Leadership is one of the most essential skills for a coach (or an athlete too, for that matter) to possess. Common thought is that leadership ability is something you are born with: either you are a good leader or you aren’t. In fact, that is completely false. Leadership ability can be developed and improved just like any other skill. This guide will outline three important strategies of leadership that are often overlooked, but need to be constantly in mind if you wish to lead your athlete(s) to success. These strategies are adapted from The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene, a must read for coaches and athletes alike.
This is part two of a three part series. Read part one or part three.
Strategy #6 – Segment Your Forces: The Controlled Chaos Theory
The essence of this strategy is to spread your forces out in order to gain fluidity among your troops, and the ability to maneuver more quickly and effectively. By increasing the ability of your troops to react quickly to changing situations, they will be able to capitalize on opportunities presented to them. Let’s see how a coach can use this knowledge to their advantage.
How can a coach use this strategy?
By relinquishing some control over your players/game plan/etc, you can capitalize on advantages that come your way. By trying to constantly keep tight control over all aspects of your team, you severely limit your reaction time, and can alienate people. The key to successful implementation of this strategy is to put increased power in the hands of those you trust. You can’t simply give more power to players who are unable to use it properly.
I want to use this strategy. How can I prepare my team to utilize it to its fullest potential?
I’m glad you asked. This strategy needs three key things to happen in order for it to use this strategy effectively:
- Increase your team’s knowledge and trust in each other.
- Put your players in positions where they can succeed.
- Tell your team what to do, not how.
The first two are relatively self-explanatory. You need to foster trust at every opportunity. If your team or other coaches don’t trust you, this strategy will never work. Likewise, they need more knowledge so they can adapt to changing situations quickly. If your fellow coaches or players don’t know what you want them to do, they obviously can’t do it.
Assess each player’s strengths and weaknesses and put them in places where they can best succeed, and help the team. Again, pretty self-explanatory.
Telling your team what to do, not how to do it, is a little bit more tricky. In a way, this is part of the first key item required, but it deserves its own since it’s so important. You need to be careful with how you give directions to your players. Simply telling them, “Whenever the opponent does X, you do Y” will never work. It severely limits creativity and fluidity in those around you, and you want them to be as creative and fluid as possible. In the coming examples, this idea will take more shape, and be easier to understand.
Examples:
Example #1: you can’t be everywhere all the time. You can’t know everything going on in your team, there is simply too much work needed to prepare your team for competition. So how do you keep an eye on what your team is doing? Easy: captains. Your team’s captains are such an undervalued and underused resource it’s ridiculous. If you instill the necessary trust and knowledge in your captains, they can report to you potential problems, oftentimes even nipping it in the bud on their own (depending if they know what you want). Use your captains to your benefit.
Example #2: in football games, what generally happens is the offensive coordinator will call in a play that the offense executes regardless of what the defense is doing. The offensive coordinator can’t see everything that the quarterback can. So how does a team capitalize in a situation like this? Through relinquishing some control to their quarterback. If the quarterback can make changes based on what’s happening on the field, there is a ton of fluidity and creativity taking place. Peyton Manning and the Colts use this strategy to beautiful effect. (However, you need to have a quarterback who can handle this sort of situation.)
Segmenting your forces allows you to focus on other, essential areas. It also promotes creativity and fluidity in your team. Use this strategy to your advantage.
Further Reading:
The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene – this series is based off of three strategies discussed in Mr. Greene’s book. However, all strategies discussed in the book are immediately implementable in sports. I strongly recommend this book.
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene – another outstanding book by Mr. Greene. This book will teach you the meanings behind the actions of those around you, and how your opponent tries to gain control over your team’s performance.
