Developing a Player-Led Team

As a coach, you can’t be around everyone 24/7. Your culture determines how your athletes behave and what they say when you’re not around. A player-led team ensures that the team’s culture will be strengthened and reinforced even when you’re not around.

If you want a player-led team, here are 6 things you should do …

1. Exemplify
2. Educate
3. Equip
4. Enhance
5. Empower
6. Encourage

EXEMPLIFY

The easiest things in coaching are setting the standard and telling their athletes what they’re supposed to do. Often, this leads to a “do as I say, not as I do” mentality. One of the problems with this mentality is that it’s often contagious. “Rules for thee but not for me” lead to people resenting their leader. It tends to make people crave power. It sends mixed messages.

Don’t just set the standard — be the standard. Model what is most important. As much as possible, avoid double standards, hypocritical actions, or inconsistent messages. Show your athletes how to be a good leader. Give them a blueprint for what healthy leadership looks like. 

Here are a few ideas for talking the talk and walking the walk …

• Stay calm, cool, and collected when mistakes arise
• Be coachable
• Serve other team members
• Don’t act like a big shot
• Listen more to understand more
• Demonstrate an attitude of gratitude
• Have patience for others
• See other perspectives
• Follow your own rules, standards, and guidelines
• Treat people right
• Make others better

Exemplify what being a leader is all about. Be the best example of leadership you can be. Hold yourself accountable first. Show them that it’s possible to do things in a productive and positive manner. 

EDUCATE

When a person starts a new job, they often go through on-board training. They learn how to do their job well. Team leaders shouldn’t be any different. You must train your athletes to be leaders. Your athletes know the skills and have the training to perform their sport, but being a leader is entirely different.

Educate them on how to be a leader. Show them what it means to be a leader. Let them know what you expect.

Areas of leadership you might want to provide athlete training may include:

• Program core values
• Team rules/expectations
• Definition of a leader
• Everyone can be a leader
• Team member roles
• What leadership is and isn’t
• Doing what you’re supposed to do
• Why player-led teams are important

No matter what level of sports you coach, your athletes will have a certain understanding of what a leader is and what leadership looks like. You’ll need to clarify that.

A player-led team is a unique concept for many, and you’ll need to educate them on what it encompasses and how they can be a part of that.

EQUIP

After you educate them on what it means to be a leader and why a player-led team is important, you need to make sure that you’re equipping them with the tools and resources to be a leader.

There will be issues, drama, and situations that occur, and they’ll need to be prepared. You’ll need to provide them with the knowledge or things to carry out the team’s vision and goals.

When these metaphorical fires break out in the locker room, cafeteria, back of the bus, hallways, dorm rooms, or cafeteria, your athletes need to have (and know how to use) the metaphorical fire extinguishers.

Most coaches leave it up to chance or assume their athletes know how to put out those fires and will put out those fires, but that is not normally the case. Most athletes end up using a bottle of lighter fluid instead of a fire extinguisher when the metaphorical fires break out.

A few things you can do or provide to help equip your athletes …

• Community or school resources available
• What to say in certain situations
• How to act in certain situations
• Good decision-making skills
• Necessary phone numbers programmed in their phones
• Signs, posters, or flyers in appropriate areas
• Clear policies, procedures, and standards
• Training sessions (in-house or outside – camps, clinics, conferences, summits, etc.)

Don’t leave them to figure it out all on their own. Don’t assume that they’ll know what needs to happen, who to talk with, or how to do something. Provide them with the training, services, knowledge, or tools necessary to be the leader you want them to be.

ENHANCE

Even though your athletes might have the physical skills to be on your team, you still work with them to improve their skills. You make their strengths unstoppable and their weaknesses manageable.

It’s the same with their leadership skills. Once you’ve educated them and provided the tools for them to be a leader, you’ve got to help them improve, grow, and develop.

Leadership is not a destination, but a journey. Becoming better is a constant goal. Every day, month, and year will provide opportunities for leadership growth. There’s always something more you and your athletes can learn about leadership.

Here are a few ways you can upgrade your athlete’s leadership skills …

• Learn from others (ESPN, other teams at your school, news stories)
• Bring in experts to work with your team
• Go to a conference
• Participate in a focused team activity
• Debrief and discuss things that occur during your practices or games
• Proactively address possible issues that’ll occur
• Take a personality test
• Conduct a self-evaluation
• Utilize accountability partners or groups
• Role-play
• Teach others

Just like your athletes will be at different levels with their physical talents, they’ll also have varying degrees of leadership skills. Your athletes won’t all be the same, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help them improve and strengthen their skills.

You want to help them progress from good-to-great, average-to-good, or even bad-to average.

EMPOWER

If you’re a basketball coach with a great shooter, but never call a play for that athlete to get a shot, then you’re under-utilizing their talents. It’s the same with leadership. You need to give your athletes opportunities to use their leadership skills. You can’t have a player-led team if you’re the one constantly making the decisions or being the voice of the program.

Here are some ways you can provide your athletes with opportunities to lead:

• Split your athletes up on various committees or sub-groups. In addition to being on a committee, each athlete could actually lead one. They could be the committee captain. These committees can be for fund-raising, community service, pre-game music, travel gear, meals, social media, or how to get more fans to your games.
• Establish a leadership council. These representatives can establish rules, make disciplinary decisions, or provide feedback to the rest of the team. This can be in lieu of captains or work together and complement your system of team captains.
• Plan training sessions. Depending on the situation, athletes could plan as much or as little of your training sessions as you want. At the least, they could offer suggestions or name certain drills. On the opposite end of the spectrum, they could plan (or even run) entire sessions.
• Have them conduct aspects of leadership training sessions.
• Let them plan community service activities. This allows them to take more ownership in them.
• Have them plan some (or all) of your team activities. If you have a meal, they could plan that meal, buy the food, and actually cook it.
• Represent the team at various events such as Rotary, Kiwanis, or at local schools. They could even be the people that get interviewed by the media.
• Come up with ideas for competitive games and events. This may be especially helpful during breaks to keep in touch with one another and also keep the competitive juices flowing. They could do a summer-long contest for social media, pushups, or some sport-specific tasks. You could do an Olympic-style competition in which each week there is a different game or contest. Each athlete (or sub-team) is responsible for coming up with one contest for the summer.
• Look for ways to allow your athletes to provide input in all aspects of the program. This way they take ownership in what happens. The less you make it about you and your decisions, the more likely you are to develop a player-led team.

Yes, you need to provide opportunities for your athletes to lead, however, that’s not always enough. Some coaches give their athletes opportunities but then micromanage or “drop the hammer” on them if they make mistakes.

Create an environment that not only provides opportunities but also allows them the freedom to make mistakes. A player-led team doesn’t worry about who’s right or wrong — it doesn’t look for “I told you so” moments.

ENCOURAGE

Being a leader is not a natural thing for many athletes, so you’ll need to consistently encourage them to utilize their skills and potential.

Even if you’ve done a great job of training them and giving them opportunities, you may need to provide small positive nudges once in a while. You’ll need to catch them being good and point out when they lead in positive ways. This will help encourage them to do it again. You’ll often get more of what you reward and reinforce.

Be careful not to assume that they “get it” or that it’s easy for them even if they appear to be very skilled as a leader. Leadership is not easy – especially for young people who are trying to positively influence their peers.

Here are some ways that you can encourage your athletes to be better leaders:

• Catch them being good
• Praise them in public, not just in private
• Smile often
• Bring positive energy
• Offer constructive and productive feedback
• Empathize when they make a mistake
• Focus on solutions
• Be more concerned with progress rather than who is right or wrong
• Complain less
• Use more positive physical touch (high-fives, pats on the back, etc.)
• Give out awards
• Celebrate together
• Acknowledge small wins and accomplishments
• Send personal notes

Encouragement is often just a reminder of what a person is capable of doing. It’s a way of instilling confidence in a person or helping them see what they’ve either forgotten or didn’t know was possible. Help them see how they can maximize their leadership potential and be a person of influence.

CULTURE IS INTENTIONAL

You want a strong and healthy culture. To have that, you need to have a vision and a plan. Good cultures don’t just happen by accident. They also don’t happen overnight. The best cultures have athletes that take ownership in the process.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski says, “The single most important ingredient after you get the talent is internal leadership. It’s not the coaches’ as much as one single person or people on the team who set higher standards than that team would normally set itself.”

Not every team will be able to have a player-led team right away. It takes time. However, every team can be progressing toward that end. You might not be able to do everything you want right now, but you can do something. You can begin implementing certain parts of a player-led team incrementally.

You get what you permit, allow, reinforce, or reward. Leadership starts with you. If you want a player-led team, then you need to work toward that end. It isn’t always easy to develop other leaders but it’s worth it.