Building Teamwork with Intention
If you’re a sports fan (or a coaches fan) like I am, you know Phil Jackson. If not, allow me to introduce him…
During his storied career as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson won more championships than any coach in the history of professional sports (11 to be exact). In his quest to reinvent himself and continue to push the boundaries to find the very best in his players, Jackson explored everything from humanistic psychology and Native American philosophy to Zen meditation and brought this onto the basketball court. In the process, he developed a new approach to leadership based on freedom, authenticity, and selfless teamwork that turned the hyper-competitive world of professional sports spinning on its head.
In his book, Eleven Rings, Jackson opens up about his ability to capture the skills and talent of some of the greatest basketball players of all time, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryan to name a couple, and somehow create a collective, cohesive unit among superstars. How did he do this?
“No matter how talented you are, how fast you may be, or how sleek or smooth your moves are, “a team always beats a group of individuals.” - Phil Jackson.
Throughout the book, Jackson speaks of capturing the essence of teamwork and camaraderie and presents them as something special and essential to the success of his teams … yes, all eleven of them.
So how can we recreate this magical concoction of teamwork in our programs, you ask?
According to Phil Jackson, the strength of the team lies in the hands of each member. At the same time, the ultimate strength of each individual member is in the team itself. Whether you knew who Phil Jackson was before reading this or not, I am sure most of you had probably heard that quote before, or something similar, but I want each of you to read it again, as the words truly do carry impactful meaning.
The strength of the team lies in the hands of each member.
The ultimate strength of each individual member is in the team itself.
Encouraging teamwork and camaraderie in your workouts and practices is a perfect way to continue to grow!
Here are 6 ways to continue developing teamwork skills:
Develop Multiple Leaders - Leadership requires learning to lead others as well as learning to follow those who lead. While a team may have a well-defined captain, leadership roles should be fluid with players stepping in and out of them depending on the situation. Think about it like this, if you always have the same person count every part of the team warm-up, what happens when that athlete loses her voice or has an asthma attack? Wouldn’t it be a great skill for each athlete on the team to be capable of stepping up and leading the team warm-up by counting? This is a great opportunity to promote leadership skills for multiple members of your team, rather than just the chosen captain.
Work Hard - As one of the hardest working sports out there (yes, I happen to know from experience :) ) hard work is essential to the success of the group. While performance may vary, effort should remain constant. It is important to remember, even though many of us would like to believe otherwise, there is no such thing as giving 110%. If everyone is giving 100%, that is more than enough and should be recognized and praised!
Communication - Communication is the key to successful teamwork. It makes it possible for the team to know the strategy, what is coming next, how to correct an error, and how to praise success. Develop ways to strengthen communication throughout your team (team huddles before/after practices, positive comments about the practice, competition, or teammates, et cetera). Depending on teammates to communicate with each other effectively outside of practice is not the solution. Create this space in your practice time.
Conflict Resolution - A disagreement with a coach or teammate, miscommunications, and differences in personalities all require certain conflict resolution skills. Being around adults modeling these skills and gaining first-hand experience with resolving conflict helps young adults mature. Parents and coaches should use these opportunities to help develop communication and resolution skills rather than “taking care of it” themselves. Give your athletes an opportunity and safe space to work through conflicts together as a group. This will further strengthen the bond of the team unit! Sounds like a win-win to me!
Motivation - Being internally motivated to achieve something as opposed to being motivated by something external, like a medal or placement, sparks self-discipline in a young athlete. As a parent or coach, try to facilitate this by praising internal values and setting your team goals and benchmarks on controllable aspects of their performance. This could be something like achieving a certain height or correction as a team and striving to find success in those attributes versus a placement or score.
Showing Up - With teamwork comes accountability. Team members are accountable to each other for their actions, effort, and performance. While performance may vary, actions and effort are all within the control of the athlete. A collaborative environment typically helps keep things positive. If behaviors shift negatively, the team can be there as a safety net to hold each other accountable.
As we all know, teamwork skills are not only useful on the pool deck, on the field, or in the gym. They are integral parts of successful personal and professional relationships, used on an everyday basis. Utilizing these skills each and every practice will only set athletes up for greater success down the road. To give your athletes a framework for measuring that success, check out the three questions I posed in a previous blog to help separate success from results or circumstances.
It is important to remember regardless of placement or performance, with each failure comes a lesson, and with every success comes confidence. When you have fostered a relationship of trust and camaraderie among your athletes, even when they don’t hit the mark, the teamwork itself is the greatest success.
Sources:
https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/09/the-importance-of-teamwork-in-sports/
https://learn.truesport.org/teaching-teamwork-skills-in-youth-sports/