ma’am.” She continues, “And when you and S.J. were in that car wreck, what did you do to the airbag?” “Stopped it,” Michael replies. “You stopped it,” she reinforces. “This team is your family, Michael, and you have to protect them from those guys.” She points at the defense. Leigh Anne then pulls the quarterback and running back over and gives Michael the image that the players are his family like she and S.J. are and asks him to protect them like he would their family. She finishes with “Are you going to protect the family, Michael?” and he responds with a smile through his helmet, “Yes, ma’am.”
Now although this scene didn’t happen in the real-life story of Michael Oher, I love it because it paints a great picture of the motivational piece of knowing what’s at the core of someone and what motivates them. Sandra Bullock’s character basically reached right into Michael’s core in this scene and touched something that motivated him and then related it to the people around him and his job as a left tackle. To protect his teammates as his loved ones and family is displayed as one of his core natural instincts. The movie portrays that scene as kinda flipping the switch for him; Michael Oher turns into a bad man and starts flattening the defensive line, and he goes on to have a very successful college and NFL career.
The point is that Leigh Anne got to know Michael—she observed him and understood a little of what motivated him and some of his core fears and what he cared about. Coach is screaming and yelling, and Michael can’t hear him, but Leigh Anne connects what his role is in the team and game to what motivates Michael and gives him a visual of how to apply it to the role he’s in and help the team.
THE SAFE STOOL
This season at a coaches’ dinner Jake Webb shared a story of something he has been doing with his high school lacrosse team called the “safe stool.” Players take turns before a game or practice to sit on the stool and share whatever they want. It’s meant to be a place safe from ridicule or judgment. Jake shared that it’s been a powerful thing in the locker room as kids have been opening up and have even broken down crying on the stool while sharing some of the burdens or even tragedies in their lives. Jake explained that he had no clue some of these things were going on in his players’ lives. Do you think that knowing about some of these life situations can help Jake relate to and motivate his players more effectively?
SELF-MOTIVATION
I generally try to look for self-motivated people. People who already have some motivation, some have-to or want-to that is driving them. You don’t have to be on them constantly to do the general tasks. Regularly getting to practice on time isn’t an issue for them. They stay in shape and practice in the offseason on their own with no prompting. They gladly help others around them.
Now here is the key point for you as the coach: All people are motivated by something. That’s why it’s even more important that as a leader you understand what that something is. Because if it doesn’t align with where you’re going, then the next question is, Can you align the individual’s motivation to your organizational goals so that both the individual and the organization are served?
If not, or if you can’t discover a motivation that can align the two, even if this person is a super-talented contributor it may be best for you as the leader to encourage him or her to pursue something else. Maybe you even need this person in your organization, but while listening to the person’s motivations you discover that he or she may be better served elsewhere. As a leader, you may be negligent in the care of your players if you don’t encourage them to look at other options that may better serve them in their long-term goals. If they decide to stay with you, then that’s their decision, and then you run with them because they’ve then made the commitment to forgo all other options and stick with you.
What about the less talented individuals who seem to lack self-motivation? Do you just cast them aside? Maybe they just haven’t connected to their have-to or want-to. Can you help them discover one? Can you help them find a place in the team where they can make a unique contribution?
There are very few “10s” in any area of life. There was only one Pelé. There is only one Messi. There is only one Cristiano Ronaldo. These players are the elite. Mia Hamm is the name from my generation in women’s soccer that jumps out at me. We recognize them in other sports. Michael Jordan and LeBron James in basketball. Michael Phelps in swimming. Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Annika Sorenstam in golf. Jackie Joyner-Kersee in track and field. Babe Ruth, Derek Jeter, Mike Trout, and Bryce Harper in baseball. They call Tom Brady “the G.O.A.T.” (the greatest of all time). Some would call these players “special.” Even at the highest levels of business, academia, and athletics there are only a few of the elite. They can seemingly will your team to win at times. Having one of these players can lead a team to the top echelon of your sport. There are very few of these players in the world, and you may never coach one.
Then there is the next tier of very good players, who have either strong talent or a strong work ethic or some combination of both that has brought them to this level. They produce consistently good performances and sometimes great performances. They can take you a long way and transform a team. Having a few of these players can make life easy for a manager or coach.
Then there are the contributors—the role players. And you need the contributors. Your team needs the contributors. Remember I said that there are very few elite players in the world and you may never have one on your team? You’ll probably have many more very good players. With some dedication by the player, committed coaching, the proper environment, and the right opportunities, these players can have elite level performances at times. But in all cases, the elite and the very good need the help and the contributions of the role players to win and be successful.
Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time. In order to be honored with that moniker he needed the help of his US swim teammates in relays to win 12 of his 28 medals. He holds the all-time record with 23 Olympic gold medals, and 10 of those were won with teammates in the relay events. All of the elite golfers mentioned had coaches. And every one of them had a caddie on their bag for every single one of their professional victories. To win those NBA Championship Finals trophies, Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen. LeBron James had Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. In all the championship stories on ESPN, you always hear the story of the contributions of the role players in their victory seasons.
Tom Brady is the winningest championship quarterback of all time, winning six NFL Super Bowls. Throughout his NFL career, though, he is also considered to have had maybe the greatest football coach of all time coaching him in Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick has eight Super Bowl rings as a coach in the NFL. Many people say the most impressive part of his job with the Patriots is bringing a new group of players together year after year and motivating everyone, from the stars to the one-season role players, to align on a singular mission and getting the best out of every player, whether on the field for one play or sixty plays.
So, this is the question for you, Coach: Can you tap into the less talented role players and turn them into productive contributors? Do you have a formula or methodology to help you be consistent in tapping into your players’ full potential, or are you just winging it?
CREATING FIRSTS
I’ll share a story from my first season as the boys’ head varsity coach at The Kings Academy, a small Christian high school in West Palm Beach, Florida. In one of our first games of the year we were playing American Heritage of Delray. Talented players. Many of them were playing for what US Soccer calls the development academy (D.A.). To make the D.A. in an area you pretty much need to be the best of the best, and they had many of those elite players and top players from other top club programs. I didn’t know this at the time, but in our school history our boys’ soccer team had never defeated American Heritage. They had entered our district I think a few years prior, and if you looked back at their history, they had several state championships and state runner-up appearances and a track
