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BETTER News:
This week at BETTER…
Kevin is meeting with teams at Florida State, Robert Morris, and Oklahoma this week.
Seth and Kevin are planning their keynote to speak to tennis coaches at the NCAA Championships on leading their teams under pressure! If you’re a tennis coach attending - DM us on Twitter - we’d love to connect with you while we are there!
Read Time: 10 min (Includes video)
The Idea: The Culture Playbook
Coaches don’t lack access to amazing content. They have access to amazing leadership ideas, courses, and books that will make them better coaches.
In hundreds of teams across the country every season, coaches see an idea they like, and bring it to their team, but within a couple of weeks, the idea has dissipated. Their players ask “Remember that thing we did a couple of months ago? Were we going to do that again? Whatever came of that?”
What started as a well-intentioned idea turns into something that results in the coach losing influence with their staff and players.
What coaches lack are systems. We describe a system as a USB drive that you can “plug” into the computer that is your athletic program that will install those leadership ideas into the life of your program.
Said differently, coaches don’t lack ideas, they don’t know how to take those ideas and implement them. They don’t know how to build them into the life of their program in a way that maximizes their mindset, leadership, and performance.
So, we have built systems for coaches that do the heavy lifting for them. It’s not just ideas - it’s implementation. In classroom terms, it’s not just the content of the lecture. It’s the lesson plan that goes with it. How should you deliver it? At what point in the season? What does the follow-up look like? How can you implement this language into your practices?
To this point, we’ve built six systems that we’ve packaged all together to form the Coach Performance System (you’ve seen us talk about it before). Almost 1,000 coaches from HS to Power-5 (now Power-4) NCAA programs are using it. But, for the first time, two weeks ago, we decided to pull one of those systems out and make it available to coaches everywhere.
It’s called The Culture Playbook. The Culture Playbook is a 10-part install that fast-tracks leader development in your team. It’s 10 videos paired with an individual and team exercise that will take a leadership idea and install it into the life of their program.
It is not meant to be all-encompassing. But, it’s designed to lay an amazing foundation of culture that’s better than 99% of your opponents in a way that’s as time-efficient as possible.
What we wanted to do this week in our newsletter was to show you one of the 10 parts. So, we hope you enjoy it below. If you want the Culture Playbook for your team, school, or program, you can get it here. If you’re an AD and would like to get it for your entire department, reach out to us (DM on Twitter or email) and we are more than happy to offer you a bulk discount.
Enjoy!
The Support-Challenge Matrix
A quick note on this exercise. The video is directed towards athletes. We designed the Culture Playbook so that coaches could use it however they saw fit. For example, they could:
Use this video to educate themselves and then teach the tool to the team themselves
Show this video in a team meeting to their athletes
Send the link to this video to their athletes to watch on their phones to be ready to come together and discuss.
We have had coaches use it in all of the methods above.
And what’s even cooler? Is we’ve had non-athletic teams use this exact exercise within their Athletic Department staff, in businesses, and in churches with incredible feedback. So, if you’re a reader outside of Athletics (yes, we have plenty of those), this is for you too!
Now, to the exercise.
First, watch the video:
Putting It All Together:
Now that you’ve watched the video on the Support-Challenge Matrix,
Answer This Question:
Do you feel like you are more likely to:
Challenge the people around you (i.e. communicate expectations and drive others toward specific goals)?
Support those around you (i.e. encourage, train, and resource them)?
Do This Exercise:
After learning this tool, plot yourself on the matrix by answering these questions:
Where do you think your teammates view you in terms of Support and Challenge?
What do you tend to do toward yourself in terms of Support and Challenge (i.e. more Supportive or more Challenging of yourself)?
Discuss With Your Team:
Where did you plot yourself on the matrix? And why?
What do you need to do to move more towards Liberation?
Ask your team to plot you on the matrix based on where they see you in terms of Support and Challenge. What is the difference between what you thought and what they shared?
What did you learn from this exercise? What were your “ahas”?
Conclusion:
As we wrap up this week's discussion on the Support-Challenge Matrix, we challenge you to not only think about where you fall on the matrix but to actively engage in shaping the culture of your team or organization. Consider how you can systematically implement both support and challenge to foster a liberating environment where every member can thrive. This isn't just about understanding a concept—it's about bringing it to life. How will you use these insights to enhance your leadership and influence your surroundings? Simple strategies turn these ideas into impactful actions.
Culture Playbook Cohorts
We are starting cohorts for coaches who want to go further than just gaining access to the Culture Playbook. If you’d like to consistently meet with other coaches to be led through how to implement the Culture Playbook through your season, email Seth.
The Coach Performance Playbook
Coaches have access to a lot of coaching content. What they lack are systems.
The Coach Performance Playbook consists of three comprehensive sections that guide coaches through a transformative leadership journey. Through this playbook, coaches will establish systems to effectively manage the chaos they face, enhance their ability to develop their team members, and ultimately elevate their team’s performance to new heights.
This comprehensive suite includes on-demand assessments, valuable tools, engaging courses, and a wealth of resources, all meticulously designed to unlock the full potential of your coaching staff and team.
As a part of the Coach Performance Playbook, coaches get access to the following systems for themselves and their programs:
Coach Performance Plan
10 Culture Playbook Team Exercises
Elite Athlete Index
Elite Coach Index
Player Cards
Culture Wins Library
And for the first time, we’ve created a way for everyone to experience it completely for FREE!
How to Get Access:
Clicking the link below will take you to a page to get 3 free videos from inside the Coach Performance Playbook.
Feel free to send this page to any coaches or leaders that you think would benefit from this or find this valuable.
Ready to Jump In?
If you’re ready to jump in and join over 500 coaches using the Coach Performance Playbook for their programs, you will get sent a link to purchase when signing up for the free resource above.
If you’re a High School coach or AD, we are offering the CPP for a discounted price for a limited time so make sure to check out the discount code listed in the email when you sign up!
BETTER Installs
Want BETTER to come do a culture installs, workshops, speak to a team, or work within your Athletic Department? Reach out to us at [email protected]. Our installs include:
The AD Meta Map
Role Clarity
Team Values Exercise
Department, Program, or Individual Alignment
Getting the Most out of Your Team
