These articles were written and contributed by Scott Rosberg

Standards and Goals (Post 5 of 5)

This is the final post in this short series on “Individual vs. Team.” If you missed those first four posts, go to the “Blog” page of the Coach with Character website – www.coachwithcharacter.com – and scroll down to the posts – “Individual vs. Team, “Individual Goals vs. Team Goals,” “Aligning Individual & Team Goals,” and “Process & Habits for Achieving Goals.” Although the original intention of what became this series of posts was to focus on the concept of the struggle for team members to maintain their individuality and uniqueness while being focused on their team, the recent posts veered into some thoughts on goals and goal-setting. Today, I will finish up on a thought that I started in the last post on the idea of burning your goals.

Now I am not advocating that people don’t have goals. In the last post, I echoed some thoughts from Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert from their book Burn Your Goals in which they talk about focusing on the commitment to daily habits that will help you achieve your goal, rather than focusing on the outcome of the goal. Today I want to talk about the importance of focusing on committing to your standards even more so than committing to your goals.

Present or Future?

Don’t get me wrong. Goals are important to have, and they give people something to shoot for in the future. But that is where goals live – in the future. Standards live in the here and now. Committing to living by your standards is committing to doing things every day that are focused on the moment.

When we commit to a standard, we are saying we stand for something, and so these are the actions that people will see from us as we live our standards.  We are not saying that we are committed to something in the future (goal), and we hope to be able to achieve it. We are saying that this is how we are going to live our life right now (standards) because this is what we believe is the best way achieve the goals we seek.

Behavioral Standards Lead to Success

Standards and goals can work together to help teams achieve what they seek. Most teams have a goal to win some type of championship. How do they keep the goal in front of their teams in a positive, meaningful way that doesn’t get old, but that also doesn’t put too much pressure on them?

One way is to focus less on the championship itself and more on the behaviors that will lead them to the championship. This is where standards come into play. Teams need to discuss what behaviors and standards they must exhibit that will lead to the success they seek and then decide which ones are most important to their success. When they live by those standards, they have a better chance at achieving their goals.

While they are not placing all of their focus on winning a championship, by focusing on living by their standards, they have a much better chance of achieving that goal. So while it is good for teams to have goals because they give them something to shoot for, it is even more important for teams to have standards because they are guidelines for how they need to live in order to achieve their goals.

If you like the ideas in here on focusing on your standards more than on your goals, I have a couple of “must-reads” and “must-sees” for you. Go to the Proactive Coaching website and pick up Bruce Brown’s booklet “First Steps to Creating a Successful Team ” and his books Teaching Character through Sport and Proactive Leadership. Also, pick up the DVD Captains & Coaches’ Workshop to see the workshop that helps teams start the process of developing their culture by creating their standards. Click on any of the blue titles above to be taken right to that page on the Proactive Coaching website. Better yet, schedule one of us to come out and do a presentation or the workshop for your team/school in person. You and your teams will be glad you did, and you will be on your way to creating the culture you seek.

Thanks so much for reading this short series on individual vs. team. What started as an idea to talk about the difficulties of balancing individuality with team spirit, branched out into some really important ideas on goals, commitments, habits, and standards. I hope you enjoyed reading these posts as much as I enjoyed exploring each of the topics within them.

If you like these types of posts, I have many more like them on “Blog” page of the Coach with Character website that I think you will like, too. I send them out once a week to all the people who have signed up to receive them. When the red box pops up on the site, just enter your name and email address, and you will start receiving them each week in your Inbox.

These articles were written and contributed by Scott Rosberg

Process and Habits for Achieving Goals (Post 4 of 5)

This is the fourth post in a series of posts I have been doing on “Individual vs. Team.” If you missed those first three posts, go to the “Blog” page of the Coach with Character website – www.coachwithcharacter.com – and scroll down to the posts – “Individual vs. Team,” “Individual Goals vs. Team goals,” and “Aligning Individual and Team Goals.” Today, we will move into the importance of process and habits when it comes to developing goals.

Quite honestly, while setting goals is an important step in getting where you want to go, the setting of the goals is worthless if you don’t commit to the daily, weekly, and monthly habits necessary to get to your goals. In fact, authors Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert go so far as to say to “burn your goals” (in their book Burn Your Goals) and zero in on the mental toughness necessary to stay focused on the habits you need to achieve what you seek. Check out Burn Your Goals for more on this concept.

Focus on the Process, not the Outcome

This concept discusses something that is critical to any success that someone seeks, either individually or in a group. That something is “process.” Process has become a bit of a buzz-word over the last few years. However, there is a good reason why buzzwords have made their way into our lexicon at any given time, and the word “process” is no exception.

Process is important because it strips everything down to the necessities. It helps people focus their attention where it needs to be focused – on doing what needs to be done to achieve what one is seeking to achieve. By focusing on process, people can put blinders on and ignore all the noise that can create chaos and confusion while trying to achieve an outcome or a goal.

Focusing on process requires discipline. According to Bruce Brown of Proactive Coaching, “Discipline is focused attention and focused effort.” I love that simple, straightforward definition of discipline. When you focus your attention on doing what needs to be done, doing it the right way, and doing it that way every time it is needed, you have discipline. When you have discipline, you take care of your process. When you take care of your process, you work towards achieving your goals.

Let me give you an example of this concept that might help to illustrate this point. It will use a skill in basketball, but it can be used for any skill in any sport. Pick your sport and pick a skill and use that skill as you compare it to the analogy you will see here.

My son is a high school basketball player. When he gets fouled and goes to the free throw line, there are all kinds of things that could be running through his mind as he prepares to shoot the free throws. Imagine if it is late in a close game, late in the season where his team is trying to go to the playoffs, which is one of the team’s goals. Imagine how much his mind will be racing with thoughts of having to make the free throws to win the game and get his team into the playoffs.

“If I make these we’re going to the playoffs! Uh-oh. What will everyone think if I miss? People will hate me. Oh God, I need to make these or I’m a loser.” And the list goes on and on. The noise, the chaos, the enormity of the moment will all be seeking to take his mind away from where it needs to be for him to achieve his and his team’s goals.

Ultimately, he has little control over the outcome if he doesn’t take care of the process that he has had for shooting free throws all year long (and maybe even for many years leading up to this point). He needs to clear his head of all the distractions and the “noise” and zero in on his process. Whatever he has created as a process for being at the free throw line, that is what he needs to focus on now. “Deep breath, dribble 1, dribble 2, dribble 3, spin the ball into my shot pocket, bend knees, deep breath, shot line, up & out, follow-through.”  Swish!

When he clears out all the noise and distraction and focuses on what he does every single time he goes to the free throw line, he has a much greater chance at success, which means he has a much greater chance at achieving his goals and his team’s goals.

The Importance of Committing to Habits

But that doesn’t just happen when he goes to the free throw line in that moment in the game. It starts with developing repetitive habits that he follows throughout the entire year. When he puts in time in the gym in the spring, summer, and fall, he develops the habits that become his process. He needs to focus his attention and effort on doing the somewhat mundane, daily tasks that become his process for when he goes to the free throw line (and every other skill he needs) in games.

By committing to creating a habit, he allows his habit to prepare him for eventual success. But he also focuses on the habit when he needs it; he doesn’t focus on the outcome. By focusing on the habit, he does not allow himself to get caught up in distractions of worrying about the outcome that can take him out of his focus on what needs to be done in the moment. The habit allows him to zero in on simple, repeated steps that will ultimately bring him to his success.

Focusing on process also allows him a simple way to re-focus when things aren’t going well, when he is in a bit of a shooting slump. He can quickly go through his process in his head to help him prepare and re-focus on what he needs to do to get back on track. I am not a parent who yells many things out to him while he is playing. It is his game, and he needs to play it. But when I see him slumping at the line a bit, I will sometimes yell, “Process” to him to help him re-focus himself on following his process and the positive habits for success that he has created for himself.

Consider all that I just discussed here for one simple skill – shooting a free throw. Now think about all of the skills, techniques, workouts, strategies, etc. that go into any practice or game situation. Do the same thing as was done for free throw shooting, and focus on the process rather than the outcome for each of those skills and techniques to maximize your chances for success.

Goals are extremely important for players and teams to have as something to shoot for. However, it is the process that one develops to create the habits for them to follow that will ultimately be able to lead them to their goals. Goals give us a destination; process and habits give us a way to get there. Focus on the way to get there if you want to get there. Focus your attention on the road you are on in this very moment in order to arrive at your final destination.

Next time I will wrap up this series by going against the grain a bit and discussing the idea of forgetting goals as the focus but focusing on our standards instead (which is actually part of focusing on our process).

These articles were written and contributed by Scott Rosberg

Aligning Individual & Team Goals (Post 3 of 5)

This is the newest post in my short series on the concept of “Individual vs. Team.” If you missed those first two posts, go to the posts – “Individual vs. Team” and “Individual Goals vs. Team Goals” – to be taken to them. Basically, each of those posts discussed the dilemma of our athletes having to balance their own individual needs and desires for what they hope to get out of playing sports and the needs of their teams. It is crucial that we coaches do all we can to instill a “Team-First Attitude” in our players and then consistently keep that message in front of them.

However, we must also recognize that kids will have their own individual goals, and we don’t want to quell those goals. Rather we need to teach them the importance of maintaining their own individual goals while at the same time putting the team goals ahead of their own. But how do we do that? This post will examine some ideas on that concept.

As was discussed in the last post, one way coaches can begin this process is by having coaches and kids both write down their individual goals and their team goals. Then set aside some time to discuss them. Be open and honest with your kids, so they will be open and honest with you.

Discussing Individual Goals

Once you have gotten the various goals out on the table (or more appropriately, up on a white board), discuss the various individual goals that they have. Talk a bit about why they want to accomplish what they want to accomplish. Then begin the process of discussing how those goals can fit into the team goals. What can each player do to fulfill their goals while at the same time focusing on the team’s goals? What strengths does each player bring to the team that will help the team achieve its goals while at the same time help the player achieve his/her goals?

For instance, in basketball, if a player has an individual goal of scoring 15 points per game, talk with her (or the team in general) about why she wants to do that. Ego is certainly a part of our goals, and we need to recognize that. But if this player is a really good scorer, help her (and the rest of the team) see that her scoring 15 points per game might be a good thing for the team. Scorers need to score, so it is okay for them to have goals related to that.

Discussing Potential Team & Individual Goal Conflicts

However, you should also discuss with her how scoring 15 points per game cannot be done at the expense of the team goals. She cannot focus on her own point total instead of the team’s total. She must work to score her points within the framework of what is best for the team throughout the game. It is up to coaches and teammates to help her recognize that her scoring points will help the team as long as she is not trying to score points for her own gain at the expense of the team’s success. In other words, if she is forcing tough shots up from very difficult spots on the floor, instead of finding open teammates with better shots, she is hurting the team. It is imperative for team success that she sees her role of being a scorer on the team as being, first and foremost, important to team success and then secondarily her own individual success. If she handles her goal in this way, it can be a really good thing for the team.

What if a player is not potentially a 15-point a game scorer and yet has scoring 15 points per game as a goal? Now we have a situation where the individual goals are in conflict with the team’s goals. If this player goes out on the court with a 15 ppg goal and tries to play with that as his focus, he will be thinking of himself and getting his points instead of thinking about what the team needs most. This will be detrimental to team success, and so the coach will need to discuss the situation with the player.

The coach will need to talk about ways to bring the player’s individual goals into alignment with the team’s goals, so that the individual goals are not being squashed, but at the same time they are not overcoming the team goals. The coach can help the player re-evaluate his goals and figure out what something more reasonable might be, while at the same time helping him see how this fits into the team goals.

Sacrifice & Reward

One other key to help players see the importance of sacrificing individual goals for team goals is for coaches to help players see that more often than not, when the team achieves what it seeks, the individual players will achieve what they seek. In this day and age of astronomical free agent salaries at the professional level, kids often see the individual rewards that players receive for their success. However, they sometimes forget that the players who receive the most are usually players that were on very successful teams. By being part of those highly successful teams, the players are often rewarded in big ways due to their contributions to the team’s success.

Youth and school coaches can use these situations to help show their players that the individual successes that the players achieved contributed to the team’s success. Then in return, the team’s success contributed to the players receiving the rewards that they sought. This is a great lesson for players to see that even at the highest levels of sport, individuals sacrifice for the team and that sacrifice often leads to even greater levels of success for both the individual and the team.

Next time, I will talk about the process and the habits necessary for players to commit to team goals!