Coaching Essential #4: Culture is critical

Before we move ahead let's stop and review the previous coaching essentials: 1.  Do you ruthlessly believe in people and what they are capable of?

2.  Are you coaching the fundamentals everyday that includes observation and feedback?

3.  Are you scripting your time with people?  Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail.

The fourth essential in coaching is that developing a culture in a community is as important as the effort to move knowledge from your head to someone else's.

What do you see in this video:

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Pete Carroll, at this time was the head coach of the USC Trojans.  The Trojans were one of the most competitive football teams in America while Carroll was coaching there.  When I watch Pete Carroll I see an infectious leader who knew how to develop a culture.

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I think there are some keys to developing a culture that leads to success:

1.  Consistant time together. The most critical piece to developing a culture within a community is quality time together.  A culture is developed in training, practice, having fun, meetings, praying together, dreaming together, and investing in one another.

2.  Is the vision clear?  Is the vision everywhere?  Is the vision in your words?  Is the vision in your writing?  Is the vision in your coaching?  Is the vision in your prayers?  Is the vision in the prayers of your people!?  Andy Stanley says the clearest way to know if your people are catching the vision is if you listen to them pray and they are  praying for that vision.

3.  Catch people living the vision and celebrate it.  Do you know what defines a culture founded on fear verses a culture founded on success?  The answer is the leader.  A leader who always catches people doing things wrong will set up their people to fail in the greatest time of need because of their fear of failure.  They Choke.  However, a leader that catches people doing things right is a permission giver to people to creatively excel in the greatest time of need without thinking, "What will he/she do if I fail?"

4.  Focus on the V.T.P's.  Gordan MacDonald talks about three types of people in your life, one of them being Very Trainable People.  The opposite of V.T.P's are V.D.P.'s, or Very Draining People.  The mistake some leaders make is they spend 80% of their time on V.D.P.'s instead of spending 80% of their time with V.T.P's.

Culture is a critical piece of our success as teams.  Ultimately, this requires a great deal of emotional intelligence.  If you just read this and disagreed with almost all of it, you need someone on your team who can do this for you.  Chances are people don't enjoy being on your team.