Lessons on leadership I’ve learned from watching youth soccer: 1. There is training and there are games. Know the difference. (Games are not the time to teach. Let the team play. Training comes later.) 2. Learning includes getting it wrong. Good coaches let their teams fail but ensure they learn from the failure. 3. You can’t just talk at people and expect it to stick. You have to design drills & training regimens that train through experience. 4. When mistakes are being made by the team at training, stop play immediately. It’s not kindness to let mistakes turn into habits. “Freeze and look around” is important. Often players don’t realize what they did wrong until they pause to look around. A good coach helps their team look around. 5. Coach individual short comings privately. Pull the player aside and work with them individually. Utilizing assistant coaches here is great both for the player and coach. 6. Good teamwork and camaraderie doesn’t just happen, it’s trained. 7. Good learning happens with increased self-awareness not spoon feeding. Allow other to wrecognize their own mistakes during games then help them correct them in training. 8. Proactive anticipation saves lots of energy. Anticipate where your teammates will need you. You get tired a lot faster if you sprint reactively instead of jog proactively. 9. If you lose the ball, get it back! We all lose the ball sometimes. It’s what we do afterward that counts. 10. A coach’s role is to call formations, make strategic adjustments, maintain the roster, and inspire the players. It is not to play the game. Let the players play. (Player/Coaches is an anti-pattern). #Leadership #Lessons #Soccer
Global Design Director @ Fearless™
1yI love a football analogy - great post! If I may, one that I would add would be that with the best team, every player on the pitch knows their role within the team, where they play and how to pivot if the tactics need to change