Holding Players Accountable

My son is currently a senior in high school, and a wide receiver on the defending state champion football team. In an effort to repeat their success this season, well-meaning coaches and guest speakers have extolled the virtues of “holding each other accountable.” The final weeks of the regular season, they have lost two close games, both in overtime, to two very talented teams. As you can imagine, after winning all but one game last season, and remaining undefeated this season to that point, these losses have introduced new feelings of angst and doubt to the team. Doing what they believe they have been trained to do by holding each other accountable, there have been several recent instances of players pointing fingers at one another for their game-time shortcomings and failures. The linemen calling out the secondary, and the secondary pointing out the mistakes made by the linebackers, who in turn defend themselves by acknowledging their actions were the cause of decisions made by the linemen that forced them to react to the play in a certain manner.

Blaming players for game-time mistakes is folly, certainly everyone is trying their best to make the right plays during the game. Holding teammates accountable for the results of the game makes me think of the ridiculous interaction of Happy Gilmore and a fan in the Adam Sandler movie. When a fan criticizes Happy for missing a putt, Sandler’s character, exasperated, responds to the fan (before knocking him out), “True. I just couldn’t get the ball in the hole. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.”

One can’t blame the boys for “holding each other accountable” in this way. Even business professionals make the same mistake of criticizing performance results believing they are just holding their reps accountable. By calling out the obvious final losing score, however, one typically just sows seeds of resentment and trains the player (or sales rep) to avoid extending themselves for fear of making mistakes.

So here are three of my guiding principles that have helped me coach my players on the football field, and the sales floor, and hope they can help you when holding your players accountable.?

Provide Clear Expectations: “Clear is Kind. Unclear is Unkind.” -Brene Brown

and Inspect What you Expect

Don’t just yell at them to tackle, or hit quota, they know they are supposed to do that! Show them film, teach the technique, help them visualize, be specific and prescriptive, and give feedback early and often. And don’t make this punitive, partner with your player to help them reach their own goals.

Win the Battle Before the War: Focus on the actions that lead to victorious results

If you wait until the end of the quarter to point out they missed quota, or similarly, point out a player’s missed tackle that cost them the game, it’s too late. Win the game in practice and the weight room. The most effective accountability is performed during the preparation. If the effort isn’t there in week one, the results won’t be there on game day. Call out the actions that will lead to results. If you know it takes five hours a week of prospecting to yield the number of conversations, meetings, and opportunities that will lead to hitting quota, put your weekly focus there! (If you don’t know what those actions are, you are in the wrong business.)

Socialize the Good

Most successful teams have a good quarterback on the field. Coaches can only take a team so far, at some point the players on the field have to perform. It’s always helpful to have a leader on the field that sets the right example. Build up the players that are doing things right, set them up as leaders by heaping praise on them when they do something right. Always give the player the credit! This positive reinforcement yields so much more than catching people doing things wrong.