More Than A Game
|
|
A dismal bit of news about a Women’s basketball team set me to thinking about my experiences in observing Coach Gail Goestenkoers – one of the best in the field - guide an immature and unproven team to its first-ever conference championship. The news item was about the Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) Women’s basketball program and a long list of grievances from players about the coach. The charges read like a Twelve Steps program for Demoralizing a Team. Apparently, what’s been brewing for the past four years has boiled over with the local newspaper’s expose. The story suggests a vacuum of leadership on and off the court, a meanness of misleading that only a really bad boss might envy.
At long last the IUPUI administration is taking action and has appointed a three person investigatory panel to probe the allegations of public humiliation and emotional abuse perpetrated by the head coach and one of her assistants. A total of 28 players and coaches have quit over the past four years, with one declaring, “I grew to hate basketball”. Of course - if there is substance to the story – where was the administrative oversight of the coaching staff?
My essay (Chapter 8: More Than a Game: A Season with a Women’s Basketball Team) in Leading from the Middle tells a different story. Observing organizations always help me better understand and appreciate the many theories about what happens in the work place. Unexpectedly, my following this team and coach helped me deal with a rough patch in my career: the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune were falling all about me (you can quote me on that!). So, seeing Coach G build and shape a team in her supportive and positive ways was a form of healing. I recall my personal joy – think screaming-with-tears-in-my-eyes for the last ten minutes of the game - when what had now become my team upset the enemy. Irrationally enough, the other team represented (for me) the top-down command and control way of working that I have always resented and resisted. My team’s huge win was a vindication of sorts. Seeing how Coach Gail led her team affirmed my self-managing ways and confirmed the best ways to set people free to do their best work.
Throughout practices, locker room sessions, one-on-one meetings with individual players, coaches’ meetings, and in games, I observed Coach G’s respect, caring and fondness for the players. She was clear about roles and expectations, she was firm and demanding. And she would, on occasion, yell at players during practice. But, the fiery feedback was always about what was lacking and what needed to be done for improvement. Never did the yelling or other criticism turn into a rant or a personal attack. Her criticism was always about something within the player’s control and within team expectations – mutually shared by players and coaches. Importantly, that constructive criticism was always softened with a ratio of four or five positive statements to the one negative.
I will be leading one of my Coaching workshops for the Lyrasis library network in Atlanta on October 5. Part of my talk will draw from my season with Gail’s team. I show participants this team huddle picture, photographed by my friend Toni Tetterton, to illustrate what an effective team looks like. What do you see in this picture? While the coach has a crucial role in assuring the team’s coming together it is, at some point, up to each player to subordinate the individual for the good of the team. And, there is a point when the coach has to let go, has to subordinate herself to the team.
At long last the IUPUI administration is taking action and has appointed a three person investigatory panel to probe the allegations of public humiliation and emotional abuse perpetrated by the head coach and one of her assistants. A total of 28 players and coaches have quit over the past four years, with one declaring, “I grew to hate basketball”. Of course - if there is substance to the story – where was the administrative oversight of the coaching staff?
My essay (Chapter 8: More Than a Game: A Season with a Women’s Basketball Team) in Leading from the Middle tells a different story. Observing organizations always help me better understand and appreciate the many theories about what happens in the work place. Unexpectedly, my following this team and coach helped me deal with a rough patch in my career: the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune were falling all about me (you can quote me on that!). So, seeing Coach G build and shape a team in her supportive and positive ways was a form of healing. I recall my personal joy – think screaming-with-tears-in-my-eyes for the last ten minutes of the game - when what had now become my team upset the enemy. Irrationally enough, the other team represented (for me) the top-down command and control way of working that I have always resented and resisted. My team’s huge win was a vindication of sorts. Seeing how Coach Gail led her team affirmed my self-managing ways and confirmed the best ways to set people free to do their best work.
Throughout practices, locker room sessions, one-on-one meetings with individual players, coaches’ meetings, and in games, I observed Coach G’s respect, caring and fondness for the players. She was clear about roles and expectations, she was firm and demanding. And she would, on occasion, yell at players during practice. But, the fiery feedback was always about what was lacking and what needed to be done for improvement. Never did the yelling or other criticism turn into a rant or a personal attack. Her criticism was always about something within the player’s control and within team expectations – mutually shared by players and coaches. Importantly, that constructive criticism was always softened with a ratio of four or five positive statements to the one negative.
I will be leading one of my Coaching workshops for the Lyrasis library network in Atlanta on October 5. Part of my talk will draw from my season with Gail’s team. I show participants this team huddle picture, photographed by my friend Toni Tetterton, to illustrate what an effective team looks like. What do you see in this picture? While the coach has a crucial role in assuring the team’s coming together it is, at some point, up to each player to subordinate the individual for the good of the team. And, there is a point when the coach has to let go, has to subordinate herself to the team.
John Lubans - portrait by WSJ