………conflict is inevitable. Learn to thrive in conflict. Learn to fight hard (but fair) for what you believe in. All the greatest people in history have had to face conflict and challenge (and even ridicule and resentment) when they decided to stand up for what they believed in;

G TO G EIGHT: Understand who you are – who you really are – and be happy being you. You can not be successful being someone else, living someone else’s biography or following someone else’s mantra. Be yourself – back yourself;

G TO G NINE: Make tough choices every day – and stick to them. No leader who has been successful is known for being a soft, quiet, uncertain person who can not make decisions. Decision making is a core quality of great leadership and a fundamental aspect of greatness;

G TO G TEN: Continuous improvement is everything. It is not about winning once - it is about continually challenging, changing, learning, evolving and improving so that you are always striving to be better. Believe like you are number one – but passionately and relentlessly pursue improvement like you are number two.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2009 – 2010, Sports Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Change is one of the most talked about aspects of sport.

But change is also one of the hardest things to actually introduce successfully and sustain in any sporting environment.

Why?

Because people who introduce change are often seen as radicals or “ratbags” or people who know nothing about the sport or people who don’t understand the sport’s culture or similar negative label.

Change innovators in sport have to fight through three phases to make a real difference:

• Ridicule – Real innovators, lateral thinkers and change drivers have to first face the conservative thinkers in the sport who will label their push to change as stupid, ill informed and ridiculous.
• Resistance - If the idea gets through Phase 1, it then meets hard opposition from people who are benefiting from the current thinking and who will fight hard to resist new ideas and any challenge to their position and beliefs.
• Acceptance – finally if you can get through the days, weeks, months or even years of fighting, political maneuvering, back stabbing and other obstacles you have to overcome, you can introduce real change and ensure the sport progresses.

 There are two true but conflicting statements I can confidently make about competitive sport:

• Change is critical – it is essential to survive. In competitive sport, the faster you can accelerate your rate of change – faster than your opposition – the more likely it is you can sustain competitiveness and win BUT…….
• Sport is incredibly conservative. It is more resistant to change than almost any other area of society and some people will resist change to the point of seeing the club or sport fail if it means changing their beliefs and their position.

How can people possibly defend this conservative position?

In sport, more than most other human endeavours, “success is a moving target”. Athletes, coaches and teams who are first at introducing new ideas and innovations and usually the winners, the champions, the gold medalists, the premiers – the success stories.

So, if change is the life blood of being successful in competitive sport, why are so many people so determined to “open an artery” and let the sport bleed to death rather than embrace the change process?

1.  “It’s different here” – The most common “anti-change” comment you hear when you try to change things in sport is “it’s different here”: meaning this team or club or sport is different to the rest of the world and doesn’t need to change, evolve or improve. Rubbish!
2. “You don’t understand the culture of this sport” – whilst it is true that all sports and indeed all teams have a unique culture, what is also true is that the core principles of success apply to every sport and team regardless of their culture.
3. “We don’t have the money to change” – another common “anti change” comment. My experience working with hundreds of sports in 25 countries is that money is rarely the real issue. The most common impediments to effective change all over the world always has been and still are personalities (i.e. people standing in the way of change) and politics.
4. “We’re on top so we don’t need to change” – it is harder to sustain success and repeat winning than it is to do it a single time so logically, the people most in need of change are those who have been successful. They are the people most likely to believe they have hit on the “secret formula to success” and will resist change to the “secret formula” harder than any group.
5. “That’s not the way we do it here” – a painful destructive mindset which often permeates when former players and coaches from the sport’s “glory years” sit on the Board and believe the solutions to the Club’s current problems lie in going back to the past.
6. “You’ve never played the game” – there is no doubt that current and former players can add significant value to the quality of leading any team, but rejecting the ideas, suggestions and expertise of anyone who hasn’t played the game is a guarantee of failure. It’s like saying the only people who can listen to music must be musicians or the only people who can go to art galleries must be artists.
7. “We need to introduce change slowly” – a great idea……..if you want to improve slowly and let your competition get away from you.
8. “We have this dominating, hard headed, old Chairman who refuses to change – we will never get anything going” – guess what? There is one of these in every sport, in every team, in every country in the world. The “old administrator” who has been in a position for 30 years and will do anything to cling to power. Unfortunately this is a fact of life – get over it, work around them and get on with it.
9. “I can’t get people to buy into the need to change” – another fact of life. Greek Philosophers BC have written about peoples’ resistance to change – it is one constant in a universe that thrives on change. A fundamental skill of great leaders is to convince people that change is necessary and to get them to support the new direction.
10. “It’s too difficult to change” – No it’s not. Everyday things change. Technology. The way we eat. The way we travel. The way we communicate. Everything is constantly changing and evolving. If you can’t change, then you are out of pace with the rest of the Universe.

 Summary:

Think of the great people in sport, in life, in science, in art, in literature – why do we admire and respect them? Because they were different and difference means change: uniqueness is an advantage: being the leader in the introduction of change is a prerequisite for greatness.

Change is uncomfortable for most people but in elite sport it is as essential as having a training field, a quality training program and the right equipment if you want to be successful.

If you want things to change – be prepared to fight, fight hard, fight long but fight fair. Let the conservative thinkers in your sport do the dirty stuff, the name calling, tell the lies etc – just keep fighting a good, hard, clean fight and in the long run, you will win.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2009, Sports Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Leadership groups, leadership teams, player leadership teams, team councils………

What’s going on here? Players making decisions? Players leading? Players taking ownership of their training and playing programs?

What’s all this empowerment stuff about?

What does engagement mean? Is someone getting married?

And what the hell is a leadership group?

I thought coaches coached, managers managed, fans cheered, doctors doctored and players played.

All of sudden every AFL, baseball, basketball, rugby, football, cricket, netball and rugby league team has embraced a player empowerment leadership model. Five years ago, most of us couldn’t even spell it.

Let’s have closer look at what’s going on.

Leadership groups have become very popular in sporting teams over the past few years. Even the press have now become comfortable using the term “leadership group” and respect it’s role in clubs and teams.

So why has it become fashionable to have a leadership group in sporting teams?

There are several reasons why this has happened:

Society has changed.Authoritarian dictatorships do not work anywhere in the world. Society demands engagement and people want input into the direction of their lives and community. People no longer tolerate being ordered what to do – they demand consultation and communication. Governments and business have all been forced to shift to open, transparent and accountable ways of operating. Players have grown up in this society where authoritarian models do not work – their parents have changed, their teachers have changed…….so accordingly, their coaches must change.

It makes sense. Players have to solve problems and make decisions on the field that determine the outcome of the game. Coaches can coach off field and at training but they have limited impact on the field in the heat of battle. Better problem solving and decision making occurs when people “own” their performance and have to take responsibility for the outcome.

Players are smarter. One impact of the Internet and the electronic literacy of players is that they have access to ideas, techniques and skills that once were hidden away in coaching education texts. Professional players are comfortable using video analysis to evaluate their own performances. Players have views and opinions about their own performances that can add real value to their coaching program. 

We understand leadership more. Leadership has been studied more in the last 20 years than the Swim Suit edition of Sports Illustrated. There are millions of books about leadership from every possible angle: business leadership, financial leadership, corporate leadership, political leadership, leadership biographies – lots of people are thinking about, talking about and writing about what leadership is and how to develop it.

The nature of sport has changed. Team sports in general have become more dynamic, faster and entertaining. Most team sports have changed their laws and rules to facilitate more open, flowing, exciting competition. This means decisions need to be made quickly and players able to respond to rapidly changing playing situations. Teams with rigid, highly structured, inflexible playing systems do not do well in any code in this century. Winning is about making quality decisions quickly and responding to opportunities faster than the opposition.

 What are the Ten key elements of a successful sports leadership team:

1. Learn to lead. I can call myself a Formula One Driver or the King of Persia but unless I have training and education how to drive fast or lead a nation, I will not do it very well. Leadership is the same. Just appointing or electing a group of players to a leadership role and expecting them to do it well is two steps short of insanity. You would not give them a ball and say “OK – now you’re a talented player” without coaching, education, teaching, training, practice, feedback and development. Great leadership groups have been trained and educated how to lead.
2. Real power! Some coaches “talk the talk” about empowerment and engagement and players owning decisions but when push comes to shove, they take the power off the leadership group. The essence of great leadership is taking responsibility for decisions and turning decisions into actions. By giving a leadership group limited power to make decisions and taking it off them as soon as the team is under pressure takes away any sense of responsibility:the group is a leadership group in name only.
3. Consistency. The same rules must apply to the Leadership group as apply to the rest of the team. People do not tolerate double standards or inequity in teams. Everyone plays by the same rules or there can be no trust – and without trust, teams do not succeed.
4. Real meaningful decisions. Some Clubs allow the Leadership group to make decisions about jersey colors, where the team will go at the end of season holiday, what food to eat at the Annual presentation dinner and not much else. Teach the leadership group to lead and trust them to make significant decisions, to own them and to implement them. And to be held accountable for them!
5. Responsibility and accountability. Responsibility and accountability. Responsibility and accountability. Are you getting the idea yet?
6. Honest, regular feedback. Athletes grow from receiving honest, regular feedback. Leaders grow the same way. Provide opportunity for leaders to give and receive honest feedback from their peers, their team mates, coaches, staff and management. And don’t be afraid of conflict. People who trust each other can give honest feedback and learn, grow and improve through vigorous (even heated) debate.
7. Flexibility. The old models of leadership were based on hierarchy and rigid vertical structures. Modern leadership is based on flexibility and dynamics which respond to changing needs and circumstances. The leadership group should be a dynamic, living group which is comfortable responding to whatever challenges it confronts.
8. Communication. Leaders must communicate but listen ten times more than they talk. Leaders who listen and respect and care about the views of the people they represent are the greatest of all leaders.
9. Start ‘em young. Just as you would not wait until a player was 25 to teach them how to kick, pass, run, jump etc, if you want leaders – train ‘em young. Ensure your elite player development program has a significant, well structured leadership development program as an integral aspect.
10. The Culture Virus – Culture changes and grows from the inside out. Provide systems, structures and opportunities for the leadership team to “infect” the rest of the team with a winning culture and positive attitudes. 

So enjoy the “new” leadership. Help players learn to lead, provide them with the environment and opportunity to evolve into quality leaders and your team, the players, the Club and the sport will all benefit.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2009, Sports Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

By Wayne Goldsmith

In business and in elite sport there are three basic types of people.

Those who are innovative, creative, rule breakers, risk takers – leaders: people who have a vision of what’s possible and make the future theirs.

Those who watch the leaders and innovators and copy them.

Those who don’t care about the future – they just keep repeating what they do now over and over and over and over and over…

Which one are you?

You see these three same types of people in competition at the Olympic Games as:

The Gold Medalists- the ones who lead the sport to new heights – break records – do the impossible. They saw the future as a vision – saw it clearly and made it happen.

The Finalists- the ones who did ok but lacked the vision, energy, innovation and originality to be the best of the best.

The Turn Ups- the ones who were just happy being there. They usually watch what everyone else does, copy it and that way at the next Olympics they are still four years behind the field!

The same types of people turn up in every football Club in the world – Leaders, Copiers and “Just happy to be heres”.

The future is like a voyage of discovery – it belongs to whoever gets there first. And the people who get there first are not afraid to travel into uncharted waters or journey to places not on the map: they seek the unknown and undiscovered.

Everyone who has excelled – in any walk of life – is different! They are a-typical. They are unique. The think and act differently, they try new ideas and occasionally, they come up with new directions and change the world. They are not “normal” – they are special.

And usually standing in their way are people who believe that it is important to be “normal”, to not be different, to do things the “right” way, to keep doing things “the way they have always been done”.

The rate of success in most organisations usually depends on who is winning the battle between these two groups: the people driving the change process and the people trying to stop it.

Which group are you a member of?

So, some more lessons for coaches:

There are no rules. Teach people to be different, to challenge ideas, to be innovative and creative.

Throw away your coaching text books and “Ten Ways to be Successful” guide books – there are no rules in being successful. Don’t teach people what to think – teach them how to think.

Inspire people to dream. Encourage people to think differently. Then coach them on how to turn their dreams and thoughts into reality.

Fight hard- Everyone who is different and who challenges the way things are done now experiences resistance. Some of the greatest thinkers and philosophers and artists of all time have written about their fights with people of limited imagination and no vision. Keep fighting hard for the future you believe is possible.

Resist the temptation to copy successful people. It is often not what they do that made them successful but their uniqueness as people that got them to the top. By all means observe them, learn from them, listen to their ideas but…….improve on them and do it your way.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2009, Sports Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.