On my flight out to Phoenix yesterday, I brought John Maxwell's "Teamwork Makes the Dream Work." It is the third time I've read. I very much to like to re-read certain books. In part because my retention is not what I'd live for it to be and also because it gives me the opportunity to review material I thought important. My books are always marked up. I underline things...circle things...write notes on the margins...then I have a student worker go back and type all that I have marked up.There were so many great concepts in thoughts in this particular Maxwell book even though it is a relatively short book (120 pages). It is well worth the re-read!
How many times do we as coaches talk about the importance of teamwork? We talk of other teams - "they don't play well together." Or we speak about our own squad - "we still haven't come together yet." I don't think there could possibly be a coach of a team sport out there there would disagree that teamwork is a very essential part of success in their sport.
My question is this...do you work on teamwork?
Team chemistry was so important to Sue Gunter. I learned a valuable lesson while on her staff. It is important lets talk about it, make a plan about it, and execute that plan. Whenever we had staff meetings with Coach Gunter, there would always be specific topics that you could count on such as offense play, defensive play, conditioning, recruiting, practice organization.....
....and team chemistry.
For Coach Gunter, the closeness of a team was important to her -- important enough to talk, plan and execute. Each week she wanted to do something with the team and/or for the team that focused on building team chemistry. It might be a team meal...it might be a motivational passout about team...it might be an assignment for them to discuss team...there would be drills in practice designed to bring the team together (those were always difficult ones of course)...we utilize "Secret Santa" at our team Christmas party because Coach Gunter thought it made the team think about each other.
Her thoughts on team were prevalent year round. She would be just as concerned in July with building a team as she would be in October. Every decision she made she would ask, "How does this effect the team?"
If TEAM is important to you than make it important enough to be part of your plan.
Outside of our video room there is a sign with the following Michael Jordan quote selected by Coach Gunter. I thought it appropriate that Maxwell utilized the same quote in his book.
"There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time, those players aren’t willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end, their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve. One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence win championships."
-Michael Jordan
