Tyler's 10 Leadership Strategies

“I feel like guys look up to me in the locker room. How do I become a better leader?”

“My team is full of followers. They’re waiting for someone else to take charge. How do I build better leaders on my team?”

These are two questions I get at least every other week. Athletes want to be better leaders and coaches want to create better leaders, but for some reason… neither of them know where to start. There’s so much information out there on what a good leader looks like and how they act, but there is little information on practical strategies to use that can immediately make an impact.

So here are ten different strategies you can use with yourself or your athletes to instantly be a better leader.

  1. Personal Outcome Goals

    It always starts with the leader. If you are asking your teammates or your athletes to do something that you aren’t already doing, you will instantly lose credibility. What are your outcome goals? These are goals that you can say, “Yes I did this,” or “I didn’t get it done.”

    You want to put 5 pounds on your bench max in 4 weeks. That’s an outcome goal. At the end of the four weeks, you can say, “Yes, I did this,” or “No, I didn’t.”

    “I want to be a better leader.” <— That means nothing. There is no action item. What are you actually going to DO to be a better leader?

    To be a better leader, I will go out to dinner with a different member of my team each week this preseason. <— that’s a goal.

    If you’re looking for a goal sheet, check this out. This is a great place to get all of your goals in one place. Feel free to copy and paste into your own document, and make it your own.

  2. Personal Character

    Who are you? What are three words that describe the person you are and what are three words that describe the person you want to be? If you don’t have any character, how are you supposed to lead people?

    Vitor Belfort, 2004 UFC Light Heavyweight Champion said, “A man is driven by principle. A boy is driven by preference.”

    What principles drive you? If you’re looking for a few, here is a document that might help spur up some.

  3. Team Outcome Goals

    After you have yourself under control, you can take the next step into team culture. Part of culture is setting outcome goals for the team. For instance… if you’re the head baseball coach at a college university, this might be your team’s goals:

    1. Win THE NEXT Pitch - One Pitch At A Time

    2. Win The Series

    3. Win The League Tournament

    4. Win 40 Games

    5. Host A Regional

    6. Host A Super Regional

    7. Go To Omaha

    8. Win The Regular Season

    9. Win The National Championship

    10. Prepare Players For Success In Professional Baseball

    11. Graduate From OU

    Did you notice how each goals leads to the next? It’s made in a stepwise fashion to provide your brain with structure to guide yourself to your final outcome goal. Everything comes down to that first goal though: Win The Next Pitch - One Pitch At A Time. For basketball, this could be: Win The Next Play - One Play At A Time. In basketball, the more plays you win, the more quarters you win, the more quarters, the more halves, the more halves, the more games. So it’s about getting your team then to go ONE PLAY AT A TIME. How do you do that? Check out the next strategy.

  4. Team Behavior Standards

    After you set goals for the team, you have to enforce the behavior standards that are going to lead to the teams success. I.e. Sprinting on and off the field, picking up a teammate when they walk in the dugout, or running hard to first base.

    A simple and effective behavior standard to set: No BCD. No blaming. No complaining. No defending. I got this from the Focus 3 group that works with top Division 1 Programs around the country. If you stop blaming, complaining, and defending yourself, you will get your kids to do the same. Then, it’s just holding them accountable when they step out of line. Here are some other team behavior standards you might want to make a part of your culture.

    Say one of your teams principles is servant leadership. You can start each practice or team meeting with a simple question: Will someone please tell me a story about themselves or about someone else from this weekend that embodies servant leadership in our program?

    Now, not only are your athletes talking about how they were a leader off the court this weekend, but they’re giving the team ideas about what you can actually DO to be more of a servant leader.

  5. Build Connection

    Connection has two parts: Time & Shared Adversity. You build connection with someone by spending a lot of time with them and/or getting some suck with them.

    You have a roommate. Even if you don’t go through any adversity together, you spend a lot of time with them. The more time you spend with them, the greater the connection becomes.

    Shared adversity works the same way. Instantly after 9/11/2001, everyone in America grew a lot closer. Not because they spent any more time with each other, but because they all went through a ton of adversity.

    Again, connection is built through time and shared adversity.

    What is one way you can spend more time with a teammate or athlete?

    What is one more way?

    What is one way you can get some shared adversity with a teammate?

    What is one adversity-driven activity you can put the team through?

    What’s another?

  6. Seek Curiosity Before Control

    I got this one from Greg Warburton who wrote Ask More, Tell Less. When dealing with teammates or athletes, it is much wiser to ask a quality question than it is to just tell them, especially if the expectations have already been set.

    A great type of question to ask is a “dilemma question”:

    • Is this type of behavior going to help us win a championship or lose a championship?

    • Is that decision going to help us win more games or lose more games?

    • Is yelling at your teammate going to help the situation or hurt the situation?

    Another type of question to ask is similar to the question at the end of section 5:

    • What’s one…

    • What’s one drill you can do later that you know can help your bat path?

    • What’s one way you know you can increase your fielding percentage?

    And then as always… just flip the question on them. When an athlete comes to you and asks a question, flip it back on them. When a teammate comes to ask you a question, ask them that same question in your own words.

    Athlete: Why can’t I hit the ball right now?

    Coach/Teammate: What is one reason you think you can’t hit the ball right now?

    Athlete: Dude… that’s why I’m coming to you. I don’t know why!

    Coach/Teammate: If you were to forget you didn’t know for just one minute, what’s one reason you think you might not be hitting the ball right now?

    Coaches and teammates feel like they need to say the just right thing at the just right moment. That’s a lot of pressure! Plus, athletes know a lot more than we (and sometimes even they) think they do.

    Seek curiosity before control and watch your leadership skills skyrocket.

  7. Be Vulnerable

    “Build a bridge of trust so strong that it can bear the weight of truth.” I heard this quote a lot time ago and found it to be genius, but how do you build trust?

    You build trust 3 ways: Competence, Connection, and Character.

    Do you know what you’re talking about?

    Have you spent time with them and gotten some suck with them?

    What type of person are you? Were you that same person when you were going through that adversity?

    Sharing what you know, adversity, and you following through on your word. These are vulnerable positions to put yourself in. When you’re vulnerable, you build trust. The backwards part about it though is that you have to have trust in the first place to be vulnerable. So if you want to be a better leader, it starts with you being vulnerable first.

    A great activity for being vulnerable and building trust is called Hero, Hardship, Highlight. Each person can talk about one hero in their life, one hardship they’ve been through, and one highlight from their career or life. You can make it as specific to your sport as you want, or generalize it to life overall.

  8. Call Teammates Up, Not Out

    This is a great strategy for every athlete who wants to be a better leader. It’s simple. When you go do something, invite a teammate with. You going to the cages to hit? Bring a teammate. You taking extra ground balls after practice with coach? Bring a teammate with. You notice your teammate not paying attention bring team meetings? Sit next to him and hold him accountable.

    Don’t say, “Yeah Tyler can’t hit because he never gets extra reps in on his own,” or “He’s holding our team back because he’s not doing his breathing exercises before practice.”

    What you do is you invite that teammate with you and you call them up to get better, instead of calling them out that they haven’t gotten their work in on their own.

  9. Get Some Alone Time

    Leaders need alone time. This goes back to strategies 1, 2, and 3 especially. How are you supposed to come up with goals or standards for the team if you are too distracted by other people or social media? Put the phone away, turn off the tv, grab your journal, and go deep into you own conscience.

    Leadership begins with who you are, not what you do. A title might give you leadership now, but over time, who you are will show and eventually you’ll reach a glass ceiling because you have no idea who you actually are.

    Again… sit down, grab your journal, and write with yourself.

    Another activity is to sit in front of a mirror and talk to yourself. If you can be vulnerable and honest with yourself, then there will be no problem being vulnerable and honest with others.

  10. 10-80-10 Principle

    Last but not least, the 10-80-10 principle of leadership. 10% of the team is completely bought into the team. 80% is on the fence. 10% no matter what you do will never be on board. You goal as a leader (hopefully you’re in the top 10%) is to get as much of that 80% into the top 10% as possible. When Tim Tebow was dominating college football at University of Florida, he would go into the coach’s office every week and ask his coach for someone from the 80% that he could get up into the top 10% that week. The coach would slide him a name, and Tebow would do everything he could think of to get that guy to buy in that week. If you’re reading this and made it this far, you are probably in the top 10%. Pick someone out and get them on board.

  11. Bonus: Who is a leader?

    You are a leader when anybody counts on your for anything. The starter is counting on the backup to bring his A-game to practice because the starter needs to be pushed. The pitcher is counting on the 3rd string catcher to be focused because he’s counting on that guy to catch the ball well for his pen that day. Everyone has the ability to be a leader on the team and not just because their first on the depth chart. Who is one person counting on you today and what is one thing they are counting on you to do?

    If you can’t figure it out, set up a call with me below.

    If you’d like to discuss any of this point further, set up a call with me below.

    You can also email me at tyler@pazikperformancegroup.com

    Talk to you soon.

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