Principles of Coaching #9 - Create your culture statement and live it out (Bot9 #326)

In the fall of 2015, I knew that our baseball program needed some clarity. We had done fine, becoming the winningest program in the classification since the school opened in 2007, but players and parents were split from year to year as to the outcomes. Too much of our postseason survey results were dependent on wins and losses. We had to be about something bigger and we needed to figure out what our focus moving forward would be. Yes, we’re a Christian school so those values needed to be represented, but what would be lived out and who did we want our players to become?

Though I had my own list and ideas, I decided to bring our coaches into the conversation. I wanted to know what they hoped to draw out in the young men we influenced. I asked all of the coaches to give me three things that they valued which would lead to every young man having the best baseball experience of their lives. It’s a high goal, but I knew the prompt would allow us to get close to the goal. After reading the responses from the coaches, it was clear that these five things were what we hoped our athletes would experience and become:

Grit
Freedom
High Achievement
Love
Followers of Christ

From there, we created the statement, “We will be gritty, free, high-achieving, loving followers of Jesus Christ.” I put it on the practice plans, dugout, lineup cards, and t-shirts. Even this winter, the statement became the subject of our offseason devotional series. Because the words are powerful, we have been able to be consistent for years in the traits we hope to instill in our players and be ourselves. The results have also spoken for themselves. While we continue to win on the field, even while moving up classifications, the players and parents have been more receptive because they know the culture we’re setting together. The words give us an end goal, a process of growth and words to attain in their lives.

Every team has a culture, whether the coaches and leaders articulate it our not. The benefits of having a culture statement feel self-evident now that I’ve done it for as long as I have, but I’m sure those who run a team without a statement may not understand the value. I think of it this way - aim at nothing and you’ll hit it every time. Maybe you’ll put some words on the experience after the fact, but a coach or leader needs to provide a target. Intentionality will give everyone the common goal and an understanding of something beyond just winning that day. Who people are becoming is far more important than what they did that day.

One of my favorite moments using the culture statement occurred during the day of the picture taken above. If you notice, the umpire is looking the wrong direction while our pitcher is tagging out the runner at home plate. He was called safe. But that’s not the important part of the story, it’s just a fun side note that happened the same day. In the early part of the year, our players gravitated to the ‘grit’ part of the statement. However, the team we were playing on this day comes from a very blue-collar, hard-working community. They live grit. Our guys weren’t going to out-grit this group. We ended up losing that day but we learned something. We learned how important love is. A team might out-grit us on a certain day, but no one was going to out-love us. That became our calling card for years to come.

No matter what words you decide to use for your team, live them out. Make the words timeless and related to the things people desire to have filled at their core. Train people in how to become the things you value. Provide the target and fire away.