Ways Teams Live Their Core Values

Ok, so you and your team have set your core values.  Good job!  You have accomplished the first and very important step to establishing the team culture.

Now,  let’s talk about how to commit to living those values every day.

Core values need to be clear and actionable. 

This will help each individual, including the coach, make decisions at crucial moments for herself and the team. 

In order for team member to buy-in to the importance of core values and live them everyday coaches must be vigilant in creating ways to keep them front and center and in the minds of all coaches and team members.

Peters and Watermen, in their wonderful book In Search of Excellence, note that value-shaping leaders instill enthusiasm through scores of daily events.   These coaches have a bug for details, and as a result directly instill values through deeds rather than words:  no opportunity is too small.

“Every excellent company we studied is clear on what it stands for, and takes the process of values shaping seriously.  In fact, we wonder whether it is possible to be an excellent company without clarity of values and without having the right sort of values.” Peters and Watermen

Here are some questions to ask team members to engage them further in the process of thinking about core values:

• What Core Value is most important to you and why?   

• How will you hold yourself and others accountable to the team’s Core Values?  

• What core value do you feel the team needs to focus on and how will we hold the team accountable?  

These personalized questions can encourage team members to think deeply about the team’s core values and the impact the core values have on them and their teammates.  These and other questions can be asked throughout the season to assure that every individual is adhering to the team’s core values.  

Accountable

Once the team’s core values are established coaches need to be clear on the consequences for those who don’t live by the core values.  

Creating an exemplary culture where coaches and athletes are accountable for how they perform and lead each other is a process and evolves over time.  Some team members may need to be reminded about the team’s core values more than others.  However, when team members don’t consistently live the core values agreed upon by the team, they will affect the culture you are trying to build.  

Once defined and agreed upon by the team members, core values are not negotiable and should never be compromised.

Teams who have established and implemented core values will differentiate themselves from their opponents.  They will always be grounded in knowing who they are and how they should behave.

Namaste,

Cathy