| Why are some head coaches in an unhealthy spot?
Below is a pattern I sometimes see with head coaches/leaders.
Level 1
They start off as low-level assistants. They want to coach because they love the sport and/or they want to impact people.
Level 2
They get promoted.
Why?
Because they can connect with people and develop them. This helps in recruiting and player development.
Level 3
They get promoted again.
Why?
Because, yet again, they have proven they can connect with people and develop them at this level.
Level 4
They are now assistants at the highest level. The pressure and intensity have definitely increased. They find themselves feeling more and more pressure…primarily because the head coach is all over him/her. This doesn’t come from a good heart. It often comes from a stressed-out, losing perspective head coach who is demeaning, overly aggressive (sometimes passive-aggressive), and unaware of how this negatively affects others.
This assistant doesn’t like the environment they are in and makes a vow to not do the same thing if/when they become a head coach.
Level 5
He/she gets a head coaching job at a lower level. This new head coach finds that they act very much like their boss did. He/she is short and rude with the assistants…not afraid to blow them up. They keep an extremely tight grip on all things in the program. It’s not enjoyable. Their assistants are miserable… but they are winning.
Level 6
They keep winning! He/she has a unique ability to get the athletes to perform. Don’t pay attention to the tactics, he/she just gets them to perform. Even though they are winning, the head coach is miserable and miserable to be around.
Level 7
He/she gets a head job at a high-level conference. The pressure they put on themselves to perform is really really high. And guess who feels that pressure? Yep,…the assistants and the players.
So how did we get here? This coach went from a coach who loves the process and loves to develop people to a stressed-out, maniacal leader who often treats people like crap.
We got there by pressure, expectations, and ego…and they don’t handle any of them well.
When you start climbing the ‘ladder’ the fall from the first rung to the ground is no big deal. So there is zero pressure…you just love helping develop people.
Once you start to get high enough on the ‘ladder’ it becomes a long way to fall so you grip. You manipulate. You coerce. You do whatever is necessary to stay at the top of the ladder.
The higher they climb the more the ego gets stroked, the more attention this leader gets, the more they stress and grip. It is a bad cycle.
That is why there are so many head coaches/leaders who are at the top but miserable and unhealthy!
The Tribe
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The Tribe | April 25: Coming up with player development plans |
