Take Personal Responsibility

I have always thought it was important for me to take personal responsibility for my teams. I take personal responsibility for their engagement, their effort, their execution, their energy, and their experience. If they are performing to the standards that I have set, then it is my job to figure out how to motivate them or better teach them.

I heard a pastor say that he used to be frustrated with his 8:30 AM Sunday service. He said that they would draw about 300 people, and they were the deadest and most uninspiring crowd to speak to.  He would get mad and angry with them, but he said that when he started to take responsibility for lifting the people and encouraging the people, it has become one of the most delightful services to preach to.

When our kids aren't paying attention in practice, we have to find a way to keep them more engaged or hold them more accountable.

When our kids aren't going as hard as they can, we have to find creative ways and measurable drills to get them moving in a way that we need them to.

When they aren't executing at the level that we need them to, we have to be more intentional with the way that we are teaching and practicing.

If their energy levels aren't where we need them to be, we have to first make sure that our personal energy levels are at a high enough level, and then we have to find a way to get them excited and motivated and energized.

I think one of the most important things that we do as coaches is create an experience. I want the experience of my athletes to be the best experience possible. That doesn't always mean that it will be fun. It means that it will be meaningful. They will grow. They will experience joy. Hopefully, they will win a lot of games. They will learn how to be better teammates and better people. They will know that they are valued, appreciated, and loved, and they will know that they have a world of potential inside of them and that I will help them live up to it.

We have to take our teams' and our players' performance, growth, and experience personally. We have to take their performance and experience personally. We have to make sure that we are doing our part to make it a meaningful experience.