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BETTER News:
This week, Seth is with coaches and leaders at Mississippi State.
Kevin spoke to leaders at Atricure in San Antonio and visited with Oklahoma baseball.
Want us to work with your team? Email us.
We took one of our five systems out of the Coach Performance Playbook and made it available. It’s called the Culture Playbook and is our Culture System that we use with every team we work with. Through the end of the day Friday, for our newsletter subscribers, if you use code CULTURE at checkout you can get 50% off. You can purchase it for your team here.
Read Time: 5.5 min
The Idea: Potential v Performance
Anecdote: A Personal Coaching Story
My (Seth here) first year as a high school girls’ basketball coach, I took over a program that had won 5 games combined over two seasons. In our first 2 years, we won 11 games and 16 games respectively. The second year, we were ranked 16th in the State out of 84 teams at the end of our Regular Season.
But, in the state of Georgia, only the top 4 teams in each Region make it to the State Tournament. And guess what? We had the #1, 2, 3, and 5 ranked teams in the State that also just so happened to be in our Region. They were perennial powerhouses pumping out Division 1 talent.
So, despite our success, we finished 5th in our Region and didn’t qualify for the State Tournament. Our potential was tapped out at 5th in our Region. Sure, our team was good, for our school.
Now, why bring this story up?
Measuring one’s effectiveness in anything is a difficult exercise. Consider the leaders we work with, primarily coaches.
How should we measure their performance? Most often, it’s measured by one thing: “Did you win or not?” But, is that an effective measure of the holistic performance of a coach? Sure, that’s the lens that Athletic Directors often hire and fire through.
But, at the end of the season, only one team gets to hold up that trophy. Does that mean that every single other Head Coach, coaching staff, or program failed? Was every other team’s performance sub-par?
When viewed objectively, the answer is obviously no. But, coaches are grinding so hard to maximize their team’s performance that they often lost the ability to be objective about their team’s performance.
The coaches that are best able to evaluate how they are doing right now, today, gain a competitive advantage. They have clearer decisions. They can see more clearly what their team needs to get to the next level.
To help coaches gain a clearer picture of their performance, we often teach them the idea of Potential v Performance. First, let’s define some terms.
Potential - An individual or team’s capacity for growth, development, and performance
Performance - Actual on-field execution. The output of your skills, abilities, and mind during competition.
We will ask a coach - “If a 10 is an undefeated national championship-winning team, where is your team’s potential right now 1-10 (decimals encouraged 😁)?
Let’s say they say “7.2”.
Then, we ask, “And where on that same 1-10 scale is your team performing right now?”
As you can see, this helps put the performance of the coach and the staff in perspective. It helps them objectively evaluate the job they’re doing. If their team has a 7.2 potential, and they’ve been performing close to an 8, that means they’re doing an amazing job!
If their team’s potential is a 7.2, but their team is performing at a 5, then something needs to be done.
It helps them see what deserves celebration versus what deserves correction.
They’re afforded a longer-term view of the success of their program, team, and organization.
Research Insight: Building Elite Athletes
Here is why this is an important idea that quite frankly, coaches often get wrong.
Three researchers in the early 2000s sought to understand the psychological factors that make up Olympic Champions. What is it that they have that other athletes don’t? And how were those traits developed?
What they found has gone on to shape years of research and influenced the way coaches thought about coaching.
One of the largest determining factors in young athletes developing an elite mindset was a supportive and positive environment. An environment centered around confidence and building athletes up as people led to Olympic champions developing an elite mindset.
Positive environments → Psychological Health → Increased Motivation → Increased Performance
So, when a leader can’t view their team’s performance through a clear lens, their reaction often sacrifices that positive environment. Again, you can see the importance of being able to adequately measure your team’s potential and compare it to performance.
It helps leaders be objective about performance and more adequately reflect, adjust, and celebrate what they need to within their team.
Putting It All Together:
So, how do we capitalize on this idea in our leadership whether it we lead in athletics or in another industry?
Measure Objectively: We’ve talked about teams, but this can also be used as a tool to measure your people as well. What is their potential versus where they are performing? This might be helpful to do with them in front of you!
Set Goals Against Potential: When setting goals for your team or an individual, you should set them based on their potential, not based on some arbitrary measure of performance.
Encourage Self-Reflection: Both for your leadership and for your people, take a second in reflection to rate your potential versus performance when performing in competition, with a process, or a task.
Foster a Supportive Environment: Like Olympic champions, people are more likely to reach their potential in an environment where they’re motivated to perform. This means being positive and supportive are of utmost importance.
Celebrate Small Victories: When you objectively measure using the Potential v Performance tool, it should make clear where your team or an individual is performing above your potential. Be sure to celebrate it. That will go a long way in developing the environment that fosters champions.
Conclusion:
Recognizing the potential within each team member and guiding them to achieve it can redefine success from mere victory to meaningful progress and growth. This not only cultivates a stronger, more resilient team but also aligns your leadership actions with true benchmarks of development and achievement. By measuring performance against potential, leaders can create profound impact on their teams’ overall dynamics and long-term success.
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
