IAt all levels of sport, participants and observers alike will point to the importance of team building or the relationship between the members of a group and how it can impact results. How often do we hear about the "atmosphere in the locker room" from the media who cover pro sports teams.
Is the team environment and culture really that significant a factor on results? If you simply were able to put together the best talented group of athletes would this not simply ensure positive results regardless of how they might get along ? From experience, I would say that sometimes it's a vicious circle. The chemistry and environment around a team do impact results, however the opposite is also true. Results can affect the experience shared by members of a team and how they interact. Winning can gloss over and hide dysfunction within a group, a coach can stand behind his or her decisions even bad ones simple by pointing to the results saying " we must be doing something right, we continue to win". By the same token, negative results or a losing record can put a spotlight on the negatives around a team and make all the adverse situations seem much worse as coaches and athletes look to reasons to explain the results. People will point figures and lay blame. So how does a team culture fit into the discussion about a high performing sports environment ? Some sports are ready-made for a discussion about the influence of team culture on individual and team performance. Team sports, such as basketball, football, and soccer, require that time and energy be devoted to building a culture that will lead to success. Without this discussion, the chances of a team being successful are small. Individual sports, however, often don’t give much attention to team culture despite the fact that most individual sports are built around a team structure, for example, track and field, ski racing, and tennis. The fact is that, for individual sports, the influence that individual athletes can have on a team, whether healthy or toxic, is just as important as in true team sports. Nor do we often think about how an individual sports team can have a significant effect on the performances of its individual members. Yet, have you ever been on a “downer” team? I’m talking about one that is permeated with negativity, unhealthy competition, and conflict. It sure doesn’t feel good and it can definitely interfere with your performing your best. Whether you are an athlete on a team or one of its coaches, you can have a big impact on how your team gets along, functions, and performs. As a coach, it is great to focus on teaching the skill set required in a particular sport, or preaching about tactics and games plans, but if you ignore the issue of team environment or culture, sooner or later it catches up with you. The reality is that thee is no one size fits all approach to dealing with team building. It is very dependent on the same factors that determine how you might plan out your coaching strategy, age, level of competition, gender, and the specific traits both athletic and personality of your team members. If you as a coach are not comfortable or feel qualified to handle this aspect, as you might with other areas when selecting assistant coaches, find someone whose skill set might include a certain level of expertise and comfort with this particular part. While I am heavily invested in coaching, it remains a part time job for me but I am able to pull from my professional experiences in the corporate world that I have faced during my career path from employee to manager to senior manager. There are many similarities between coaching a team and managing in the work place. So, in applying these concepts to sports programs, let’s start with an understanding of what a team culture is and why it is of essential value. A culture is the expression of a team’s values, attitudes, and beliefs about sports and competition. It determines whether, for example, the team’s focus is on fun, mastery, or winning or whether it promotes individual accomplishment or team success. The culture is grounded in an identified sense of mission and shared goals, for instance, the goal of qualifying for a regional championships or winning a state title. Individual sports teams are complicated a bit by the fact that they aren’t really team sports. Unlike true team sports such as basketball or football, the success of one athlete isn’t dependent on how his or her teammates perform. Yet, I’m sure that you would agree that the culture of a team, whether healthy or unhealthy, has a real impact on its individual athletes. For example, a team that is in constant conflict or has a negative atmosphere will bring team members, athletes and coaches alike, down and this unpleasant atmosphere will also hurt individual athletes’ performances. Conversely, a team culture built on positive energy, support, and fun will lift everyone up, feel comfortable and supportive, and the results will show it. The culture creates norms of acceptable behavior on a team, either explicitly or implicitly conveying to members what is allowed and what is not. These norms can dictate to team members how to behave, communicate, cooperate, and deal with conflict. When clear norms are established, everyone on a team is more likely to abide by them. Very importantly, the culture creates the atmosphere that permeates every aspect of a team’s experience. Is the atmosphere relaxed or intense? Light-hearted or competitive? Supportive or competitive? All of these qualities of a culture have real implications for how the team functions, how its members get along, and, crucially, how the athletes on the team perform and the results they get. When a team has a defined culture that is understood by all of its members, they feel an implicit pressure (in the good sense) to support that culture. So how does a team culture develop ? Does it have to be imposed or does it develop ? Coaches can allow the culture of their team to develop in one of two ways. First, it can emerge naturally as an expression of its individual members. The benefits to this “organic” approach is that team members feel a sense of ownership for the culture because they created it. But there is a risk that the creation of the team be unfairly shaped by one or a few team members who may be particularly assertive or controlling, leaving other members of the team feeling marginalized and powerless. And a real danger can arise when the team culture is hijacked by a small subset of the team who are more interested in exerting their own power over the team, however unhealthy it might be. The result can be a truly toxic culture that serves neither the best interests of the team as a whole or its individual members. The second approach, and the one that I recommend, is for coaches to take an active (though not dominating) role in the creation of a team culture. Through your leadership and open discussions with team members, your team can identify the values, attitudes, and beliefs that you and your athletes want to act as the foundation of the team culture. You can also discuss what all of you feel is important in terms of the atmosphere you want to create, the expectations the team has about their behavior, and the way in which team members communicate. This collaborative approach to team culture will ensure that members feel a sense of ownership for the culture and, as a result, are more likely to live by its dictates. In addition to the over-all culture that a coaching staff fosters to best serve the goals of the entire team and the needs of all of its athletes, sub training groups for example based on position groups (e.g., football lineman or receivers) within the larger team can also create their own cultures. These training-group cultures better reflect the individual personalities of their coaches and athletes and the unique goals that they are pursuing. These subcultures also allow athletes who may be unable to take a leadership role in the team as a whole to exert influence within their group. So when you want to get started, I would suggest trying the following simple steps; sit down with the rest of the coaching staff and your athletes to discuss the kind of culture your team wants to have. You should ask the following questions (and any others that you think relevant). Training groups can ask the same questions:
So is a team culture essential to team success? In the short term, maybe not, but like anything else we do in life, when there is a positive environment around any group we are a part of, it is more rewarding and more motivating to "come to work each day". As I have often signed off, just my opinion but hopefully some might find it helpful.
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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