This post was provided by Coach Dawn Writes
By Dawn Redd-Kelly, Head Volleyball Coach at Beloit College
If you’re not happy with the culture of your team, how are you working daily to change it around? As was said over at Leadership Freak, “Toxic environments are the result of neglecting culture-building and tolerating toxicity.”
When we find ourselves with a negative team culture, it’s easy to blame the athletes, but we hold some accountability as well. We’ve both neglected the culture and tolerated the things that are counter to our beliefs.
So what now?
5 quick tips for building a culture of positivity:
- Encourage your athletes to express gratitude: for practices, for getting coached hard, for their teammates, etc.
- Find ways to honor culture builders: if you’ve got an athlete who has bought in, whether they’re a starter or bench dweller, point them out!
- Reward those who are on board: perhaps you can create a weekly team award for the athletes who best represent the qualities you’re trying to instill with your team.
- Remove the worst offenders: if you’ve worked and worked with them…sometimes they just have got to go.
- Show interest in your athletes as people: crazily enough, our athletes have other interests besides our sport…find out about them.
Be a culture hawk for your team! Not only will your athletes enjoy coming to practice more each day, I’d bet your outcomes in the win/loss column will also turn from negative to positive.