RTP SERIES (1) 25 Strategies For Leaders & Coaches In Sports!

Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley cup champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Welcome to another episode in the start of season two. We're going to do things a little bit different here. This is right up my alley and we're going to get into this program called the Ready to Play series. We're going to start with 25 strategies for leaders and coaches on this. So this is going to help anybody that's, that's a leader or coach or anybody that just wants to listen to improve their overall life. What you're going to do when you're done, you can go to Hartman Academy and when you go there, there's no dot com. So H A R T M A N dot A C A D E M Y Under the resource area, you will see the Ready to Play. And then you could ask questions or follow through. So I'm going to put these two up on the site and you could ask any question you want. We're here to help and lead you. We're going to use some stories, some sports, sports stories along the way that may help you with your overall leadership and coaching. So the first thing I want to talk about is focusing on the team's goal. So it's really important that you have a goal. So if you're a soccer coach, what happens if you take the, the goals away? There's nothing to shoot for. I know a lot of our hockey coaches are here and you take the nets away. What do we have? There's no goals. It's boring. There's nothing to shoot for. So it's important that we have a measurable goals, something that's attainable that, that we could do. It's measurable for the players and it's very important that you communicate that to the players that you work with to make it measurable or anybody that you're working with in leadership or coaching. I use the Mark Messier story was one of my favorites and he was our captain and the goal for the team was to win a Stanley Cup. And we were in this room before the season started. And Mike Keenan, who was our coach, who's a very good coach, known to be one of the toughest coaches in professional sports, he had a vision and he had a goal. The goal was to win in 1994. The team has not won in 54 years. And that was his job, is to bring the Stanley cup to New York along with Mark Messier. So we're in this room before we were going to England, as we had this neutral site exhibition game and Mike Keenan did not say a word, There was nothing talked about. And Mark Messier, who was our leader, was in the front room and it's all the coach did was put on a video of when the Mets won the World Series and what it was like when those Miracle Mets won in New York City, the excitement of the city, what happened in the, the energy abroad. So that was a goal that the team had. It wasn't a lot of rah rah. There wasn't a lot of talk. So think about ways to help motivate your team and make sure you have those goals in place. The second thing is follow through with your promises. If whatever your word is, they're going to remember. So, so being a leader, being a coach, it's very important that you institute good leadership skills by following through with your promise. If you promise that, okay, you know, if we do X, Y and Z today, this is what we're going to get. I'm not ones about wins and losses because I believe that wins and losses all come from good development, good proper development of the people that, that you're working with. And it's very important that you focus in on that. And we're going to get more into that as we go along. The third one I want to talk about is avoid micromanaging and what I mean by that for a leader or a coach. So let's say you're on the ice and you have a hockey practice. Yes. We want our players to go to the line. We don't want them to take shortcuts. We don't want to scream and yell, make our players feel uncomfortable. You want them to, you know, be hockey players, be athletes, be their personal best, not robots. So we don't develop robots. And the whole purpose is, like I said, developing, leading, helping, sharing your knowledge and being that mentor for them. It's very important too. So if you have people that you work with or you have assistant coaches and you're a leader, get through, respect the opinions of others, people around you, let them share their ideas. Don't be a know it all. I say this, replace your ego with empathy. Be empathetic, listen, listen to the opinions and you'll earn the respect of the people around you. Number five is like, we just Said, listen to the needs of others. You may have certain people, players, whoever you work with, developing differently. Some people develop by visual. You have to see it. I was one of those guys where you had a. I had to see it. It had to be in front of me. Some people have to hear, you know, hear it a couple times, and you have to understand the needs of each person. I remember one of our coaches who I talked to in the National Hockey League said the toughest thing that he had to do is we have 25 different personalities. So you have to work towards those personalities to motivate them and help them. That's not by, you know, showing your, you know, your authority. It's by leading and listening to them. We're going to get into conceptual thinking. So that's really what I call is just having that plan in place, you know, adjusting to different things, being a thinker. So you could adjust to situations, putting some of your players in a different position. It could be like a position on the ice, giving everybody the chance. I used the story when I worked with this organization at one time where we had some of the top kids in the country come in, and as a coach and a leader, what I. What I had to do was say, okay, I'm going to play everybody fair. I believed in equalized time. These aren't players that are going to the National Hockey League anytime soon. Some of them were along the way, but everybody played. And some kids were better than others. But you identify a role, not a robotic role. So the good example is I had this player. He was the smallest player in the camp, and for some reason he was there with the. With the politics, other things. Should he have been there? Doesn't matter. Maybe not. But identify that. Make that player feel comfortable. So I said, okay, you're going to be my checking forward. And as a leader and as a coach, I had to identify that role to make him feel good, to take the pressure off of that player from thinking that he has to score goals or he has to do things that are going to make him feel uncomfortable. The next thing I'm going to talk about is personal development. I like. I love personal development, even within all of our coaches. And I believe everybody should be dedicated to personal development. There are many good podcasts out there. There are many great shows there. YouTube and content is free. That's why I do this. One reason why I'm doing this is there's so much content on the Internet, you can Google about anything. Now, I'm not saying everything is all factual. But think about, you know, going out there, make some sense of it, and use that personal development that's going to help you feed off of somebody that was a mentor of yours one time. Learn from maybe something that you've actually seen, you know, a mentor or a coach do before. So practice that personal development and add that to what you're doing in your everyday life. And another thing is don't hide behind a mask. So if you look at number eight, if you're looking up here, if you go to the website, allow others to see your emotions. Be a leader. The best one for that, I keep bringing them up is Mark Messier. He would have tears in his eyes. It was okay to cry. Look at Michael Jordan when he won a championship. We can learn from this. And we're not developing athletes, we're developing people. But I always like to learn from, from the best. Look at a Derek Jeter. Look at these leaders and how they carry themselves. And they have their emotions. They put it all out there. And as a coach, show your emotions, but in a positive way. Make sure that, you know you're doing things in a way that's going to be positive and that's going to lead right into my next one. On number nine is creativity. You know, the ability to have your leadership skills come out is very important. You know, have your athletes do, do things and make it fun. Let's take hockey, for instance. You know those boring drills where you're skating in a big circle and making a pass that gets boring and tedious and monotonous after a while. Mix it up a little bit, you know, throw some things like small games. Change the rules to the game. There's so many games out there. You could have the kids play if they're righty, have them shoot lefty, as crazy as head is, and have that depending on their age or, you know, you can make so many different rules to the game, so they got to play with the opposite hand, not chain sticks. And then you change the rules again so they have to make two passes before they score again. We're not developing robots, but we're. We're helping grow our young athletes. And, you know, every good leaders do on number 10 is they admit their mistakes, all of us make mistakes. And people will respect you if you admit, admit your mistakes. So the first thing a good leader should do is don't pretend out there that, okay, you're going to blame somebody else. I see coaches do that all the time. So it's very important to admit to your faults. All of us, we're human, we make mistakes. And again, we are here to help and lead others. That's the purpose and objective. The next thing on number 11 is objective listening. A good coach will listen to others to help them solve problems. Not necessarily solve all the problems, but help them. You got to be careful too. There's always the parent that wants to get involved. So for you sport coaches out there that are working with, with our young athletes, there's always a parent or two and you have to put them in their place in a nice way, a courteous way. And you make those rules ahead of time. So every good coach that I've ever seen said, listen, I'm going to coach this team. If you have something to say, let's not do it in front of anybody at the rink. You know, you can have, you could have somebody call you if you want. You're going to have unhappy parents along the way. But, but it's how you deal with them. And how you choose to deal with them is going to make a difference throughout the whole year. Don't fear number 12. Don't use fear or intimidation tactics. That's the old school. I'll tell a great story here. So we had a, a friend of mine was a National Hockey league player for 17 years, worked in the development program for kids. And he was watching this practice. He was at the rink early. It happened to be in Michigan. And this coach was skating these young 13 year olds up and down the ice like, like what you would see in that movie Miracle. Up and back, blue line, back, red line, back almost to a point where they were going to get sick. They had nothing left in their legs. He wouldn't let them drink water. He was screaming and yelling. And to me that's the most counterproductive thing we could do to any young person, athlete or, or even if it's in business, it doesn't matter. It's not the way you do things. Well, what happened was this coach went on his, went on the ice, he had his flip flops on. And this Coach is about 6 foot 3, 230 pounds, but a pretty physical guy. I'll just say he played for the Philadelphia Flyers and wasn't afraid to go on the ice. And coach blew the whistle and says, yeah, can I help you? Like get out of here? He says, no, that's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen a coach do is what you're doing right now. And he looked at his players and he says, okay, kids, tell this clown why, you know, you're doing it. He goes, well, we lost by three goals is what one of the young kids said in this. This guy, my buddy looked at this coach and said, this is the most awful, disgusting thing I've ever seen. And I've been in pro sports for a long time. My father was in pro sports for a long time. My brother was in pro sports. And to me, this is just terrible what you're doing. And coaches don't see it. I'm not saying you had to play at a high level to, to understand this, but you have to say that's not what hockey or sports is about. Working them and having them do lines or punishment, you're going to have them quit the game. This is all about having fun. And we're going to get a little bit into that. You know, having Fun on number 13. Give your players room to grow. Let them practice. That's what practice is. It's not about you blowing the whistle or stopping what's going on. It's about you being a good coach and you being a leader. No matter what board it's in, no matter what you're doing, you blow the whistle. We are. It's a game of mistakes. The pros make mistakes. Let the players have room for growth. And I was going to use as one of the. I played for the, our country at one time and this is at one of the highest levels. Was, was the highest level. And this coach would say, listen, I just want everyone to have a smile on their face and have fun. I said, wow, at this level, I haven't heard that. But that's exactly what, what he wanted. He says, let's have fun. Let's put a smile on your face. And where else would you rather be as playing a sport? So let's, let's look at it like that. Let's not take our emotions out and our feelings out on our young athletes. Let's give them room to progress. Let them grow. Let them achieve their goals. They cannot grow as a player without your help and leadership. I'll tell another story where I was working with a team and it was a triple A team and they asked me to come in to help. And I really didn't want to be involved with coaching, but I was helping a friend and I can never believe it. He said to me, the owner of this team says, I don't want you to play my son. He's not a good pedal killer. I don't want him out there. And I rebelled and I put him out there. And he said to Me after. Why would you do that? I said, your son's 13. How is he ever going to learn how to kill pedal these if he's not out there? So give everybody a chance to compete. We're not all competing for a championship. And the model here is to help to lead and to not raise our voice and to be. Not necessarily, I'm saying, a friend to our players, but be a mentor to the young athletes that you work with. Going to number 14, it's very important that you show empathy towards the players. Some of us have to realize that the players are going through a lot. You know, they might have a. You know, they have a day at school, they struggle. They have their parents coming home yelling at them for. For may not cleaning their room when they show up at the sport that they're doing. If it's hockey, baseball, soccer, football, volleyball, it doesn't matter. Golf, it should be fun. And it's not about. I'm going to say it again. It's not about wins or losses. Wins or losses will come from good development. So wins and losses will come from good development, and that's developing our young people. So we get into number 15, and I say, show your expertise. You're the coach, you're the leader. Be that expert. Understand them. You know, if you don't know the answers, that's okay. Ask your assistants. It's not about, really. Some of my best coaches that I could remember in sports, they weren't students of the game, but they were students of life. And I remember my. When I played hockey, I was six years old. It should have been learned, is learn to play, but learn to fall. And all this player, all of the players were skating past me. I might have been the worst one on the ice. But what I learned was this coach took the time and energy to help me and say, I put a smile on your face. Have fun. Let's get back up. And I remember that I'm 53 years old. We're talking. I was six years old, and I can remember the people that impacted me in my life. And they're going to remember you. So be careful what you say, because the words you choose may never be taken back. So show that expertise of being a good leader and a mentor. And if there's certain things you don't know about the game, there's thousands of ways you could go whatever sport it is. You can Google drills. You can look at drills. Drills are just drills. You could add to the drill. Again, make it creative, but show your expertise as a Leader. The next thing I could say is number 16 is spend time with your team. And I'll use an example. So I was brought on, like I mentioned earlier, to work with one of the national programs at one time. And what I did with the team was we had 20 players on the team and I said, okay, all of us, we're not going to sit around and talk about hockey. We're all going to go out to eat. So all of us went out to eat and I want you to stand up and I want you to introduce yourself, but we're not allowed to talk about the sport. And a lot of them, you'd be surprised, would stand up and say, okay, my name is Steve so and so and I'm from New Jersey. I play for. Nope, I stopped them. I said, we don't want to hear who you played for. We want to know who you are as a person. So that's a fun activity is go around the room and spend time with your team. Do some activities that don't involve the sport that you're in. It could be anything. Understand the people around you, understanding what they do, you know, outside of the game, showing interest. And I used to say, are you going to be interested or are you going to be interesting? So be interested in your players, even in the parents. Engagement as a leader, that's what good leaders do. They engage. I like this on number 17. I wasn't so much like this in pro sports, but I said, keep an open door policy and let your team know that that doesn't mean for every parent to just open the door when their parents might be mad or their child isn't playing as much as they should, or not playing in special situations. And we're not going to get into that. But just really keep an open door policy for the players to communicate. Everything nowadays is about effective communications. Good leaders, like I said, know how to listen, they know how to communicate, they know how to be real. So that's something that I always loved. There wasn't an open door policy in pro hockey, unfortunately, when I played, because, you know, again, we're getting paid to do it. So it's a lot different. But I always wish there were sometimes just the ability to talk and we call those player coaches. There are some former coaches in the National Hockey League that did have that, but for the most part it wasn't there. But just keep, keep an open door policy and let your team members know that you're willing to listen to them at any time. And number 18, transparency could help. So Transparency can help you avoid rumors and gossip. So I use this within even corporate leadership, you know, especially in a dental practice. Imagine a dental practice is like a sport team and one person can bring something into the practice and say something in an office of 10 and it's going to spread. The same thing happens in sports. So make sure that you set the guidelines for your team and set some, I don't like to call them so much rules, but, but standards and say, you know what, we have a team. We're not going to talk bad about anybody that could really hurt a player, especially if you're coaching them in sports, that you, you will hear somebody, you know, one of the players say something bad that should not happen. You should have that rule right away that that's not going to happen on this team. And we're going to talk about good sportsmanship, we're going to talk about being there for our fellow teammates and what does it mean to be a team. And we can go into that. Stay flexible on number 19. Each season will bring new challenges, new players, new personalities, different problems. So stay flexible, stay open. Bring your good energy in with you every day. So if it's hockey, soccer, football, tennis, basketball, volleyball, whatever you may be doing netball, Netball is that sport they play overseas. But whatever you do, stay flexible, stay open to it. Embrace the challenges. Make fun of it. I remember I had a coach. His name is Dave Lamotta. Haven't talked to him in many years. He was my coach in Michigan for Compuare. He would embrace new challenges. And one of the challenges were, okay, everybody has to bring their report card in. I mean, something completely different. And okay, everyone needs to have good grades or do their best, do their best. And he would talk with you about that. He was like a great mentor. Chris Corey was another one. I had him as a coach and I'm using these great coaches that I could remember. And I'm hoping one day that the players that you have, regardless of where they played or what they're doing in their life, are going to go back and reflect on you. But Chris Corey was another one of my favorites that would help me, you know, he would embrace the challenges with me. Okay, Mike, I need you to do XYZ a little bit different. Keep your stick down, keep your head up. Just little tips, tips to help me. And it was great. So bring these different challenges to the forefront by addressing them with a positive energy. And again, number 20, use your intuition as a coach. So use your instincts. Let's say it's a you could tell the, the morale and the, the morale in the dressing room is that the players are tired. It could be just after a holiday. Don't go out there and just let them go through another boring practice. Make it fun. It might be a day that you just put everything aside and they play three on three or they're playing, you know, whatever sport it is, or they're taking some extra, you know, batting practices and they're working on different things and having fun instead of, you know, having to overthink so much. So a good coach knows how to use their intuition. Let's say you leave all the balls. You're a baseball coach and all the balls except for one are left. So you have a scrimmage, you hope you don't lose that or a coach leaves his pucks behind. Okay, so what are we going to do? Let's make it fun. Instead of skating them up and down the ice, let's use that intuition level. Good coaches and leaders understand how to do that. Number 21, you have to accept things and pay more attention to personalities. Every good leader understands personalities. So you might have a player that may stand out a little bit more in the dressing room. Especially for the older players. There's always one or two there could be called them the class clown, the team clown, whatever it may be. Embrace that, deal with it. Don't single that person out. I heard a terrible thing that, that somebody sent me that it was so bad I can't even believe it. Parents sent me. One of the players taped what one of the coaches went around the room to these 13 year olds, each one of them and, and really said some bad things without going too deep into it. In fact, the tape was turned into the higher levels of that association but it was terrible. So just accept who you have and not to bring it at a different level. I'm not a basketball fan but I remember when the Dennis Rodman had to go to the Chicago Bulls from, you know, from his days. Everyone may remember Dennis Rodman, one of the best rebounders in basketball. Not even a basketball guy. He's one of the most 10 recogn guys faces of all time. But he could be different, as some may know. Well, they had a team meeting in Chicago and with, with Michael Jordan and the owner, the coaches and they, they sat around, they said do we want him? And maybe I think all but one, I think Scotty Pippen said I, we don't want him in here. But everyone says let's bring him in, make him feel part of the team. And then Scotty Pippen said, who's going to babysit him? And I think Phil Jackson says, I'll babysit him. I'll work with him. He's a, you know, he's a person. He's good. I will work with him. So that's just a story. I mean, you know, again, I'm using these, the professional stories. But you're smart enough as a leader and a coach to. To understand where I'm going with this. Stay confident. There's going to be times where you. You feel down as a coach. Even coaches, that confidence is contagious. So bring in that good energy, bringing your mood. You could have a bad day at the office, you could have a bad day at home, but when you show up, this is your time to get away, because this is where the fun is for a leader or a coach. Have fun with it. Enjoy what you do. This is all about, not the coaches, not the leaders. It's all about who we are serving and helping and leading. But it's still about us to have fun, because it is. You are giving back. And it's important that, you know, people recognize that, but get back for the right reasons. It's not about, again, winning a championship. It's. It's about the. It's about the players. It's about helping. It's about developing, having fun. 23. Preach responsibility. So if the players are a little bit older and you can maybe have a captain or some of the other players choose teams. And I like this because in the old days, I don't know how old some of the coaches are. We used to go to the field and say, okay, there was eight of us. Four on one side, four on the other. We're gonna play, you know, a little baseball game or if it's hockey, and we have like six players, we'll divide them up, throw sticks in the middle. Nowadays, you. It's. It's almost that you have to organize it for the kids. It's. It's to a point where, boy, if you left them out there, they're stuck. What do we do? I've seen it many times, so instill that. Say, okay, we're looking for leadership from everybody, not just the captain. Teach leadership. Your leaders, your mentors, your coaches. Teach this and say, okay, the coaches are going to sit back, let's see who's going to decide what the teams are, and you'll be surprised. It gives them confidence. It preaches responsibility. It's always important to number 24 is to plan and organize for Each game in practice, be organized, don't do it five minutes before you get there. We always said, as a, even as a professional athlete, I'm going to use the professional side that, you know, we think about this way before I could talk about Scotty Bowman, one of the best all time coaches I played for. Terry Crist, Stanley cup champion, Mike Keenan, Colin Campbell, Bob Hartley. They prepared before. In fact, they would get to the stadium and work out, shower and then go on the rink or they would do that after. But they're always mentally prepared, physically prepared. And for all your coaches, if anybody wants for free, I have a course that will help you with your mind, body, spirit. It's very, it's cartoonish, it's fun. I would give that to anybody that wants it. So if anybody wants this, reach out and they're going to say, what does that have anything to do with leadership and coaching? Feeling good about yourself, it's going to help you organize. I used to say, even like with stress, a cluttered desk is a cluttered mind. And just be organized, have a plan in place. You'll hear me say that a lot. I use the old method of having a plan, which is an action plan, whatever that is. Having rituals that are habitual, things that you enjoy, could be exercising, walking, breathing, that's gonna prepare you for that day, or doing some meditation or imagery. And I can help you with all that. We'll have things for that. And if any coaches want that, I could provide it for them. And a goal. We talked about goals earlier. Having that measurable goal, what you want as a coach and what your coaches want out of the, out of the season. So you could apply this. Even if we have life coaches out there or business coaches, you could apply the same methodologies that we're using here to business number 25, be player focused. This is all about them. It's not about us. I've said that a lot. It is about us in a small way. I know. Is he talking out of both sides of his mouth? No, but it's really about the players, the people you're serving. I don't care what type of leader you are, what type of coach, it's all about them. Make it about them. And your actions will decide more than your, your, your mouth. So it's important that you know what you say is being true to, to who you are. Again, this is just the first segment of the First 25. I'm looking forward to helping everybody. We also have an app that you could keep on your phone and we will be answering your questions at any time. You know, we'll get back to you within, you know, hopefully one to three business days or sometimes right away. But reach out to us at any time. Go to Hartman Academy. You can see where I'm gonna have these in the resource area under ready to play and then you could read these and below it you could leave your comments. Whether they're positive or or you want more, we're going to continuously give you more. We're here to help you. We're here to lead you and really looking forward to to working with you to your personal professional best.

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