Do Your Job and Do it Well.
What has worked for the Owls this year? What hasn't? How can team dynamics improve? Ultimately: What does it take to make a team work?
Owl Outlook 2017 Team: This year's team is essentially revolved around Democratic leadership. This is a structure in which members of the group take a more participative role in the decision making process. Everyone is given the equal opportunity to join forces, ideas are exchanged freely, and discussion is encouraged. While the democratic process tends to focus on group equality and the free flow of ideas, the group focus is to offer guidance and control.
Here are the advantages of a democratic oriented team:
Disadvantages:
When situations change constantly, democratic leadership offers a great deal of flexibility in order to adapt to better ways of doing things. Unfortunately, it can also hinder efficient decision making, disrupting a teams overall structure. A democratic leadership style can bring out the best of a diverse athletics team. It capitalizes on individual skills and talents by letting them share their views, rather than simply expecting them to conform. However, lack of an authoritative style leader, can create a space where members are unsure of their place. For any team dynamic, power is essential and hierarchy is needed. With lack of authority and/or power teammates can become uncommitted, less productive, and dysfunctional. Hierarchy serves as an essential tool for any team, especially a team like Keene State, where there are so many new faces. Hierarchy helps for teammates to understand their role. Where do they fit in on the team? How do they fit into the bigger picture? This allows for players to know exactly what they need to do in order to reach the next step, it is a fact that most people perform better under a system of structure. On the contrary, hierarchies can be detrimental if they are not implemented the right way.
Owl Outlook 2017 Team: This year's team is essentially revolved around Democratic leadership. This is a structure in which members of the group take a more participative role in the decision making process. Everyone is given the equal opportunity to join forces, ideas are exchanged freely, and discussion is encouraged. While the democratic process tends to focus on group equality and the free flow of ideas, the group focus is to offer guidance and control.
Here are the advantages of a democratic oriented team:
- Teammates feel valued, because everyone is allowed to express their opinions
- If there is absent leadership, it won't determine the outcome of the game, teammates can work around adversity
- Teammates are more committed to achieving team goals
Disadvantages:
- Social pressure conform to dominant group ideas
- Inefficiency, inconsistency, & indecisiveness
- Decision making takes a lot of time
When situations change constantly, democratic leadership offers a great deal of flexibility in order to adapt to better ways of doing things. Unfortunately, it can also hinder efficient decision making, disrupting a teams overall structure. A democratic leadership style can bring out the best of a diverse athletics team. It capitalizes on individual skills and talents by letting them share their views, rather than simply expecting them to conform. However, lack of an authoritative style leader, can create a space where members are unsure of their place. For any team dynamic, power is essential and hierarchy is needed. With lack of authority and/or power teammates can become uncommitted, less productive, and dysfunctional. Hierarchy serves as an essential tool for any team, especially a team like Keene State, where there are so many new faces. Hierarchy helps for teammates to understand their role. Where do they fit in on the team? How do they fit into the bigger picture? This allows for players to know exactly what they need to do in order to reach the next step, it is a fact that most people perform better under a system of structure. On the contrary, hierarchies can be detrimental if they are not implemented the right way.
One of the biggest issues on the team this year has been inconsistency. It's tough to pin point a teams underlying issues when everything can go right for a team one day and all wrong another. How you manage the good times doesn’t ever determine what you’re really made of on the inside.
Issue 1: Communication
Just like any team, communication is one of the teams issues. Whenever team conflict arises the team is huddled in by coaches or captains. Throughout the season there has been more than 20 team talks. On problems such as selfishness, team expectations, open communication, respect, and the list goes on. How effective are these talk? Why?
Here's why these team talks don't always work:
- There's too many of them. With most of the talks being very indirect, most people zone out. 'who is really listening to this?' 'does this apply to me? 'I can't remember what we talked about, so i'm just going to do my own thing anyway' "There’s an assumption that something needs to be said, as if three minutes of talking is going to make a big difference to 60 minutes of playing lacrosse. It’s filling a space. There’s a lot of ego involved and it’s usually a waste of words."
- Too long and too indirect: Multiple team talks leave players less engaged even if the talk is revolved around them.
Here's how they can work:
- pre-game talk, when you know, more or less, what to expect of the opponent and you know what results you want to attain, half-time talk, when you already have a certain view of the situation, you can assess if everything is going as planned. Full-time talk , where you comment the results of the match, for which you either compliment or criticize your players.
- Directing the audience: Is there one player/a few players impacting the group or vice versa? Emphasize what's working and what's not. Keeping it short and concise will let it sink into the players heads. Keep the focus on finding solutions and fixing problems rather than making lengthy speeches.
- Positive body language: Non-verbal body language says way more than words. Positive body language is contagious, and so is negative.
- Reinforcing the right voices: Who has a strong voice on the team? When that player speaks, how do other players respond? What are their teammates body language like when they talk? Calling upon specific players reinforces respect and helps hit points.
- Reinforcing these voices are important, but so is keeping it few is more important. Quality over quantity.
Issue 2: Lack of a Hierarchy
Strong teams thrive when there's a structure of power. There's nothing wrong with every player being treated equally, however, there is a problem when a player believes they can be treated above another. The problem is everyone thinks they hold the same power. Everyone should have a say and power in their own role, however it should be respected that the power between a Senior and a freshmen or sophomore is different.
Here's why hierarchy is needed:
- The hierarchy system acts as a powerful system which has the capability of motivating both the team behavior and performance of the individual behavior. Hierarchy can enhance the coordination between the team members but each and every member knows as what the other member is doing and why a player is doing that.
- "Addition by Subtraction" is a phrase used by coaches to mean that sometimes your team can get better not by adding more talent, but by shedding some people or practices that are interfering with or inhibiting your success.
- Creating an example out of players strengthens team structure: Benching/subbing players because of bad attitudes, disrespect to team structure, and repetition of habits that don't reflect the team is essential. Overlooking teammates poor decisions on and off the field is detrimental to success. It allows mistakes to repeat and allows for animosity to fester between teammates. Implementing this creates structure and keeps players roles in check.
Issue 3: Lack of Emphasis
Superficially focusing on multiple things rather than a key set of concepts can hinder success. It's not about what you teach, it is about what you emphasize. What can be subtracted from typical practice structure in order to emphasize the importance of the programs success?
Why emphasis is paramount:
- 80/20 rule: 20% of the input generates 80% of the result. Nothing is balanced, A team doesn't do a unit of work and get an equal result. Make your decisions in training based on the return, know where your best results are coming from and focus your efforts there. Limiting amount of key decisions will impact a disproportionate amount of a teams overall success.
- It portrays quality over quantity. If a team can utilize the 80/20 Principle, then they can consciously select the top 20% of activities, actions, and people that produce the best results, then they are at a huge advantage."
- "It is important for players/coaches to focus their time on the important rather than getting caught up in the urgent." (Stephen Covey)
Facing adversity is tough, especially when your team is full of such diverse people. Situations and inconsistency can be frustrating. However, it's very important to face these things as an individual and as a unit. Competing and working outside your comfort zone can only make you grow which is essential for any program. It is the key to learning. To improving. To being a better teammate.
“The strength of the team is each member. The strength of each member is the team.” Phil Jackson