3 Principles for Building a Strong Team Culture
A team’s culture is the foundation for everything – its trust, respect, motivation, resilience, determination, cohesion, love.
When individuals share a common set of values, expectations, and goals, they will bond and work together. And when players feel connected to the team and are invested in its success, they will put in the necessary effort, push themselves to improve, and hold themselves accountable for their actions both on and off the field.
Building a strong team culture is essential for achieving consistent high-performance and repeated success. Three principles for building a strong team culture are:
1. Define
2. Demonstrate
3. Demand
DEFINE – DEMONSTRATE – DEMAND
1) DEFINE
Define your team’s culture by clearly articulating what the expectations are, what success looks like, and the proper methods for achieving success.
In order to succeed, people need a clear target. If you hold a player to a standard, they must know what the standard is. It is on you, as the lead communicator, to make sure the team fully understands what you are communicating. Do not expect players to read your mind.
As the leader of the team culture, embrace repeating yourself and your message. Culture takes time to build. People have poor memories. Give your players frequent reminders of the expectations. Above all, be consistent.
It can be helpful to have a physical list of the team values and expectations. Some organizations have players sign contracts at the beginning of the season, to help ensure the team’s expectations and penalties are clearly defined for everyone.
At the beginning of every season, Coach John Wooden would teach his players how to properly put on their socks before practice.
Why? Because wearing loose socks increases the chance of getting a blister, and blisters cause a reduction in performance. It was within a player’s control to reduce the chance of a performance reduction by making sure that their socks were tight. And it was within Wooden’s control as their coach to make sure he was clear about his expectations for their preparation and attention-to-detail.
2) DEMONSTRATE
Demonstrate your team’s culture by holding yourself to the same standards as your players.
Human beings learn best through imitation – seeing and copying another person. If you want players to respect their teammates, you must respect everyone. If you want everyone to feel valued equally, you must value them equally.
Words are important, but cheap. Leaders lead by showing integrity through being consistent in their words and actions. Building a culture with high standards becomes possible when the coach holds themselves to those same high standard. Be on time. Be prepared. Don’t complain. Our life itself is our message.
True respect and loyalty only flow to the leaders who walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
John Wooden would spend more time planning his practices than having the practice.
He would plan his drills down to the minute, as well as down to which specific player should be where and when, in order for them to work on a specific skill he wanted them to improve. He moved them seamlessly through drills that were faster and tougher than the games they played in.
Wooden showed his dedication, his attention-to-detail, and how much he cared about his players’ development by how much time he spent planning his practices.
3) DEMAND
Demand the culture you want, over and over again.
Politely demand it. Respectfully demand it. Because you will get the culture you accept.
The magical phrase for giving feedback (“The Culture Code”, Daniel Coyle) is: “I am giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.”
This is a powerful sentence because it contains three belonging cues:
- You are part of this group.
- This group is special; we have high standards here.
- I believe you can reach those standards.
Having clear and consistent boundaries is a vital part of leading a team. People need boundaries. And they need to understand the consequences for overstepping the boundaries. Humans will naturally test their boundaries, often just to make sure they are still there. It is not to be disrespectful, but because they want to feel the reassurance that someone is in control.
John Wooden had a rule: “no facial hair was allowed by any players on the team.”
At their first practice after a ten-day layoff, his star center, Bill Walton, came in with a beard. Wooden asked Walton if he had forgotten something? Walton replied, ” Coach, if you mean the beard, I think I should be allowed to wear it. It’s my right.”
Wooden asked, “Do you believe that strongly? Walton replied, “Yes I do coach, very much.” Wooden politely said, ” Bill, I have great respect for individuals who stand up for those things in which they believe. I really do. And the team is going to miss you. ” Walton immediately went to the locker room and shaved off his beard.
“Remember that discipline is not to punish, but it is to correct, to improve, to prevent, to help, so we must maintain our self-control at all times.”
– Coach John Wooden