Part II - The Longevity Secret After Discipline Is Focus.
Setting a goal allows for focus.
Every successful business that I know of has goals: They want to reach "X" amount of growth in this quarter of the year, they want their employees to work together for a common purpose, and / or they want to work towards a standard that either they are trying to establish if they are a new business or operate at the standard that has been a hallmark of theirs for years.
Heading into each high school season, I set internal goals of what I'd like that particular team to try to accomplish very much like a successful business would try to do. The goals are always lofty, but I feel like that is necessary in order to keep your eyes on the mark that is trying to be achieved. Anyone or any team can be average or below average because both don't require much effort. Setting the bar high allows the focus to be heightened. If the majority of the group wants to achieve that high goal, the rest of the team members have to choose whether to follow along or stick out like a sore thumb.
Before sharing that goal or those goals with the team, I spend time thinking about the things that can cause us to become distracted and thus taking away our focus from the tasks at hand and ahead. This is trying to take a proactive approach to the season instead of a reactive approach when it is too late.
What can take away our focus? What can cause a distraction? Three main distractions that I have found over the years that can cause teams to lose their focus are:
Individual Goals Taking Precedent Over Team Goals:
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having individual goals for yourself. As a matter of fact, our coaching staff sits down with each player to discuss what individual goals each one has; most of the time those meetings are before our first game. We want our players to learn how to set goals for themselves and we remind each player that if our team is successful, their individual goals usually will more than likely be achieved. If each individual player can collectively focus on the team goal, that lessens the chance that their individual goal(s) will become a distraction during the season. There have been three (3) seasons that I can specifically point to where an individual goal almost derailed our chance to achieve something special as a team. Because I had our coaching staff on alert ahead of time (go back to the proactive point above), we were able to recognize each issue early, get each team back on track and all three teams were able to reach their goal. I had to remind each of those teams that in our school trophy case there are no all-conference awards, no team MVP certificates, and no 1000 point scorers recognized; only conference, sectional, regional and state champions are celebrated in the trophy case - all TEAM achievements. On our walls in the gym have TEAM pictures of state champions. On those pictures, there aren't any notes of how points each player scored per game. Hanging in the gym is our program banner listing a TEAM accomplishment by year - there aren't any individual minutes per game beside the year we achieved something wonderful. When our players are fortunate enough to receive a championship ring, there isn't an engraving with the words "I only scored two points a game" or "I didn't get to start".
Not Understanding Roles:
Each successful business has employees that understand their job and are exceptional in their role. Underneath the boss, there is a manager, there are then the employees that typically have a talent for a certain aspect of the job and then each of those talents are hopefully complimentary of each other to make things run smoothly. There are the custodians that keep things in and around the company in order. Your job as the boss is to try to place each person in a position where they can be their best to make your business be its' best. However, again being proactive, you have to keep an eye and ear out for potential issues from someone not happy or accepting their role. It's going to happen no matter how much you prepare, but you can have a plan in place to handle it when it arises.
I'll discuss this topic in further detail in a future post, but to alleviate some potential problems, communicating expectations and roles ahead of time is important (go back to the individual meetings point above).
Not everyone in your business is going to get "paid" the same ("Paid" = Playing time, starting spots, team captains). As a coach, I believe that we are to teach life lessons to our players. I hear this all of the time from our state association, from my work with the WBCA and my work with USA Basketball. Two of those life lessons that can be taught are that 1) not everyone has the same talent and that 2) working hard does not always result in equal "pay", but not working (hard) at all typically leads to losing their job.
What do I mean by the first point? Everyone is gifted a different talent: some are better scorers, some are better defenders and some are better passers. Those with better talents get the better "jobs". Yes, you can work to improve in an area you are not as strong in and yes, you can see improvement in that area if you work hard. However, sometimes working hard at a particular skill won't overcome someone who is naturally talented at that same skill. Getting players to understand that is sometimes tough, but it has to be discussed ahead and consistently exemplified in order not to lose focus on the team goal.
What do I mean by the second point? I use the example of being a singer for a choir director. I may like to sing.... I may even love to sing, but I, personally and honestly, am not a good singer. I can take voice lessons, I can sing in the car, I can practice constantly, but if I can't sing well, I can't sing well and, personally, I don't have a singer's voice. It doesn't mean I can't join a choir and be in the background singing with the group, but when it comes to wanting to be a soloist in that choir, it is not going to happen. If I am going to get upset that I am not getting a solo, then that is going to be an issue for the choir and the director. Once I come to grips with my role in the choir it makes things better for everyone. I may not like my role, but it is the reality.
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Now if I get upset that I am not the soloist and I say "Well I just won't go to choir practice" but then the choir is going to sing in an event that I want to be a part of, it is hard for me to justify being upset at the director if he or she tells me I can't attend because I haven't been to any choir practice. I have to remember that I made the choice, voluntary or not, to attend or not. If I am not practicing, I have to know that someone is. That "someone" may not be better than me, but they have been there and the director has to do what is best for the choir especially from a chemistry and trust standpoint. Can the choir director trust me to accept my role if I haven't been around consistently? Trust meaning that you will work as hard as possible to help the team have a chance at its' goal. You can't be consistently absent from activities and then say "You can trust me to be there to help reach the goal". No boss of a strong business would go for that (life lesson).
External Noise:
I spoke at a USA Basketball Coaching Academy in Dallas and then in Chicago a few years ago. I began both speeches using the quote "All great empires fall from within". My topic for both talks was "Things That Can Destroy Your Program" and I spent a good time of that talk on external noise.
What is external noise from a coaching standpoint? My definition of external noise is: Anyone or anything that isn't part of our daily group at practice. Just like a team goal for the season, I have daily goals I want the team to achieve. Achieving a daily goal on Monday, then achieving another daily goal on Tuesday and so on and so on allows us to stack daily accomplishments in order to have a chance at a bigger goal down the road. There needs to be a singular focus each day in order to bring the bigger goal into reality. External noise can disrupt that daily singular focus if you let it (internally) get into your team. Words from family members, from "friends" or "well-wishers" from media members, from message boards, or from social media that are not in alignment with what our team is trying to achieve are examples of external noise. More often than not, you won't find any of the external noise list people or items at your practice. The external noise list just watches the games. That list usually comes with their own set of expectations and / or agendas and if those expectations and / or agendas are not met at the games, the external noise begins. The players start to get questions on why this is being done, why this isn't happening or why someone is getting something they're not. By not being at practice, the external noise list does not see what is or is not being accomplished (or not) by each player and by the team. Thus, the external noise does not have any idea of the "game plan" and who is good against one style of play versus another style of play.
As a coach wanting to have a successful season, I need to act out different scenarios ahead of time if Player A doesn't get this or Player B doesn't get that during games. That takes time, but it has to be done. What kind of noise is going to come about if this happens or that happens and will that noise seep into our daily team work? By constantly talking about team goals and openly addressing external noise through coded* examples (* = I'll get to "coded" examples in a later topic as well), it keeps us on track. Just as head's up, being proactive here DOES NOT STOP external noise. There is no way to do that. However, addressing external noise openly to your team makes them aware and gives them a choice of what they want to do on a daily basic: the team thing or their thing.
Winning doesn't make life as a coach easier. In fact, it makes things tougher because it is hard to stay on top. You're getting challenged from every direction from people disguised as friends to those who are 100% against you no matter what you do. It is no different from being a boss who wants their business to be consistently successful.
If you can keep these three potential distractions in mind, it will limit the number of things that can derail your season or your business. Your focus as a leader is vital as it sets the tone for everyone directly involved. You can't go chasing after everyone that takes shots, indirectly or directly, passively or aggressively, at you on social media or any other platform. One minute spent addressing those things is one minute taken away from your team which is one minute taken away from your focus. Winning or being successful brings detractors from the outside and within, however the "within" part cannot be allowed inside your daily practice team. The quicker you understand that the quicker you get on with the business at hand.
Yes, the focus part is hard, but the focus comes from first, the discipline (Post #1). Again... consistent focus and discipline is hard, but winning consistently is hard too. It is not for everyone, but the irony is everyone has the same opportunity to focus and be disciplined. It comes down to a daily choice and then stacking daily choices upon daily choices (consistently) until it becomes a habit.
Yours for Better Basketball Always,
Brian / Coach Robinson