by Stephanie Zonars, LifeBeyondSport

At the What Drives Winning Conference, Florida softball coach, Tim Walton, referenced a TED Talk by business leader, Margaret Heffernan.

In it, she cites research by evolutionary biologist who studied productivity using chickens. William Muir devised an experiment to find out what would make chickens produce more eggs.

Chickens live in groups, so he selected an average group and left it alone for six generations.

Then he created a group from chickens that were individually the most productive— “super chickens.” With this group he selected only the most productive from each generation for breeding.

His findings?

After six generations group 1 was doing fine. Healthy chickens and increased egg production.

After the same time span, only 3 chickens in group 2 were still alive—they had pecked the rest to death.

The highly productive chickens in group 2 only achieved their success by suppressing the productivity of the rest.

Heffernan’s contention is that we tend to run organizations, teams and even countries using the “super chicken” model—one in which success is achieved by choosing superstars and by giving the most talented or brightest individuals all the resources and power.

And the result is the same as with the chickens—aggression and dysfunction and ultimately inhibited team productivity.

You’ve seen this with sports teams built on the uber-talent of a few athletes.

There’s nothing wrong with having elite athletes on your team. But if you don’t find a way to create strong cohesion between ALL team members, you diminish the team’s ability to reach its full potential.

What can help you develop that kind of team cohesion?

Heffernan shares another study done by MIT researchers in which groups of volunteers were given tough problems to solve.

They found that the most successful groups were not those with 1-2 members with exceptionally high IQs, nor the groups with the highest aggregate IQ.

The highest performing teams had three commonalities:

1       they showed high social sensitivity (empathy) to one another

2      they gave relatively equal time to each other (no one dominated the group and no one passively rode along—all participated)

3      they had more women on them 🙂

The researchers learned that social connectedness separated the best performing teams from the rest. [Tweet That!]

Heffernan teaches that social connectedness naturally results from a culture of helpfulness where individuals understand that they don’t need to know or be everything, because they are around people who are good at giving and receiving help.

It’s an environment where, when things get tough, individuals have social support and know who to ask for help.

But a culture of helpfulness won’t happen unless people get to know one another.

In other words:

get to know each other → culture of helpfulness → social connectedness

All this together is called social capital.

And social capital—the reliance and interdependence that builds trust—is the key to creating high performing teams.

It requires time to develop social capital. It doesn’t develop with a one-hit-wonder like a retreat or team building workshop at the beginning of the season.

Don’t get me wrong—that helps! It’s just not enough.

One company, for example, synchronized coffee breaks so that employees had time to get to know one another.

The result? Profits increased by $15 million and employee satisfaction saw a 10% rise.

That didn’t happen overnight, but it happened.

The time you invest in creating opportunities for your team members to get to know one another is not a waste. It’s an investment that will reap rewards!

Avoid super chicken syndrome by making time this summer to collect ideas and develop a plan for offering ongoing opportunities for your team members to get to know one another next season.

What motivates people is the bond, loyalty and trust they develop between each other. What matters is the mortar, not just the bricks. —Margaret Heffernan

Margaret Heffernan: Why it’s time to forget the pecking order at work

About Stephanie Zonars

Stephanie Zonars helps coaches build and maintain winning team cultures through her business, Life Beyond Sport. Teams at Penn State, Notre Dame, West Point and over 60 other schools have built stronger trust, communication and teamwork through her workshops. Stephanie spent three years on staff with the Penn State women’s basketball team, assisting the team to back-to-back Big Ten Championships. She’s also the author of three books.

 

Anson Dorrance

The second video is of 22 time NCAA Division I Women’s National Championship Coach Anson Dorrance of North Carolina Women’s Soccer. This video was also produced by whatdriveswinning.com

The video has 3 segments.

The exercise Coach Dorrance discusses at the beginning regarding letters the day of the national championship game could be used in other settings such as senior night, or even prior to the first game of the year.

The middle portion of the video is a discussion of how the team selects a theme for each season.

He also discusses the core values of the North Carolina program and how he arrived at their present system. Here is a link to those: Core Values of a Championship Program

This article provided by Coaches Network

By Bruce Brown, Proactive Coaching

Successful coaches weave these 10 principles into all aspects of their team’s activities—whether it be during the off-season or pre-season, or in practice and in games.

Consistent and clear standards and values. Pre-set team values are the foundation for every successful team. What is your team’s identity? Great teams establish their own culture.

The team members feel a collective responsibility to learn and follow the team values. People commit to the team values and live it in their actions. “This is the way we do things around here” is something the team members are proud to express. The feeling is that “we don’t want to do anything that would let down the coaches, the team and each other”. Everyone is accountable.

Master Teachers, Master Motivators. This first way for a coach gain credibility is to respect and trust is how much they know and how well they can teach it. Successful coaches understand the game and their players and how to teach both.

Positive role models. Coaches must consistently diplay the team values in their actions, and it carries down to the seniors so that they serve as role models for the team values. In a successful program, the freshmen or sophomores can be told, “If you are not sure how hard to work or how to act in any situation, just watch our seniors and follow their lead.” Your older players and most talented players must be your best workers.

All roles are valued. When there is relationship-based leadership, everyone who contributes to the team’s overall value. Credit is shared. When all roles are valued, players are more willing to accept roles and the team is more successful.

Positive rites of passage. Intentionally created positive traditions provide a path for athletes to feel welcomed, and to grow into leadership roles. Nothing that could be considered hazing is ever present.

Consistent performance feedback. Coaches know how to balance praise and correction. Athletes take correction as a compliment—they are coachable.

Trust. With a successful team, players trust each other and their coaches. They trust their training. Mutual trust among players and coaches allows direct, open, honest communication and fearless play.

Sense of Urgency. There is a high-energy level during both practice and games. Individual and team discipline is visible in the focused attention and focused effort of everyone. Details are important. Only disciplined teams have a chance to win championships.

Impact the player’s lives. Players in these programs treasure the experience so much that they carry the lessons and values over beyond the season and into their lives overall. They build successful “teams” of their own—whether it be in sports or other endeavors.

Proactive Coaching published materials designed to help define, build and empower leadership. Their resources include:

• Proactive Leadership, Empowering Team Leaders (book)

• Captains, Seven Ways to Lead Your Team (booklet)

• Captains and Coaches Workshop (DVD)

• The Impact of Trust (DVD)

For more information, visit www.proactivecoaching.info

This 12 minute video with 24 time National Champion Rugby Coach Jack Clark was posted by whatdriveswinning.com. If you go to that site, you will be able to view other similar videos with other coaches who have built highly successful Division I programs in various sports.

This video is a You Tube video, so please make sure that you are on a server that allows you to access You Tube videos.

Make sure that your sound is on, then click the play arrow to view the video.

Jack Clark on High Performing Teams

At the beginning of this video, Coach Clark discusses the “buckets” that make up the job of a coach.

Those buckets are operations, applied science, coaching, and culture.

The majority of this presentation is on building a high performing team.

 

The mindset Coach Clark instills with his Cal Rugby teams is “Grateful for everything. Entitled to nothing.” Clark feels that if we are willing to work for everything that we have, that we become more resilient.

To create a value system, you must connect your beliefs together. The system allows the team to process everything that comes before them both on and off the field in a way that is based on values. The beliefs must be complimentary and can never be contradictory.

To establish your programs’ value system, you must spend a lot of time thinking about

The Cal value system is: Selflessness, Constant Performance Improvement (not necessarily improving results), Merit, Toughness, Leadership

Mike Neighbors University of Arkansas Women’s Head Coach. These are just some random notes that I have taken at various clinics, coaching conversations, and other random talks with colleagues.

Short poem on the way today’s athletes view the world. That is not to say that we give in, but that it is important to understand who we are coaching.

MY COACH IN MY WORLD
Pamper me, and I will not respect YOU.
Manipulate me, and I will resist YOU.
Intimidate me, and I will reject YOU.
Humiliate me, and I will despise YOU.

Prepare me, and I will trust YOU.
Care for me, and I will love YOU.
Guide me, and I will follow YOU.
Be an example for me, and I will be like YOU.

from Robert L. Kehoe, JR
“Winning Ways”

These are from Bob Wilson at the Vanguard University Coaches Summit:

Intentional teaching: everything you do should be intentional. Not reactionary. Teaching should have a purpose and a plan.

When you go to clinics:

1) Adopt it– hear something you like
2) Adapt it- make it your own and fit your program
3) Adept at it- get good at it

Sidewalks to Sideline to Significance: Teaching goes from their playing days, to their careers, to passing it on to others

Does your program reflect character? Does it perpetuate character?

“locked in” is the highest form of “buy-in” “credibility” is usually the missing ingredient when teams don’t have buy-in or locked-in with their coaches… What are you doing to insure credibility? If you don’t have it, why? If you can’t figure it out, just ask team, they won’t hold back!!!!

Recommended reading “Fall to Grace” … Dave Bliss story

4 Good Questions Every Coach Must have an answer for;
1) Why do I coach?
2) Why do I coach the way I do?
3) What does it feel like to be coached by me?
4) How do we define success?

“It’s only important when it’s important” best teams don’t focus on things ONLY when they are important (urgent) The important things are ALWAYS important.

W=What’s
I= Important
N= Now

“If a player shows up with a flaw that’s on them, if they leave with one, that’s on you!!”

Russ Davis-Vanguard University Head Coach

“I can teach you or train you… The methods are very different depending on your ability to motivate yourself.” Cori Close– UCLA Head Coach

Book recommendation… How Winning Works by Robyn Benincasa

Debbie Ryan- NCAA Hall of Famer

Now works in medical philanthropy. Says unequivocally that most of men’s health issues, especially coaches, can be prevented with routine check ups and early detections. Men only go to see a doctor when a woman they love makes them or when it hurts so bad they can’t function.

The following is from a book recommended by Coach Neigbors Generation iY: Secrets to Connecting With Today’s Teens & Young Adults in the Digital Age by Tim Elmore

You can read a little inside the book by clicking the image of the book cover at the left.

Dr. Tim Elmore is Founder and President of Growing Leaders, an Atlanta-based non-profit organization created to develop emerging leaders. Generation iY is the younger Millennials, born after 1990. They have grown up with ipods, iphones, and the internet, in a world that allows for high speed, constant connection, sedentary lifestyles, pitiful relational skills, and a large dose of narcissism. (15) Elmore gives suggestions for guidance within each chapter.

A college survey reveals that many are overwhelmed with stress, some from pressures their parents put on them to succeed and others who had undue comfort and a lack of healthy pressure prior to college. They are over connected with much noise, busyness, connection, talk, volume, and speed, but many are miserable in relationship skills, emotional intelligence, patience, listening, and conflict resolution. Many have been sheltered and overprotected and are unready for life in the real world. Some overestimate their own importance and feel entitled to special treatment. They can be narcissistic, me-centered, impatient, demanding, and short-tempered, having a poor work ethic and minimal long-term commitment. They are activists and also slackers, wanting to change the world — if it can be done quickly. Waiting is very hard.

Some were raised in families where no one told them ‘no’ about anything and they feel entitled. Everybody got a
ribbon and they never had a chance to lose. They are connected mostly with each other, get most of their guidance from their peers, and model themselves after others from their own generation. But they don’t know how to relate to other generations.

How to get through to this group:\

1. They want to belong before they believe.
2. They want an experience before an explanation.
3. They want a cause before they want a course.
4. They want a guide on the side before they want a sage on the stage.
5. They want to play before they pay.
6. They want to use but not be used by others.
7. The want a transformation, not merely a touch.

In the real world success is about 25% IQ and 75% EQ (emotional intelligence).

“What an adolescent needs is an adult (parent, teacher, coach, employer, pastor, or leader) who makes appropriate demands and sets appropriate standards for them in a responsive environment of belief and concern. In short, they need adults to display a balance of two elements–they need them to be both responsive and demanding.” (66) They need a balance of autonomy — to act independently– and responsibility — to be accountable.

Some suggestions:

• Intentionally mix the generations.
• Teach practical life skills
• Provide opportunities for service.
• Give opportunity to practice maturity.
• Engage kids in actively helping others (not just voting on a web site).
• Reward the development of real skills and actual accomplishments (not just showing up).
• Set boundaries.
• Develop rituals to mark rites of passage.