REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

“Dictionaries give on definition of the word coach as: ‘a vehicle used to transport important people over long distances’”(Barry 14). This shows the importance that a manager understands his or her role as not only a manager but also a coach. “He or she is taking an important, valued individual-the employee [player]- from one place to another; even from a level of good performance to a level of exceptional performance” (Barry 14).

Coach as Manager

Coaching is a management technique that is based on knowledge about how and under what conditions employees [players] improve and grow and on specific skills that managers need to practice develop, and incorporate into their management style. These skills are not those of a psychologist, psychiatrist or analyst; they are management skills. Coaching is not a way of solving one-time problems. It is a way of helping employees [payers], over time, improve (change) their performance (behavior and results) to outstanding levels or at least to the highest level of which they are capable. As such, the development and practice of coaching knowledge and skills can and should result in improved performance for all who are exposed to it (Benfari 74).

Coaching is an extremely important management skill though at many times it is neglected in many organizations (Benfari 67), even in coaching. “As Kotter noted, ‘although almost all large corporations and small ones too, acknowledge the importance of mentoring and coaching […] few seem to do a very good job in this regard’” (Benfari 67). 

Coaching is undoubtedly a technique that must be developed through time and experience. “Most managers are not “born” coaches. Just as an athletic coach needs to learn how to coach though experience, observation, and training; so does a manager” (Benfari 69). Too many coaches don’t know how to coach. They know how to call plays and get players in shape and even organize games and such, but they don’t know how to coach, in the since of leading, mentoring, motivating, and communicating. A coach who truly understands and applies these principle will not only be a great coach but a great manager as well.

Coach as Leader

            A coach must be a leader. He or she must be willing to take charge and focus on developing a great team. In order to do this a leader must express genuine concern for his players and develop relationship. “The relationship [between coach and pupil] is a delicate one, as a manager who has not won the respect and loyalty of the staff will not be an affective coach [or leader]” (Barry 14). In order win this respect and loyalty a leader must set clear attainable goals, create a positive atmosphere, and define and establish roles.

            The coach must lead by example, as well as understand the he or she is in a leadership role and will be idolized, in a sense, by others, “whether you, as a leader, like it or not, everyone is watching you. Show me a manager who comes in late for work and leaves early, and I’ll show you a workforce that mirrors there practices” (Blanchard 58).

Setting Goals

This author explains that it is the manager’s role and responsibility to set in place goals and expectations and then be able to communicate them affectively (67). A coach is to do exactly that; set goals for his or her team and affectively communicate them in a way that is understood. He goes on to later say that it is important when seeking to enhance employee or in this case player performance, it is necessary to plan goals that are mutually accepted (67). This idea of being mutually accepted is extremely important and there is a fine line between a coach forcing his or her goals on a team and helping them develop similar goals. Goals that are not mutually accepted will be much harder to attain than goals that each individual is excited about. “The most affective coaches do more than cheerlead or critique. They establish a collaborative atmosphere in which the person being coached begins the process of setting goals and deciding how to achieve them” (Shanker 126). After setting goals, it is important for a coach to follow up and encourage his team on achieved goals and reassess goals that were not attained (Marsh 4).An affective coach will be able to get his or her players excited about what the team is doing, thus enabling the coach to then mentor and motivate his or her players towards these goals.

Positive Atmosphere

A coach, as a leader, must also be able to create a positive atmosphere with is conducive to learning and achieving team goals. “Creating a good atmosphere and being supportive” is crucial for a good leader (Marsh 4). In order to have an effective coaching process it is important for a coach to create an atmosphere that has a free and open exchange of ideas and is seen as a growth experience by all parties involved (Benfari 68).

This positive atmosphere must be based on encouragement, trust, and respect. “Coaching requires a positive relationship between employee and mentor; the employee must respect the mentor’s integrity and capability as a leader and the mentor must respect the employee’s integrity and capacity to do the job” (Benfari 68). Not only must a player respect the coach’s authority and capability to lead, but the coach must also respect his players. “A mentor develops trust by demonstrating an honest interest in an employee and fostering open and candid two way communication” (Benfari 68). There must be mutual respect and a positive relationship between a coach and his or her players in order to achieve a positive atmosphere.

            A key component of trust and respect is a coach’s credibility. His or her players must believe that what he or she says is true based on experience and expertise:

As long as you have credibility, you have leadership. To me, credibility is your people believing that what you say is something they can hang their hat on- something they can immediately believe and accept. The minute your credibility is questioned in any way, it affects your leadership capacity (Shula 51).

One way a coach can destroy his or her credibility is by not admitting when he or she has made a mistake (51). A coach will earn more respect and trust by admitting that he or she was wrong then trying to act like they have it all together, “one of the most destructive traits a leader can have today is arrogance- acting like you’ve got it all together” (Blanchard 46). This will deteriorate a positive atmosphere.

Team Building

Establishing Roles

Coach as Mentor

            “The mentor listens, tries to understand, and is supportive of the employee’s efforts and respects the employee’s individuality” (Benfari 68). Mentoring is the idea of coming along side someone and spending a lot of time giving instructions both verbal and hands-on. It is important that a mentor leads by example and become deeply involved with the people they are with. Mentoring doesn’t just happen, it must be planned and there must also be a time commitment (Holliday 125-126). This idea of a coach as a mentor is played out in the relationships that the coach has with his or her players.

Relationships

                        Coaches have the opportunity to develop strong relationships with their athletes and to take the role of a friend and mentor. This process involves being a positive role model, discussing problems, sharing successes [and failures], offering support when needed, and even providing counseling when necessary. This aspect of coaching can have a strong positive or negative effect on the athlete and affects their feelings of satisfaction with the coach-athlete relationship. An important research finding is that successful coaches seek to improve athlete’s lives both inside and outside the sport (Short 530).

Though a coach must be separate from his or her players in the since that the coach must push his or her players in order to strive for excellence he or she must also be genuinely concerned for the well being of their players by, “demonstrating personal interest and involvement” (Marsh 4). This must be both on and off the court. Coach K refuses to raise a banner from the previous years’ victories until everyone who was a senior on that team has graduated. This is just one way that he shows that he cares for his players beyond basketball. This shows the players that he values them as individuals and he wants to see them succeed on as well as off the court. “As a coach, mentors must express concern for helping employees develop to their fullest potential”(Benfari 68). Coaches need to be well rounded in the since that they can’t just be a good leader. They need to be able to mentor and develop their players as individuals. This is an attribute that a coach cannot fake, but rather must develop genuine care for his or her players. If a coach’s actions are not genuine or do not feel genuine then they players will see through that and as a result the opposite will occur. The coach will have a negative affect on the coach-player relationship and it will be harder to motivate players to perform to their full potential.

Instill Confidence

            As a mentor, it is the coach’s job to instill confidence in his players. This confidence is established by investing time with the players both in and out of practice. However, ultimately his or her goal is to empower his or her players on the court. “when players have absolutely no doubt about what they’re supposed to do or how to do it, they thrive on pressure” (Shula 74). The way a coach can instill confidence, according to Shula, is by, “limiting the number of goals, making people master their assignments, reducing players’ practice errors, and striving for continuous improvement” (75). It is the coach’s responsibility to simplify and condense concepts in order to keep things concise and achievable by the players. In doing this, the players will then have confidence in the coach and in themselves.

 Coach as Motivator

                        In sports, when a time-out is called just before the tie breaking point is played, the coach reminds team members what is at stake… what rewards await the individuals who make the winning team effort. As a manager you challenge team members with the memory of past victories, with examples of what they accomplished. You enthuse, you excite, you encourage- so they believe they can do it. Motivating and inspiring are about them, not you. It’s about instilling the confidence and energy that has them achieving results. It’s what causes ownership (Holliday 81-82).

Enhance Performance

            “The main responsibility of the coach is to enable their athletes to attain levels of performance not otherwise achievable. Coaches therefore need to motivate athletes and establish the right conditions for learning” (Short 529). It starts with a coach who is genuinely concerned with his or her players, which starts with a coach being willing to mentor his or her players. “People generally respond well to leaders, managers, coaches, and parents who have high expectations and genuine confidence in them” (Blanchard 76). The coach must show his or her players that, without a doubt, he or she believes in them and expects them to succeed. This is where Theory X Theory Y becomes extremely important to understand.

Theory X Theory Y

            McGregor, in his book The Human Side of Enterprise, goes into great detail of Theory X and Theory Y and the roles that they play in motivation. Theory X is the idea that employees are lazy and view work as a punishment, in return they exert minimum effort and don’t want to work. (33-34). On the other hand, other hand he states that employees do like to work and will work hard and exert maximum effort if they are given certain freedoms and autonomy in the workplace; Theory Y (47-48).

The idea of Theory X and Theory Y fall under the self fulfilling prophecies. The whole idea that if a coach assumes that his players want to work hard and improve and that they will push themselves, then the players will take that responsibility upon themselves and work hard, which will in turn reinforce the coaches view of his players. This can work both ways, meaning that a coach can have a Theory X or Theory Y view of his or her players.

However, even more importantly, McGregor discusses the assumptions about motivation that creates the Theory X atmosphere. The main point is that man is a being with needs and that as each need is satisfied more needs arise. And the fundamental flaw with Theory X is that satisfying those needs is not a motivator of behavior (36). Meaning that those needs, though need to be satisfied, are not motivation in and of themselves. He goes on to explain that there are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, but most importantly there are the egoistic needs (36-38). These egoistic needs fall under two categories. First, there are “those that relate to one’s self-esteem; needs for self-respect and self-confidence, for autonomy, for achievement, for competence, for knowledge” (38). Second there are “those that relate to one’s reputation: needs for status, for recognition, for appreciation, for the deserved respect of one’s fellows” (38). It is important for a coach to understand this hierarchy of needs and to realize and understand that a player has needs that must be met first that are not a means of motivation in order to arrive at the higher level of needs; thus creating an optimal level for motivation. Once in this higher level, it is important to realize that, according to McGregor, one’s self-esteem and reputation are what the consciously or subconsciously need. That is why communication and an emphasis on encouragement is so vital for a coach to be a successful motivator.

Praise as a Form of Motivation

            “I can’t say enough about praising. If people know that their good performance will be noticed and rewarded, it’s a tremendous motivator. Positive consequences [discussed later] encourage people to repeat good behavior” (Blanchard 128). Blanchard goes on to explain that managers are finding that people care more about recognition and praise than money and promotions (133). Too many managers and coaches refuse to believe this and are unwilling to take the time to praise an employee or player. If praise has been proven as such a powerful motivator than why is used so infrequently? For the same reason parents will focus on a D grade rather than the other four A’s. We feel we must harp on individual’s weaknesses rather than their strengths.

Strengths vs. Weaknesses

Coach as Communicator       

Encouragement/Feedback

            “A great deal of research supports the conclusion that learning occurs much more quickly with positive reinforcement as opposed to punishment. The best coaches shape the development of new behaviors through encouragement and reinforcement rather than criticisms and negative comments. They also avoid loaded phrases that can destroy the fabric of collaboration”(Shanker 126). A coach needs to be aware of how he or she comes across to his or her players. A coach needs avoid threatening words or actions, which would result in many different emotions including denial, anger, and flight (Benfari 68). Any time a player feels this way towards a coach or someone in a leadership position it is much harder to respect and trust this individual. As a result, the coach loses his or her ability to motivate, lead and mentor. 

            This idea of encouraging goes hand-in- hand with feedback. According to Marsh, it is important for a coach to give specific feedback and then to be able to balance praise and criticism (4). Many times coaches fail to give feedback because they feel that the player’s actions were expected therefore they don’t need feedback. However, if they perform in a manor that goes against what is expected then they must be rebuked. This is why balance is important. And if a coach’s feedback is unbalanced then he or she should strive to err on the side of overly encouraging.

A coach needs to, “be timely and consistent in providing feedback. The power of reinforcement declines rapidly with increasing distance from the activity it’s designed to reinforce”(Shanker 126). Consistency is also extremely important when giving feedback. When a coach fails to give consistent feedback he or she can send mixed signals to their players. Like all of these skills of a manager, giving feedback is a technique and something that must be practiced. When giving feedback, it should be, “perceived [by the employee] as being helpful to them in their efforts to expand their capabilities and/or improve their performance” (Benfari 73). This feedback should also be specific not general, by giving examples from specific situations. This feedback should also be descriptive not evaluative, again giving specific details. It is also extremely important that feedback is directed towards a player’s actions that can be changed. If a coach is upset with a player for not being fast enough, all the feedback in the world might not be able to make him or her faster (Benfari 73).

Coaching to Personalities

                        I try to fit my feedback to a player’s personality. Bob Griese, our great quarterback in the 1970s, was a very quiet, thoughtful person. He did not respond well to emotional reprimands. It was better to take him aside and talk to him quietly and in private. On the other hand, Dan Marino, our all-star quarterback today, is an emotional player and has to be treated in a completely different way. Consistency is the key, but within this philosophy, you have to use different approaches (Shula 140).

A coach must realize that their job of learning is never done. Just because he or she is the head coach and everything seems to be going well, does not mean that he or she can relax because they are doing everything right. In reality, there is always room to learn more or improve on already acquired skills. Like Shula said, “you have to use different approaches.” Too many coaches see themselves as a “yeller” and so all they do is yell at each of their players. This will not get the most out of them. A coach must get to know his or her players individually and be able to coach to different personalities even if this means they must use different coaching styles.

            The other key point that Shula made was that a coach must be consistent. Just because he is not as intense when correcting a player’s mistake as he is another player he must still correct the mistake. A coach cannot not correct a mistake because he is trying to be more sensitive to a certain player. As soon as a coach does that he is sending mixed signals to his players and could very likely be creating a negative atmosphere.

Consequences as Communication

According to Blanchard, there are four different responses to one’s performance: a positive consequence, redirection, a negative consequence, and no response (121-122). When explored further, the response to a positive consequence is a usual repeat of the action that warranted this response. The response to a redirection is a change to do it correctly and usually this will continue. The response to a negative consequence is a change to the correct way because people try to avoid the pain of a negative response. The response to no response is usually overlooked and extremely important for a coach to understand. Usually, “good actions that receive no recognition at all are apt to be discarded eventually; bad actions will continue unchanged” unless someone loves what they do and are self actualizing, in which case they will continue to do good regardless of the outcome (Blanchard 122).

Listening

            “Being open to ideas, enabling the learner to participate and make his or her own decisions on mistakes” is extremely important for good coaching. A coach needs to be willing to get input from others and also be willing to, at times, just stop and listen. “Real listening, active listening, is a skill that most managers need to learn. People tend to be too concerned about what they want to communicate next instead of listening for sometimes buried ideas, feelings, or beliefs that the other person is trying to communicate”(Benfari 72).

Perception is Reality

            “A coach is [should be] centrally concerned with the way the employee sees and interprets” (Barry 16).  My dad always tells me that, “perception is reality.” And what he means is that what an individual thinks is meant or said is reality to that individual; regardless of that fact of misinterpretation. That is why a coach must be an excellent communicator and also must be an active listener. When a coach communicates it is important to receive feedback from the player or other coaches as to whether or not the message was received. Coach K talks about a specific instance when this happened and he had given motivational speech that he thought was undoubtedly inspirational. However, no one seemed inspired and none of his coaches or players had said anything about his speech. One of his assistant coaches finally said that he didn’t feel that anyone understood. The players agreed and Coach K summarized what he was trying to get across and made sure that the players understood that they could be honest with him when they don’t understand something. Coach K wants open communication on his team (Krzyzewski 36-37).  He wants, “that rare but essential brand of communication that turns a group of individuals with different backgrounds, talents, and ideas into a unit that can effectively talk and listen, both on and off the court” (Krzyzewski 37).

As soon as a coach begins to think once he has communicated an idea and that it is out of his hands he or she is in a very dangerous place. The coach then begins to think that if the player is upset that it is the players fault and that the player needs to change something. This will destroy trust and respect and thus create a negative atmosphere. This ripple affect will be able to be traced through each of the roles of a coach as a manager.