Trust Relieves Pressure

I heayrd a really interesting take from Joel Sherman, a long-time reporter for the New York Post, on "The Captain," Derek Jeter's documentary about his career. If you are a Yankee fan or a Jeter fan, you'll find "The Captain" interesting and fun, but it's basically just a recap of his career.

Sherman was talking about the difference between the Yankee Dynasty (1996-2000) teams that one four World Series and the teams from the next decade who had a lot of talent and struggled to win. Jeter during those years used to always say "these teams are different" without elaborating on what the difference was.

Sherman said that the Yankee Dynasty teams had built up such a level of trust that the following teams didn't seem to have. He said the trust that was built relieved a ton of individual pressure in the locker room because there was so much trust and confidence that somebody would find a way to get the job done. The individual players didn't feel as much pressure because they knew the team as a collective could handle it.

I'd never heard a take like that on trust and the collective pressure, but it makes a lot of sense. When I first started coaching championship teams that were good year in and year out, the power of our trust in one another was tangible. It sounds silly, but I felt you could just see how much we trusted each other on the court. It was a collective mentality, borne of hours and hours in the gym with the right approach. The way we played, shared the ball, covered for each other and competed every day, you could tell how much we trusted one another and our approach.

I never thought about the concept that the trust helped relieve the pressure. Now that I've heard it, it fits perfectly with those great teams I coached. There was an ease about our mentality in tight games. We were confident and never got rattled, and if you were going to get us, you had to beat us. We never really gave in to the moment.

The level of trust we had for one another relieved us of individual pressure. No one person had really felt it, because they were surrounded by people they knew the could count on. Trust made it easier for us to come through in tough spots and win big games.

I've always felt strongly about the importance of trust in your culture, ever since I became a head coach. I never connected it to our ability to perform under pressure.