Life Lesson #71: Who Are We?
Tools to establish a teams or programs identity
After spending my annual weekend at the American Baseball Coaches Association, I immediately came home and tried one of new exercises I learned. However, this one did not involve throwing or swinging. Quite the opposite, this exercise was focused on leadership and creating a team identity. Ahhhh, leadership!
At Lifeletics, one of the most important tasks of the youth baseball coach that we preach at our own clinics is to establish a coaching philosophy. While it can sometimes come across as a vague or general term, we define coaching philosophy as YOUR answer to the following questions: Why you are doing what you are doing? And what are you goals associated with volunteering to give 10-20 hours per week to these kids?
I sincerely hope that your own coaching philosophy involves some combinations of the following: development of both skill set and character traits, teaching athletes the meaning of sportsmanship and positive competition, and learning to handle adversity, winning/losing and pressure. Baseball is a game full of lessons and will be a great teaching tool. Especially if your coaching philosophy, and thus your coaching focus, is ready to take advantage of the situations athletes are placed in.
Along those lines, my trip to the ABCA involved a great discussion on something directly related to Coaching Philosophy: a team identity. At the clinic, one of the speakers highlighted the need for teams to have a defined identity to stand on. This identity provides a necessary backbone during pressure situations and clearly establishes expectations for how team members are to act, make decisions or compete.
During this speakers session, an exercise was shared to the audience of mostly HS and college coaches. I found it appropriate enough to use for my own staff and thought I would share with you as well. The items involved were a stack of 3×5 note cards and several key phrases or key words.
To begin, start by passing out one note card to each player. Then, have each player fill out 3 keywords describing what kind of team this squad is. Who are we? And what are our most important attributes?
With a little guidance, or manipulation, have all athletes keep their answers to short and single words. Keep all cards anonymous, collect them and then tally the top two or three keyword answers received. You may want to take some liberty in massaging certain words into those top two keyword slots – especially at the younger ages.
Finish by sharing these “winning words” as your new team identity. THIS is who we are as a team and THIS defines how we will act. Many of the examples cited at the clinic involved posting signs around dugouts and clubhouses. Fresno State, for example, played under the keyword of Toughness. During their title run in 2009, their coach (through an interview) discussed how he had to make decisions with their team identity in mind. If he expected his hitter to be tough with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, then he needed to be tough during practice. If he wanted his pitchers to be compete with the game on the line, then he needed to be tough when making decisions affecting discipline and management of the team.
The examples got deeper and deeper with what college programs did, but the main message for me came back to two main responsibilities as a coach:
1. What is my coaching philosophy?
2. Who are we? Who are these athletes as a team and how will we define ourselves?
As I sat in a huge convention hall among thousands of coaches, I hastily took notes about establishing “who my program is.” Very quickly, I found myself literally kicking my own butt for my leadership delinquencies. So, when I got home and prepared for the spring season, I called a staff meeting and broke out the 3×5 notecards.
For my “team,” we’ve realized that our most important ingredient to success has nothing to do with baseball. While all instructors absolutely MUST be world-class trainers and teachers, Lifeletics’ differentiation comes from the environment created and the relationships built by staff instructors. Now, I may have influenced that discussion (heavily 
, but all trainers agreed that families choose to return to Lifeletics because of the influence we have with their athletes from a big-picture perspective. Yes, we WILL make your athlete a better hitter. However, and more importantly, we will teach your athlete to play without fear of failure, grow from defeat, win with class and compete like heck. We’ll do so with a firm, loving support for doing what is right, with respect, confidence and grace. THIS is who we are and why families choose to return to Lifeletics!!
After this discussion, I passed out the 3×5 cards and asked for three words that describe the Lifeletics Team. The answers were an awesome (listed in order):
- Fun
- Energy
- Integrity
My challenge now is to post these signs and keep our identity keywords in front of the team. My goal is for those three words – Fun, energy and integrity – to be constantly on the minds of my staff. And by the way, how awesome is it that our staff voted “fun” as the most important ingredient to our company success!!
The final challenge will be to “walk the walk.” Just as Fresno’s coach had to stay tough, I must live and breathe our team keywords. If fun and energy are my team’s keywords, then I must lead by example. When I am at the Lifeletics Training Facility, I must bring optimism, energy and a true sincerity for what our athletes need. This is what brings them back time and time again, and in the end, this is what they need. How can we serve your family? And how can we serve your family with integrity? THIS is the message that I must convey with my words, actions and leadership.
Your answers will undoubtedly be different. If you preach poise, you cannot throw clipboards and blame umpires. What message are you sending about toughness, if you allow early glitches to affect your coaching energy during a game. And if your team votes compete as a core value, you must coach like the score is 0-0 when it’s actually 10-0.
I realize this is a bit much for teams of 8-year olds, but the fundamentals hold true for all ages. Take the time to communicate your philosophy with your athletes and parents, and do it NOW as season is just getting underway. Next, establish your team identity and work hard to have practices and games create a consistent environment. Ensure that all team members are pulling on the same end of the rope.
This exercise and this type of communication may even require effort outside of practice or field time – a big reason why Lifeletics offers conference room hours as part of Team Memberships. Personally, I realized that I had been slacking by not holding team meetings. That I had not be diligent to handle my task as leader: keeping our team’s perspective in check and all core values current and adhered to. And THIS is why they are all on this mailing list too…
Good luck this spring!!
