Sports Coaches all have a preferred coaching style. A coaching style is a way of behaving. Coaches spend most of their time using their preferred coaching style. Sometimes this style works well for them. Sometimes it doesn’t. Knowing what your coaching style is and being able to change it, is critical in order to appeal to the different types of athletes that you coach. Using a style that is incompatible with your athlete’s needs will result in you becoming frustrated that the athlete is not making changes and it will also result in the athlete becoming frustrated that they are not being coached effectively. The problem is, so often I have seen the incorrect coaching style used with the previously mentioned results yet no-one knew why the problem was occurring. The coach just gave up and the athlete left to be coached by someone else or they left the sport altogether. Using the Athlete DISC profile, will enable you to identify your coaching style. When your athletes also complete their profile, the information you get will enable you to use the correct style with each athlete. Coach behavior should be a way to connect athlete understanding with the concepts and skills the coach is trying to improve within the objectives of the session (Hall & Smith 2006). With each of the four behavioral styles outlined in the Athlete DISC, there’s a different way to communicate, connect with, provide feedback and motivate and counsel them. How to do all this is the basis of our Coach Education webinars and the purpose of this article is to explain how to generally learn more about the coaching styles and how to be more effective in coaching your athletes. If you are the Coach, are you the leader? First, recognize that as a coach you are a leader. As a leader you have certain amounts of power. Your power will essentially come from two sources: “position power” and “personal power.” Position power is just what it sounds like–you’re the Coach so a certain amount of power comes from being anointed by the Club or Team Management for this role. But personal power comes from earning it, from developing it. Position power is a starting point for coaching an athlete or team, but it’s personal power enables a coach to go from a coaching style that considers the needs of the athlete first and then fits the style of coaching required to these needs. Personal power is also based on coaches building respect and credibility in the eyes of their athletes. It is well known that a critical condition for an athlete to change their technique is the amount of credibility the coach has in the eyes of the athlete. For example, if the athlete’s previous coach has taught them a certain technique and it is deemed ineffective, then unless the athlete’s current coach has greater credibility than the athlete’s old coach, there will be no change in technique. This is because the athlete does not believe in the new coach as compared to their belief in the old coach. Building the credibility is about showing your desire to adapt to the athlete’s need (see previous article on Adaptability) and then show your expertise in the athlete’s eyes. What is interesting in sport today, is the amount of information on topics critical to performance such as nutrition, sports science, bio mechanics. Yet show me the same depth of information on how to build effective relationships and rapport with your athletes. Business has recognized the need to develop the management and leadership skills of its people years ago. In sport many people still seem to be caught up with training programs and sports science. Believe me I know this is important. I won three Olympic medals and used every piece of sport science and bio mechanical help I could, but it was the ability of my coach who really enabled me to be my best. Actually, by the end of my career, my coach could do everything a sport science tester did and he understood the bio mechanics of my sport to a degree that exceeded many experts in the field. What my coach did better than any other coach I have seen, is his ability to build rapport with his athletes, establish enormous credibility and develop the highest level of respect. To us, he was (and is to others today) a coach who was athlete centered, where he adjusted his style to suit the needs of his athletes. I guess that is why he is Head Coach of one of the largest nations in the world. Personal power–in essence, your skill in dealing with people–is increasingly crucial to you and your role as coach. In short, if you respect your athletes’ individuality, their essential differences, they’ll feel like they’re on a winning team and will work harder, better for you. But you must empower them rather than just seeking power over them. You can do that by learning to listen, observe, and talk to them. And then adapting so they’ll feel important, wanted and highly valued, this will build their self-esteem and that will increase their confidence in themselves. We all know the results that genuinely self-confident athletes can achieve. Want to know your coaching style? Bo Hanson is a four time Olympian and Triple Olympic Medalist. He is one of Australia’s most dynamic speakers on sport and business performance. He founded Athlete Assessments to assist coaches and athletes to improve their results through better understanding of themselves and others. He can be contacted through http://www.athleteassessments.com or bo.hanson@athleteassessments.com •Four Times Olympic Rowing Representative for Australia.
•Three Times Olympic Medalist.
•Specialist Coaching Consultant.
•Corporate Training Consultant and Presenter.win back ex girlfriend

Using the Athlete DISC to Create High Performance Teams Great teamwork happens when those on the team have a philosophy of being the best person for the team rather than the best person in the team. Often athletes compete brutally against each other in order to be selected on the team and then once they are on the team, they are expected to put the team first. This is quite a departure from their previous thinking when they had to fight for themselves. However, if their thinking does not change, then we end up with a non-united team. A team of individuals. A team that without question, will fail to produce their best when it matters the most. As coaches, we may or may not have a role in selecting our team. Some do and some don’t. Regardless of this, every coach, must understand the interplay of behavioural styles / personalities that exist of their team. This interplay is called Team Dynamics and just by observing a team, it can be quite a challenge to accurately understand the diverse mix of these styles. To fully and accurately understand, coaches can turn to the Athlete DISC and the Team Dynamics Profiling. After all, most teams fail due to clashes of behaviour patterns (”personality clashes”). Clashes that could have been managed had the coach and team been aware of them. Creating Great Teams Some coaches assume any group can automatically be a team. One of the biggest single reasons that teams misfire is that personality differences are ignored. In short, who’s selected for the team will affect the outcome. For best results, we must be strategic about the athletes on the team, what their behavioural style is and what the outcome of these behavioural styles is in creating the Team Dynamics Profile. With this knowledge coaches can begin to understand likely team behaviours and the most effective way to coach the overall team. Coaches can also see where gaps are in the team’s diversity and can, where able, recruit athletes of particular profiles to fill those gaps. When coaches create a sporting team and employ their knowledge of the four Athlete DISC behavioral styles, they can greatly improve the team’s chances for success. Coaches will need to take into account that there are natural allies and antagonists among the styles and also that each style functions best at a different phase in the life cycle of a team. For information on Team Development Stages, stay tuned as an article is coming out soon on this topic. For example, Interactive styles (I’s) often see Compliant styles (C’s) as overly-analytical and rule governed. Dominant styles (D’s) might sooner die than have to continually wait on the more considerate style of the Steady team members (S’s). Compliant styles, while often drawn to Steady styles, have difficulty understanding the Interactive style’s lack of focus or the Dominant style’s impatience. And Steady styles only wish everyone was as amiable and tolerant as they. So while the potential for conflict is always there, it needn’t become the reality. In creating a team, think about who you are putting on it and monitor how they function during the group’s evolution. That way you’ll not only make the best possible use of the strengths of each team member, you can help create a whole that’s much larger than the sum of the parts. Discovering what styles you have on your team is easy. When each of your team, complete an Athlete DISC Profile, they will be mapped onto a Team Dynamics Chart like the one below. Visit our site to see the article on this topic and view the Dynamics Profile Chart. In the Team Dynamics Profile example, a coach can see that there are two different percentage measures in each Behavioural Style. The first percentage is the Norm Group. The norm group is a measure of the % of team members that theoretically form a healthy amount of a certain behavioural style. The other percentage is Your Group. This is the actual percentage of a certain behavioural style that exists in your team. The first aspect to look at in the Team Dynamics Profile, is the Norm Group vs Your Group percentage. We ideally want these percentages to map to the theory percentages. Successful teams tend to have healthy diversity within the behavioural profiles. Can you think of what may occur if one behavioural style is oversupplied? In the above example, the first team issue to notice is the lack of D’s. In teams, D’s provide a sense of urgency, a pace setting style of leadership, a love of a challenge, a strong results focus and a what ever it takes style of play. What do you think may be the outcome for a team that is missing these qualities? Think about team members who naturally want to assume a leadership role, what profile do you think they are most likely? The second observation is that there are too many I’s. Interactive (I) style behaviours are fast paced, people oriented, motivated by change and fun, are impulsive with their choices, will be interested in the social side of sport as well as the need for individual recognition. As well, I’s are talkative types who tend to wear there heart on their sleeve more so than the other styles. With roughly twice as many I’s as the theory suggests is required, this team will likely struggle at times to switch on a focus. There may be a lot of off topic communication and if their coach does not provide excitement and fun elements at training, then they will start to disengage. The other factor in this team, is that their Steady style (S) is under represented. S styles are described as the ultimate team player. They listen, are observant of others, portray tolerance, are highly amiable and generally will naturally put the team before themselves. Some describe S’s as the glue that binds the team together. What do you think may happen in this team given that there are not enough of the S’s? Finally, the Compliant style. You will notice that this style is also over represented by 25%. Compliant styles (C’s) are rule guided, motivated by structure and systems being effective and efficient, are stubborn and inflexible to change unless there is sufficient evidence such as facts and figures to support the change. They are also likely to be highly conscious of quality above all else, are interested in the “right” process before the result and are more a thinker than a feeler who will be reticent to express themselves. Whilst fantastic people to have on a team, they can often be prone to preferring to work alone. So knowing this what impact do you think the impact on the team will be? In summary, Team Dynamics Profiling gives us concrete indications on how the team will bond, interact and ultimately perform. Obtaining accurate information on Team Dynamics is easy and inexpensive using the Athlete DISC Profiling system. I have noticed that when teams significantly underperform, there is almost always critical behavioural issues (”personality clashes”) that were never addressed by the coach. Sport is tough enough. Coaching is one of the most challenging roles a person can have. In a recent survey of elite coaches from a diversity of sports, coaches rated the three most challenging aspects of their roles. 50% rated “Understanding individual athlete’s personality and how to best motivate them”. 46% rated “Personal life balance – managing sport, career, home and social life.” And 31% rated “Team/squad dynamics and managing relationships within the team/squad”. Don’t make your job any harder by neglecting this critical aspect of team performance. Use the knowledge available with Athlete Assessments and the Athlete DISC to assist you to make better informed decisions. Boden Hanson is a four time Olympian and Triple Olympic Medalist. He is one of Australia’s most dynamic speakers on sport and business performance. He founded Athlete Assessments to assist coaches and athletes to improve their results through better understanding of themselves and others. He can be contacted through http://www.athleteassessments.com or bo.hanson@athleteassessments.com •Four Times Olympic Rowing Representative for Australia.
•Three Times Olympic Medalist.
•Specialist Coaching Consultant.
•Corporate Training Consultant and Presenter.Student Aid