What is success? – Influencing the result and the path.

What is success? – Influencing the result and the path.
Victory is not always success.

When asked to think about my coaching philosophy I very quickly find myself asking familiar questions: What is the goal? What is it that I am trying to build? What is important? I have answered these questions long ago but must continue to ask and answer each time I set out on a new coaching challenge. The answer will shape my philosophy and behaviors. What will be the measure of my success?

The coach must sometimes direct or push the athlete and other times simply guide but the coach must in one way or another move the athlete to the goal. This is sometimes thought of as the Hard or Soft Style of coaching. A coach is rarely a full-on autocratic dictator with absolute power over the actions of the athlete or team, nor function completely on the Athlete-centred, servant end of coaching style where direction comes from the athlete. In reality, I think the coach must be able to shuffle back and forth a bit on this line between the two. However, I hope that most of the shuffling is done on the transformational end where using sport to develop great people along the way is the focus.

After all ’Growth’ is the key, the growth of the athlete and perhaps of the coach as well. We start the partnership in one place and with one set of skills and ability and it is our job to then move beyond these. At the end of a career we all must be proud of what we have grown to be and the journey we have taken to get there.

I like to say ‘the result is a symptom of who and what we are in any given moment’. Growth can take so many forms but what we develop, what we choose to develop, of what we design our coaching to develop is where we ultimately find our core values and philosophy as a coach. The symptom (result) is not the most important thing we can build. Coaches that lean more to the transformational style are often good at the ‘soft’ stuff’. This is not to say great coaches and athletes in this ‘soft approach’ culture do not expect great results. In Wade’s Gilbert’s presentation, it was mentioned a number of times that coaches and athletes thriving in this approach have very high expectations of winning. The ‘Soft stuff’ is not always warm and fuzzy stuff!

Although a win-at-all-costs approach may produce victories, these victories alone do not guarantee anyone has gone through substantial personal growth. It does not even suggest people are at all happy. To me, this would be a failure. The result without maximizing the joy and pride in the process would not be a victory with much value.

I believe that when the coach and athlete work as PARTNERS to develop skills, knowledge and abilities along with growth as people, citizens, brothers, sisters, parents, teachers, leaders etc…. will have great results. Great people who are also trained to be great at their game produce great results.

Smiles and joy of the game are the marks of a ‘successful’ winning team and I hope would be how a coach values the result over just the outcome. A miserable win and a joyful win are clearly different. A great coach and a great team will win but is is success. Successful teams strive to be better than before, they recognized their limits only to smile and wave as they pass them by.

I know coaches that have great results who are positioned at many places on the continuum. However, if the athlete has a choice I would never wish them a sports career with the dictator where the only thing achieved is the win. Athletes who love the journey the process and the growth environment are the ones I wish to develop. They are the ones I wish to spend my days with, they are my legacy as a coach. I hope this ultimately is my contribution and how I am remembered.

In the end, the pride in who you have built yourself into is the goal worth training and fighting for. The trip to the podium is a symptom but that trip to the podium is only worth it if done with a smile.

When we leave the training session, the game, and the career we must be better people on the way out then we were on the way in.

It is not my job to have my team win. It is my job to make a team of great people and athletes that are capable of winning.