
As a coach, you want to be successful and do all you can to achieve positive outcomes. However, sometimes you unknowingly block your team’s success.
Providing Insights on Leadership and Success. Coach Bechler is a John Maxwell Leadership Team Member.

As a coach, you want to be successful and do all you can to achieve positive outcomes. However, sometimes you unknowingly block your team’s success.

SPECIAL GUEST POST FROM DAN CHRISTENSEN
Every coach wants to know the same thing going into an interview:
“What actually separates candidates?”
Not in theory. Not in a generic “be yourself” sense.
But in real search rooms…what do Athletic Directors actually notice?
As part of our recent national coaching search study at Bechler Leadership, we asked Athletic Directors a simple but revealing question:
“What have candidates done to stand out during the interview process?”
Their answers were consistent, and instructive.
While many things matter in a search, three themes rose clearly above the rest.

The legendary football coach George Allen was the first to say, “What you do during the offseason determines what you do during the regular season.”
Success during the regular season doesn’t just happen because we want it to. Wishing is not a strategy.
Whatever we want for our athletes, coaching staff, or team during the regular season must be built in the offseason. Games and matches might be contested during the regular season, but athletes and teams are made in the offseason.

SPECIAL GUEST POST FROM DAN CHRISTENSEN
There’s a hard truth in the college athletics hiring process that many coaches underestimate:
You are being evaluated long before the interview.
In fact, based on our recent study of Athletic Directors, many candidates never even make it to that stage, not because of experience, but because of what shows up (or doesn’t show up) in their resume and cover letter.
This isn’t about perfection. It’s about signals.
And right now, too many candidates are sending the wrong ones.

You’re a coach, which means you have a position of leadership. However, keep in mind that just because you have a business card, plaque on your office door, or embroidered shirts saying “coach” doesn’t mean you are a good leader. There are plenty of politicians, CEOs, administrators, and yes, even coaches that aren’t maximizing the leadership potential of their positions.
Your status as a coach provides you a tremendous opportunity and starting point to make a positive impact on people. Leadership isn’t about positions or status, but about influence. Anyone can be a leader because anyone can have influence. However, you have a head start because you have power, status, and authority. You have a built-in platform and opportunity to use your power for good … or for bad.