RTP SERIES (2) 12 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. And now we're going to head into the Ready to Play series, the second episode of the continuing of the strategies for leaders and coaches. We're going to go over 12 strategies that we could use as a coach and leader. Now, being a leader as a coach means finding and developing a variety of skills. So as coaches and leaders, we always try to find little things that are going to make a difference within the coaches who we're working with, ourselves and especially the players. You have to realize that each coach has their own personality, just like the sport team. In this instance, it's hockey. So let's say you have 15 players on a team. You have to remember we're dealing with several different personalities, including your coaches. So it's very important, I've said it, you know, earlier in the last episode that it's very important that how you communicate, how you communicate effectively is so important. And be careful of your word choices, what we say to our players, parents, or anybody around your coaches, because sometimes what you say can never be taken back. So this time, through the Hartman Academy, we're going to keep the ongoing program to help and create a better environment. We're building a culture here within sport, and it's very important that, that all of us as coaches and leaders, that we lead the way. So let's start with number one. It's very important to find your voice as a leader. So in order to lead effectively, there has to be a consistent message, the way it's delivered. And yelling is not the answer or screaming or banging the door or yelling at a referee or disrespecting anybody. You have to be very careful in your approach because it is heard by all. Everybody is listening to you. And some of us may have a bad day at work. Some of us may, you know, just not feel great and. Or we're frustrated or we keep repeating the same message. But as a leader, especially with our young players today, we have to find a way to do it effectively. So how your voice is heard and how you say it. I remember once my kids said to me, dad, why do you have to say it that way? You know, I was maybe mad at him about something And I didn't realize that the tone in my voice was not appropriate at the time. Well, it's the same thing working with our players. Same. It's the same situation. You have a player who may come to the bench after making a mistake. And again, it's a game of mistakes. And in your tone and how you address it is very important. Again, we're here to educate. We're here to build this great culture within sports, and we're here to lead. The next thing is creating a pace. When leading or coaching, your team members need to be able to keep up with you. So you have to create a pace that's good for everybody. Like I said, you're dealing with 15 different personalities. And sometimes we want to move really quickly, but we have to move at a pace for everybody. We have to keep this in mind. I'm going to be redundant in saying this, but sports is fun. It's a game at the end of the day. And we're here to be leaders. We're here to help in creating that consistent pace. The pace of your practice is important. Keeping it consistent, having that plan in place. So everybody is on the same page showing it. And I also say, no matter what sport it is, I know we're talking hockey a lot here or baseball, but ice time can be expensive, for example. So if you're out and you're on the ice and you're showing drills on the ice, that's going to take up a lot of time. Ice is so expensive, I think it's up to $400 an hour or more in California. I mean, wow. So it's very important that you're very well prepared in your planning effectively, and you're keeping that pace that everybody's on. So maybe have people come a little bit early. And I'm going to get into that in a little bit. So remaining steady, a coach and leader may face conflict amongst their team members. There'll be obstacles going on. At times, we call it in hockey adversity. So we used to say, oh, there's a lot of adversity, and it takes a lot of adversity to win a championship. But now we're talking about young players here. So you may have a lot of ups and downs as a good leader. Change the mode, change the tempo, change something to make it better, to bring that good energy back into remaining steady and balanced. So you're looked at as an authority, but also as that leader. Interacting is so important. I talk to people about this all the time. So personalities of coaches and how you do it is. Is important. We're going to first talk about the player. Being fully present and listening to the player and their needs is so important within sports and life. Being present, teaching them to be present, leading them to a point where they understand as young athletes that we have to be fully present. We have to listen to the drills, we have to listen to our teammates and what they're saying. And as a leader, you're going to have to do that. Listen to your assistant coaches now with the parents. Now, here's a whole different story, and I'm not going to get into too much about the parenting, but as a leader, you have to know the time and place when to be present and maybe have these rules laid out thoroughly for the parents to understand that, hey, we could please send me an email and let's set up a time to talk because you are going to be dealing with parents whether you like it or not. It's just part of the. It's just all part of the game. So being able to multitask, do several things at once. Now, they say a number five, like multitasking. Most people cannot multitask. When you're multitasking, something is going to get lost. But a lot happens during the practice of a game, or even within the season or even during the game. So a good coach and leader has to be in charge at managing several things at the same time and doing it at once. I'll never forget this. I was playing at the end of my career. I got sent down, had a really bad injury that gave me a stomach surgery and missed in almost an entire year. Try to sit on the bench and play for the Hershey Bears. That's Colorado's farm team. And Bob Hartley, the coach, said, would you be my assistant today? Would love to have you. That was a great challenge for me. Here I was a player, and I'm sitting next to Bob Hartley, who actually won a Stanley cup within his career. And I'm sitting with Bob and I'm watching him do so many things at once. I'm watching him. And especially in the minors, a lot of it was teaching. So he was teaching a player, and at the same time, he was watching the play that was going on. So a player made a mistake, he comes to the bench, and at the same time as explaining to the player in a very nice way, hey, this is what you need to do. You know, it's very important. Important that you. That you stay with your guy or whatever it may be at that time. I can't remember, it was a long time ago, but it's so important that, that you're doing many things at once and not putting all your energy into that one. Let's say it's a mistake because you have to be able to multitask and a lot of great leaders and coaches do that. And we have different tools for you. So if you need my help, please go to Hartman Academy. We're there to ask questions. That little blue icon that's in the right of the page, that's what this is for. Go into the resource area. And also for the coaches here, I am willing to even. We have a team of people and writers that could do even articles for you. So if you have questions, say, Mike, I would like to know a little bit more about X, Y and Z and leadership. Can we write about it? And we definitely will. We even will add it to the podcast. So it's very important that you do that because a good coach and leader does. I'm going to talk about time management and I've learned this as a, as an athlete. I'm number six. So they always say a coach has to manage your time carefully. But, but, but the key is if you, if you look deep into this, it's not so much managing your time, but managing your energy. And sometimes as coaches and leaders, we put a lot of energy sometimes into the wrong things that may be, you know, insignificant to what the actual game plan is. It could be a player that's, you know, not conforming to the team rules. And a lot of that energy is, is, is put into that. And so much is, is put into that thing or something happened within the rules of, of the game or within the league or there's been a, you know, the referee did something properly manage your energy so your, your balance. So again, we don't manage time, we manage energy. Yes, they call it time management. They still do that in corporate America. So I have it on here. Number six is time management. So it's very important that you manage that energy so that. So you have that energy and you're bringing that good energy to your team throughout the game. Number seven is preparation. And I told this story before about how it's so important as a coach to be prepared and as prepared as possible, like as much as possible. You know, when a good coach is prepared, it rubs off on everybody else, even your assistants, and have them prepared. Don't drop a practice plan 10 minutes before you're ready to go onto the ice. A good leader and a good coach has it Planned out. I remember when I was playing for Bob Hartley, I'm going back to him. But he had his whole practice year planned out to the days off. Same with. I think Mike Keenan had it. It was like pre calculated in a way. Sometimes that's not always the best way. We're talking again at the pro level but I've learned a lot from these coaches and leaders that everything was prepared, they had that plan in place. So it's very important that you have that action plan in place so you know what to do, when to do it, no questions asked, you're not killing time. And it's really going to play a big impact on how the team comes together. Now you don't hear me talking about wins and losses a lot. I said this on the last episode. Good wins come from good development. As we keep going on here we're going to talk about number eight and it's establish guiding principles. And you could look these up. I'm going to keep this in the resource area of the. Of our website Hartman Academy. And a team defers to a coach in a way of, of of how they provide these guiding principles. Principles within a team obligation of moral standards, doing the right thing like leadership. How important is leadership? Because you're, what you're actually doing is you're the mentor, you're the teacher. So when your players see you act in a certain way and again yelling at the official, arguing, banging things, throwing things down instead of now just talking, communicating, establishing those good principles. Not the old school where you're coming in and smashing the garbage can or you're mad or you single somebody out and I'm going to bring this up again. I never for the life of me can I believe what I heard. And it was sent out to many of the coaches and I could talk to you privately about that without saying names and how poorly this coach went around to each player and called them, you know, a language which I don't even use on my show. And these are 13 year olds and how the better players should take advantage of and make it hard. Almost like an initiation for the younger players. And this was at a triple a 13 year old level. And I know some of us are at the house league level here, some play college and there's many different levels. But, but at any level that's not how we, how we do it and that's not how you treat people. And I like to number nine, continuing knowledge and discovery. So a good coach does not rest on its laurels. You know a good coach Will always do research, learn things, learn off ice tactics. And there's so many good things out on the Internet today. I can consistently listen to people, even competitors within my business. And I always believe I could learn. No matter what level you play it at, you could be in, at a big league level. I learn from people every day. A good example is on one of my shows, I had a young baseball player, he was 23 years old, he was a really good college player. And he said, you know, the only thing I want to do is get 1% better every day. I said, well, that's pretty good. I go, what do you mean? He says, well, you know, we talked about as a joke, I like a chocolate chip cookie or sometimes three or four. He says, well, you know what, just have one. But get better, like in practice. So when you're working on things, always try to make it like a 1% better. Not these big improvements. And you could pass that down to your players as well. Just okay, if they're, if they're, you know, playing hockey and they're going to the far post, you say, you know what, keep your stick on the ice and stop in front of the net. You know, if you're a defenseman, you keep your stick in the passing lane and your body in the shooting lane and you're like an extra goalie and continuously teach them. And then you could. There's so many good resources out there that you could look online. And we're here for it too, because even within our website I have a lot of subject matter professionals, from sports psychologists to players that played in the big leagues, won championships. If you listen to our podcast, New York Yankees, Miracle Mets, someone that went to the super bowl, he went there. Mike Lotus went to the super bowl six times, four with Buffalo, two with Denver, and listen to what they have to say. This is a, it's so monumental and so important. So I want to get into a little bit about self management on number 10. And we used to say, if you can't manage yourself, how can you manage others? So first of all, we're going to take care of ourself as people. And sometimes we become overwhelmed. It's really hard. You know, we're working in the afternoon and we're coming here and we're volunteering. And I commence that to all of you coaches out there, no matter what sport it is or what level, and if it's not college or professional and you're not getting paid for it, I admire that and thank you for that. It's important how you take care of yourself is key. So I want you to think about it. A coach who cannot manage himself cannot really help their team get to where they want to be. The betterment of the team. Improving, helping them with their skills. We want to improve our players skill, we want to teach them leadership. We want to teach our young players how to be self sufficient as a young athlete out there and, and even give them things to do. But make sure you manage yourself. And what you say will never be taken back. I mentioned that earlier. Be careful of your words, what you say. One bad thing it takes, that's all it could do is you could set yourself back in a really bad way. So be careful what you say to your, your players or even your coaches. And I always like to say number 11 no matter what it is in life. It says having vision and creating purpose. But they've said this a lot. But we've used this for so many years in sports. What is your why? So why are you doing this? Why is a coach and a leader? What is your purpose behind this? Is it for yourself? For another trophy or another medal? I probably believe it. It's not if I talk to most. Is it about winning the championship? Yeah, sure we want to win. That's what we, we're competitive by nature. But at the end of the day it's, it's really all about giving back, having that vision and a purpose, improving our young players. And a lot of it's all the same. A lot of what I'm saying is the same. I said it in the last episode that my favorite coach was not the big league coach that I had. It was the coach when I was young. The Chris Corey's of hockey in Michigan where I grew up or my baseball coach, Steve Clara Felt who, who helped me as a baseball player. He took the time to put me on his team and Jeff, Jeffrey Feig and gave me that chance to, to get better. And he took our team to Cedar Point and win or lose we would, we would still have a Slurpee and talk about it. And they are very competitive guys. Within baseball it's the same as in hockey but. But it was really having that vision of improving each player, giving them a chance to play development and I'm going to use this word a lot as we within, within this. It's almost like I'm coaching you but really building that culture that you could be proud of, building the team culture, helping the association that you're with, leading that and then you know, passing it down to others. That's the importance. So really creating this why. And I love to hear that from any of the coaches. You can go right on to where you know, right under, you know, right in our website, Hartman Academy under resources, you could see this. The episode will be there in the podcast so you could listen to it again. If you want to hear this, hear this again. But also I want to see your. Why put it out there, put it under the article and we'll message you back. And we'll have other people message you back as well. You're also welcome to go into the Hartman Academy group, which is in Facebook and I invite a lot of subject matter professionals there. So you can not just hear from me. You could, you could hear from. From many. So understanding your limitations on number 12. So all sports have specialized positions and young athletes progress in these positions and everybody grows differently. So it's really good to, to understand each player. And I've used this last time in case some of you have not heard or didn't listen to the, the full program here. But I had a player that came to one of our development camps. He happened to be the smallest player, the shyest player, the player that was afraid to be there. And as a coach, we have to recognize that. We have to take into account that this player is scared no matter how they're there or why they're playing. That's not the, that's not the purpose here that, you know, the purpose is to find out, okay, let's find a role for this player. I don't mean a robotic role. You put this player in a position to do well. So what I did, I told him right away, okay, I'm not worried about you scoring because I knew he wasn't going to score against some of the top players in the country. It just wasn't going to happen. But I said, you're my type of player that's going to keep his feet moving all the time. So his or her. Do you have a female team, male team, doesn't matter. Keep your feet moving, get in there, be the first person in there, be the hardest working player every time and come off the ice and put a smile on your face. And that's all you have to do, is you communicate your thoughts to our players and your coaches and make sure that everybody is on the same page. Make sure everybody understands what you are because you are the leader. But you also have to explain what you're doing in a way that everybody hears. This was a short segment. I want to get these out to everybody please go to the website Hartman Academy. Leave your feedback. I'm not afraid of people being direct. If you have any questions, if you want to ask anything about leadership, ways we could help you, ways we could add it to this show, please do. We're here to help. We're here to lead. We're here to build this great culture within sports. And I'm looking forward to the next episode. And again, it's great that the coaches are listening. I hope all of you have listened to this all the way through. Until next time.

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