The 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Coaches

There are coaches who drive players unmercifully, coaches who are undisciplined, scream, and use profanity to an excess. I could name a dozen of these coaches, people I would not want coaching my kids. While these are the coaches who can most benefit from Covey's wisdom, they are the most likely to ignore it because Covey is all about the GOOD QUALITIES of exemplary leadership, not the bad.

The title of this message, The 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Coaches, is, of course a play on words of the real title, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Coaches. If you find yourself doing any of the following things, this list gives you the opportunity to reflect on the quality of your leadership.

• Doubt yourself and blame others.
• Coach without clear cut goals.
• React to the urgent instead of stopping to think about the consequences. Take a deep breath and count to ten.
• Have the mind set of win/lose to the exclusion of all other coaching values.
• Fear change. Unwilling to improve.
• Argue your position and attitude at the expense of understanding others.
• Compromise the high qualities of leadership.

These are my paraphrase of Covey's identifying characteristics of ineffective leaders. It's a good reality check for coaches who feel the need to reexamine their coaching style. Our conviction at Hawk Systems is that it's not all about winning or losing…………..it's the coaching quality that goes into the winning or losing. At the end of the game, a coach can ask, did my coaching instill confidence, moral principles, and quality of character in my players?

Reference: "Principle-Centered Leadership," Stephen Covey, a Fireside Book, Simon & Shuster, 1990, 1991.

See You At the Top!!

Coach Matt

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