Team Dynamics For Peak Performance
In most of my post on mental strength and athletic performance I have focused on the individual, but let’s face it….most of sport is composed of a team, i.e. football, baseball, lacrosse, basketball and soccer to name a few.
So in the post I wanted to shift attention away for individual peak performance and take a look at team dynamics to achieve team peak performance.
Individual players make up a team and any coach knows that creating a team out of a group of individuals is quite a challenge, especially if the majority of them want to be the ‘supper star.’
Taking purposeful steps to help the individuals to “gel” as a unit is paramount in achieving peak teams performance and getting more “W’s.”
Research has found a positive relationship between team unity and team performance in sports such as football, basketball and soccer for example. These are sports where interaction among the teammates is essential, as opposed to individual sports like golf, tennis and equestrian events (except polo) where little interaction is required.
Building an effective team requires progressing from individual athletes having individual objectives, to a sense of interdependency on one another and sharing a common goal.
The big question most coaches want to know is, how can this be accomplished?
To be upfront there really is no easy answer and there is no single way to build and strengthen the sense of team.
Here are two strategies that have proven very effective:
1. Focus on the team
2. And do not forget the individual
Individual athletes come to the team with a wide range of goals and motivations such as to be with friends, to get a college scholarship or to be scouted by the pro’s.
In order to build a team out of a bunch of individual athletes there must be a team goal.
A team goal will provide the athletes with a common purpose irrespective of their individual goals (“the strength of the wolf is the pack”).
In setting a team goal:
- Ask the athletes to help creating and identifying a team goal. Getting their buy-in will go over a lot better than dictating a goal to them.
- Structure the goal so that it is challenging yet realistic and worthy of their daily “blood, sweat, and tears.”
- Keep the goal at the forefront. Post it in the locker-room, remind them of the goal before practice, to keep it “real” on a daily basis.
Don’t Forget the Individual
While the focus is on the team, the team needs to appreciate the contributions of each athlete (“the strength of the pack is the wolf”).
Questions like:
- “How do I fit in?”
- “Do I really impact the team even though I am not a starter?”
- “If I slack off in practice today, will it really make a difference?”
Need to be considered and addressed to each athlete. When an athlete knows they are making contributions to the team and feel they are a valued and important part of the team, they will do everything they can in supporting the team to achieve peak performance.
Here is a great process to highlight all individual athletes on them and instill value and importance to the athlete as well as the team.
- Have each athlete write their name on one side of an index card.
- Collect the index cards and randomly distribute them.
- Each player is to write on the card “a skill, attribute, or positive quality the teammate listed on the card brings to the team.” Positive attitude, work ethic, humor, speed, ball handling skills, great communication, and aggressiveness are but a few of the attributes that may be mentioned.
- Pass each card around 4 – 5 times.
- Read the qualities listed on each card and have the team try to identify who is being described. It is quite powerful for each athlete to hear what others feel he or she brings to the team.
- Give the index card to the athlete as it can serve as a visual reminder of their value to the team.
A cohesive team is going to be much more effective and achieve peak performance instead of a group of individual athletes. Don’t leave the development of a team to chance—take steps to purposefully build a team.
There is probably no better example of this than the Tour de France.
“Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” —Vince Lombardi
Reference
Mullen B, Cooper C. (1994). The relation between group cohesion and performance: An integration. Psychological Bulletin, 115 (2):210 – 227.
