Coaches Toolbox

Being a Head Coach is Not an Individual Sport

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Chris Ross, Offensive Coordinator, Tarleton State, and former Texas High School Head Football Coach.

Full video on Glazier Drive:  Being a Head Coach is Not an Individual Sport

OVERVIEW

This lesson, presented by Chris Ross, focuses on the fundamental shift in mindset required when moving from assistant coach to head coach. The core message: being a head coach is a team sport, not an individual one.

THE ROLE CHANGE

As an assistant, you executed the plan. As a head coach, you now produce results through the efforts of others — athletes, assistant coaches, parents, boosters, and administration. Leading adults is profoundly different from leading players, and requires an entirely new skill set.

SELLING YOUR VISION

A head coach must sell their vision to every group in the program. This means communicating not just where the team is going, but showing each individual — especially athletes — that they will personally benefit from the journey. People will work hard if they believe it will be worth it.

DELEGATION AND STANDARDS

Great head coaches delegate responsibly, then train and evaluate consistently. You must define success for every group, set clear roles and expectations, and establish standards for how your program prepares, practices, communicates, and conducts itself.

HIRING AND PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

Hire for character first — intelligence, creativity, and high character matter more than sport-specific knowledge. Coaches rarely get fired for aptitude; it’s almost always attitude. Also remember: every hour your staff gives you is time away from their families. Respect it by being productive, not just busy.

CULTURE

Culture is your beliefs and what it feels like to be part of your program. It starts at the top but must be owned at every level. If you don’t define and consistently reinforce it, it will drift — and that can unravel a program quickly.


How to Evaluate Your Program on a Yearly Basis

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Frank DeLano, Head Football Coach, Haddonfield High School (NJ)

You can see the full Glazier Academy video on Glazier Drive:  How to Evaluate Your Program on a Yearly Basis

PROGRAM EVALUATION

Effective program evaluation is an ongoing process — daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly — not just something done at the end of a season. Coaches must set ego aside, be honest with themselves, and seek feedback from trusted sources, whether that’s their staff or an outside colleague in the profession.

Making adjustments is a sign of strength, not weakness.

DEFINING YOUR PROGRAM’S IDENTITY

Before building a calendar, coaches need to clarify their mission, their pillars, and what they want their program to look like both on and off the field. Every decision should circle back to those core values. The presenter’s program runs on four pillars: accountability, discipline, competition, and passion.

OFF-FIELD SUCCESS MATTERS

A program’s calendar should reflect more than just sport-specific preparation. Academic achievement, community service, volunteer work, and student involvement in school activities all play a role in developing well-rounded athletes and building a positive program image within the community.

KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS

Coaches must account for state regulations around contact periods, athlete-sharing between sports, school size, and student commitments like musicals, choir, or clubs. Trying to force kids into being single-sport athletes can actually do them a disservice given how few go on to play professionally.

DRAFTING THE CALENDAR

No two program calendars will look the same. They should be family-friendly, school-friendly, and demanding yet flexible. The goal is to give athletes, coaches, and families the information they need to make the right choices — because as the presenter puts it, great athletes make choices, not sacrifices.


Thinking Through Your Personal Brand

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How do you cultivate a dynamic personal brand?  Many coaches think that focusing  on personal branding is unnecessary.  They shy away from engaging in personal branding–viewing it as self-promotion.  However, the reality is that we all have personal brands, whether we focus on them or not.  We should be aware of how others view us, and how it may help or harm our ability to succeed on and off the playing field.  The following three questions can help you assess your personal brand.

  1. What do I want to be known for?  Think wide and deep.
  2. What results do I want to deliver through my coaching efforts? It’s not only about wins and losses.
  3. How do I want others to describe me?  Consider your legacy.

 

An Introduction to the Introverted Leader

Several years ago, Susan Cain, a Harvard Business School professor, delivered one of the most well-received Ted Talks of all time. Today the YouTube video counts more than 18 million views of her talk on introversion. Cain wrote her 2012 book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” which has sold two million copies worldwide. With the Ted Talk and book, Susan Cain has single-handedly triggered a deeper awareness of and appreciation for the many facets of introversion.

She’s introduced a myth-shattering perspective that has transformed the way we view introversion and introverts.

On the surface, introversion looks a lot like shyness; both effect social interaction, but for differing reasons. The shy find socializing difficult. On the other hand, an introvert simply prefers to spend time alone. Introverts are collectors of thoughts, and solitude is where the collection is curated and rearranged to help them make sense of their thoughts.

Far more than we are consciously aware of, we live in a society dominated by extroverts. Susan Cain’s research points out that the American culture glorifies extroversion. Sports stars and movie stars are highly paid and followed, and social media thrives on people exposing their innermost thoughts and feelings. Extroverts are highly visible in most settings and situations. Bold personalities are rewarded.

Cain writes, “We’re told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts—which means that we’ve lost sight of who we really are.” In fact, she notes, one-third to one-half of Americans are introverts. So if you’re not one yourself, she often advises audiences,

“You’re probably raising or managing or married to one.”

For the past 20 years, I’ve been working with coaches and athletes in the areas of leadership and team building. During this time I’ve noticed a deficit in time, effort, and energy when it came to identifying and developing high potential coaches. It seems as if excellence in leadership is a given. But it’s not! You don’t become a high–potential coach by merely “putting in the time.” Just working hard isn’t the x-factor. Neither is high potential a natural gift.

I’m helping high achievers and high potentials become self-aware and increase their personal effectiveness. If you’ve got a deep commitment to excellence, building right relationships, guiding with influence and accelerating change, let’s talk.

I’m looking for high-potential coaches with a desire to be mentored one-to-one by me. My coaching program is for those coaches willing to pay the price, ready to invest in developing their career for the long-term. If you are interested in talking about how you can go from high potential to high achievement—let’s talk. [Cory 623.330.3831]

Sample of What You Will Learn
-Deep Coaching: Inspiring Others to High Performance
-Humility is not Optional: It’s a Necessity
-What Coaches Need to Hear
-Entering the High Impact State of Coaching
-The Social Context: Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Dynamics
-Conquering Denial
-Managing Envy

Kind regards,
Dr. Cory Dobbs
Ready to Coach You!
(623) 330..3831

New to the Second Edition of Coaching for Leadership!

We are pleased to announce a new chapter to the second edition of the best-selling Coaching for Leadership. The chapter, The Big Shift: Unlock Your Team’s Potential by Creating Player-Led Teambuilding, connects the previous edition of this book to its origin, as well as to the future of team sports.

The new chapter sets forth a practical and applicable agenda for change and improvement. The reader is introduced to seven vital elements of change; seven shifts of traditional mental models that lead to the new core principles necessary for creating a player-led team culture. Click here for more information about Coaching for Leadership

About Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.

Cory Dobbs is the founder of The Academy for Sport Leadership and a nationally recognized thought leader in the areas of leadership and team building.  Cory is an accomplished researcher of human experience. Cory engages in naturalistic inquiry seeking in-depth understanding of social phenomena within their natural setting.

A college basketball coach, Cory’s coaching background includes experience at the NCAA DII, NJCAA, and high school levels of competition.  After a decade of research and development Cory unleashed the groundbreaking Teamwork Intelligence program for student-athletics. Teamwork Intelligence illuminates the process of designing an elite team by using the 20 principles and concepts along with the 8 roles of a team player he’s uncovered while performing research.

Cory has worked with professional athletes, collegiate athletic programs, and high schools teaching leadership and team building as a part of the sports experience and education process.  As a consultant and trainer Dr. Dobbs has worked with Fortune 500 organizations such as American Express, Honeywell, and Avnet, as well as medium and small businesses. Dr. Dobbs taught leadership and organizational change at Northern Arizona University, Ohio University, and Grand Canyon University.


Putting the Person Before the Athlete

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As a leadership educator your main task is to create a psychologically safe environment in which your players want to learn how to become team leaders.  This is not a trivial distinction. A learning climate characterized by trust and openness is critical to encourage young people to respect and appreciate their teammates, coaches and the learning process. 

Strategies for transformative learning should be purposeful, planned, and productive.  When we say put the person before the player we imply that the process of navigating life’s challenges should be the over-arching goal of learning to lead.

The following seven conditions are helpful in creating a psychologically safe learning environment favorable to promoting a transformational experiential approach to leadership development.

  1. Student-athletes need to feel comfortable with the concepts of leadership.
  2. Student-athletes need to know about the practice and the processes of leadership.
  3. Student-athletes need permission to make mistakes.  Healthy relationships transform conflict into cooperation.
  4. Student-athletes should have a sense of purpose as it relates to leadership.  They need to have an answer to the question “Why lead?”
  5. Student-athletes should begin to develop an awareness of their individual strengths and weaknesses as leaders.  They need feedback.
  6. Student-athletes need to monitor and adjust behaviors intended to influence others. They need to take the appropriate action suggested by feedback.
  7. Student-athletes should begin to learn the complex practices of self-reflection, self-acceptance, and self-compassion.
For the past 20 years, I’ve been working with coaches and athletes in the areas of leadership and team building. During this time I’ve noticed a deficit in time, effort, and energy when it came to identifying and developing high potential coaches. It seems as if excellence in leadership is a given. But it’s not! You don’t become a high–potential coach by merely “putting in the time.” Just working hard isn’t the x-factor. Neither is high potential a natural gift.

I’m helping high achievers and high potentials become self-aware and increase their personal effectiveness. If you’ve got a deep commitment to excellence, building right relationships, guiding with influence and accelerating change, let’s talk.

I’m looking for high-potential coaches with a desire to be mentored one-to-one by me. My coaching program is for those coaches willing to pay the price, ready to invest in developing their career for the long-term. If you are interested in talking about how you can go from high potential to high achievement—let’s talk. [Cory 623.330.3831]

Sample of What You Will Learn
-Deep Coaching: Inspiring Others to High Performance
-Humility is not Optional: It’s a Necessity
-What Coaches Need to Hear
-Entering the High Impact State of Coaching
-The Social Context: Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Dynamics
-Conquering Denial
-Managing Envy

Kind regards,
Dr. Cory Dobbs
Ready to Coach You!
(623) 330..3831

New to the Second Edition of Coaching for Leadership!

We are pleased to announce a new chapter to the second edition of the best-selling Coaching for Leadership. The chapter, The Big Shift: Unlock Your Team’s Potential by Creating Player-Led Teambuilding, connects the previous edition of this book to its origin, as well as to the future of team sports.

The new chapter sets forth a practical and applicable agenda for change and improvement. The reader is introduced to seven vital elements of change; seven shifts of traditional mental models that lead to the new core principles necessary for creating a player-led team culture. Click here for more information about Coaching for Leadership

About Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.

Cory Dobbs is the founder of The Academy for Sport Leadership and a nationally recognized thought leader in the areas of leadership and team building.  Cory is an accomplished researcher of human experience. Cory engages in naturalistic inquiry seeking in-depth understanding of social phenomena within their natural setting.

A college basketball coach, Cory’s coaching background includes experience at the NCAA DII, NJCAA, and high school levels of competition.  After a decade of research and development Cory unleashed the groundbreaking Teamwork Intelligence program for student-athletics. Teamwork Intelligence illuminates the process of designing an elite team by using the 20 principles and concepts along with the 8 roles of a team player he’s uncovered while performing research.

Cory has worked with professional athletes, collegiate athletic programs, and high schools teaching leadership and team building as a part of the sports experience and education process.  As a consultant and trainer Dr. Dobbs has worked with Fortune 500 organizations such as American Express, Honeywell, and Avnet, as well as medium and small businesses. Dr. Dobbs taught leadership and organizational change at Northern Arizona University, Ohio University, and Grand Canyon University.

 


The World is not Fair and What Got You to Good Won’t Get You to Great

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Teamwork Intelligence Conversational Exercise


The following questions are intended for leadership conversation involving coaches and players. The deeper your conversation goes the closer and clearer you get to understanding the heart and mind of each team member. The deeper the better; adverse incidents happen daily—it’s a guarantee.   


 

What Can You Do When Something Unfair Happens?  

Let’s Talk About It!

A) Accept the fact that the world is not fair.

  • Conversation Starters:
    What do you mean by the word being fair?
    Should you accept the fact that the world is not fair?

B) The most important thing to remember when something you think is unfair happens to you is to not dwell on it.

  • Conversation Starters
    How do you dwell on adversity?
    Is there any way the world could be made fairer?

C) When something unfair happens to you, emphasize what you have rather than what you lost.

    • Conversation Starters:
      If you can’t make the world completely fair, how can you deal with it?
      Explain this sentence and apply in your team situation: Successful and happy players and coaches never dwell, at least not for long. Such coaches and players are too busy building a team.

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What Got You to Good Won’t Get You to Great

 

Some coaches are more talented than others. Pause for a moment.

That’s a fact of team sport life that few coaches would dispute. The challenge is how to develop the coaches (head coach or assistant) who appear to have the highest potential. So you might be asking yourself, “How do I go about developing my coaching talents?”

Don’t wait. If you’re ready to put forward the resources needed to become a rising star in the coaching ranks, take action.

For the past 20 years, I’ve been working with coaches and athletes in the areas of leadership and team building. During this time I’ve noticed a deficit in time, effort, and energy when it came to identifying and developing high potential coaches. It seems as if excellence in leadership is a given. But it’s not! You don’t become a high–potential coach by merely “putting in the time.” Just working hard isn’t the x-factor. Neither is high potential a natural gift.

I’m helping high achievers and high potentials become self-aware and increase their personal effectiveness. If you’ve got a deep commitment to excellence, building right relationships, guiding with influence and accelerating change, let’s talk.

I’m looking for high-potential coaches with a desire to be mentored one-to-one by me. My coaching program is for those coaches willing to pay the price, ready to invest in developing their career for the long-term. If you are interested in talking about how you can go from high potential to high achievement—let’s talk. [Cory 623.330.3831]

Sample of What You Will Learn
-Deep Coaching: Inspiring Others to High Performance
-Humility is not Optional: It’s a Necessity
-What Coaches Need to Hear
-Entering the High Impact State of Coaching
-The Social Context: Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Dynamics
-Conquering Denial
-Managing Envy

Kind regards,
Dr. Cory Dobbs
Ready to Coach You!
(623) 330..3831

New to the Second Edition of Coaching for Leadership!

We are pleased to announce a new chapter to the second edition of the best-selling Coaching for Leadership. The chapter, The Big Shift: Unlock Your Team’s Potential by Creating Player-Led Teambuilding, connects the previous edition of this book to its origin, as well as to the future of team sports.

The new chapter sets forth a practical and applicable agenda for change and improvement. The reader is introduced to seven vital elements of change; seven shifts of traditional mental models that lead to the new core principles necessary for creating a player-led team culture. Click here for more information about Coaching for Leadership

About Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.

Cory Dobbs is the founder of The Academy for Sport Leadership and a nationally recognized thought leader in the areas of leadership and team building.  Cory is an accomplished researcher of human experience. Cory engages in naturalistic inquiry seeking in-depth understanding of social phenomena within their natural setting.

A college basketball coach, Cory’s coaching background includes experience at the NCAA DII, NJCAA, and high school levels of competition.  After a decade of research and development Cory unleashed the groundbreaking Teamwork Intelligence program for student-athletics. Teamwork Intelligence illuminates the process of designing an elite team by using the 20 principles and concepts along with the 8 roles of a team player he’s uncovered while performing research.

Cory has worked with professional athletes, collegiate athletic programs, and high schools teaching leadership and team building as a part of the sports experience and education process.  As a consultant and trainer Dr. Dobbs has worked with Fortune 500 organizations such as American Express, Honeywell, and Avnet, as well as medium and small businesses. Dr. Dobbs taught leadership and organizational change at Northern Arizona University, Ohio University, and Grand Canyon University.