The Value of After Action Reports for Team Captains

Years ago, I read that 85+% of millionaires had a journal. That same year, I read the 6 Principles of High Performance. In that, one of the 6 high performance habits is clarity. It is essential if you want to be a great leader, to gain clarity around the most important things. One of the best practices we have for gaining clarity is reflection. In the military, one way we go about this is by conducting After-action reviews (AARs). They are a valuable tool for teams looking to improve their performance and reach their full potential. The purpose of an AAR is to reflect on what went well and what needs improvement after a task or event has been completed. This process helps teams identify areas for growth and take action to make progress.

In one of the local teams that I work with, we’ve started having team leaders lead these AARs in small groups. There are several key responsibilities for the leader of an AAR.

1. Facilitate

2. Coach

3. Encourage

4. Summarize

Firstly, it is important for the leader to facilitate conversation and reflection from each individual on the team. The leader should aim to take up no more than 20% of the conversation, allowing team members to share their own thoughts and insights. Secondly, the leader should coach the team by asking great questions that encourage critical thinking and help draw out more from each individual.

Another important responsibility for the leader is to encourage each team member. This can take many forms, such as praising team members for their efforts or offering support and guidance. It is also important for the leader to summarize the one thing that the team will do to improve their performance. This can help focus the team's efforts and ensure that they are taking concrete steps toward improvement.

In the first few weeks of implementing AARs, it can be helpful to keep things simple. One strategy is to have a coach listen in to each team's AAR, but not speak during the process. This allows the team to lead the AAR themselves and learn from their own successes and challenges. After the AAR, the coach can offer brief feedback to the leader on their performance.

It is also important to remember the why behind AARs. Reflection leads to growth, and consistently looking back and analyzing how we can improve is a habit that can lead to success in both personal and professional endeavors.

Overall, AARs are a valuable tool for team development and can help teams identify areas for growth and take action to improve their performance. By focusing on these key responsibilities and constantly communicating the importance of reflection, teams can make the most of their AARs and reach their full potential.

6 Tenets of Leadership

1. Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership

2. Leadership is Influence. Nothing more and nothing less. 

3. Self-Expression is the Essence of Leadership. 

4. Leadership is a CHOICE. 

5. Leadership is a SERVICE. 

6. Leadership is an ART. 

Ownership: 

Jocko Willink wrote a book called extreme ownership. The takeaway - take responsibility for everything that impacts you or your team’s mission. John Maxwell, another famous leadership coach in his book 21 Laws of Leadership states that “everything rises and falls on leadership.” This first tenet enforces the value of taking ownership and not passing off blame. This forces an underlying belief that “if it’s going to be - it’s up to me” which in turn requires us to reject passivity and think differently about solving problems. A great example of this is the following: 

The head coach of the Bobcats asked his assistant LB coach to teach a new defensive play. After 3 weeks, the player had still not learned it and the head coach asked the assistant why not. “Coach, he must be stupid or something. I told him every day for 3 weeks what he was doing wrong and he still keeps messing up the same thing. The head coach replied, “you must be stupid if you told him the same thing every day and expected a different outcome.” 

It is important to realize that not all things are within our control, but they are within our ‘sphere of influence’. Leaders take ownership of their own growth and development. John Maxwell himself says that we all have a ‘leadership lid’. The law of the lid states that your team or organization will never be greater than your ability to lead. So, from a scale from 1-10, if you are a 6, your team will never be more than a 6. 

All the great coaches are on the same page - great teams have great player leaders who take OWNERSHIP of influencing the team to be better every single day and are relentless in developing theirselves. 

Influence:

Leadership is influence. Nothing more. Nothing less. Influence is defined as “the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something.” So, your ability to lead is directly tied to your ability to change the behaviors of others. Here is an example: 

Johnny is the team captain of the football team that is in the middle of pre-season two-a-days. The team has a standard of sprinting in between drills and encouraging one another during drills, a standard that is not always acted on by the players. He decides to change their behavior first by doing it himself and modeling the way. This affects the behaviors of 4-5 of the other players over the course of the week. The following week, in the huddle, he starts communicating the purpose behind these standards and tells them he expects them to abide by them. This gets another 10-12 players. Finally, to get the rest of the team during the final week of pre-season, he gets some of the other team captains together, and they agree that anyone who does not uphold this standard will have 50 pushups. This decision gets the rest of the team on board. 

This example is how an influential player leveraged a number of sources of influence to change behavior that the team believed would make them more successful in the long term. One framework that is very useful to understand this better is from Joseph Grenny of Vital Smarts who identified 6 primary sources of influence. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHHIPNKKuXM&t=194s

There are a thousand ways to influence and you need to have the wisdom to know what is necessary in the current situation. Ultimately, understand your strengths and leverage those skills and knowledge to build an environment of high-performance. 

Self-Expression

Warren Bennis wrote in his book titled “On Becoming a Leader” that self-expression is the essence of leadership. Self-expression is self-knowledge of who you are, what you want, what your strengths and weaknesses are, skills and talents, how to employ them properly, and know how to communicate them to others in a way that connects with them. A process far easier said than done. The key is awareness - of both yourself and the way the world works. There are two ways to obtain this:  

1. Reflection 

2. Experience

True understanding comes from reflecting on your experience, and the three exercises are useful in this process: 

1. Journaling

2. Mentorship

3. Masterminds

Ultimately, the goal should not to become a leader. The goal should be to understand ourselves. The best leaders do not set out to lead but to express themselves fully and freely in the pursuit of something meaningful to them and others. The difference is important as it is the difference between being driven, and seeking power, as too many people do today, and leading, as few people do. The better we understand ourselves and have clarity to our calling in life, the more influential we can be. 

Choice 

Leadership is a choice. We all have the ability to lead. It is true that some have a higher ‘leadership lid’ than you naturally, but almost 100% of leadership is nurture. You can create yourself to be a great leader if you so choose. This is because you have: 

1. Inherent value

2. Unique and learned skills or talents

3. The ability to learn

Science has shown that every single person in the world tries to influence at least 6 people every day. So, regardless if you know it or not, you are trying to influence every day. 

Regardless if you are named the manager of an organization or a team captain of a sports team, you make hundreds of decisions per day that is influencing others around you for better or for worse. Those that are intentional about these choices prioritize team over self over the course of time will almost always be seen and recognized formally as a leader of their team. 

Service  

“The servant-leader is servant first, it begins with a natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first, as opposed to, wanting power, influence, fame, or wealth.” - Robert Greenleaf

As noted earlier, the right motivations exist in the greatest of leaders. Leadership is about serving others and a larger purpose that is bigger than you. A hierarchy of value has to exist: 

1. The team/organization

2. Your teammates

3. You

Any other hierarchy won’t work well. When done right, it is difficult but rewarding. It required an immense amount of energy and time that others are not willing to give and to do things that others are not willing to do. For example, as a captain or manager, you have to get outside of your comfort zone almost ALL of the time. This looks like having the courage to have crucial conversations and hold others accountable. Be the first one to arrive and the last one to leave. Literally give energy out to others through encouragement and communication. 

What is amazing, though, is that the law of the boomerang exists where the more you give, the more you ultimately get in return. The journey of leadership is hard but rewarding in the end. 

Art

Leadership is an art. You and virtually every situation or person you come across is UNIQUE. Just like art, it can be hard to explain but it can easily demonstrated. Just like you a piece of art. When you are in front of a great piece of art, you can FEEL it. 

My reason for putting this as the last tenet is that there are hundreds of theories of leadership that have been authored. There are certain principles that we can take as a way to learn how to improve our leadership (such as these tenets), but ultimately, there is no magic style of leadership. Just look at some of the different coaches and managers below and think about how different they are from each other: 

1. Bellichick vs PJ Fleck

2. Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates

3. Tony Dungy vs Mike Ditka

4. Phil Knight vs Brad Stevens

Leadership to an extraordinary degree is a performance art. It is as much about the objective decisions that you make as it is about the emotions, feelings, and inspiration that you provide to others. And it is this that is the art, something that is hard to teach and only something that you can exert through your ability and willingness to express yourself fully.

Developing Dynasties: How to Develop Vocal Leaders and Why it Matters

BLUF: Part of your role as a coach is to help every one of your players find their voices to bring more energy to your team and help your players undertake psychological transformation. 

We are going through a series titled breaking free at our church right now. Probably one of the top 3 series of importance that I have listened to in my life. This series emphasizes that many of us are deceived by lies that are holding us back from the life God offers us, and it is essential for us to identify and use God's truth to break free from those lies. 

Jordan Peterson says that we "act out what we believe," and I tend to agree with that. If we believe things that are not true, we will make decisions that are not in our own best interest. A well-documented sociopsychological phenomenon known as a self-fulfilling prophecy points to this being true. It states that when someone expects or predicts something, it will come true because their resulting behavior, subconsciously, aligns to fulfill that belief. 

In my experience as a sports leadership coach, I see this play out all the time in the athletes and teams that I work with, especially when it comes to being a "vocal" team leader. Many athletes (myself included) grow up only believing that their one skill to use to influence others (leadership) is to outwork others and "lead by example". They believe this to be true and so they will, just like the self-fulfilling prophecy points to, only enact behaviors in line with that belief. 

This matters because ALL THE RESEARCH points to us developing new skills by actually working on that skill. If we want to transform and improve ourselves, we have to move into and through the zone of discomfort. And that zone is messy, and it is ugly! 

Unfortunately, in my past experiences, I have seen athletes take the plunge into this zone only to be kicked back by their teammates. A metaphorical punch right in the gut right after they try to take actions to become more vocal and given feedback such as: 

• "You are trying to do too much."

• "Just be yourself, man. Don't try to be something that you're not."

All lies. Lies spoke by those closest to them that push them back into their comfort zone and hold them captive from reaching who they have the potential to be. 

Your team needs to be aware of the role they help to play in this transformation. Everyone should be on the same page on how to react during the 'ugliness' that is the zone of discomfort as someone is striving to improve in this skill set. This athlete needs to be seen by the team as someone who cares so much about their team that they are willing to get outside of their comfort zone and be vulnerable to serve their team. Regardless of how good they are to start, that action and the heart behind that action, need to be encouraged and celebrated. Feedback should be given but in a loving way, usually after the fact in retrospect and 1:1 as often as possible. During that pregame speech, though, when a player fumbles over a word or whose rhythm is off, the team should encourage, not laugh. We want them to see what is happening inside that player and how beautiful it is when someone faces their monsters to serve the team. 

So, here is how you as a coach can develop more vocal leaders on your team: 

1. Philosophy

   1. Communicate the three WHYs

2. Instruction

   1. Alignment of perception

   2. Role clarity

3. Practice

   1. Provide honest feedback

   2. Force them to speak more in public

   3. Root Cause

Philosophy (The WHY)

There are three "why's" you want to communicate to your team to help align everyone with this process: 

1. The Principle of Energy

2. Team significance

3. Individual significance

The principle of energy: Energy is one of the precursors for high performance. Brendon Burchard has this as one of his six high-performing habits. Nothing is done without energy. The individuals and teams who are aware, intentional, and able to manage energy have a competitive advantage. 

Team significance: As we speak, we push energy into the world. The environment that a team creates HAS to optimize for energy. Everyone should be encouraged and expected to communicate with each other verbally. The bottom line is that developing confidence in each of your players to use their voice to better themselves and the team is necessary for the team to be the best version of themselves. 

Individual significance: If we want our team to be better, we also need to ensure that each player focuses on helping improve one another at the personal level. Your hope as a coach is that every player that comes through your program should transform themselves. I would say that 90% of players who have a hard time speaking in front of their teammates due so because of a lack of confidence. It would help if you communicated to your team that by developing their voice, they are going through the zone of discomfort, which is helping them go through a psychological transformation. Something necessary for them to grow and improve. 

Instructions

Alignment of perception: After you have explained the whys to your team, you now need to provide instruction on how to align everyone's perception. Explain to them what is happening when players move into this zone of discomfort. The team needs to all view this in the same way. The player cares so much about their team that they are willing to be vulnerable and fail to give the team what it so desperately needs: energy. 

Clarity on roles: Once you explain this to your team, you need to provide expectations for how your team and the individual players play a role in this process. The team should do the following: 

1. Encourage them through successes

2. Encourage them through failure

3. Provide feedback behind the scenes and in a loving way

The role of the players is for them to take the actions necessary to overcome this psychological barrier to develop their voice: 

1. Be vulnerable enough to go into the zone of discomfort

2. Take ownership of your self-talk and be gracious with yourself

3. Be coachable

4. Prepare

Practice 

Here are a few examples for you to get your players to speak up more during practices and games: 

1. Have them lead team meetings

2. Have them conduct pregame speeches

3. Do multiple breakdowns throughout practice that they lead

4. Just bring them in front of the team and have them yell as loud as they can

5. Give them a certain number of verbal encouragements that they need to give each practice and game

In summary, this is why helping your athletes find their voices matters. It matters for the players and the team. EVERY PLAYER SHOULD DEVELOP THEIR VOICE ON YOUR TEAM. When they leave your program, they should communicate clearly, confidently, and with a purpose habitually. 

Developing Dynasties: Evaluations

“Start with the end in mind.” As I think about where to start in my journey as a first year football coach, this is a quote that guides me well. There are so many different topics to discuss and tactics to debate that I had a hard time determining what to prioritize. I think the first conversation to have is around:

1. What we are trying to accomplish (Mission Statement) 

2. Why it matters (5 Why exercise) 

3. How we know when we have accomplished it (Evaluation Plan) 

Team Mission Statement: The mission of the football team I am helping coach is to build great fathers and husbands. Now we enact the 5 why exercise: 

Five Why Exercise: 

1. Why? Because sports is just a vehicle for driving us towards what we really need which is a community of responsible and competent men to lead their families in our communities. 

2. Why? Because we need these men to serve in only the ways they can to help protect, provide, and be productive so that we can continue to grow and be prosperous. 

3. etc…

Evaluation Plan: So, how do we know if we are meeting this mission statement or not? Do we do a survey 10 years from now? I think that we look at the characteristics of what makes great husbands and fathers and try to evaluate that in the here and now. Our football team has 4 culture values and 9 inequalities: 

Values: 

1. Communication: We communicate clearly, confidently, and with a purpose. 

2. Honor: We value others greatly and hold them in high esteem. 

3. Integrity: We do what we say we are going to do. 

4. Perseverance: When things get hard, we push through. 

Inequalities: 

1. Gratitude > Grumbling

2. Growth > Comfort 

3. Process > Result

4. Conviction > Emotion

5. Passion > Passivity

6. Toughness > Talent

7. Victor > Victim

8. Love > Fear

9. You > Me 

Our belief is that our mission will be fulfilled if we can guide and mold our players to meet these values and inequalities. So, how do we measure these? First, a quick crash course in culture…

According to Edgar Schein, there are 3 elements to culture: assumptions, values, and observable artifacts. What this means is that the things we believe or assume about the world ultimately drive our very reality. Jordan Peterson once said that “you act out what you believe”. Our values and beliefs about the world ultimately determine how we behave and the decisions that we make which are OBSERVABLE. So, our goal is to try to connect certain values and decisions to the value and then find a way that we can measure it. 

Value #1: Communication

Behavior

Verbal: # of “uhms” 

Verbal: # of conversations deemed “Unconfident”

Verbal: # of times we practice active listening

Non-Verbal: # of times there is no eye-contact during communication

Non-Verbal: # of times hands on hips 

This is the evaluation of how we will determine if we truly value effective communication or not but there is also another element which is how we help train them to be better communicators as well. What we plan to do this year is to: 

1. Have them reflect consistently through surveys and journaling

2. Have them get up in front of others to teach 

3. Conduct pre-game speeches 

4. Conduct 3 training sessions on effective communication from John Maxwell 

5. 1 other training on organized thinking such as logic 

Value #2: Honor

Behavior

Non-verbal communication: # of times eye contact does not exist between parties

# of times an upper-classman serves an underclassman

Quality of difficult conversations

# of times we uplift one another with words of affirmation

# of times someone takes extreme ownership and accepts blame

Value #3: Integrity

Behavior

# of violations of the contract

Value #4: Perseverance

Behavior

An assortment of 4th Quarter statistics in season 

Non-verbal: sitting or laying down after conditioning 

Non-verbal: Hands on hips or bending over after conditioning

HR monitors during workout sessions

Bench noise when falling behind in a game

Number of times a player is willing to have a crucial conversation to hold a teammate accountable to team rules

We do the same things for the inequalities and then come up with a score that we determine before the season that will point to us both objectively improving our culture and also meeting our mission statement.

Your Culture Is Not What You Say It Is

Your culture is not what you say it is.

“It is not what is on your walls, it is what is in your halls.” - John Maxwell

BLUF: Your team culture is not what you say it is. Culture is a combination of the behaviors that your employees enact and what they allow from one another. Your culture is shaped and influenced by the leadership but, ultimately, it is driven by the employees and what happens in the company day to day. 

Competitive advantage is a condition or circumstance that puts a company in a favorable strategic position. Over the last 10-15 years, culture has become a buzzword that every CEO or coach is trying to wrap their heads around. As every good company is beginning to focus on implementation of culture, it is no longer a competitive advantage; it has turned into a requirement. It is now a matter of keeping up with the Joneses (or Amazonians). We know culture matters and, when done properly, works. It matters significantly how a company defines its culture. However, it’s only the first step of many to come that creates the culture you envision and need. So, how do you implement culture effectively in your organization? Having a good answer to this question will help you to transform what is possible in your organization and allow for a common “frontal lobe” for all employees to help them in their daily decision-making processes. This article will help you gain clarity on this topic of culture and will list out 6 of the biggest pitfalls to watch out for while implementing your culture values in your organization. 

Pitfall #1: Failing to understand the time and resources it takes 

            Many companies and teams think that just having the conversation about culture and then pushing those core values out to their employees will allow them to check the box on this topic. Culture implementation is a difficult process. Research shows that, depending on how large your company is, it could take anywhere from 3-5 years to take root. You are literally trying to: 

 (1) Provide a new narrative to your employees which will shape beliefs 

 (2) Re-prioritize the values that people in your organization hold

 (3) Intentionally craft an environment that supports these values and manifests itself in all aspects of the company (known as: observable artifacts)

This is a transformational process which does not happen overnight. We can speed this up by thinking differently about our approach and implementing all 6 sources of influence, but this does take some time and resources to do well. 

Pitfall #2: Failing to identify the true influencers in their company

In 1896, Vilfredo Pareto was the first to discover and write on the 80/20 principle. He observed that, in many areas of life, 20% of the causes produced 80% of the effect. For instance, In Italy at the time, 80% of the land was held by 20% of the people. In my leadership company, we’ve found that in many organizations this holds true with influence. Within every team or group, 20% of the people are exerting 80% of the influence. As culture has been the buzzword for the last 15 years, influence will be the buzzword for the next 15. It is everything. Influence is the “capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something.”(Dictionary.com) Behavior is a key word for culture because it is the end result of the culture process and is what is manifested from the beliefs and values. It is important that you recognize that, just as there are high-performers for the bottom-line in the organization there are people in your organization who are culture high-performers as well. They are tough to recognize because we as executives and managers don’t measure this but the following are three characteristics of them:

1. When they speak, people listen

2. People are always around them

3. They are courageous enough to have crucial conversations, ie: hold people accountable in a way that others are appreciative of

Just like in sports - the best players are not always best suited to be the team captains. Many coaches will make this mistake because they fail to determine the difference between influence, which is many times very intangible,  and bottom-line producers. Culture is about shared assumptions and values that drive behavior. One of the biggest influences on behavior is social pressure. Target your main influencers in the company to develop them more to allow them to exert the positive influence you want them to be in your company culture. 

Pitfall #3: Believing that Powerpoint > Environment

“Many communicate - few connect.” - John Maxwell

Lewin’s equation states that behavior is a function of person in their environment. It is crucial to understand the power that environment and experience play when it comes to the development of an individual. Many organizations think that giving new employees a printout or powerpoint session twice a year are enough. Although these play a role and are one singular source of influence, they are not enough to drive behavior change. The Heath brothers wrote a book called “The Power of Moments”. In it, they describe the four characteristics of a defining moment for an individual: elevation, pride, insight, and connection. We as leaders want to leverage this understanding to craft experiences that drive home certain values for the re-prioritizing or new belief to take hold in individuals. Lecture plays a role but is not as impactful. When it comes to culture implementation, learning and development should play a major role and it should think differently about its approach to more deeply and quickly acclimate the people in our organization into our culture. The following are a few things to remember when it comes to learning and development: 

• We write to think and teach to learn.

• You hear,you forget. You see, you remember. You do, you understand. 

• Reflection leads to questions which lead to growth.

Note: If you ask an employee what the core values of your company are and they do not know them, how do you expect them to live those out or be using them in their daily decisions? 

Pitfall #4: Failing to measure culture 

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” - Peter Drucker

Many teams that I work with have no way or idea on how they can measure the culture in their organization. For every single one of them, it has come down to a “feel”. And feelings will only get you so far in our world of data in 2019. Sticking with our feelings plays right into the multiple biases that we fall prey to such as hindsight, outcome, and confirmation biases. Measuring culture requires a little thinking outside of the box but you need to give it your best shot. The trick is to focus on behaviors since they are specific, measurable, and observable. I start by looking at our company values and breaking down each into specific behaviors that represent these values. Then, create assessment criteria that allows for you to bring data and metrics to into your decision-making process in regard to company culture. 

Pitfall #5: Choosing Outcomes over Values

            Gather the leadership team around. Draw two columns on a white board. On the left, put your core values, and on the right, put your outcome goals as a company. Talk honestly amongst the team and see if you would be willing to sacrifice any one of your values on the board to reach any of the goals listed. If you are willing to sacrifice any of the values for that outcome, then they are not really your core values. For example, let’s say you are a college football coach who has three core values for your program: honor, integrity, and commitment. Each of these have specific behaviors that align with these values. Let’s say there is one play left for the national championship which is your dream goal. If that coach would be willing to cheat, just one time, with no one finding out to win a national championship then integrity is not one of the program’s core values. This is an important distinction. We have no control over the past or the future. Only the present. An unwavering commitment to your core values every single day and in each decision will allow you to lead a “process” (100% effort and focus on the present moment) that will lead to long-term success and sustainability.  This is because your company character drives the process which drives your results. In other words - who you are as a company will drive what you do and these behaviors add up to certain results. Find what you really believe in and stick with them and they will carry you much further than ever dreamed.  

Pitfall #6: Believing that high-performers > Culture Fits 

            Recruiting is a big deal when it comes to company growth and success. Most understand this but have a hard time implementing it. They see the perfect technical expert in their field and can’t help but lunge out and snag them. Remember that it is much harder to develop a person’s value system than it is to teach them certain technical skill sets. You want to look for both competence and character in your hires but if you were to err, err on the side of a culture fit and not a technical fit. 

Conclusion

            Creating a solid culture is one of the best things you can do for your organization and the people within it. Remember that it’s about the environment that you create. You must exert intentional influence on your organization and continuously strive to bring order to chaos. An emphasis on culture won’t fix every single problem but it is certainly in the 20% that exerts 80% of the overall influence within your organization. Develop the frontal lobe of your company and make it easier for people to behave in the right way for the benefit of themselves, their coworkers, stakeholders and shareholders. 

Why you should select team captains

What is the purpose of sport?

I interviewed Jack Clark a few months ago. Coach Clark is arguably the most famous rugby coach in America with more than 25 national championships under his belt. During our interview, he really disagreed with our premise on captains and believed we shouldn’t put much of an emphasis on them. In his words, he felt that “leadership was being hijacked” by placing such emphasis on this position. Many other coaches are starting to move away from the captaincy position. Many for good reasons. It has been a major pain point for most coaches who have decided to select captains to help influence and lead their teams. The following are some of the biggest reasons why coaches do not select team captains:

1. “I don’t want anyone feeling as if they are special or above others.” - Mike Leech

2. “I want everyone to be leaders on my team. You want to empower everyone to add leadership in their own authentic way.” - Brad Stevens

3. “I do not want anyone to feel slighted, and thus, provide less effort than they should in the leadership role that they could play” - Coach

4. “Sometimes I think that giving a title makes them act differently. It takes away the good qualities that they had in the first place.” - Coach

The very first thing I wrote in this piece is a question that should always be on the forefront of your mind as a coach. It will lead to certain values that will direct your decision making for lasting impact. It is something that I want you to think about as we think through these statements and issues that these coaches are making. For me, sports is a vehicle that provides real experiences in which we can learn about ourselves and about life and a way in which we can improve ourselves.

Many of you have probably had similar statements or stories related to these issues within your past coaching experiences. However, I want to examine each of these and point out where there might be some root issues in rationality based off of our understanding of leadership and influence. Firstly, Mike Leech was having some real pains with this position. After he had to kick one of his captains off the team, he said enough was enough. He decided he would have no captains and that the luckiest player on his team would go on the field for the coin toss (Which is the only responsibility that most coaches give to their captains by the way). One of the issues with the statement that he made, noted in point 1, is that you should be teaching the athletes that take these positions not to feel that way. One reason providing the captaincy experience is so important is because it provides a real leadership position that, when done correctly, can teach you that leadership is about service. If they don’t learn this now, then when will they? Probably when they take a real leadership position in the world as a manager or CEO and then do a terrible job leading their employees. This statement shows me that his program is not engaging, teaching, or influencing players properly in their development of future leaders. If you are not doing that, then what are you doing?

Secondly, Brad Stevens mentions a point that is becoming more and more popular in the sports world. Brad Stevens is my favorite coach. But, I think that taking this view, especially in college and below is not entirely accurate. Here is why: The selection of captains does not mean that others should or do not have leadership roles. In fact, if you are selecting captains, and you are promoting the idea that only they have the power to speak or influence, your team dynamic will fail. It does not have to be either way with this.

The third point is a real worry that I have seen play out many times. Let’s say that you have 8 great seniors that all have done the right thing over the last four years. That can be a difficult position to be in because all of them have some legitimate right to the captaincy position. Many times this situation come lead to failure in the team dynamic if you can only select 2-3 and leave the other 5-6 in a position where they might feel slighted. Although difficult as it can be, my thoughts on this are that this experience provides you with the perfect test to see where your athletes hearts are. If they want the captaincy so bad that they are willing to put in less effort towards the team if they are not picked, you have more things to worry about. It means that they are not all bought in to the team. It is also amazing what simple communication can do for this problem. 90 percent of this issue can be solved by just speaking to these players who you feel might feel slighted. Talk with them and continue to try and develop them.

The final point that influence many to not pick captains is one of the worst reasons. It goes back to the purpose of sports. If they do not learn leadership now, when will they? If this is a problem that you seem to be having, then you are not systematically developing, teaching and providing feedback in a way that is helping them understand what leadership is supposed to be. The onus falls on you as the coach to make sure that when your athletes leave your organization that they will understand key principles in life that will help them to live more fulfilled lives and improve the communities that they are in. If they

The following are three natural tendencies that should be understood in relation to the captaincy position:

1. Bystander Effect

   1. The bystander effect is a social phenomenon where people are less likely to help others or to stop something they believe to be wrong because they think that the people around them will do it. The reason I feel that this phenomenon is important to note is because it happens quite frequently within teams. Selecting a captain provides a structural influence in your program that also acts as a social influence and puts a certain amount of ownership at least on one person who should never be constrained by this effect. Now, the goal is, of course, for all of your athletes on the team to feel empowered to say something. However, this is something that comes in time as you and your captains influence the culture of the team to empower the rest of the athletes to speak out and act.

2. Pareto’s Principle

   1. This is another phenomenon that states that 20 percent of your input leads to 20 percent of your output. For example, 20 percent of the employees do 80 percent of the work, 80 percent of the world’s wealth is in 20 percent of the people. This is also true when it comes to teams and those who influence inside of it. 20 percent of your athletes do 80 percent of the influencing. This is a vital thing to understand. Regardless of your thoughts, it is basically fact that, if you have 20 players, 2-4 of your athletes are doing a majority of the influencing. This influencing is either positive or negative. So, it is critical that you get these top influencers on your team to influence positively. Providing the titles to these athletes are a way to place an emphasis on their roles on the team.

3. 10-80-10 Rule

   1. This is something that organizational psychology has found to be true. In any organization, there are the top 10 percent who are your go-getters and leaders, 80 percent who go with the flow, and the bottom 10 percent who are negative and poor performers. There is always a battle that is happening between the top 10 and bottom 10 percent for the middle 80. What you need to understand is that your top ten percenters need help in winning over the middle 80 before your bottom ten percenters can influence them to their level.  

4. Law of influence

   1. What is even more important to realize in this is that science says you can only directly influence 8 people. Many coaches want to say that they believe in wanting everyone to be a leader on their team. The truth is that all of them already are. Especially if you understand that leadership is influence which science also says that we try to influence at least 5-6 people every day. Leadership is a toolbox and every athlete on your team has certain tools (skills) that they can leverage to influence themselves and others. We all want each one of the to be the best person and leader they can be. However, it is importnat to realize that you can only DIRECTLY influence 8 people. It is important who you decide to pour into. You can’t do it all. But, what you can do is pour into the right people, your top influencers, so that they in turn can help you to create a culture and environment where an even greater influence can be exerted to create great leadership within the rest of your team. It is the rule that John Maxwell calls explosive growth - to multiply lead leaders.  

It is important that you understand a few things about culture. It all starts with you, but understand that your culture is what you allow. Not just what you allow but those in your team when you are not around. The athletes on the team will be the ones that really carry out the culture of your team. The most influential on your team (hopefully your captains) will be the ones whom your culture rests as they will be the ones that truly influence the rest of your team.

Understand the 6 aspects of influence. You focus on creating the reight environment, the social aspect will be taken care of by these athletes.

In conclusion, what is most important is to understand and have clarity on as a coach is what you see as the purpose of sport. For me, providing a captaincy experience is one of the most important things you can do for your team as experiences is how we truly grow and learn. Titles and power are something that these young athletes need to learn how to manage. If they don’t learn it now, then they will learn through failure when it really matters. There are great teams that do not pick captains and great teams that do. Most of the issues and concerns are presented when it comes to this argument are due to the fact that we as coaches are not managing this experience correctly!! We have to take ownership of this. You cannot have an athlete in your program for four years, never discuss leadership with them, reward your best player on the field with the title and expect great things to happen. This requires great thought and systematic development that should start when they first walk into your program. Stop leaving your biggest competitive advantage up to luck. Providing this leadership experience to certain athletes does not hijack leadership for your program. The only ones I see hijacking leadership at this point in time are coaches and parents who refuse to let go of control.

If you are interested in learning how to better systematically develop your leaders and provide the right opportunities for your team captains to grow in their leadership check out our new workbook for team captains: The Captain’s Playbook

Team Captains: How to Initiate and Lead Team Meetings

At The Captain's’ Coach. We believe that games and championships are won outside of the playing field. The game is far bigger than the X’s and O’s of the game. The discussions, ideas, strategies, cohesion, and events that happen off the field are crucial to influencing what happens on it.  This is one reason why I feel that it is important for team captains to lead their own meetings with some influential members of the team. It is something that should happen systematically in your program and the coach should have no real say in it other than helping develop the team captains to be able to run them effectively.

When I was in high school. Our baseball team was the number 1 team in the state. We were a public high school and had 13 D1 athletes on the team. It was going to be our year to win state. I was not much of a leader, but I cared so much about the team and was willing to do whatever it took to make sure we won. So, before the season started, I called a meeting with about 7-8 of our most influential players at Buffalo Wild Wings. It did not go very well at all. First off, I had it at Buffalo Wild Wings, so 99% of our time consisted of us just watching sports, eating, and goofing off. I had never really led anything before, for the most part, and running a meeting was certainly not one of the tasks I had ever done before. Although I had good ideas, I didn’t know how to start it or what to say. The intent was to figure out how we were going to lead our team this year and figure out who was going to be in charge of what. We had a lot of seniors that year and I had a feeling that we needed to figure some things out before the season so that it did not become a problem (power struggle). Regardless to say, about 5 minutes before we were about to leave someone asked me what we were going to talk about and I just kind of froze. It was about 10 years ago so it is hard to remember all of the details but I remember questioning myself on if what I was doing was right and asking myself what right I had to force anything to happen for the leadership of the team. Our team had all of the talent in the world. Yet, there was something missing. That missing link was me as the captain of the team and my inability to do what was necessary.

I think these meetings are vital for a team captain to be able to initiate and lead effectively. It can be difficult to do if you have never done something like this before. So, I have taken some time to walk you through some of the things that you should be thinking about when initiating the first meeting as a team captain. Every situation, team, and leader is different. You will have to utilize your wisdom to know how to go about it the right way. Let me start by discussing why these meetings matter…

Firstly, it shows a lot about the buy-in on a team, when you have select individuals who are willing to take the time and effort to try and problem-solve current issues and foresee and navigate through potential ones. Leading meetings amongst your peers can be a daunting tasks. We believe that your willingness to be vulnerable is directly related to how much buy-in you have within the team and its mission.

Secondly, this is an excellent experience to go through as a leader. It is not easy to present, communicate, and maybe even argue certain points. It takes a lot of skill and wisdom to navigate through. The more you do it, the better you will get, and it is a very useful skill to have.

Thirdly, many captains and athletes will skimp their duties and make excuses for why they aren’t reaching their goals but real leaders get outside of their comfort zone and collaborate with their teams.

There are three main steps to initiating the meeting: the planning phase, the execution phase, and the review phase. Each one brings with it different questions and issues.

Planning

The first question is what is the purpose of the meeting?

• What is the one question/ issue that you want to have solved by the end of the meeting.

  • It is vital that you have this answer and figure out if it requires a meeting or not.

  • There are not much worse things than a 2 hour meeting that was a waste of everyone’s time and nothing gets accomplished.

Who all do you want to have there?

• Too many people can be inefficient, too few and you might not get the true feel or opinion from the team.

• If you are initiating the very first athlete-led team meeting I suggest that you keep it between 3-5 people.

• What happens when others hear about it?

  • Will it affect relationships on the team if they were not invited?

• Should you influence someone else who is more influential than you to initiate it?

  • Some individuals at a young age find their calling to lead. However, stepping on the feet of the current senior leaders can be a mistake. If you feel it needs to be done, it might be wise to influence another one of the leaders of the team so that you can both run it together. You certainly want to have someone on your side going into the meeting.

Where should it be at?

• The location of the meeting is very influential to communicating what type of feel the meeting will have. If you want a serious one, find a classroom with a whiteboard. If you want a more relaxed setting, go to a restaurant or someone else's house.

When should it take place?

• It can take place in-season, pre-season, before or after practice, after a win or loss. I would recommend that you do not hold meetings only after things are going poorly for your team. It should be consistent regardless if you are winning or losing. If you are losing, then there is great reason to have it. When you are winning, it is just as important because, as a team, you are just as vulnerable at both the highs and the lows.

How long will it be at a minimum?

• This will depend on what you want to hit. Your initial meeting will set the stage for future ones. You should always try to keep it shorter rather than longer. It will all depend on what your situation is but your goal should be to make it productive. Keep going until you have lost that.

What are the questions that you want the group to try and problem-solve together?

• Depending on the situation, I recommend focusing on 1-3 main questions or problems that you want to solve. If you have a whiteboard, write the question on there and it should help keep you on track as the collaboration goes haywire.

What resources do you need?

• Do you need a white-board? Pen and paper?

Do you send out all of the information and expectations beforehand? Along with the questions?

• If you are having meetings consistently with the leaders on your team, I would say that each meeting’s agenda should be sent out ahead of time so that people can begin to think on their answers and be able to defend their positions and thoughts they have on the issue.

What are some of the things that could go wrong from having this meeting?

• Try to think about what bad things could happen from initiating the meeting? Project some sort of risk assessment by understanding your audience. Do the other leaders on your team have big egos? Get angry and slighted easily? Are they petty? Do they hold grudges? Utilizing the questions you are going to ask, try to foresee how the conversation might go and where it could possibly turn for the worst.

Execution

There is a high percentage that the meeting will go to an entirely different place than what the intent is. More questions will pop up, more problems, etc…

• What is your plan when this happens? Will you just let it happen and see where it goes? For how long should you stay off topic?

What can you do to stop it from getting emotional? Is it possible that the meeting to get emotional (pride, anger?)

How is the meeting going to end?

• Will it be an awkward ending?

• Try to summarize what the consensus has been on the points of discussion.

Review

At the end, you could have a formal after action report. This is where you go around the room and ask for feedback on how the event went. 3 sustainments and 3 improvements need to be made.

If you don’t feel like its appropriate then just reflect on it yourself and figure out what went well, what went poorly, and why.

How to give a pre-game speech

The pre-game speech is all about energy. Energy is critical for a team to stay united, to perform at peak levels, and to defeat an opposing team. What you are essentially doing during the pre-game speech is infusing energy into your team. It is Newton’s first law of thermodynamics in motion. The language that you use, and the way that you present it to your team, has the power to literally heighten their energy, focus, and performance. The following are seven tips that will help you prepare and think differently about your approach to this aspect of the game.

Tip # 1:

The pre-game speech is necessary. Emotional and mental control is key to victories. To be clear, emotional control does not mean less emotion. “The calm before the storm” cliche that some teams use is a copout for about 95% of teams out there. Your job as the coach is to bring out their best. Language is powerful and directly connected with feeling, meaning, purpose. Language is POWERFUL. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis suggests that our language literally affects a speakers world-view and cognition. The right words said the right way can infuse individuals with motivation, and energy to wake your team out of its slumber.

Tip #2

Pre-game speeches are an art. A theatrical performance. Rhythm, tempo, inflection... it all matters.

Tip #3

You have to connect. Remember that it’s not about you, you have to have other-consciousness to connect with others. Be in the room, look your team in the eyes, feel the emotion, power, energy that is created in moments like this and if you are only centered on yourself such as on your fear and insecurities, you are going to miss the true power that a speech can give.

Tip #4

Incorporate the team. Don’t be the pastor...people want to be a part of something, the goal is to get everyone else on the rhythm that you are on. Find your voice, say your part, and then get them involved in your rallying cry.

Tip #5

The fifth tip...don’t copy it. Make it an original. This is not a law but highly recommended. If people have heard it before it loses its effect and power. You definitely do not want to repeat speeches game after game unless it is some sort of a tradition that your team does.

Tip #6

The sixth tip...only certain people should give it. Make sure you are one of those people. If the team doesn’t respect you or what you have to say then spare yourself and the team the painful and embarrassing experience.

Tip #7

The seventh tip...practice, practice, practice and have a plan. Being a great speaker takes time  but being able to give a great pre-game speech is a very difficult skill to master. When I gave my pre-game speeches, I practices every single day leading up to the game. I was a terrible public speaker and would frequently blank on everything that I wanted to say. I created a ratio of 10:2. I practiced and memorized ten things I wanted to say so that I could always communicate at least two things to the team during my speech.

Check out our Book

Want to learn more? Check out our new book called The Captain’s Playbook to learn how to be the best leader you can be for your team. Watch the video below for a much more detailed breakdown of an actual pre-game speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q3rRGOH_Ac&t=566s