Vocal Leaders Involves 6 Main Characteristics: Commitment Confidence Composure Character Encourager Enforcer

Vocal Leader: Enforcer (25%) Courage to confront. Holds self and teammates accountable to high standards. Demanding. Constructively confronts undisciplined teammates. Handles conflict in a firm, fair, direct, and consistent manner.

Enforcer Vocal Leaders need to establish and enforce the team’s commitments and rules. Must hold yourself and your teammates accountable to follow the rules and standards. Must be willing to stand up and speak when your teammates aren’t living up to their responsibilities. Constructively confronting teammates is critical to the team’s chemistry, commitment, and success.

Conflict Is Inevitable: Deal With It Conflict is an inevitable part of being a team. Whenever you get a variety of people together with different backgrounds, attitudes, and opinions who are competing with and against each other for playing time and respect over the long course of a season, you can’t help but have conflict. Expect flare ups during the season: athletes vs. coaches, athletes vs. athletes, coaches vs. coaches, parents vs. athletes, parents vs. coaches, etc.

Conflict Is Inevitable: Deal With It The 3 most likely conflict situations you will have to deal with as a leader include: Confronting teammates who are not working as hard as they should be. Confronting teammates who break team policies. Confronting teammates who are in conflict with coaches and other athletes. The key to dealing with conflict is learning how to handle it constructively.

Keep “The Main Thing” the Main Thing Successful teams have conflict. They just are able to keep their primary focus on their common goal as they work through the conflict. Whatever happens, the players understand the common goal always takes precedence and the conflict becomes secondary. Unsuccessful teams do the exact opposite. They make the conflict the priority and let the drama distract from the common goal.

Don’t Sacrifice Being Respected for Being Liked Most people try to avoid conflict and hope that it goes away. It only gets worse If you choose to avoid or ignore it. The job of the Vocal Leader is to do the right thing, encourage others to do the right thing, and confront those who don’t. It’s impossible to please everyone all the time or to make everyone happy. Don’t be concerned about what others think about you.

Having The Courage To Confront “Confrontation is good. It simply means meeting the truth head-on.” Coach K True leaders will put the team’s success and well being ahead of their fear of confronting problems. If you are concerned about having people like you, wouldn’t you rather have the people who are doing the right thing like you than those few who aren’t?

More Encouraging Leads To Less Enforcing If you Encourage 75% of the time, you will likely need to Enforce only 25% of the time. Start by Encouraging. Move to Reminding and Refocusing: “Hey team, this has been a pretty sloppy practice thus far. We can’t win this this so let’s pick it up right now and get our heads back in the game.” Refocus team during water break; call for a quick huddle, timeout or halftime break, between innings/possessions, etc. “There are a lot ways to deliver a message without being overly confrontational. Even when you’re getting on somebody, you can do it in a way that will build him up. ‘Come on, you’re better than that.’ ‘How can you let a guy like that beat you?’ Stuff like that. You’re showing respect for him at the same time you’re delivering a message.” Joe Montana

More Encouraging Leads To Less Enforcing 3. Drawing the Line-This is Unacceptable. If your team still isn’t responding, then explicitely tell them what needs to be done: “This is unacceptable. You (we) made a commitment to this team to give your (our) best effort and you (we) are not getting it done. Get your (our) act together now. It’s time to go hard or go home.” 4. Involve Your Coach If a person still refuses to honor your requests and reprimands you will need to make your coach aware of the situation. The coach will then take over and decide what to do (possible discipline).

The 5 Conflict Styles As a Vocal Leader you have a variety of options at your disposal for managing a conflict situation. Your approach depends on your answers to two critical questions: How important is it that I get what I want? How important is my relationship with the other person?

The 5 Conflict Styles Avoiding (Turtle): Avoid conflict at all costs. Hope conflict goes away. Accomodating (Teddy Bear): Give in to teammates in order to maintain a friendly relationship. Do a good job of keeping the team together during disagreements. Competing (Shark): Seek to get their own way at all costs. They offend and hurt a lot of people. Compromising (Fox): Willing to give up some of their goals in order to maintain a friendly relationship. Collaborating (Owl): Focuses on helping the other person get what they want as well as meeting their own needs.

Assignment Which style do you tend to use when you are in conflict with your parents? Which style do you tend to use when you are in a conflict with your friends? Which style do you tend to use when you are in a conflict with your coach? Which style do you tend to use when you are in a conflict with your teammates?

The 5 Conflict Styles The most successful leaders are focused on meeting their goals AND are sensitive to their relationships with their teammates. You should look to compromise and collaborate as much as possible. Save the shark for more serious situations after you have first Encouraged!!

6 Steps For Resolving Conflict Define the problem. Brainstorm possible solutions. Evaluate possible solutions. Decide on a solution. Implement the solution. Evaluate the success of the solution.

Pick Your Battles Tolerance is a key component of any successful team. You and your teammates need to respect and put up with the many different personalities which make up the team. Deciding when to be tolerant and when to confront can be difficult. You must address certain issues that can get in the way of your team’s success, chemistry, and well-being. Ask yourself, “Are the person’s decisions or actions interfering with the team’s success or chemistry in a significant manner?”

Pick Your Battles Figure out what actions won’t be tolerated and address those issues immediately when they occur. Examples: Late for practice, poor effort in practice and conditioning, not going to class, poor grades, talking about teammates and coaches behind their backs, violation of training rules, cheating on tests, not treating others right, behaving in a manner that ruins the reputation of the team.

10 Tips For Constructive Conflict Begin friendly and with agreement. (positive sandwich) Confront in an effort to improve or alleviate problems. Check information before making an accusation. Try to see the situation from their perspective. Attack the problem, not the person. Handle conflicts in a private setting. Control your emotions. (Timing) Don’t discuss the problem with everyone else. Stick to the point. Don’t bring up past problems. Sometimes you have to agree to disagree.

Teammate And Coach Conflict You will have to deal with teammates who are frustrated with your coaches. How? Your teammate will try to persuade you to join “their side.” Don’t fall for that trap. Listen what the teammate has to say and acknowledge their frustration with the situation. Help them focus on possible solutions. (controllables vs. uncontrollables). Help them look at the situation objectively from all angles. Help them determine the possible consequences of each potential course of action. Keep the matter private between you and your teammate.

Athletes Only Meetings SHOULD BE RESERVED FOR VERY SERIOUS SITUATIONS!! Use it to address specific issues with your teammates to hash out problems OR to get everyone refocused. Do NOT let the meeting turn into a total “Complain Session.” Instead, have your team collectively answer these 3 questions: To get back on track, we need to START… To get back on track, we need to STOP… To get back on track, we need to CONTINUE…

Assignment 5. List 3-5 things you learned from this lesson. 6. List 2-3 current problems on your team AND specifically explain what you are going to do to solve the problem.