Core Values Win Conference Championships

(In my August 26 post I wrote about Ways Teams Live Their Core Values.  Core values play a pivotal role in shaping the team’s values-based culture and need to be established and lived before a desired culture comes to fruition).  

Is your team living their Core Values?

It is mid-September and your team (soccer-field hockey-volleyball) is getting ready to begin conference play.

How is your team doing? 

What is the culture of your team?  

Are you pleased with how things are going?

In Organizational Culture and Leadership Edgar Schein says:  “Culture is a pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.”

Think about that for a second:  Shared assumptions, worked well, taught to new members, correct way to perceive and think and feel.

You can see why teams with strong cultures outperform other teams!

When coaches and players feel safe and are sincere and speak from the heart, culture begins to transform.  A strong culture encourages teamwork and innovation.  It breeds hunger and passion.  

A strong culture is the social glue that holds the team together. 

The daily behavior of coaches and athletes continuously create and recreate the culture of the program.  The potential to create an authentic culture lies in the coach’s ability to communicate a clear vision for how every athlete plays a role in the team.  

Are you communicating a clear vision?

Your team is paying attention to what and how you are communicating.  So, are you telling them specifically where you intend to go and how you all will get there? Is the team’s culture, your expectations, standards, and values clear? 

If so, as you reach this critical point— conference play starting!— your team will be prepared to work in concert to implement your vision.

How your team works together,  their habits and alignment of execution is a critical component of develop a dynamic team culture. Culture works in concert with your program’s strategy and strategy provides direction for the program’s operation.  

Building a dynamic team culture requires time, commitment, planning and execution - it’s a process!

Good luck in conference play!

Namaste,

Cathy