What is Culture? And more importantly how do we create it?
Culture is a catch word in modern sport. We often hear about the culture of the dressing room, or the culture of the group, what does that mean? Oxford defines it as follows”the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group. But what does this mean in a sporting context?
Culture is what exists in your team. How does everyone treat each other, especially in the times when things are not going well? Do we talk to each other or do we talk at each other. What is the general feeling when everyone is together, is this one of a unified and committed group or a bunch of individuals looking for personal achievement. Are contributions welcome in your team or is it leadership from the top down only.
When I am with coaches and their teams I spend my time mostly seeing how coaches interact with the players. How players react to coaches, what their body language looks like. These are key indicators of the type of culture the coach has created. When the coach talks, what do players do?
It is still shocking to me when I see players come off the field, walk right by the coach and there is no acknowledgement. Lets frame this up a young 12 years old player has just spent the last 10 minutes attempting to put into place everything the coach has been talking about and applying what they learned in their training. They are tired, both physically and mentally after having given everything they can for the last 10 minutes. They have dealt in that time with ups and downs. Things went well, I beat a player, things went poorly. I missed a good chance to score. Through all the ups and downs in those moments the player ultimately is trying to break through that barrier for themselves, their teammates and their coach and what they are asking. Then after all of that blood sweat and tears that player walks right by the coach, who does not even acknowledge the presence of the individual. These are not exceptions unfortunately these are generally more often the case what happens. As coaches there is a tendency to see players as what they can do for me, rather than my job as a coach is to serve the player, not the other way around.
Do we have an us vs the world mentality, are we willing to stand up for our teammate, or our coach when things are not going our way. I mean really stand up, not just if we disagree about a referee decision or a foul, when our players need us are we there? Do we care enough to pick up each other when one of us struggles? Do we care about the person behind the uniform and do they know that? Are we concerned about what they can do for us,rather than how they feel? That feeling transcends through the whole team and creates your culture. If you truly care about the person, they know, they want to know how much you care rather than how much you know about the game, that you are invested in them in the way you treat them ALWAYS not just when they score.
