The Culture of the Team is Seen on the Face of the Coach

Have you ever been in the middle of the storm when your team needs you to lead?

- The other team is going on a big run and you don't see a stop in sight.
- Your leading scorer gets hurt. Then your second-leading scorer gets hurt. Then your third-leading scorer fails a class. Your fourth-leading scorer has to miss practice for tutorials.
- They keep adding classes to your teaching load.

Storms and adversity are part of life. We tell our athletes this all of the time, but it is important for us to remember this as well.

Each obstacle is just a test. It is an opportunity for us to get better and rise up. One thing to always think about is the message that you are sending through your words and your body language.

One great quote to remember is, 

"The culture of the team is seen on the face of the coach." 

If someone looked at you today, would they see positivity, hope, and grit? Would they see victory or defeat?

A big part of being a leader is making other people believe that they can win. There is pressure that comes with being in a leadership position, but as NBA head coach Doc Rivers says, "Pressure is a privilege." He also said, "Coaches are crazy because they have to be. To be a good coach, you have to get players to believe that you believe that they can win."

"Pressure is a privilege. Why are we playing or why are we doing what we are doing if we don't want to be successful? You can play your whole life and never have a pressure situation. Who wants that? You should feel privileged that you worked hard enough to put yourself in that situation. You should embrace it, you should enjoy it, and you should understand that it is hard. It is all of that. That is a privilege."

Be aware of the verbal and non-verbal messages that you are sending. Champions aren't the ones that don't get hit. Champions are the ones who get hit, fall down, and just keep going. You knew it was going to be hard. It is hard for everybody. But nobody can do this better than you.

It starts with us. It starts with you.