Fostering Relationships Between the Sport Coaches and the Support Staff
Communication and unity amongst a high performance staff is critical for success. It seems intuitive and easy enough, but it can be one of the most challenging obstacles to overcome. With the USWNT, we employed a sport psychologist to work with the staff in order to streamline communication and create a better understanding of the nuances behind each individual’s personality. Trust and healthy relationships precede great communication. My thoughts on building these relationships, albeit biased from a S&C’s perspective, are as follows:
Hype up your S&C coach. Trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets. At least 50% of your athletes (if not more) will be highly skeptical of your new S&C coach. This is the person that you have hired to implement a rigorous physical training program while being responsible for the health and well-being of your athletes. Until an athlete gets to know their S&C coach, they will have a tendency to keep a wall between them. If you trust your hiring decision, project that to your team. Talk up your new S&C at their first team meeting and let the team know how much you trust them. This will go a long way with many athletes and your S&C will appreciate your display of unity. If you don’t have that level of trust with your S&C coach, you shouldn’t have hired them.
No BCD’s. No Blaming, Complaining, or Defending. The S&C program is the low-hanging fruit to point the finger at when an athlete gets injured, even if it happens on the field. Athletic Trainers are often easy to point the finger at when an athlete’s return to play is slow or a re-injury occurs. Understand that as practitioners, we can only reduce the likelihood of injury, not prevent or predict it. It’s easy to track injuries but impossible to track how many have been prevented. In addition, injury mechanisms tend to be very multifaceted so attributing one to a singular program flaw is often an associative error made by blaming something that is less understood. The bottom line is, be a solutionist, not a finger-pointer. If you blame someone for something, they will become defensive. Every member of the staff will make mistakes. High performance isn’t about being flawless. It’s about constant growth, collaboration, and innovation. Foster a culture where blaming, complaining, and defending are not tolerated and you will see the relationship between you and your fellow staff members grow.
Challenge perspective. When addressing an issue between you and another staff member, challenge your own perspective and the other individual’s perspective. This takes practice. Don’t go into a meeting upset with someone without trying to see things from their side first. In addition, don’t be afraid to challenge their perspective in person. You always have to do both. Along with that, be open to having your own perspective challenged. This is a critical skill that requires us to put our egos aside. If you and your staff master this, you will take a giant leap toward being a high-performing team.
Stay in your lane. It is vital for all members of a interdisciplinary staff to understand this. Our education and experience often blurs the scopes of practice between roles (and it should). However, within your organization it is important to clearly define roles to avoid confusion and over-stepping boundaries. For example, you could draw a line in the proverbial sand between your S&C coach and your ATC establishing that when an injured athlete begins to jog again, they are now in the S&C coach’s care. That doesn’t mean collaboration and communication stop, it simply applies responsibility and authority. I have too often witnessed confusion and mixed-messaging created for the athlete when these lines are not adhered to. When an athlete is confused about their treatment, you are losing trust.
Show interest outside your specialty. If a sport coach frequently shows their face in the weight room, athletes will gain the perception that a) the S&C program is important to the success of the team and b) the staff is on the same page. If an S&C coach visits the athletic training room, athletes will perceive that the staff is on the same page regarding their treatment and rehabilitation. If the S&C coach shows up at practice, athletes will perceive that they are invested in the sport even if they never played it themselves. Your staff should have already met to establish what the most important success factors are and how they should be achieved. In order to maximize those things, each coach and practitioner needs to understand what is going on outside their realm. This will lead to better collaboration and innovation. Full immersion into all aspects of performance on behalf of the entire staff will lead to better outcomes.
Talk to each other, not about each other. This is a basic principle that applies to life in general but can be especially difficult to establish in the workplace. As a boss, I think it is important that your staff members can come to you with issues. That being said, if the issue is regarding the behavior or practice of another staff member, make your staff members talk to each other. If that doesn’t work, be an arbitrator and make them discuss the issues with you present. When I visited the Facebook headquarters with the USWNT, one of the main cultural points they discussed was having difficult conversations. Critiquing another individual is hard and receiving criticism is hard but both are necessary and become easier with practice.
All of these things mentioned in this article boil down to core values and modus operandi. Establish trust, have hard conversations, maintain professional boundaries, and communicate relentlessly. The goal is not to be singing “Kumbaya” around a campfire while smiling and holding hands. The goal is to resolve problems efficiently and appropriately while always steering the boat in the right direction with unity.
