Great Teams - Better Leaders - 123 (Issue #2): 3 Steps to Culture

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3 Steps to Create Culture

How do you define culture?

Culture is a world that is thrown around a lot today. Everything seems to be about culture.

A new coach is hired and immediately talks about the new culture that he or she is going to instill. The new AD is hired at a school and talks about the new culture he or she is going to focus on with coaches and students. Business leaders talk culture, schools talk culture. You have culture at home, culture at the office, culture, culture, culture.

So, what exactly is culture?

There are so many definitions and talking points that the word important word "culture" begins to lose its significance. It is an incredibly important part of a successful team or organization, but we sometimes “desensitize” or confuse it because we talk about it so much.

So what is it? I define culture in three simple steps:

  1. Culture is what you Allow

  2. Culture is what you Emphasize

  3. Culture is Every Day

That is it, in simple terms, this is culture.

CULTURE IS WHAT YOU ALLOW

Every day, multiple interactions occur with your team. Every day, you make a decision as a leader as to what you are going to allow or not.

Kids are kids. They will always try to push the envelope.

Coaches need to be very conscious of each interaction and know that when you allow certain things to occur it can, and will, evolve into changing your culture.

What are these daily things? Here is an abbreviated list of the many things that impact culture each day.

  • How we talk to each other

  • Academic focus and expectations for the team

  • Dress expectations for the team

  • Practice habits

  • Expectations for communication

  • Attendance/tardiness at team activities

  • Style of how you play

  • Trust/Distrust of teammates

  • Social expectations of players

  • Energy Giver/Vampire

  • And so much more.

Think about the daily interactions with your team. What on this list do you allow? What do you not allow?

Culture is all of this and more. What you allow each day defines your culture. The coach has to set a standard with what he/she allows - then the team leaders have to help enforce it. The team leaders become the gatekeepers. The standard is set, the standard is enforced, and the culture foms.

However, sometimes, culture gets comfortable. It gets stagnant. It gets lost and is not a day-to-day focus. When this happens and things are not addressed the culture changes.

Before the coach knows it, something he or she had worked so hard to develop, is gone.

And the process has to start over.

CULTURE IS WHAT YOU EMPHASIZE

I heard this at a clinic as a young coach.

“It is not what you do, it is what you emphasize!”

These words clicked with me when I heard them. Even as a very experienced coach I find myself reminding myself of this quote nearly every day that I coach.

You see, I was always a coach that had a million things going through my head; I still am. I had 10 defensive principles that I wanted the guys to follow. Now I have 3.

What I learned over time is that the game really is simple, and my job as a coach was to make it and keep it simple. I learned to pick a few things to emphasize - things that are very important to me - and stick with that.

When the goal is to simplify and focus on what we emphasize, it becomes engrained in your culture. It is easier to get buy-in from kids because it is clear and understood.

Find a few things that are important to you. Emphasize them over and over again. Your team will become what you emphasize.

Your culture will become what you emphasize.

CULTURE IS EVERY DAY

Finally, culture is every day. Nothing more, nothing less.

The second you believe your culture is set and you do not have to worry about it anymore is the day your culture changes.

Be cognizant of “Culture is Every Day”.

Do not let any daily decisions begin to erode what you have spent years trying to build in a program. Address anything you view as not supportive of your culture. When you do this, you are constantly solidifying this culture.

Culture is the lifeblood of a team and program. Protect your culture by using these three steps to define it, build it, maintain it, and build a team and program that will be a success!

Two Quotes...

"Every day I have to make a decision. Am I going to just stay there in bed? Or, am I going to pull myself out of bed? And when I make the decision to pull myself out of bed, I make the decision to be relentless in life." - Jay Glazer

"A lot of the success I have reached in my life has come from living outside of myself. Serve others." - Damian Lillard

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