I’ve had the video below bookmarked on my X account for over 7 years. I think of this video often when I am working with my own team or invited to work with someone else’s team.
I coach cross country. In most schools a cross country team is a place where ALL are welcome. Doesn’t matter what your background is, whether or not you’ve run before, or if you even like running. Most high school athletes join the cross country team because they just want a place to belong. I’m all for that. However, I also believe to be a part of a team you must CREATE VALUE for that team. That value better be in alignment with what the team is about. I’m not looking for more athletes to ATTEND practice, I’m looking for athletes to BE A PART OF WHAT WE ARE ABOUT!
Give the video below from Brian Kight a watch. Then I encourage you to watch it again. It is only 30 seconds long, but packed full of wisdom. I also highly recommend you give him a follow on X.
If you MEET our standard and you CARE about us and you CELEBRATE the people around you and you DO THE WORK that we need you to do in that group that we are, you can BE PART of us.
Every time I listen to that clip I just hear him saying if you are going to be on this team, you better CREATE VALUE for this team. I don’t believe this is the mindset that most young athletes bring into a team setting. Young athletes today want to know what VALUE the team is going to bring to them. Are you going to help me get the playing time I want? The scholarship I am chasing? The social media presence that is so important to many today? Am I going to win a ring?
To paraphrase JFK, we need to remind young athletes today “Ask not what your team can do for you, but what you can do for your team!”
I would encourage you to show this clip to your team and have a conversation with your athletes about how they can CREATE VALUE for their team. When I do this with my own team or a team I am working with, I ask them to consider three areas:
PERFORMANCE:
Does your effort/attitude/energy make our team better at what we are trying to accomplish together? Does your presence elevate the work ethic of your teammates?
PERSONALITY
Does your effort/attitude/energy make the team environment a place where people want to be every day? Does your presence help make our time together (at practice, at competitions, in off-season workouts) one of the highlights of your teammates’ days?
PERSONAL
Does your effort/attitude/energy make a positive impact on a personal level for some of your teammates? Who on our team would be impacted individually if you weren’t at practice today? What impact would your absence have on them?
I communicate to my athletes you don’t get to pick which of these areas you want to CREATE VALUE in for our team. The expectation is that you CREATE VALUE in all three of these areas. You might have a bigger impact in one of these areas over the other two, but that doesn’t excuse you from not being intentional about CREATING VALUE for our team in those areas that don’t come as naturally to you.
Go back to the quote from the Brian Kight video that I included below the video. He doesn’t use the word OR between each expectation, he uses the word AND. Each one of those expectations IS the expectation!
PASS IT ON!
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