Coaching A-Ha Moment - Crucial Conversations 🏆👑

Published: Fri, 04/28/17

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." — MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. Mastering quoted by Kerry Patterson in Crucial Conversations

Does this pattern sound true of many (of you?):

Pre-teen - Pretty much blurt out whatever is on your mind
Teen - Your mouth starts getting you in trouble, so you learn to say less of anything controversial
Adult - It is easier to hide your feelings so unless something is going to immediately impact you in a severely negative way, just keep your thoughts to yourself

Unfortunately I would say this accurately describes me. It has negatively affected my relationships with my wife, my kids, my friends, coaches I have coached with, and everyone else I interacted with.

The good news is I have been becoming aware of a better way to live life over the past few years. Recently reading the book Crucial Conversations has really inspired me on how much better life is when we engage in important conversations, instead of suppressing our feelings.

This is so true with our coaching staffs too. Think about it - can you think of a group of people who are more passionate, competitive, confident, or strong-willed?

While this is a recipe for passion, it is also a 100% guarantee that there will be differing opinions on the best way to do things - That's OK, there should be!

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress — Mahatma Gandhi

I strongly encourage you to read Crucial Conversations in the offseason with your coaching staff, and then to set up a plan on how you are going to communicate as a staff to make sure everyone's opinions are being heard and frustrations are in the open instead of being suppressed.

A recent podcast guest Coach TJ Rosene shared that his teams establish that all communication must have 3 elements:

Truth
Love
Transparency

Make this a goal with your teams this season!

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver - Proverbs 25:11

I love hearing your stories and experiences, both the positive ones and frustrations you're having - just reply to this email and it goes straight to my inbox.

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 110 interviews and has been downloaded over 160,000 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