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📌 What’s in Today’s Newsletter:

• 📝 Taking Note: What are coaches saying about building culture right now?

• 📊 The Support-Challenge Matrix: Leadership falls into four quadrants—only "High Support, High Challenge" truly empowers teams.

• 🔬 Research Insight: A study found that balanced leadership (training, social support, and rewards) significantly improves athlete performance.

• 💡 Actionable Takeaways: How to build this into your leadership.

🗣️ The Idea: Coaches Are Speaking Up!

Coaches continue to share their thoughts on the current state of coaching in 2025. Rather than detail them like last week, we thought we’d list off the quotes and comments catching our eye and make broader comments about building an effective culture in 2025.

👀 Here’s What Caught Our Eye:

• Jeff Walz, Louisville WBB Coach, shares about coaching in the NIL and Portal era (link)

  

• Mick Cronin speaking on the intention behind his high-challenge coaching (link)

• Budenholzer + KD displays an excellent High Support, High Challenge Interaction (link)

🔨 What does this tell us?

Coaches tend to talk in extremes. Leaders too. If they’re a leader that’s “hard” on players or team, they probably complain about coddling and people being soft.

If they excel at supporting and making others feel valued, they probably complain about overly harsh, constantly challenging leaders who rarely bring positivity.

So, we have leaders complaining about the other side on opposite sides of a spectrum, especially if they feel that it has impacted recruiting.

In truth, the strongest cultures, teams, and environments consistently value high support and high challenge.

You don’t have a moment, interaction, and reaction like this on Senior Night by only bringing high support or high challenge all the time. It demands both.

So, we wanted this week to remind our long-time readers and stress to our newer ones a tool we use to teach leaders how to do this: the Support Challenge Matrix.

In what has become our most popular newsletter, we detailed the Support Challenge Matrix (including a video), explaining what it is and how we’d use it with your team.

🔬 Research Insight: Balancing Support and Challenge Maximizes Performance

A study published on ResearchGate examined the relationship between coaches' leadership styles and athletes' performance. The study found that coaches who balanced training behavior, social support, and rewarding behavior significantly impacted athlete performance. In contrast, autocratic leadership styles—where high challenge is emphasized without adequate support—had little to no positive effect.

Athletes who experienced both high support and high challenge demonstrated:

• Greater resilience under pressure

• Stronger long-term motivation

• Improved team cohesion and communication

• Higher overall performance metrics

This research highlights that leaders who integrate both elements create environments where individuals survive and thrive.

📌 5 Takeaways for Coaches & Leaders:

Putting It All Together: How to Lead with Both Support and Challenge

So, how can we implement this within our teams and our leadership? Here are five key takeaways:

1. Know Your Default: Are you naturally high-support or high-challenge? Recognizing your tendencies allows you to make conscious adjustments.

2. Match the Moment: Some situations demand more support, while others require more challenge. Learn to read your team and apply the right balance.

3. Use Clear, Honest Communication: High-challenge environments thrive on clarity. Be direct in your expectations but also evident in your belief in your team.

4. Encourage, Then Demand: Let players know they’re capable before pushing them to their limits. "I believe in you. Now show me what you’ve got."

5. Consistency Over Time: A single pep talk doesn’t build trust. Neither does a single hard practice. The best teams and leaders create cultures that regularly integrate challenge and support.

💬 Closing Thought:

The best coaches don’t just demand; they inspire. They don’t just push; they lift. Leadership in sports—and life—is about earning the right to challenge through deep, meaningful support.

If you’re too far on one end of the spectrum, it’s time to adjust. Because when you get this balance right, you don’t just build better teams—you build better people.

BETTER’s Solution to Coach Development

As a part of our work, we lead cohorts of leaders. It’s just one meeting a month with a topic, some homework, and sharing about how it’s going. But it’s powerful. Many of the coaches and leaders in our cohort express the following sentiment:

“I wish every coach got to experience this on some level.”

So, we thought, why can’t they?

As a part of what’s next for BETTER.

We are launching a community around the Culture Playbook.

Until now, the Culture Playbook has been something you buy and then get. We wanted it to be so good and affordable that every coach in the country could access it.

From now on, leaders will receive the Culture Playbook as part of a guided community led by Kevin and Seth.

If you’ve enjoyed our newsletter, imagine a community where we will take you and others through a deeper level of how to install the systems for yourself, athletes, or other coaches. You can ask us questions directly. We can guide and share discussions, share ideas, and get feedback.

We will host monthly calls, and every coach will have direct access to us. We will lead guided discussions and encourage coaches and ADs to share best practices. We want it to become the absolute best resource for all things Culture Development, both at the program and department levels. Over time, we will continue to add content, resources, and offerings. You’ll get discounts on future products that the public won’t get. And no, the price is not changing.

We’re targeting a public launch in early January, offering newsletter readers early access and a 25% discount. Fill out the form using the link below, and we’ll send you a link to get started.