Accountable Leadership
“You must be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way.” - John Wooden
In this episode we talk about how we coach and the different ways we strive to be accountable leaders.
Ep 4: Accountable Leadership Episode Summary:
WHY:
- Accounting the blame to anything but ourselves.
- Always looking to shift the blame elsewhere
- Never critically reflecting on how we could have improved.
HOW:
We define accountable Leadership as assessing our part in the problem and then finding the best possible solution.
- Instead of blaming others, we took ownership of the problems we faced.
1) Take accountability: It’s not the ref’s fault.
- We started using training sessions to play out a match situation where we told the children that we would purposely be making some random decisions as some officials might.
2) Lead by Example: Children copy actions
- If we want our children to show fair play, we demonstrate it ourselves.
3) Part of the problem: Am I complicit?
- If players turn up late, instead of saying: “Oh, not to worry”…
- We say: “We should always aim to be here on time, so we can make the most of our session”.
4) Reduction of our egos: We must aim to find the best way for the team, not our own way.
- Avoid the ‘disease of me’! Ask for feedback and be ready to implement it!
5) What you can and can't control.
- We can’t control external events, but we can control our responses to them.
- We can’t control the weather, but we can control how we prepare for it.
6) Plan, coach & reflect ♻️
- Plan: detail timings, equipment and key coaching points.
- Coach: deliver the session, keeping to timings and making relevant changes where necessary.
- Reflect: record honest thoughts on the session (which impacts your next plan).
7) Prioritisation
- “What is the ONE Thing you can do, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” - Gary Kelly
- E.g. Using a team building game to improve:
•Keeping calm under pressure
•Using positive communication
•Working together as a team
9) Culture of leadership (Choose your captain wisely)
- The captain you choose helps communicate your messages when you’re not there.
- Instead of choosing someone who is the most technically skilled, we choose a captain who leads by example with our messages.
10) Balance: we must aim to maintain balance when being accountable leaders.
• We Take accountability whilst empowering others.
• We lead by example whilst being realistic with our expectations.
• We remain firm but maintain flexibility where appropriate.
• We reduce our egos, without becoming passive.
• We control what we can but don’t get too hung up on the result.
• We reflect, but avoid dwelling on mistakes.
• Choose our leaders wisely and allow for mistakes.
Outcomes
- Now we’ve made the change to be accountable leaders, we find that we are much more able to effectively prepare our teams.
- It’s helped us to prepare for situations we know we can control.
- Best of all, we now see the children leading by example and being more accountable of their own actions.
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Want to send us something? Email us at: info@tomandjack.co.uk
RESOURCES:
📚 Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
📚 One thing Gary Kelly
📚 Damian Hughes: Barcelona Way
📚 Jocko Willink and Laif Babin: The Dichotomy of Leadership
📚 John Wooden: Leadership
📚 Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends aip’
📚 CAROL DWECK: Mindset
SET GEAR:
📹 Camera
💻 Laptop
PRODUCER: