Business Lessons from the Athletic Field v.4
The Myth of the Game Day Coach, A Study In Broken Feedback Collaborative Responsibility
There are a lot of things this article is not. It is not a knock on Snoop Dogg. It is not meant to disparage any coaches. It is not meant to question the importance of coaches at practice or in the role of player caller (i.e. football). It is meant to challenge the importance of coaches at game time. A time when many believe a coach to be most critical.
Each year in college and professional sports, much is made of coaches who for various health reasons are unable to coach a team from the field. Some are relegated to sky boxes, others to hospital beds. In most sports, they are replaced by assistants. On rare occasion, they are replaced by player-coaches. In fact, Baseball Managers wear uniforms and have their unique title because historically they were players as well. These rare events often lead to high drama… but why?
Game Time Coaching
Game time coaching is over-rated, especially outdoors or with any sort of indoor crowd. No one can hear you. Few are even trying. The players are focused on playing the game. The feedback loop between you and the players is strained, if not broken. A coach’s influence on moment to moment decisions and tactics is effectively non-existent. Micromanagers need not apply!
The possibility that the feedback loop is merely strained creates some interesting dramatics. Shouting coaches, especially in US sports, are a common site. And why not, if being heard is an issue — just yell. Raising your voice as a coach can certainly have some results, but only some. Sadly, this is lost on some coaches entirely. They scream and yell, shout and gesture, and then when all else fails - they start throwing things…
Maybe this worked for Bobby Knight? But I doubt it. Player-coach feedback is not improved by tossing around the furniture. It is not more signal… it is just more noise. Put down the chair and focus on receiving feedback — not providing it.
Collaborative Responsibility
Recently I attended a Lacrosse Showcase tournament. For those who might not be familiar with this format, players are randomly distributed onto teams at the beginning of the day of competition. While coaches are assigned, no real attempt at coaching is made through out the day. Coaches spend all their time taking notes, as they are really there to evaluate talent.
Depending on your understanding of the sport of lacrosse, you may or may not be impressed by what is effectively a pick-up game. For those more cynical, remember two important facts. Showcase games are played in front of college talent scouts, so energy and passion is high. Second, the sport of lacrosse relies greatly on communication and rotation — at least if you want to look good.
These two skills are considered so essential to lacrosse teams that high school teams were known to adopt the offensive and defensive strategies used by the club team to which the greatest number of their players belonged, in order to ease communication and understanding. Anyone watching a showcase game would understand why that practice is no longer so common. They weren’t giving the players enough credit.
Players are quite capable of a tremendous amount of organization and communication. This is especially true when the stakes are highest. They even self discipline. If one player is choosing to go their own way, the others will simply work around them. They soon get the message that one must play along to … well, play along.
Preparation
The reality is that a lot of coaching made those showcase games possible, just not game day coaching. Each player benefited from years of dedicated coaching, training, and drills. They had been instructed on techniques and strategies that, of course, heavily emphasized communication and rotation. Thanks to former coaches, they came prepared.
This is the lesson for business. Invest your coaching and management energy where it is most important — preparation. Instruct employees on the most important concepts and the best way to make decisions. But when it is game time, try to sit back and receive feedback. Don’t micromanage. Work to understand what needs to be in the next round of preparation.
If teenagers can display the collaborative responsibility to organize a high level lacrosse game with heavy stakes — you should be able to trust your employees to do the same for your business. They don’t need you yelling, shouting, or (even worse) tossing chairs. Sit back and relax. Focus on the process, the opportunities, and the coaching that really matters — when game time is over.
