Who Is Challenging You?
As a head coach, I wanted to challenge my team to be great every day. Our practices were intense, efficient and fun - if you were a true competitor. I instilled the idea that practice was the most important thing we did as a team, and hammered our guys constantly about being mentally prepared - for practice. You could no longer just show up and be the best player like you did in high school. To compete at an elite level every day, you had to be mentally prepared.
I knew to challenge my guys I had to be at my best. They needed to see consistency from me in the way I was prepared, the energy I brought and the message they heard. If you do this, you tend to attract the players who are great competitors and who are hungry to get better. I’ve always said I’ll put the way we practiced at RIC and (eventually) at Maine up against any practices at any level in the country.
Everyone has off days - even the head coach. You may have heard the statement that there are 3 people who can never have an off day - your best player, your point guard and the head coach. While I love the thought, it’s not practical. Everybody has a day here and there where they just aren’t feeling great or didn’t bring the same energy.
What’s important as a head coach is to make sure you have somebody who is challenging you. Too many teams (and organizations) are built with a top-down leadership model, where the head coach dictates how things are going to go, and the message is then enforced by the assistant coaches, the captains and the veteran players. There are a few issues I have with this model, but one of them is the question of who holds the guy at the top accountable? Who makes sure the head coach is at his best every day as he is demanding of everyone around him?
Naturally it should first come from your assistants. But that dynamic is challenging, unless you play close attention to it when you hire assistants, as well as when your organize the responsibility and approach of the staff. You have to allow them and encourage them to challenge you. If not, they’ll just fall in line as loyal soldiers. Because that’s what they think they are supposed to do. Make sure they feel comfortable and empowered to evaluate and criticize your performance as the head coach. You need them to have the guts to speak up when things are going well and you may not be at your best.
Are you comfortable doing that as the head coach? If you aren’t you won’t be consistently at your best, and neither will your team.
Just as important, and oftentimes even more effective, is allowing your players to challenge you. If you set the tone and are clear with the standards and the culture of the organization, eventually your players should start to take ownership of it. When they start to do this you have unlocked the key to sustained elite performance. When they own the approach every day, and they hold one another to that standard, it flows naturally that they can do the same for you. I’ve had many a player over the years check me as far as my approach, my tone and my messaging when things seemed a little off.
It made me a much better coach. There were plenty of times when I was preparing for a practice and maybe feeling a little sluggish that I thought about my captain, or a group of seniors, or someone else on my team who I knew would notice if I wasn’t at my best. By taking ownership and demanding the best out of each other, they were doing the same to me. There was a right way to do it, and it was always done with respect - a private conversation, a quick check-in during a water break - and those moments had a huge impact on me.
As the head coach you should always challenge your team to be great every day. But you also need to play attention to who is going to challenge you. Don’t carry yourself above the rest of the team. Walk beside them. Make sure the people surrounding you are challenging you to be great in the same way.