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- Build Fences
One of our goals at FREE2COMPETE is to build fences at the top of cliffs instead of hospitals at the bottom. This image to us speaks to being proactive and preparing our athletes for the road ahead of them. What is the fence we want to build? Their Character, who they are as a person. What is the cliff we are guarding against? Well, just keep reading and see what our Leadership Academy students identified as their cliffs this year.
We are blessed to teach a Leadership Academy at our high school. This is year 11 of having the opportunity to invest in the growth of emerging leaders in our building. We’ve worked with over 600 amazing young people during this time and much of what we’ve learned from them has shaped what we do through FREE2COMPETE.
The following sequence of videos and discussions has been a staple in the first few weeks of our Leadership Academy and we learn so much about our students, what they are facing (their cliffs), and what they need through these discussions.
STEP #1 - Person > Player Video
Watch this video (~8 minutes) with your team or group of students.
After the video have them discuss anything that stood out to them or what they connected with.
Next, we ask the students to think of someone who graduated from their club, sport, or activity who they really miss having around. We ask them why they miss that person. Nobody ever mentions stats, they ALWAYS talk about how that person made them feel and invested in them. PERSON > PLAYER!
We then finish by asking them to write a short reflection and answer the question that Brett asked of the soccer player Blakely. “What is your biggest struggle?”
The image below shows a summary of the most common answers from our Leadership Academy students this year. Some students mentioned more than one item. My guess is that your group of students would give many of these same answers.
Sharing a summary of their answers helps them know that they aren’t the only one struggling with whatever they wrote down.
STEP #2 - Identity Foreclosure Video
Watch this video with your group of students (~3 minutes).
After the video, have them discuss anything that stood out to them or what they connected with.
Have them complete the Inner Circle activity Brett mentions in the video. Have them discuss why the put the people in their circle that they did.
We hammer the point Brett makes about having a group of people who can insulate you from the outside expectations & pressure.
Many of our students struggle with this concept of IDENTITY FORECLOSURE, when what they do takes possession of who they are. We ask them to share examples of times in their life when this has happened. Every student who has participated in a club/sport/activity for a period of time has felt like they’ve lost themselves to that activity. This is where the cliffs come in.
STEP #3 - Post-It Note Activity
We give each student three Post-It Notes and ask them the following question in their notebook (because we are going to use their answers again the next day) and then transfer each answer to a Post-It Note.
Next we ask the the students to sort their answers based on the following categories:
After making sure each Post-It Note is in the correct position we ask the students to look for common themes. We’ve done this activity with over 100 groups of students, coaches, and parents. Every single time nearly 90% of the Post-It notes end up in the IN column. This quickly drives home the point that the things they identified would hold them back are ultimately IN their control.
Here is a summery of the items from the IN column in our Leadership Academy class this year:
STEP #4 - What About Results Video
Watch this video with your group of students (~3 minutes).
After the video, have them discuss anything that stood out to them or what they connected with.
Next we spend time looking through the Character Skills and the definitions of each skill that are presented in the video. Which words do your students seem to focus on?
We finish by having the students look back at their answers to the question “What will stop you from reaching your potential in your club/sport/activity?” We ask them it identify a Character Skill from the list that will help serve as a guardrail and to guard against the item they identified from creeping into their life. We talk about what does is look like, sound like, and feel like to live out each of the Character Skills they identified. These Character Skills help them BUILD FENCES.
WHAT DRIVES WINNING
If you are looking for great resources to grow yourself and your team, we highly recommend you check out the work the Brett Ledbetter and his team have done through What Drives Winning!
INTERESTED IN HAVING US WORK THROUGH ACTIVITIES LIKE THIS WITH YOUR TEAM OR GROUP OF STUDENTS?
Respond to this email to set up a ZOOM meeting where we can find out what you are looking for and discuss how FREE2COMPETE can serve your students, coaches, and/or parents.
