raise the bar

Posted: 09/26/2018; Last Edited: 09/26/2018

By Coach Ryan

In doing my research for last week’s blog, The Power of Core Values, I came across an article by the Harvard Business Review discussing respect. In the article, the author breaks respect into two forms; Owed and Earned respect. Owed respect is the level of respect that makes you feel like a valuable component of the team. Everyone’s opinions, choices, abilities, time and efforts are respected. The atmosphere on the team should suggest everyone is an equal slice of the pie. Earned respect is the level of respect that distinguishes you from everyone else on the team. Coaches and teammates are responsible for recognizing individual team members for achieving standards that lie above the team’s normal expectations. Each individual should get the sense that they bring a unique quality to the team. While we are all equal slices of the pie, we all bring our own unique flavor.

The concept of earned respect made me think about team standards and how coaches and teammates are both responsible for not only setting those standards but also holding the team accountable to them. To be clear, standards “are achievements that help fulfill the team’s purpose.” They should lie slightly above the level of expectation. Expectations are the bare minimum to qualify for the team (i.e. standing tuck or 2.5 GPA). Expectations are important as they set the baseline necessary to set standards. Setting standards is often referred to as “setting the bar.” In this blog we will discuss how you can 1) Set the bar, 2) Raise the bar, & 3) Reach the bar.

Set the Bar

Anyone who works with or has been a student-athlete knows the obsession with competition. It drives everything a student-athlete does. As student-athletes, cheerleaders want to win whether it’s a cupie contest or UCA/NCA Nationals. That hunger to succeed should be fed every day at practices, lifts, games, and even events. As coaches we can feed this hunger by setting the bar!

But how do we set that bar in the first place? To begin, you should explain to the team the difference between owed and earned respect. Then you should explain your system of earned respect. By reaching and/or exceeding the team standards, individuals can gain earned respect. Consequently, setting the bar feeds into the team’s competitive nature; you now have their attention. Next comes the process of setting the standards. This is no easy task. Set the bar too low and the team will easily lose interest; set the bar too high and the team will lose motivation. I personally believe a good coach can facilitate a conversation with the team where the team sets their own standards. A team that has that level of investment will feel a responsibility to meet those standards without even being told. Members of this team will strive to meet these standards to better themselves and their team, not just to please the coach. To facilitate such a process, have a team meeting at the beginning of the season and open up with the question, “What should our team standards be for this year?” Take all responses and write them on the board. Odds are, especially if you picked your team correctly, they will have their sights set on high achievement. After your team settles on some standards for the year, split the team into groups and assign each of them to a different standard(s). Have them develop SMART goals that will enable them to reach that standard. As a reminder, a SMART goal (a.k.a. “objective”) is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-bound. After these focus groups finish, bring the team come back together and have each group share their objectives. Have open conversations about how the objective qualifies as a SMART goal. Then discuss which standards make the most sense to focus on. Remind the team that every objective should lead towards the standard and every standard should help the team fulfill its ultimate purpose. After the team meeting, you should then determine, separately from the team but with your assistant coaches if possible, which objectives and standards are just above the team’s expectations. You should have a good understanding of where your team is with their abilities. For each standard, choose the objectives that a majority of the team will be able to achieve within the year. Once you have determined the final standards, meet again with the team and explain to them the agreed-upon standards and the objectives to reach those standards. This would also serve as a good time to 1) remind everyone of team’s purpose and 2) to explain the reward system for reaching each standard. We will discuss ideas for such reward systems in the third section, Reach the Bar.

As a coach, you may have specific standards that you feel the team should strive for. If you are setting these standards without team feedback then there are some important things to consider. 1) No standard should be set without a proper explanation as to why it should be achieved. 2) Every standard should have objectives. 3) No standard set by a coach should be given a higher priority than the ones set by the team. When you are setting standards as a team, everyone is collaborating and coming to an agreement. From that process, there will be significant buy-in from the team. However, if a coach creates their own standard and puts it above everyone else's, the team will feel that the agreed upon standards are no longer relevant and you will lose that buy-in.

Key points for setting the bar:

Standards must relate back to the team’s purpose
Each standard should have objectives under that help meet the respective standard
Objectives must qualify as SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-bound)
The team purpose, standards, and objectives should pass the "stranger" test (Anyone on or outside your team should be able to comprehend them.)

Raise the Bar

There will come a time when you have individuals who exceed those standards set forth by the team. This is a good problem to have, as your team is ambitious and obviously motivated to accomplish different objectives. There will also come a time when you have student-athletes who can clearly achieve more. You cannot ignore these lethargic individuals, as they will drag down others with them. The strongest way to address both the high and low achieving team members is through consistent assessment and honest feedback. As a coach, you should be meeting one-on-one with each of your student-athletes at least once a month. A random day-to-day “How are you?” is not enough. I know many of you will read this and think, “Nope. Not enough time.” I understand all coaches are bogged down with the countless tasks that no one will ever know about. However, if you make your student-athletes’ success a priority, then they will make your success as a coach a priority. The relationship can be win-win, but you must show your team that you are invested in them. Studies have shown that leadership feedback serves as better motivation than financial incentive. So while investing time in tasks like raising money for scholarships, recruiting and routine planning are all important, it is even more important to give feedback to your team. In those individual meetings you have the opportunity to push your student-athletes to new levels. You can assess their past effort and current abilities. Let them know where you think they can realistically be with their Professional, Academic, Personal Wellness and Athletic development. Beyond the valuable feedback, these individual meetings will make the student-athlete feel unique and a vital component of the team. If you have a member of the team that is not reaching for the team standards, then be honest with them. Do not be afraid to let them know they can achieve more. Give feedback on their attitude and effort and remind them of the team’s purpose and the role they play in achieving that purpose. “Fixing individual problems among teammates will raise the productivity of the entire team.” Teammates are constantly watching one another. They will recognize when another gives more effort and they will see that the bar has been raised. In these meetings, you can also take time for the student-athlete to provide their own feedback. If you see a particular pattern across a majority of your individual meetings then maybe it is time to change something or maybe you simply need to address the team on a particular subject. While this step of raising the bar is time consuming, it will be an extremely valuable opportunity for you to push the team even further. You do not want the team to lose interest half way through the year simply because the bar wasn’t set high enough.

Key points to raising the bar:

Provide individual feedback so as to strengthen the entire team
People value individual feedback over financial incentive
Be honest

Reach the Bar

I believe the best strategy to helping your team reach the bar is through positive recognition as opposed to negative punishment. For many cheer teams there is a low budget, so the ideas I usually see or come up with tend to be low in cost yet highly effective. When you are researching ideas, don’t be afraid to broaden your search to different industries. Many of the ideas I have found are not only used in the athletic field but also in the professional workplace.

First and foremost, the number one way to hold your team accountable to the team’s standards is to hold yourself to high standards. If your team has set a standard to have elite skills as cheerleaders, then you should know how to coach such skills or find another coach who does. If your team wants to be champions then you must do your best to provide a championship experience. Relax. That does not mean you must win a championship. It simply means you must hold your team to the same standards of a champion. If you, as the coach, pursue high standards then you will not only better yourself but also your team. Your team will recognize your efforts and in turn they will follow suit. As a leader, your actions are a constantly being watched; so behave as you would like your team to behave.

“[Coaches] must build an environment of respect that allows [student-athletes] and, as a result, their teams to become the best possible versions of themselves.” As stated in the beginning of the blog, owed respect must be apart of your team’s culture. Everyone must feel like an equal slice of the pie. When owed respect is apart of the culture than everyone has the equal opportunity to reach the bar. Remember that earned respect is just as important as owed respect. We want to remind our student-athletes they all bring unique traits to the team. There are many ways to acknowledge earned respect. In many gyms you will see a “new skills bell” or on social media you will see a “new skills alert.” These are great ways to acknowledge a student-athlete’s individual achievements.

Another way to acknowledge earned respect is to have a skills board. A skills board is simply a chart with student-athletes’ names on the Y-axis and skills on the x-axis. When the cheerleader shows that they can properly and repeatedly perform a skill then they can check that off on the board. This skills board serves three purposes. 1) It reminds the respective cheerleader what skills they are now responsible for, 2) It communicates to the team which specific skills they should be focusing their efforts on, 3) “It shows you are serious about tracking results and holding the team accountable to the agreed standards.” The board is a visual way to alert the team how successful everyone is in reaching the standard. If someone is falling behind, take that as an opportunity to encourage the individual and let them know you think they can achieve more. Remind them of the objectives that break each standard into smaller portions. On the other hand, if an individual achieves a new skill, recognize it with praise.

Another awesome idea is to have a title for those who achieve an “elite” level. This can be in reference to professional, academic, personal wellness or athletic standards. For the purpose of this explanation we will keep it to athletics. For example, if a cheerleader can reliably show a standing tuck, running full, toss full-up (with multiple partners) and a rewind (with multiple partners) then they can be classified as “Elite”. This is a great way to motivate the team. The skills to achieve this status should be high but still within reach for at least half of the team. If everyone reaches this level by the end of the year then you know that you must raise the bar for next year. This is long term strategy to developing a team.

Any time you give praise for an individual reaching a standard, be careful not to reward them too much, as you do not want to cause a separation on the team. Recognition and bragging rights are usually all that are needed to highlight such an “elite” individual. Come up with creative ways to equally spread opportunities throughout the team. For example, someone might be very good in the classroom, but they struggle on the mat. Reward that academic success just as much as you would reward someone for their athletic success. If you put one standard over the other, then you will be inadvertently telling the team what you really value most instead of what was agreed upon.

Key Points to reaching the bar:

Hold yourself accountable as a coach, captain or teammate
Confront low-achievers and reward high-achievers
Give equal opportunities and resources for everyone to achieve each standard

Conclusion

As coaches, captains and teammates, we are all equally responsible in the success of our team. Everyone has the ability to set, raise and reach the bar. If you can properly teach the team how to achieve success within athletics then the team will begin to carry these lessons into the other facets of their lives; professional, academic, and personal wellness.