‘One game at a time’ mentality

Motivation is the second principle behind effective coaching, according to Tom Mullins, author of the book, "The Leadership Game." Mullins coached football for 15 years and amassed 128 victories at both the high school and college levels. After personally interviewing eight national championship football coaches, coach and pastor Mullins reveals that the principles that help a coach lead a…team to victory are the very same principles used by the most successful leaders of businesses, ministries, families and organizations.

The first principle to effective coaching we discussed last week is recruiting. The second is motivation. One of the marks of a great leader is the ability to get the best out of every one in his team, in every situation. Mullins says there are six keys to accomplishing this.

The first key is to be self-motivated. According to Mullins, as a leader, you have to understand that the spark of enthusiasm starts with you. You hold the match and your team holds the torch. Before your team gets fired up, you have to light the match. Only then can you light its torch. Leadership requires you to lead — to set an example to follow. If you’re just barking orders, don’t expect your people to be highly motivated. Expect them to be fearful, resentful, or lethargic.

The second key is to invite your team to a bigger story. Mullins points out that each one of us wants to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Call it a purpose or a destiny or simply a desire to get past all the insufficiencies of our current existence, an individual’s yearning to reach beyond his limitations is a seed of greatness waiting for a stream of motivation. Remember the movie Rocky? That ought to inspire our young men and women. What about countless real life stories of leaders overcoming physical adversities to make a difference in the lives of millions of people?

The third key is to let the team help determine the plot. Mullins indulges in some form of poetry when he says, "Hand in hand with the bigger story is the plot. If the story is the vision you invite your team into, then the plot of the story is the goals required to carry out the vision. And the team must be involved, because the players are the story’s composers."

Coach McCartney explained it in another way: "You have to first show a man the prize; then he’ll pay the price. If you can keep his eyes on the prize; he’ll pay a great price. There are three things about showing them the prize: You have to see it clearly, you have to show it creatively, and you have to say it constantly. As you do these three things, you’ll get everybody to take their eyes off themselves and the pain they’re in, and they’ll start to pay a great price for the prize."

The fourth key is reward your team members individually. One of the jobs of a leader is to make sure each team member knows the answer to the question: "How am I valuable to the team?"

Coach Steve Spurrier of Florida explains how he makes each team member feel important, "One part of coaching that I really believe in is making every player feel important. Not just your star players, but even your practice players should feel important…you need to make those players feel important and that they are contributing to the success of the team…Then when you win a championship, every player in the team shares in it."

The fifth key is let team members hold each other accountable. As they say, enthusiasm is contagious. The coach can only do so much in the locker room to prop up everyone. When the chips are down in the playing field, what keep players morale is each other. Players try to get a sense of what their teammates are thinking when the other side jumps to a huge lead right at the opening buzzer. They want to see if their teammates are still in the game or have given up the ghost.

As Mullins says, "There is much you can do and say on the front end to inspire them (players), but once they’re in the thick of things, the faces they see most are each other’s. If you can teach your team to hold each other up in good and bad times, your capacity to motivate the members will be vastly expanded.

The sixth key is desire to win. Simply put, do your homework. There is no substitute for hard work.

Ultimately, says Mullins, the most important aspect of motivation is its capacity to build a team’s confidence…A team brimming with confidence rolls over the competition. The key to continual victory is maintaining that confidence; we call the result momentum.

The third principle of effective coaching is momentum. In brief, Mullins says we ought to teach our players the following: Every play counts; appreciate one victory at a time; treat every challenge the same; and perform with relaxed confidence.

We will skim over the remaining principles: morale: reiterate team goals before every endeavor; game planning: distinguish your biggest obstacles, determine your opponents’ weaknesses, have a back up plan ready; and game-day adjustments: the competition changes, the team changes and the climate changes.

The seventh and last principle of effective coaching, celebration, needs a bit more elaboration.

When you team wins, you must celebrate. As coach Gene Stallings of Alabama would say, "…if you can’t enjoy a win, then as far as I’m concerned, you’re in the wrong business. I mean, if I can’t get high there, or if the team can’t get high on that, then, brother, we got a problem." Mullins further says, "Authentic celebration is an essential component of team leadership."

Mullins says a common misconception among young coaches is that a "one game at a time" mentality necessitates downplaying every win until the big one, the championship. This is a naive strategy, and it is dangerous. If a team’s expectations for one step (or game) are met but quickly overlooked, the players’ energy and excitement for the next step will shrink.

And it must be pointed out that for you to get to the next step and eventually to the championship, you must pass the first step successfully. Sure, let’s take it one game at a time but let’s not minimize the impact of the earlier game which, if we lost, won’t make us eligible for the next step.

Mullins recalls a coach he had who would always tell them to calm down when they were in the locker room to celebrate a victory. The coach would not let them celebrate for even five minutes, and it never felt right-sort of like a parent telling you not to smile on your birthday.