“It's always good to build team culture and once you build team culture you can start working on getting your team better. If you get respect from all the players then it just makes it easier for them (players) to listen and turn up every time. We had four coaches and everyone had respect for all of them. We all wanted to be there on time. It’s the best season I’ve had in a while.” (17 year old boy rugby player, message to coaches)
It’s all too common / easy to get straight into coaching the x’s and o’s of your sport. We come up with the game plan, key skills, systems and structures and get straight into our work. But maybe more importance should be placed on building the culture? As the saying goes… “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
This consideration also applies in the work environment. We’ve all worked in places where the culture is great, where we feel connected, have purpose and turn up excited to do our best. And of course we may have experienced the opposite.
So how does this look with the teams we coach? How deliberate are we with building a culture of belonging and trust. Maybe that is where we should start?
