Convenient Competitor or Courageous Competitor?

     My job allows me to watch a lot of sports- both in quantity and in diversity. Over the course of a school year I see 14 different sports, some with male and female teams. I'd guess I'd get to watch somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 games, meets, matches, and competitions. That's in addition to going to practices, doing mental sessions, and getting to interact with athletes and coaches around campus through classes and just in general. The point is, I get to observe a lot. Something my brain naturally gravitates towards is patterns. Even from an early age, I enjoyed the logic tests that showed three or four shapes and asked you what comes next. I wanted to be the one who kept score. Sorting through my baseball card collection over and over again was fun for me. That's continued as an adult and as a coach. 

     As I seek out patterns, a category I'm drawn to is what separates teams, coaches, and athletes from one another. What separates those who have success- both short-term and long-term- from those who don't? What's the difference between athletes who are able to get close to maximizing who they are from those who settle? Why are some coaches able to adapt with change while others struggle? I want the answers we will never completely find. With that, a trait I've found myself coming back to more and more is being a competitor. For me, two categories of competitors have emerged: Convenient Competitors and Courageous Competitors. Let's dig into both.

     A convenient competitor is someone who does exactly what the term says. They compete when it's convenient to them. This is someone who's competes when things are going well, when they feel good, when they think they have a good chance of success, and when they're comfortable. In practice, they want to do things that they like and that make them look good, if they show up at all. A convenient competitor allows who an opposing team or athlete is on paper dictate how they show up. Convenient competitors tend to shut down, avoid, or look for excuses more and more as the conditions described aren't there. They cling to “what they've always done” like Linus with his blankie. When things go bad, convenient competitors play the blame game.

     A courageous competitor, on the other hand, competes. I'm hesitant to say "all the time" because nobody's perfect, but they are relentless as competitors. They compete no matter how things are going, even when they don't feel their best, when the odds may be stacked against them, and when they're uncomfortable. In practice, they crave challenge, are willing to make mistakes, and care more about getting good than looking good. They show up. Who an opposing team or opponent is provides info but doesn’t determine how the courageous competitor shows up to play. Courageous competitors embrace opportunities to compete. They want to get better and are willing to try different things that could help them to improve. When things go bad, courageous competitors look for solutions.

     The difference between convenient and courageous competitors is substantial, and I think the effects of being either can be as well. Courageous competitors are going to be more likely to be consistent with their performance, while convenient competitors will likely have more ups and downs. While I don't think anyone ever truly maxes out on their potential, courageous competitors are going to get much closer. They're more likely to have success and to sustain success as they go for the gap even when they're deemed the best at what they do. So all of this leads us to an important question because I don't believe in simply putting people into categories and saying, "Some people are just courageous competitors and some aren't." That'd ironically make me more of a convenient competitor in being able to write people off- tempting at times, to be sure, but not an effective strategy. The question is, "What can we do to help anyone become a courageous competitor?" Here are 3 step to help us start:

1. Have both yourself and athletes (depending on who's reading this, of course) start with an honest self-assessment. Keep it simple. Which traits of courageous competitors do they currently show? What's the evidence? Where do they struggle? What's the evidence? Depending on trust, I think getting feedback from someone else- a teammate or another staff member- could go a long way in making this more impactful. I also think shifting the questions to look at who you are as a team of competitors could be very helpful. What asking these questions does is gives us an idea of where we currently are. It's what's real.

2. Look to the future. Who do you want to be as a competitor or team of competitors a year from now? By the end of the season? By the start of next season? By the time you graduate? As a program 5 years down the line? Be specific. Consider what it would look like and feel like. How would being a courageous competitor impact you? How would it have an effect on how you practice? Play? Approach things away from the field? This is a peek into who we could be. It's what's ideal.

3. Come up with an action plan. What steps can you take to get you closer to that ideal courageous competitor self or team? If you're a head coach, I'd encourage you to get help from assistants and/or players to come up with ideas. That will increase buy-in and give you perspective diversity to help you see beyond your own experiences. I'd encourage you to pick 1-2 areas to focus on at a time. That's going to help you avoid chasing five rabbits and catching none. If this is difficult, start small. What's something you can do that will help you get closer to being a courageous competitor? Do it. Reflect. Repeat. It's what will help us move from real to ideal.

     The three steps are simple but hardly easy. They're a place to start, but becoming a more courageous competitor will likely take time and effort. It'll mean successes and failures. I'd recommend finding ways to celebrate small wins along the way. If you're a coach, be intentional about pointing out when athletes do something that is being a courageous competitor. It'll help create an environment that values whatever you're working on and will help the athlete see their success beyond the results. If you're an athlete, taking time to reflect and find the evidence of what you're trying to improve on can help you stay on track and build confidence in yourself. Real progress and improvement takes time. Being a courageous competitor is continuous, and so is being you.

A Challenging Couple of Years

         The last couple of years has been challenging for me as a learner.  You see, I enrolled in a doctoral program to pursue an EdD in Performance Improvement Leaders, and one of the results they forgot to list on the "program outcomes" was:

*Learner will experience massive amounts of cognitive dissonance.

         What's led to this internal battle, you say?  Beyond being a compulsive doubter, the degree has caused me to rethink my thoughts on performance quite a bit.  Here's why.  My basic philosophy as a mental performance coach centers around individual performers being themselves in a way that combines celebrating who they already are while embracing the idea of continual improvement.  It's not really very radical at all in the mental performance world.  Many would describe their philosophies similarly.  So you could imagine my terror when, in the very first assignment in my program, we read the beginning of Thomas Gilbert's Human Competence, and within the first three pages or so, he wrote something to the effect of:

"If you have a performance problem, you probably have an environment problem."

         What?!  That can't be right!  Surely he means, "If you have a performance problem, the performer needs to find a solution."  Right?  RIGHT?!!  I kept reading, and he repeated it.  Then again.  Then, I saw his Behavior Engineering Model (BEM), and again, he recommended starting with the environment.  What's hilarious about it, looking back, is I'd completely forgotten that his model does include the concept of individuals as well.  It was that scarring.  

         Anyway, it really forced me to rethink how performance works.  That was hard to embrace.  I was starting my fifth year or so in the world of mental performance and had been excited to move out of a new practitioner mode.  In hindsight, probably a bit of Dunning-Kruger effect on my part in thinking I'd started to figure out this mental stuff.  It's continued to be hard to embrace as I've had to rethink, meld together, and decide again what I think is the best approach to empowering others to perform and enjoy (while also following assignment rubrics, of course).  I say think because if there's one thing that I've become more and more sure of through the process, it's that anyone sure of what leads to performance is kidding themselves.  There are way too many variables that factor in for any 5-step plan, no matter how many free universities you get your honorary degree from on Twitter.  

         That said, it's been fun too.  I've enjoyed learning, exploring different topics, and applying what I learn to improve projects at school.  I've even enjoyed the challenge of fighting internal second-grade Ben.  He wanted to be perfect on every assignment and took criticism personally.  Actually, that's a lie.  That's been a brutal battle with every click of the mouse to submit an assignment.  But I've made progress, I think.  The improvement of projects led me to a recent idea to return to writing, at least for a handful of short posts.  Great project ideas gone wrong were a significant factor in my return to school, and my hope is to share a few things I've learned from those failures that will help you avoid making the same mistakes.  To do that, I'll be sharing "5 Reasons Why Your Great Idea Didn't Work" over the course of the next couple of weeks or so.  If you're doubting me, I don't blame you.  A brief look at my "recent" posts led to pain in seeing my idea to shift the blog to organizational learning a couple of years ago... and then proceed to write 2 blogs in 2 years.  But hey, at least with one of the two, you could argue it did have something to do with organizational learning.  That's the plan, though, and I hope you'll check back in to see if I do it.  If not, don't blame me, of course.  Blame my environment!

- Ben

Coaching in a Snapshot Society: A Threat or an Opportunity?

         I've been thinking about it a lot lately, "We live in a snapshot society."  Every time there's a controversial coaching moment, it's blasted all over social media.  "They should be fired!"  "Kids today are just soft!"  A Twitter bot may chime in every once in a while, reminding us to tune into live coverage of the JV water polo game (if you're a HS coach, you know what I'm talking about...).  The tendency to evaluate coaches based on real-life snapshot moments has spread too.  Coaches can get crushed because of a moment's lapse in judgment or loss of control.  It's easy to say this isn't fair.  It probably isn't.  Maybe it seems like there’s a threat in every moment of coaching, but I think it's important to consider another perspective. There’s an opportunity.

        There is incredible power potential, opportunity, in every moment a coach has to impact those they coach, particularly young people, for the rest of their lives.  It's been said, after all, that coaches are the most important factor in how a young person views their athletic experience.  While we'd love for all athletes to be so incredibly intrinsically motivated and emotionally intelligent that a negative coaching experience doesn't matter, it's unrealistic.  Others may emphasize, "Just focus on the message," which can be helpful advice.  But the delivery does matter.  It matters today, and it's always mattered to coaches who want to be as effective as possible.  Also vital to consider is that in every HS athlete-coach interaction there's one adult and one kid, one professional and one amateur.  To put the burden entirely on the amateur kid as a communicator is ineffective and unfair.

        So, what can we do?  In general, I'm not a fan of either-or logic, but in this case I think it may fit.  There could be two camps of coaches moving forward.  One camp will complain about the environment of coaching today.  They'll pine for years past, back in the day, when you could do whatever you want, say whatever you want, because, "Coach is always right," because "It's just coaching," because, "I'm just teaching your kid about the real world."  No, the coach isn't always right, and that's okay.  Just coaching is pretty often just bad coaching.  But we can improve.  Yes, the real world may have bullies, but your coach shouldn't be one.  These coaches may make themselves feel better with “kids today” logic, but I’m not sure how effective they will be. 

         Another camp of coaches will improve- they’ll find the opportunity.  They'll accept the challenges of coaching today and realize building an environment of trust that values athletes as people will give them some brevity to not be perfect.  But they'll also strive to be better.   To be better at purposeful communication that constructively criticizes behavior rather than attacking the person.  To be better at emotional control to minimize or eliminate moments that get away from them.  Fortunately, there are people and resources that can help coaches with both.  I know which camp of coaches I'd prefer to be included in and coached by, and I have a feeling I know which kids and parents today would choose as well.  The opportunity is there.

- Ben

"Got Joy?" Study Background and Survey Results

      One of the best parts of my job working in the high school setting is seeing so many different sports and performances.  In the fall and spring seasons, it's not uncommon for me to be around five or more teams in a given week.  With that comes a snapshot of each sport and a cumulative mental model collage of high school sports as a whole.  Sometimes I notice themes, and one of them over the last two to three years, in particular, has bothered me.  Both in the moment and after games, the reaction to success seemed to lack noticeable joy.  There are little celebration, appreciation, and congratulations.  Few smiles.  High fives.  And hugs.  No, the look and feel are pretty often more of relief than joy.  Relief from what?  I think pressure.  Imagine, if you will, young people are balloons, and the pressure to perform is the air constantly blowing up the balloons.  If you're bold, you can even picture your favorite young athlete in balloon form.  The pressure builds and builds until it is on the verge of popping.  Then, a goal is scored, a game is won, and some of the pressure is relived.  The air is let out a bit, and then it immediately starts to fill up the balloon again.  Any number of root causes could be there.  

      High school athletics today is different than in the past.  In some ways, for better, and some probably for worse.  The time demands have increased exponentially.  So has the skill level.  The expectations on so many young people and of parents have shifted to investment in the future rather than enjoyment of the experience of the now.  There are many different reasons young people participate in high school athletics, and I'm not one to tell them why they should.  I can say that regardless of the intentions of the athletes, teams, and coaches, there is room for joy.  In fact, even for the ultra-competitive, I'd argue that joy is a competitive advantage.  Are people more likely to give great effort, risk failure, and buy into something bigger than themselves (all elements of a high-performance culture) in an environment they enjoy being in or in one they dread showing up to?  

     I've learned in the doctoral program I'm in and through experience is that an opinion isn't enough.  For change to occur, performance to improve, and sustained change, we need to look beyond our own ideas to see the whole picture.  That's both for accuracy's sake and to build necessary buy-in.  None of us can do it all on our own.  I thought there was a lack of joy but was there?  Before exploring the question a little further, I first sent something to our Captain Class student-athlete leaders asking what they wanted to focus on for a project for the year.  The options were joy, sleep, and parent behavior.  Sleep got some votes, but it was clear the group's choice was joy.

     The next step, a couple of months ago, was to meet with a couple of groups of Captain Class members.  With the first group I asked them what they thought and about an idea for the next steps.  The group unanimously did agree that there was more we could do to help our athletes experience joy.  We decided to start with a survey for student-athletes and coaches to help move beyond the opinions of one or a few.  The student-athlete survey was sent out through Captain Class members and coaches.  We ultimately got 158 responses with some level of participation from every team at the school, except for one.  The results were interesting.

     There's an infographic accompanying the blog with main findings, so I'm not going to bother regurgitating them here.  Instead, I'll share takeaways I had from the results, and what I think they mean moving forward for the project.  The first takeaway is that, at least according to the results, there is more hope than naturally cynical Coach E realized.  Almost 75% of those surveyed said they experience joy in their sport daily or almost every day.  That's a pretty solid foundation to start with.  It's reflective of positive experiences and opportunities still for growth.  A second thing that stood out to me is that joy, although overall a mixture of personal success and team, skews much more in the team components of the experience.  For whatever reason, there's a tendency to think young people only care about themselves.  If you start a tweet with, "In today's society," you're nearly guaranteed to go viral amongst high school athletics social media.  Sometimes we assign intention for behavior that either isn't intentional or isn't accurate.  The findings reflect young people care a lot more about the team than we may give them credit for.  It is also clear many do care about individual success too.  I think that's okay.  We and me can coexist.  Again, we're challenged to be better by moving beyond our opinion.

     The final major takeaway is what brings young people joy within their sport.  A second group of Captain Class members met with our strength coach and me to review the results and note themes we saw in the answers.  It was a lot of fun, and the Captain Class members did a great job.  Unfortunately, someone lost a picture with the themes we came up with (that someone was me, but I don't want to call myself out in front of the whole group reading.  I'd rather address the mistake with myself 1-on-1 because I know I am a soft snowflake).  I did my best to recreate the themes in looking at the results again.  Six emerged.  They were success, the team, growth mindset, others related to self, fun, and coaches.  Success was the number one answer, and it ranged from winning to making plays individually.  Made sense.  You spend a lot of time putting in the effort and want to see it pay off in the form of results.  There's nothing wrong with that.  The team was a close second, and the category was all about being part of a group.  Again, makes sense.  People want to belong.  The fact that success and team so overwhelmingly stood out, in my opinion, speaks highly to the level of competitive young people we have who also yearn for a quality team atmosphere.  The growth mindset category included answers about improvement, difficulty, and challenge.  I found the number of responses that fit into the theme to be pretty encouraging and indicative of an area to help others.  The final three themes were others related to self, fun, and coaches.  I lump them together because they didn't show up nearly as much as the others.  Of note is was that fun and joy are two different things.  Also, although coaches did not appear a lot, I think it's important to acknowledge how crucial they are to both success and team.  Coaches create the environment, after all.

     So, where do we go from here?  I'm not sure!  Sharing the results is an important step for sure.  At first, I had plans to do interviews with student-athletes and create a video.  Time hasn't allowed for that, though, and probably won't.  One hope is adults involved in sports see the clear idea that success and being part of a team are the two most common elements that bring joy to the athletic experience, as an opportunity to mold an environment that allows for both.  I'd love to see if there is a correlation between those who find joy in more intrinsic values like improvement and challenge and how often they experience joy.  Additionally, we'll be brainstorming further as a group.  Sometimes increasing joy can be less about creating it and more about noticing it.  We'll be looking at centers around helping our athletes recognize the joy already present in their experiences.  We'll also be thinking of ways to notice joy, celebrate it more, and appreciate those who bring it to their teams as well.  The process has already led to some interesting findings that have forced me to think and rethink.   Still, ultimately the information is only as valuable as what we do with it moving forward.  Hopefully, that will be helping our young people to perform better and to enjoy the experience as well.  Regardless, I will keep you posted!

Here are some of the results of the survey that I felt were most pertinent to the blog, made anonymous:  The Results. Questions about the results?  Send them my way.  Ideas for how to use the results?  I'd love to hear them.  Do you have something you're already doing with your teams?  Again, I'd love to know.  Joy is something all young people deserve to experience in their athletic journeys, and the more we can do to help them the better.  

Learning Outside Your Niche : There's a Whole World Out There! Books

   

 Note: This is part one of a to-be-determined, maybe, series on how I've learned to learn outside of my niche. My hope is you'll be able to possibly relate to the experience, maybe find some cool resources, and think about whether you could benefit from doing the same. There is, after all, a whole world out there.    

      My background up until a few years ago was in baseball. I loved it growing up, played it averagely through college, and coached it for the first seven years of my teaching career. When I first started in sport psychology, naturally, I loved reading all of the books on baseball's mental side I could get my hands on.  The Mental Keys to Hitting sparked it all for me.  Others that had a strong personal impact were Intangibles, Baseball's 6th Tool, The Mental ABC's of Pitching, and Heads Up Baseball.  One of the things I loved about each of the books is they were easy to apply. The authors told me what to do. Then, I did it. Simple enough. Then, after a few months of obsessive reading, a terrible thing happened. There were no more "you may also be interested in" books on Amazon that were mental baseball books. What was I to do?  

       My feeble, narrow-minded baseball brain was at a crossroads. "No more reading" was one option. That sounded good, in some ways. I knew it all, after all, after reading those books (yeah, right). No, that can't be right. There was another option, but it was a scary one. Read...a book...that...isn't....a baseball book. As I said, it was scary. Opportunely, a conversation with a colleague (our school's technology and learning coach) led to Mindset's recommendation.  Hmm...I liked that it had the words mindset and success in the title. I liked the colleague and respected her opinion. I did not like that the author's name included the letters Ph.D. in it. What could she possibly have to teach me that would make me a better baseball mental skills coach? On the cover were the topics parenting, business, school, and relationships? Wtf? Where was baseball? Anyway, I took the plunge into the dreaded unknown, and a funny thing happened.  

        I loved the book. I loved that it made me think of things differently. I love that it explained how I felt about some aspects of teaching and the potential of students. But most of all, I loved how it got the hamster wheel in my brain churning with how I could take these concepts that were not directly about coaching baseball and apply them.  Praise for effort instead of natural skills? I can do that when a player has a great game. See feedback as an opportunity instead of a threat? That would be great to help players understand coaching. Fixed mindset thinking sees their value as their performance? Ouch. I need to do a better job of making sure I let players know I care about them and am interested in them beyond the field. It was challenging, and it was great. These, and other realizations, made me take action to be a better coach and teacher. Beyond that, the book provided an a-ha moment that there was so much more to learn outside of my specific sport or even sports in general. Since then, some of my favorite books have had nothing directly to do with sports. Below I've decided to share a few. Sometimes, we say we learned a lot from a book but then not actually applying what we say we've learned. Our supposed learning is more like interest. With that, I've only included books where I can say something has actually stuck with me and changed how I think, coach, or even live. My takeaways are, of course, mine. All of the books below are ones I'd recommend and, I am confident you'd learn much more than what I did.

*Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck

What's Stuck: The overall concept of growth and fixed mindset has been transformative as a teacher and coach. We talk about it in our sport psych class.  Students usually point to a better understanding of failure and getting out of their comfort zones as major takeaways from the experience.   Certain teams have gravitated to it a lot as well. Our girls golf team, for example, focused on it during a season to help them focus on growth versus just their scores.

*Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

What's Stuck: There is quite a bit in this one, but something I loved and have used with our girls soccer team and volleyball team is the concept of The Braintrust. The Braintrust is a group of people at Pixar who meet throughout the making of a movie. They have a certain way of doing things that involves hearing from everyone and being candid. Both are really helpful in working with teams and groups as a whole. Beyond that, there are infinite nuggets for anyone trying to build a culture.

*Insight: The Surprising Truth About How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think, by Tasha Eurich

What's Stuck: Self-awareness has been a pillar of mental performance for me since really the beginning of my exploration. This book provided one of those, "Oh, you think you've been doing okay, huh? Well, what you have been doing it stupid!" moments in the discussion of "why." "Why?" used to be my favorite question. Among many other takeaways, this book got me to realize "Why?" may actually be unimportant, ineffective, and even harmful in some cases. A total shock to the system that made me better.

*Why We Sleep:  Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, by Matthew Walker

What's Stuck: Everything. Sleep is the most important thing we do. I'd been interested in sleep for some time, but this book made me realize just how important it is and what we can do about it. I'd been hesitant to teach sleep or done it poorly with surface level, "You need to get 8-10 hours of sleep!" like people hadn't heard that over and over. This book helped me better understand and teach the why. It also helped me help others with the how. Maybe another blog, but sleep is one of the most powerful topics for students in our class. Yes, they can put their phones down. Soapbox: I really wish teams would invest in sleep beyond just getting someone to do a one-off session. If you have an interest in chatting more about how, please reach out.

*Quiet:  The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain

What's Stuck: This one is probably a bit more personal than most of the others. I'm an introvert, and it's something I'd grown up feeling bad about. I blame you, Myers-Briggs. All of your questions made extroverts seem cool and fun, and introverts like we are some sort of alien lifeform. This book gave me such a greater understanding of what it means to be an introvert. I also read it in a time where I was burning myself out doing sessions all day, all week, at school, and then spending all day on Saturday with a college baseball team. I'd spend all day on Sunday feeling hungover, sans the night full of stories the night before. It's a great book for all you coaches who have been told you have to be "outgoing" to have an impact.

*Meetings Matter:  8 Powerful Strategies for Remarkable Conversations, by Paul Axtell

What's Stuck: As the subtitle (how long are these subtitles, by the way?) suggests, the book is about more than meetings. That said, one takeaway from me was trying to shift how I viewed meetings. In school, like many other places, I'm sure, they can feel pointless pretty often. So many of us view meetings from the perspective of, "What can this meeting do for me?" The book challenged me to flip that to, "What can I bring to this meeting? How can I help others?" I'm not there all the time, but it's been helpful. Beyond that, there are countless learnings and a good sampling of small activities to help your group be better at meetings and with communication as a whole.

*Give and Take:  Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant

What's Stuck: Individually, the book made me reflect on who I am in the spectrum of givers, matchers, and takers. Something else I remember, which you may get if you're in an earlier phase of your career, was feeling bad about reaching out to others for help. Especially with a matcher mindset, it was frustrating not to feel able to do anything to give back to those offering time and wisdom. The book made me realize my giving did not have to be so direct. Doing other things to help others was just as, if not more, important. The concept of being a giver and still achieving success has been crucial for helping student-athlete leaders at our school as well.

*Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

What's Stuck: The main concept of the book has stayed with me. I try to start with why in almost any presentation or project of any kind. I've found it helps others understand the importance of what we are about to do or discuss. It's also been helpful to me to remember the point of the project. Sounds simple, but I think we can often drift from purpose and get focused on other things. Getting back to the why helps significantly.

*Range:  Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein

What's Stuck: One professional and one individual here. Professionally, the book made me think about education differently. It discussed how school was really more about learning to follow procedures than actual learning of concepts pretty often. Wow. The book was right and made me challenge myself to help students and athletes explore more instead of following a prescriptive path. Individually, my interests have shifted multiple times. I'm now in a degree program that, on the surface level, would not seem to align with what I've been working towards. In my Twitter profile, I joke about being an inefficient degree collector.  At times, I'd questioned myself with these shifts and how they were impacting my effectiveness. The book helped me better appreciate what I was doing and understand how the range was actually helping me with whatever I do.

*Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, by Herminia Ibarra

What's Stuck: Authenticity is one of my three core values. It's important to be that I can be myself. This book really challenged me to view authenticity differently. For example, I'd have viewed being authentic as sticking to myself whenever our faculty gets together in a large group. "That's just who I am." Ibarra said that authenticity is less about certain behaviors and more about being authentic with our values. My number one value is having a positive impact. To have the impact I hope for at our school, that means in situations with larger groups, I need to talk with people and see how they're doing, even if I don't feel like it. Understanding that is being authentic has helped me, and it's helped some of our more "lead-by-example" student leaders.  Plus, as Insight taught me, I can go back to my portable and take some time to myself right after!

*The Fearless Organization:  Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, by Amy Edmondson

What's Stuck: Psychological safety is the most important characteristic of a high-performing culture that you probably either aren't creating or aren't creating as well as you could. So much of psychological safety has helped drive the environment I hope to create in classes and work with teams/groups. I'll tell you about one. In psychologically safe cultures, people admit mistakes that are made. I want any group I'm a part of to do the same, and I've found modeling to be one of the best ways to help create that. If I make a mistake, I let them know and let them know the adjustment I'll make moving forward due to what I'd learned. That's it.

*The Power of Moments:  Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact, by Chip and Dan Heath

What's Stuck: The big impact this book gave me was a better understanding of exactly what the title says. Doing so made me realize the value of creating the opportunity for moments that are a little more impactful. Sure, I know that the real way to being a better performer is to embrace the boring consistently. Good luck keeping a group motivated with that. I've learned, not only is it okay to do that activity that may not look like textbook learning from the outside looking it, but it's likely going to be what students remember more than the daily routine. Plus, who cares what it looks like from the outside looking in? In the words of Donovan Mitchell...

Happy Birthday to You!, by Dr. Seuss

What's Stuck: While certainly not on the same academic level as the other books on the list, there is a lot of power in simplicity. This book provided my favorite quote and helped inspire my purpose of helping empower others to help themselves perform and enjoy revolves around: Be you. It's certainly stuck with me, and I've had the great pleasure of seeing it benefit others as well. Here's the full quote:

Learning Development in Sports: The Continued Progression of an Idea

           About a year and a half ago I wrote about an idea for a position of Coaching and Learning Development Coordinator.  In addition, I wrote up a proposal for the position and sent it to about 25 baseball organizations.  I got a few really cool noes.  A couple of teams called to thank me, and one general manager wrote a really nice letter.  Mostly, it got ignored (insert shrug emoji).  Well, a lot has changed over the last year and a half.  For starters, the baseball world is completely different as a result of COVID.  Organizational staffs have been cut because of loss in revenue and minor league contraction.  From an individual perspective, my view of the position has shifted as well because of conversations, experience, and learning more from my degree program.  Something that hasn't changed is the thought that coaching and learning development are essential to any organization that hopes to be its best.  With that, here are some thoughts.

           A year ago, the idea for the role was to focus on coaches.  I wrote about different groups of coaches and their great importance in player development.  While I still think that is the case, I think focusing solely on coaches limits the position.  More importantly, it does not create a learning organization.  It creates a silo of learning.  For a learning organization to exist, there needs to be an emphasis on continued improvement for all in the organization.  That emphasis means expanding the idea of learning development coordinator to help other staff as well.  I'm aware of some mental skills coaches within organizations doing some really cool work to help in the area.  In my opinion, although commendable, helping to foster a learning organization is a full-time job.  That's not a knock on the mental coaches and what they're doing.  It's more just a recognition of all that goes into learning and development.  As of now, I know of one organization that has two people in full-time learning development roles.  Their titles are Learning Development Coordinators, and they work across the organization.  In my opinion, positions like those should be expected rather than the exception.

           One shift for me has been in the approach of the position idea.  Last year, I didn't share a great amount of detail in the blog, but the actual proposal centered around different initiatives and services provided.  An example was to help coaches create individualized coaching development plans.  The idea comes from two very different areas.  The first is pro baseball and hearing about how organizations have meetings with minor league players (I think at the end of a year typically) with various staff to help create a plan for players' offseason development.  The second is our school's teaching and learning coach.  Instead of there being one meeting at the end of the year, she meets with teachers at different points of the school year.  The multiple meetings provide chances to check in, celebrate successes, and alter plans.  It's good coaching and another chance to remind everyone to get outside their niche to learn.  Although I think the plans are a good idea, I've realized jumping to initiatives first is backwards.  What needs to happen first is determining need. 

            Prior to hiring someone full-time, the first thing an organization could want to do is see where they currently are in learning and development and, at least as importantly, decide where learning and development fits into the organization as a whole.  Something I've learned, the hard way, is an idea's quality is only as good as how it fits into the organization as a whole.  A project that fits into the way of the organization, part of  working towards something bigger than the project itself, has a chance.  One that doesn't fit is like sewing on an extra arm to the body of the organization.  No matter how strong that arm is, isn't going to work if it doesn't connect with the "brain" (culture) of the organization.  Eventually it'll wither up and be useless.  Looking at what currently exists and for potential need would mean a variety of methods of collecting data.  Surveys could be used to get a lot of feedback quickly.  Undoubtedly, there would need to be a lot of conversations with people across different departments (individual interviews, informal discussion, focus groups are all possibilities).  Some questions for those in leadership:  What do you do to help staff learn?  To help them improve?  How does it work?  What kind of feedback have you gotten?  How does it fit into the goals and values of the organization?  How do you show value for people improving?  What do you have to show it's been helpful?  What would you do differently if you could?  What would make it better?  You get the idea.  For coaches and others:  How have you gotten better in the last year?  How do you know?  What do you do to continue learning?  What does the organization do to help?  How does the organization show it values staff working to improve?  What's the most helpful thing the organization has done to help you improve?  What's something you wish it could do?  Again, you get the idea.  Regardless of the methods chosen, something that is really key when you're getting feedback is to explain to people why you're getting it and how it's going to be used.  This helps them understand the feedback is to help the organization, shows you value them, and also helps with organic buy-in when they see the feedback being used.  It also helps the likelihood of any initiatives being successful and sustainable moving forward on multiple fronts.  Sounds like a lot of work, right?  It is.  Maybe they should just hire a learning and development coordinator to do it- ha!

             There's certainly a lot more that would go into helping to create an improved organization of learning and development, but the initial steps provide a start I hope you can resonate with regardless of your role in whatever you currently do.  Finding the blend of action to start and having purpose behind the action itself is something I'd guess we are all still trying to figure out.  Once you think you do, you'll likely be humbled.  All part of being a lifelong learner.

- Ben

3 Questions to Consider for Your Year as a Learner

           There's a quote from Ray Dalio that goes, "If you don't look back on yourself and think, 'Wow how stupid I was a year ago,' then you must not have learned much in the last year."  There's so much to like about the quote.  For starters, I think the ego can often prevent us from developing as coaches and leaders.  "If I subscribe to this new way, it means admitting I've been doing it wrong for all these years."  Well, yes, and no.  There is no "right" when it comes to personal mastery.  There's only getting it as close to right as we can.  That is a continual process.  To change simply means you've found a way to evolve to a better "close to right."  My measuring stick for a book involves being able to answer three questions affirmatively:

*Does it reinforce something I already do/think? I know I just mentioned ego, but it's nice to know smart people I just spent $20 on agree with some of what I believe and/or do.  As an example, I can remember reading Harvey Dorfman's work when I was just getting started learning about the mental side of performance and feeling empowered when my thoughts aligned with this legend in the field.

*Does it give me something new?  I want something to be excited about trying or taking in another direction.  An example was after I read Creativity, Inc., we implemented The Braintrust idea with our girls soccer team.  Without going into too much detail, it allowed for a lot more player voice in what we did.

*Does it make me question something I do/think?  I want something that checks the ego.  Make me ask if there's a different way I haven't considered.  An example that comes to mind comes from Insight.  Before reading, my favorite question was "why."  Insight taught me "why" can actually lead us to getting stuck, at times, and a variation of "how" can be much more helpful in shaping action moving forward.

           Anyway, I think my book questions can apply to our overall experience as learners and livers.  So often, we tend to keep going on the hamster wheel of the process, with our eyes on the prize, chopping wood and carrying water, that we miss out.  We miss out on a blending of opportunities to celebrate and appreciate.  Celebrate the successes we have had.  Enjoy the lessons learned.  Both are there in every experience if we care to look.  The beginning of a new year will bring an onslaught of ways to be a "new you."  While I appreciate the challenge to grow, before you kick the unwelcomed guest that has been 2020 out the door, look at how you've grown from its stay.  Hopefully, you find yourself thinking you were stupid a year ago and appreciate the journey that's led you to that thought.  It means you're better, and those you serve are better for it as well.

- Ben

A snippet of my answers to measuring stick questions for 2020:

*Did it reinforce something I already do/think?  Yes.  In many ways.  An example of this was in our High Performance Educators group I recently wrote about.  I already thought those of us in education could benefit from mental performance coaching.  I still feel that way, thanks to everyone who participated in our group.

*Did it give me something new?  Yes.  Again, in many ways.  As teachers, we've had to challenge ourselves to do things differently.  I actually think that's been really good for me.  Without going into too much detail, I've changed my approach to teaching our sport/performance psych class and how content is delivered.  The latter has been through making short videos.  It's challenged me to simplify, which is helpful for any of us.  I'll still use elements of this new way whenever we get back to some normalcy.  

*Did it make me question something I do/think?  Yes.  Once more, in many ways.  Probably the most important that comes to mind is courtesy of some wise words from my mom.  We talked about the upcoming school and sports year back in August, and I was sharing my anxiety about how we wouldn't be able to do things the ideal way.  Her message was to let myself let go of ideal for the year and just do the best I can.  It made me think of the legendary Dr. Ken Ravizza's, "Have a good shitty day."  What she's said has really helped me through a good shitty year, and I'm grateful for the recalibration.

High Performance Educators 2.0

             Sport psychology isn't just for athletes.  It's really performance psychology, and we're all performers, one way or another.  That's one of the things I most value about the position I have at our high school.  As much as I love sports, my role and experience would be incomplete without everything else I get to do.  I've spent time with academic classes (every level- self-contained through AP), performing arts groups (choir, band, dance, theater), and a random assortment of others (student government, tech and learning coaches, teachers, rifle team).  The time has led to some of my favorite connections with others at our school and has allowed me to learn from being a guest in their cultures (What can I say?  I'm an anthropologist.).  If you're a coach and only learning from other coaches in your sport, you're missing out on great opportunities to improve yourself and your team.  I'm a better mental coach, teacher, and person for all I've crossed paths with.  The role and environment we have at our school also allow me to "just do it."  If I have an idea, I'll run it by our principal or athletic director, but I don't think I've ever been told, "No."  I value that freedom and support quite a bit.  One such idea was to work with a group of staff, and I'd like to give you a glimpse into why we did it, how it was set up, and what we did.

             About 3 years ago, we did a High Performance Teachers group.  It went really well overall but became a program that didn't make the cut for me moving forward for where my time and efforts would best be invested.  One of the most common  pieces of feedback I got from that group was how they enjoyed getting together with other teachers in a low-pressure environment and sharing their experiences. This shared learning was one of my favorite elements, as well.  Over and over, I've learned mental coaching, done well, is a two-way flow of knowledge.  In the past spring, however, COVID hit our school and turned it upside down.  Colleagues shared that one of the most challenging aspects of the experience was missing the connection with others.  We no longer had the stop-and-chats in the hallways, the lines to the copier, or the lunches in the breakroom.  And we missed it.  Coupled with a never-ending feeling of needing to do more, the lack of connection was an opportunity.  The "why" of the group was born.  We'd do a High Performance Educators (wanted to expand it to be more inclusive of any staff).  The purpose would be to provide staff a chance to connect with others and learn about performance elements that'd help them perform and enjoy.  

            Next, the "how" was going to be really important.  We were virtual at the start of the year so the meetings would take place on zoom.  One of the most critical steps in the process was, after sending an email to see who was interested, getting feedback on what participants wanted.  I think that's important with any group you work with as a coach or consultant.  It's essential in working with adults.  They don't want to be told what to do, and that's a significant shortcoming of many professional development initiatives.  Using the feedback, I decided we'd meet every other week.  We initially had about 35 people say they were interested, so I split them into two "teams."  Something a few people mentioned in pre-planning was how they liked knowing ahead of time what to think about to be prepared for a session.  Others mentioned wanting ways to participate outside of the live sessions.  From both of those ideas, I created a Slack group.  A few days before sessions, I'd send the topic and two to three questions to contemplate and share thoughts.  This was helpful early on and led to some fun interactions.  Unfortunately, it fizzled out once we were back at school.  Slack was blocked by our district for some reason.  The help provided at the beginning was still well worth it.

            The last important element of the how was the plan and setup for the sessions.  The topics were based on feedback from the staff who showed interest, and I decided on the theme of "Control What You Can Control:  And How to Do It."  "Control what you can control" is such a buzz phrase in coaching, but it falls short, in my opinion.  We need help with how to control what we can control.  Also, my coaching why is, "Empowering others to perform and enjoy."  There was a fit.  A lesson learned over the years is if you don't feel like the work will allow you to be who you are as a mental coach, it's likely not going to go well for you or those you're hoping to help.  The sessions' actual setup involved wanting to blend opportunities for participants to share with each other and provide relevant applicable info.  In the feedback I'd gotten from our original HPT group a couple years ago, 23/24 responses were all super positive.  This made me feel good.  One was pretty scathingly negative.  After getting over my, "Well, why the hell did you keep coming if you thought it was so bad?" amygdala-triggered response, I realized the person made points worthy of consideration.  They'd felt the topics were too obvious and didn't give enough specifics about implementing them in the classroom.  This made me better.  With that feedback and continued learning over the years in mind, I really wanted to deliver and stay true to who I am and what I believe.  I tried to include tangible ways and activities to apply the learning before, during, and after our sessions.

              So, what did we do?  We ended up with seven sessions throughout the fall.  The topics were An Intro to the Program/Your Why, Self-Awareness, Values, Confidence, Stress, Communication, and Process.  All relate to the general idea that the more we understand and take responsibility for ourselves, the more we "control what we can control."  In total, probably about 28 people ended up attending at least one session.  There were around 12 who made it to just about every session.  As much as I'd have loved for everyone who signed up to make every session, the reality of the fall made that unrealistic.  I actually built into the description of the group that any level of participation was welcomed because I really didn't want people to feel like they had to do it.  The smaller groups actually ended up being one of the most common positives in feedback afterward.  People appreciated the chance to get to know the group members more.  That wouldn't have happened with larger groups--a great lesson learned to file away.  I really tried to mix things up as much as possible while keeping some of a basic structure.  We had activities, scenarios, video clips, and even a guest instructor for our stress session. Thanks to my good friend Zach Brandon for that.  I ended up needing to wait an extra week after his so people would forget how great he was so it wasn't a letdown to get back to me!  

            Now, to what is really most important.  What did participants think?  I decided to send a request for feedback to those I knew came at least somewhat regularly.  Should I have sent it to everyone?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I felt like if they came to at least two or three, they'd have enough of a feel for what we did that it'd be helpful to hear from them.  In all, that meant seventeen people, and sixteen responded.  Participants had the option to share their name or not.  I let them know it was to help me reflect on the fall and plan potential next steps forward.  Of those who responded, the feedback was very positive.  Here's a summary:

Did you learn from coming to the sessions?  100% Yes

Did you enjoy the sessions?  100% Yes

Did the sessions help your performance in any way as a teacher?  100% Yes

Did the sessions allow you to enjoy what you do a little more as a teacher?  100% Yes

Did the sessions allow you to feel a little more connected with colleagues?  100% Yes

Did the sessions help with navigating the uncertainty of the fall?  75% Yes, 25% No

Would you recommend other teachers attend sessions similar to these?  100% Yes

Would you be interested in more sessions at some point in the future?  100% Yes

            There was a time where I'd apologize for posting positive feedback like that.  Now, I'm mostly just grateful.  I'm grateful to teachers investing so much time in something extra.  I'm not an administrator.  There was no offer of continuing education credits or certifications.  Attending meant more on their plates, not less.  These teachers came because they wanted to be there.  That means a lot, and I think it's an important element of adult learning.  I'm also grateful for all I learned from the educators who took part.  Getting to sit back and listen to how these elite educators apply the concepts we talked about was cool.  I found myself wanting to listen more and more.  Finally, I'm grateful the sessions went well.  A lot of time and effort went into them.  The group was reflective of far more than the last few months.  It makes me feel good knowing experiences, both purposeful and random, allowed for creating something to help other people.  Plus, it was fun.

            Finally, where do we go from here?  My hope is we do more.  When I say we, I mean we as the fields of education and mental performance.  It's no secret there is a real crisis when it comes to teacher recruitment and retainment.  The past ten months did not create the problem, but, like so many others, it's magnified the issue.  I have grown in realizing the importance of people in political positions of influence (sorry for being late to that party).  I think expecting more from them will only be helpful over time if it's blended with helping teachers to better help themselves.  That is where mental performance comes in.  Educators are elite high performers.  Consistency and understanding what makes us good are requirements, not luxuries.  We need support and coaching.  Teachers need to better understand ourselves and how we perform.  More schools need to be willing to take a chance on doing something different..  In reflecting on some of the other ways districts have spent on professional development in the past, I think it's a chance well worth taking.

A New Kind of Blog: Background and Intro to Learning Organizations

        

             A Little Context:  At the beginning of the year I decided to embark on a new journey by starting an EdD program in Performance Improvement Leadership.  There were a couple of main reasons for the decision.  One is I just genuinely love to learn.  As much as I like to think I'm self-driven as a learner, I think it's important to acknowledge most of us could always use some help.  For me, it's about the direction being part of a degree program offers.  Having assignments that demand the application of knowledge is valuable.  A second reason I started the program is I think it'll help me to help others.  At our school and in my work as a mental performance coach overall I've been a part of some innovative projects.  There has been a pattern, however, of time invested to get the projects started, things going really well, and then eventually getting stuck because I can't continue the time investment with other responsibilities.  Then, the projects just kind of fizzle out instead of making a continued impact.  The methods I'm learning in Performance Improvement Leadership will help us to not get stuck.  An extra reason I decided to pursue the degree, if I'm honest, is a little bit of an ego.  Completing the degree and being a "Dr,"- not the real kind, no, but the one who spends a lot of money to learn- would mean a lot.  Anyway, the reason I think it's important to let you know about my journey is I'm going to try to get back to writing.  This time the blog will look a bit different though.  Rather than just focusing on mental performance, you'll get me- a blend of mental performance, performance improvement leadership, teacher, coach, and aspiring human being.  I think I'm at my best with the blend, and I hope you find it useful.  Without further ado, let's get to it.

 

                                                      Intro to Learning Organizations

 

              Most of us want the groups we're part of to do as well as possible.  If you're a coach, you want your team to win.  If you're a teacher, you want to have a great school.  If you work in the business world, you want the business to make lots of money.  You get the picture.  For great organizations, it isn't just about doing well for a short period of time.  It's building to do well over the long-haul.  The world is in such a fast-moving time that new becomes old at an increasingly rapid pace.  This makes sustained success all the more challenging.  That's where creating a learning organization comes in.  In learning organizations, there isn't an end goal.  Don't worry.  They don't ignore results.  What they do is continually look to adapt, expand capacity, and find new ways of thinking as a way to create those results.  It's basically "Be You" as a group.  Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline is all about the five elements of a learning organization.  Below are short descriptions of the elements and examples of how they may relate to you:

 1. Systems Thinking- Systems thinking is basically the understanding that everything and everyone is connected.  Within teams, it's realizing how every part impacts the whole.  There is a concept of shared responsibility where instead of blaming other people when things go wrong people think about their role and what they can do to help.  

Example:  A baseball player is struggling with their hitting.  It'd be easy to just blame the player.  "He can't do it."  Systems thinking ignores blame and, again, shares responsibility.  Maybe it's a mechanical flaw to be worked on with the hitting coach?  Maybe something is going on mentally that can be talked about with a mental skills coach?  Perhaps a movement issue that can be addressed within the weight room?  You get the picture.  A learning organization would look at all of the ways possible to support the player in hopes of helping the player improve.  Note:  I'm not saying they would help the player make all of those adjustments at once.  They'd just be part of the conversation before a next step is made.

 

2. Personal Mastery-  "Organizations learn only through individuals who learn," is one of my favorite quotes from Senge.  Personal mastery is all about growth and learning.  Similar to the learning organization, there is no destination.  

Example:  There are several characteristics of people who approach personal mastery.  One is they learn to work with change instead of against it.  COVID has brought with it, along with the obvious other much more important issues, great change in the way school works.  There's a noticeable difference in mindset amongst teachers and how they're approaching it.  Some, while of course not happy with it, have been able to adjust and find cool new ways to teach with technology.  Others have clung to the idea that "This isn't teaching."  Which would you rather learn from?

 

3. Mental Models- Mental models are how our image of how the world works.  It's our familiar thinking and acting.  Our mental models are largely what determine our actions.  Our mental models are based on our experience so they're forever incomplete.  We all have what are called implicit mental models that are below our awareness.  Learning organizations work to help people unearth those models by digging a bit with open dialogue and questions.

Example:  An assistant basketball coach goes to the head coach with an idea to change up practice a bit by working more on end-of-game situations.  Rather than just shutting the idea down, the head coach asks to hear more.  "What is it that led you to that idea?"   Then, the assistant has an opportunity to share.  If it's something flimsy, no dice.  If there's more substance, maybe there is a change.  Maybe there isn't.  What that simple question does is demands substance for the idea.  That's something we want.

 

4. Building a Shared Vision- Shared vision is pretty straightforward but difficult.  It's building something that is "ours" for the future.  There's a sense of shared responsibility for something bigger than any individual.  Learning organizations value personal visions and even use them to create a shared vision of the group.  Want buy-in?  Make people feel valued.

Example:  A soccer team has a group meeting to determine what vision they'll have for a season.  Rather than it coming top-down from the manager (head coach), each individual player is asked to reflect about and then share what she's hoping for the year.  After hearing everyone, common themes emerge.  Together, the group decides on a vision.  Likely everyone feels part of the vision.  It could be with specific words or just the idea of being heard.  Either way, it's a powerful force to drive the action forward.

 

5. Team Learning- Team learning is about making the most of a team.  There is a popular saying in coaching (I'll go with baseball/softball here, but use your sport's version), "I'm not going to play the best nine players.  I'm going to play the nine players that are the best together."  Team learning is taking whatever "players" you have and getting them to be the best they can be together.  One element of team learning is helping people to recognize their defensive routines.  This is when we protect our views and the reasoning behind them.

 Example:  "I don't know.  That's just the way I've always done it."  If we're being honest, we've probably all said it at one point or another.  Maybe it was how we were coached.  Or how the first head coach we'd coached with done things.  Whatever the reason, it's difficult to question what we do.  To do so can be viewed as a threat to our experience.  We have to look past that if we really want to learn with the group.  Getting it right takes precedence over being right.

 

             Those are really far too simplistic explanations of the five elements of learning organizations.  If you're ambitious, I'd encourage you to check out the book.  If you're not, I'm sure there are plenty of videos and articles that talk about them further as well.  Let's be honest.  If you've made it this far, you've got at least some ambition in you.  Challenge yourself to reflect on your team.  Which elements do you think you do well?  Which could you do better?  What is it that leads you to that conclusion?  See what I did, there?  You'll be better for the reflection.  More importantly, your team may take the first step to be a true learning organization.

Who is a 1st Rounder?

        The MLB Draft took place about a month ago.  Much of what we read and see about the players drafted centers around their physical skills- hitting ability, fastball velocity, spin rates, exit velo, etc.  Unsurprisingly, the top round is littered with highly skilled players.  But who are these players?  Who are they beyond the metrics?  Scouts, player development staff, mental skills coaches, and others do a deep dive into the character of the players leading up to the draft.  Not a lot is specifically written about the topic, but we know it can factor into the decisions made by organizations.  With that, I came up with the idea of looking up articles on each of the 2020 first-rounders to see if there were common themes.  Here's how it worked.

         I initially searched for articles about each player on The Athletic.  For some players, there were solid articles.  For a couple, there were even more than one.  Others did not have much of anything so I also did a Google search.  Sometimes I would add the word "makeup" or one of the player's coach's names to see if I could find comments about them.  This was hardly a study with validity or reliability at all.  Just want to be clear about that.  While reading the articles any time there was a comment from a coach, scout, or scouting director about the player I put the basic terms into a spreadsheet.  When I was done I looked through the spreadsheet and created a master list of every term used.  Close terms like "desire," "passion," and "motivated" were combined into one.  This resulted in about sixty different terms or term groupings on the master list.  Next, I tried to group them into categories.  Hardly scientific again, but I came up with the following:  General Personality, Preparation/Motivation, Learning/Growth, Performance, Teammate, and Other.

        Finally, I looked to see which on the list came up the most often.  I divided common traits into three groups.  *** traits came up with ten or more players.  ** traits came up with seven to nine players.  * traits were common in four to six players.  Here they are listed with the themed category as well.  The number of players referenced is in parenthesis:

*** Traits:
Preparation/Motivation:
Desire/passion/motivated/drive to be the best/determined/devoted (11)
Focused/purpose driven/meticulous/present/diligent (10)
Hard worker/work ethic (15)
Performance:
Competitive (13)

** Traits:
Preparation/Motivation:
Routine/process/prepared/has a plan (7)
Performance:
Confidence (9)
Loves the big game/moment/stage/spotlight/rises to the occasion (7)
Teammate:
Leader (8)
Other:
Influence of parents/great family (7)

* Traits:
General Personality:
Great kid/good person (5)
Makeup (4)
Mature (4)
Preparation/Motivation:
Tries to improve/looks for ways to improve/never satisfied/maximizes opportunities (6)
Learning/Growth:
Tries new things/dives into change/makes adjustments/coachable (5)
Asks questions/curious (4)
Self-aware/knows self (5)
Performance:
Moxie/poised/even-keeled/nothing fazes (5)
Teammate:
Helps teammates/pushes teammates/makes others better (4)

        So what does any of this actually mean?  Maybe nothing.  I can't drive home enough the lack of scientific value this process gives.  At the same time, it's clear there are common traits that most coaches would want players to have regardless of their first round ability or the scientific value of the list.  I happen to think each can be developed as well.  I also think the ability for organizations to get a solid grasp of players' having some of these traits can help in decision-making and in their development if chosen.  Just opinions for sure.  Speaking of opinions, there were several players who stood out to me based on the traits mentioned.  Below they're listed along with the traits used to describe.  Asa Lacy and Ed Howard were by far my two favorites.  The others are not in any particular order:

Asa Lacy:  attentive, loves to learn, passion, soaks up info, intuitive, curious, purpose-driven, student of the game

Ed Howard:  winner, great person, humble, confident, good teammate, worker, great family, mature, character, resilient, leader, competitor, going to love him, loves the big moment, enjoys it

Bryce Jarvis: wants to learn everything, into building self, meticulous, know self, maximizes opportunities to improve, incredible competitor, has earned it, loves the big stage, work ethic, accountable, process, helped teammates get better

Nick Gonzales:  hard worker, family influence, prove others wrong, competitive, compassion, motivated, wants it, obsessed, loves to work, heart, great kid

Zac Veen:  internal obsession, looks for ways to get better, routine, determined, wants big moment, works hard, asks questions

Mick Abel:  self-aware, purposeful, drive, good person, no red flags, diligent

Austin Martin (Wild Card- he had a unique list):  free spirit, confidence, loud, competitive, helps teammates, leader, hates to lose, great feel for others, pushes teammates, wants to help team

*This list was really hard.  Another 5-7 really stood out as well.  Some I liked more because of other aspects of what was said about them than the specific list of traits themselves.  Interestingly, there was one player that I could not find anything about as far as makeup goes.  This was kind of bizarre.

        How about some takeaways?  The first, for me, was how little your personality matters.  Traits that I would consider general personality didn't make it until the * list, and really the only specific characteristic was maturity.  The two big separators seem to be preparation and approach to performance.  This is not any shock at all, but there are hints peppered in the traits to help really anyone to improve their craft.  From a personal standpoint, I found myself favoring a lot of the college players in making the list of players who stood out to me.  This makes sense because they have had longer to develop as people and are in a different developmental stage as a whole.  One more finding that was interesting was the influence of parents and family members.  Parents were mentioned as being really supportive, being role models, and helping their kids to develop.  Overwhelmingly, the kids were the driving force though.  No labs for creating first rounders were discussed.  One really cool specific mention was Nick Yorke was taught how to hit by his mom who was an All-American softball player.  Anyway, this is just something I felt like doing for fun, but it makes me curious about doing a deeper dive and seeing what is out there.  I hope you enjoyed reading and welcome any feedback or thoughts you may have.

All the best.

- Ben

A Missing Link in Player Development: A Position Idea

        It's been said that "player development is the new Moneyball."  More and more teams are investing increasing amounts of resources in the area.  Soon to be behind us are the "sink or swim" days of players either making it or not.  While there is still much to be said for talent acquisition, teams are using resources to help with talent development as well.  Those resources are seen in areas like strength and conditioning, mental skills and mental health, nutrition, analytics, and technology.  They're being implemented from the Major League level all the way down to the Dominican Academy level.  Some organizations even work to create individualized plans for player development based on current skills and needs.  It is an exciting time for the sport.  With that, I think a majority of teams are overlooking a missing link in player development investment.  It is a facet of development that has been around since the beginning of sports and, although ever-evolving, will be involved in sports for as long as they're being played.  The missing link is coaching, specifically here coaching development.  Coaches are the ones who, beyond the players themselves, have the greatest potential impact in the organization on a daily basis.  Who is helping them to develop?  That's where the position idea of Coaching and Learning Development Coordinator comes in.

        The role of the Coaching and Learning Development Coordinator would be implemented to help coaches to grow.  In my opinion, you can split coaches into three general categories.  There is a small group in one category.  They are stuck in their ways and largely do things because "That's the way I did it when I played," or, "That's the way I was taught, and I turned out just fine."  These coaches do not do much of anything to continue to grow their knowledge.  With a largely fixed mindset, they see their role as imparting what they know.  While they certainly can have value, it's limited by their unwillingness to adapt to sports and people who are ever-evolving.  There is a small group in a second category as well.  These coaches are self-motivated and very good at directing their own learning.  They tend to be self-aware and attack areas for improvement.  Coaches in this level are good at not just learning but implementing what they learn in their work with players.  They know what they want to learn, know where to learn about it, and know how to use what they learn.  Finally, there is a third category I'd argue is the largest.  This third group wants to learn and get better for players, but they may struggle with how.  They would benefit from help focusing on what to improve, where to find resources to help them, and/or how to know if they are actually improving.  That's where the Coaching and Learning Development Coordinator comes in.  The Coordinator would not be there to tell coaches how to coach but to guide the coaches along the path to their own personal development.  In reality, all coaches would benefit regardless of what category they may fall into.  We all could use support in our learning.  Quality learning organizations in other fields from business to education are implementing these positions already.  There are sports and teams around the world with similar roles as well.  Baseball should be next.

        While I don't feel comfortable sharing all of the details for the position on a public blog post, it's something I've marinated on for almost a year.  The Coaching and Learning Development Coordinator would work with coaches on a group and individual level to help provide the support for their development.  If you develop the developers, you're going to have a better chance of then helping to maximize the growth of players as well.  Better teachers lead to better students.  From what I have heard, there are a handful of teams or so doing something.  There are seminars.  Good start, but a seminar once a year is going to be limited in impact.  There are mental skills coaches helping coaches.  Love it, but this spreads the people in these positions pretty thin.  Time spent with coaches comes with a trade-off of less time with players.  There are opportunities to attend conferences and learn from training facilities.  Again, good stuff but impact will be limited.  All of these initiatives are commendable, but a full time investment in the support of the develop of coaches with continual, individualized support would take learning to another level.  You don't have players attend a hitting camp and think that will suffice for all of their work for the year.  You help them take what is learned and apply on a daily basis.  Learning would take place from coach to coach and would take advantage of the variety of knowledge and experience within an organization.  A culture of growth would be enhanced.

        For now, it's pipe dream, but it's one I think is worthy.   We all could benefit from focused support with our learning.  Hopefully there comes a day where it's not a question of whether an organization has a Coaching Development Coordinator but how many.

- Ben