The best teams have already intentionally done all the preseason work… Team Covenants are established and taught… Performance and relationship standards have been clarified and defined. Individual players and coaches have had their commitment ceremony… The schedule is set, the first practices are mapped out and about to begin and now the first turning point of the season is right in front of you.
The ten steps to building a culture on purpose, not by accident → (in the library)
The challenges start in the first days
They may seem small at first but they are there. The standards are getting tested. A player is late, two are talking during instructions, another is letting the standard for effort slip and beginning to coast, a senior is being disrespectful to an underclassman, a correction is saved for later and later never comes, a coach or player gets upset and uses profanity…etc.
The turning point for your season could be RIGHT NOW!
What will you stop practice for to address? What behaviors do you let slip without correction? How far will you let effort decline before you say something? Are these real standards or just suggestions?
A standard is what you are willing to stop practice for at an early stage.
Bruce on commitment: the five levels, and what you are actually asking them to commit to → (10 minutes, and open on the free trial)
The first time a standard is broken is the test that matters most
Every player is watching what you do, not what you posted. The first violation is not an interruption of your culture work — it is the culture work, and it is the single highest-leverage ninety seconds of your season.
The Proactive Coaching piece on confrontation puts the mechanics simply: make sure everyone knows what happens when an absolute is broken, and then follow through the first time and every time. State the absolutes in the positive — “we are always truthful” rather than “we never lie” — so the team is moving toward something. What breaks a culture is not strictness. It is random enforcement, and the favoritism people read into it.
This week
- Repeat your non-negotiables out loud at the next practice, only the ones you will stop for
- Correct the first violation the same day, in front of the team, without anger… calm truth
- Hold the same line for your best player that you held for your last one, on the same day if you can
- Confront the behavior, not the person
- Don’t let the standards just become words written on the wall of the locker room.
By not confronting a violation you send a message of acceptance and the culture starts to erode immediately.
How far you will let a behavior slip and when and how you are going to confront it is a decision you must make and rehearse before any violation occurs.
“A returning starter broke a team standard in week one. How do I handle it without losing him?” You handle it early, in the open, and without heat. The purpose is to change the behavior and maintain the relationship, keep everyone accountable and keep the team moving forward, together in the same direction.
What to do when someone will not buy in, and how to disarm defiance → (in the library)
Know a coach whose season starts this week? Please forward this along — to a coach, or to your athletic director. It lands better coming from a friend.
— Proactive Coaching