The 12 Days of Christmas - The 3 Components of Effective Communication

Published: Fri, 12/16/16

"Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication" - Coach K

I recently had the opportunity to attend a coaching clinic with TJ Rosense from PGC Basketball and the Hardwood Hustle (a couple of my favorite sports resources.) I took multiple pages of notes (if you get a chance to see TJ he is one of the best I've seen!) - but one of the biggest takeaways I had was his discussion on how communication is a cornerstone of his program's culture. He shared that communication needs to have all 3 of these components:

Truth
Love
Transparency

Effective communication requires all 3 components. TJ's teams make a regular practice of this by spending 5-8 minutes at the beginning of practice discussing different topics, such as:

- 'My commitment Monday' - Players commit to one thing that week in practice

- 'Tough Tuesday' - Share something you're struggling with

- 'Wisdom Wednesday' - Share a quote or something you've learned recently

- 'Thankful Thursday'

- 'Fun Friday'

- 'Servant Saturday'

Of course all of these topics work best - if YOU start. The players need to see your honesty, love, and transparency role-modeled.

TJ finished our time sharing:

"Everything about culture is a teachable skill that you can improve."

Practice the skill of communication with your teams starting this week!

Next week we'll wrap up this series with our 12th Thing that kids really want from their coaches.

My Culture Journey

13 weeks in on my journey to turn around the culture of a team I help coach, you can follow along here: The Culture Journey

NEW WYC PODCASTS

WYC 101 – Championship Basketball – Kevin Furtado talks Benchmarks, Action Steps, & The Legends Clinic

Kevin was recently hired on at a charter school in Georgia called Lake Oconee Academy. He has been coaching basketball for over 26 years. Kevin grew up in San Jose California and played football, basketball, and baseball growing up. Kevin shares with us how he is creating the culture at Lake Oconee specifically with Benchmarks and Action Steps, as well as how he founded the Legends Clinic coaching conference.

Go to podcast episode

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Make winning the right way your habit starting today,
Craig

Craig Haworth is the founder of Winning Youth Coaching, a site dedicated to helping coaches and parents make youth sports an awesome experience for the youth and the parents. He interviews coaches from around the world and posts them on his podcast, which currently has over 100 interviews and has been downloaded over 100,000 times. He writes a weekly note to coaches and parents. He is married to his high-school sweetheart and they share the blessing of 3 children and live in Franklin, TN. You can sign-up for his weekly note here, find him on twitter at @craighaworth1, or visit his website winningyouthcoaching.com.

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"

- Frederick Douglass