Sticking with the themes presented in Amazon’s Working Backwards, I want to look at Problem Solving with the Chronicles this month. One of the best attributes a coach can have is being curious. Asking questions, forming hypotheses, and creating experiments is what a good S&C coach does. This, however, does not always lead to actually solving problems. Eventually, our thinking needs to be matched with action in order to accomplish anything worthwhile.
A huge tell if someone will be a good head coach is if at the end of their shift, they leave a bunch of unfinished work for someone else to do. It is really important to find gaps and weak spots in your system, and coaches that can do that are critical to the health of the system. But if that is where it stops, you are probably not cut out to be a head coach one day.
This is broken, this does not work, this is a bad flow, I did not know how to do that…..the list goes on and on. To be fair, it was probably bad planning, bad explaining, or bad leadership that led to whatever the problem was. The assistant coach who is taking an athlete through the head coach’s workout is not responsible for fixing every problem. It may even be viewed as insubordination if an assistant coach is fixing stuff on the fly all the time. On the other hand, if there is a problem and the assistant coach never says anything, it is the athlete that suffers in the end.
This creates a functional need for creating an objective with each job, year, month, day, individual training session. FedEx has a mission statement: “always on time.” Inclement weather – does not matter, on time. Holiday – does not matter, on time. Someone calls out sick – does not matter, on time. The objective of training is the most important thing to consider for all coaches. It allows for decisions to be made in the best interest of the athlete and detaches pride or ego of the coach.
A culture of objectives and prioritizing quality makes the “it’s not my fault, someone else can fix it” go away. Instead of constantly presenting problems or leaving it for someone else, every coach is asking themselves – can I fix this myself or can I suggest a better solution to this problem?
On one end of the spectrum, we have obvious things we can do, like picking stuff up off the ground. It should be innate in a coach to think: this could be a safety hazard if I don’t take the second to pick it up. On the other end of the spectrum, there are harder things to talk about, like the workout philosophy. Telling your superior this program sucks or our execution sucks or presenting a solution could be the means to helping the program be as effective as possible.
Having empathy for the head coach is probably not something most people consider, but it is important. Being in charge is riddled with constant questions. Being asked complex or complicated questions is part of the job. The person in charge has to be the one willing to make a decision for the best interest of the department. For that same reason, it is important to be strategic with what you ask.
A really good question to ask is: “can I fix this or figure this out myself?” Asking a question in which the answer is obvious, when you could have taken a second to look or think, is not a good question for the head coach. A huge problem is assuming that the head coach knows everything. Assuming your boss will have an answer for anything is not fair to anyone. Take a second to ask: what is the problem and can I form a solution myself? If all else fails, go to the head coach.
If you have aspirations of being a head coach, you will be the answer to pretty much everyone’s questions. In order to be that answer for someone else, you will need to be able answer your questions yourself. Taking time to think through a problem can only help you prepare for the next chapter in your career. If you constantly ask easy questions or leave problems for someone else, you will not be able to do that for someone else someday.