Get More. Joby Slay

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      Some might say Coach Mendez is at a disadvantage, having never physically played the game. What he lacks in game experience and physical ability might actually be what makes him an effective coach. He found purpose in coaching these kids. He will never be able to rely on his technical prowess or playing résumé. Rob Mendez’s coaching strengths will always be inspiration and belief, which may be the greatest gifts a coach can bestow upon players.

      There are several different characteristics that come to mind when I say the word “motivate.” As a starting point, I think as a leader it’s always easier to motivate a person when you understand their motivations. What motivates them as a person? What is motivating them to be a part of your team?

      There is a motivation that brings a person into an initial introduction with you. Looking at it through an athletics lens, there is a motivation that brings a student-athlete into an initial introduction with you. There is some motivation on the part of student athletes to try to make your team. Do they love the sport? Love to compete? Have a friend on the team? Need a school PE credit? Is a parent pushing them into it? (And I don’t mean to make that sound like a negative thing. Many great success stories start with “Well, my dad took me, and I didn’t want to go but then fell in love with it.”) Someone took them by the hand and gave them a little motivation and a little encouragement, they took a liking to it, and then they began to pick up a glove or golf club or book on their own, and they became empowered and gained some self-motivation to continue.

      Let’s think about it from a business perspective for a moment. Say you as an employer are interviewing prospective hires. Do the prospective hires seem to have an interest in the product or service you provide? Do they enjoy the industry? Do they just love your company and want to be a part of it? Do they have a friend or someone who works there and is encouraging them to come work with you? Do they excel at certain tasks and enjoy doing them? Do they just need a job? Do they have bills and need to make a certain amount of money?

      The point I’m making is that as a leader or coach you need to get to know the people in your care. And I use the word “care” intentionally because consciously or subconsciously many people are trusting you as the figurehead—your company, your school, your athletic department, the parents of the players, and the athletes you’ve made a part of your team.

      I say “figurehead” because sometimes you are installed there and you haven’t really decided whether you are going to own that position and lead yet. The good news is you can make the decision to coach right now. It is not too late to start investing into the people in your care and being interested in how they do their job, their productivity, and how they are performing individually and within the team—and to help them do better, be better, and to get more out of themselves.

      HAVE TO AND WANT TO

      Let’s jump back to the descriptions I gave of what motivates a person. If you’ll notice, there are two distinct differences in those descriptions. The individual loves the sport and loves to compete. The individual wants to be there, wants to win and play. The individual needs a PE credit, or someone is making them try out. They have to be there to get that PE credit so they can graduate or have to at least try out or Mom and Dad won’t give them the GI Joe with the kung-fu grip.

      There are have-tos and or want-tos, and as the coach, leader, and influencer it’s your job to learn and understand what have-tos and or want-tos are motivating the people around you.

      I remember when one of my colleagues interviewed a real estate agent and asked him how and why he had built his business up and, if he looked way back, what had motivated him to do it in the first place. I expect that my colleague was anticipating a deep business breakdown of how and why, and I was probably expecting something else as well, but this real estate agent just simply replied, “I had to. I didn’t have a choice. I had six kids at home I had to provide for.” My colleague was taken aback and stumbled and tried to probe a little deeper with another couple of questions, but again the real estate agent just replied, “I didn’t have a choice.” He had a powerful have-to.

      I’m not saying one is better than the other, and having a little bit of both may be best, but I do think at times one may need to be amplified more than the other to create a more powerful self-motivation and drive.

      Either one can be powerful in its own way. At different times and different stages of life one can become more powerful than another. As leaders, one of our roles is helping people discover which one it is and reminding them of it periodically, and that may be all the motivation that an individual needs.

      “The only thing worse than running is not having something to run for.” This is a quote attributed to five-time NCAA Division III National Championship head women’s soccer coach at Messiah College, Scott Frey, after one of his players said she would never look back and miss the summer workouts.12

      I’ve heard similar interviews with top athletes like Tom Brady, Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Phelps, and Bernhard Langer. Even after they’ve “made it,” won a few Super Bowls, scored 600 goals and been signed for record transfer deals, won a dozen Olympic gold medals, or won countless Senior Tour championships in a row, when asked why they keep going and keep pressing, the response is “I have to improve. I want to be the best. I want to win. I want to beat you.” They have a powerful have-to or want-to. Even in what is supposed to be the declining years of their careers they have seemingly improved their performance. How? Why? They continue to create and find have-tos and want-tos to run for.

      THE BLIND SIDE

      There is a scene in the movie The Blind Side where the characters are at what is portrayed to be one of the first football practices for Michael Oher.13 If you recall the movie, they have been trying to get him to play football because he is just a huge dude. So, in this scene he is playing offensive left tackle in practice, and he’s just getting beat. He’s the biggest guy out there but just looks soft. The head coach yells out to him, “Oher! You got a hundred pounds on Collis, and you can’t keep him out of our backfield?!” The camera pans over to S.J., the little brother in the movie, sitting on the bleachers filming as Sandra Bullock’s character walks up to the top of the bleachers to sit with her son and asks, “What’s with the camera?” S.J. replies, “Michael does better when he can see what he’s supposed to be doing.” They run another play, and Michael horse-collars a defender as he goes by and throws him to the ground. The coach, a little frustrated, blows the whistle and, as he comes down from the platform he’s observing from, calls Michael out. “Oher, come here, son.” The coach meets Michael and grabs him by his shoulder pads. He gets real close to show him the technique needed to block and not get a penalty called on him and, as the coach explains, to keep Coach from getting mad at an unnecessary penalty. He finishes and sends him back to the huddle.

      At this point, Sandra Bullock’s character, Leigh Anne Tuohy, starts making her way out of the bleachers towards the practice field in her high heels and asks her son, S.J., to watch her stuff. As she is making her way, the coach stands with an assistant waiting for them to run the next play and says, “Well, at least he will look good coming off the bus. They’ll be terrified until they realize he’s a marshmallow. Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane.”

      Right about this time Leigh Anne comes walking by the head coach and pats the coach on his rear and says, “Gimme a minute, Bert,” as she is about to interrupt practice. The coach is like, “We’re in the middle of practice, Leigh Anne!” And she replies, “Thank me later.” She walks over to Michael, grabs him by a little sliver of his jersey, and pulls him over to the side. The exchange goes like this: “Michael, do you remember when we went to that horrible part of town to buy you those dreadful clothes? And I was a little bit scared and you told me not to worry about it СКАЧАТЬ