Sounds unnecessary, doesn’t it? Of course, everyone wants to win. There wouldn’t be a scoreboard if no one cared who won. But there are many assumptions that your stakeholders make relative to winning in your program. Whether it’s a coach, a player, a parent, a school employee, or a fan, you are subject to whatever interpretation that person makes about the value you place on winning and losing. Since people are accustomed to seeing a scoreboard at a game, and seeing the results of games in the sports news, and unless human beings could be truly and absolutely objective, which is rarely possible when it comes to the sports world, each person sees it through their own lens. So as a leader, you must define for your community what value you place on winning. You must define how your culture treats the complicated subject of winning!
The place of winning has to be well thought out and articulated within the context of your program’s culture, what age group you may be working with, the historical success of your program, the level of players you typically attract, the level of coaching your program is known for, and possibly a few other details. As you’ve deeply considered these and other ingredients, and come up with something meaningful, then you must articulate it to the stakeholders in your community so there is full knowledge of your philosophy of winning. Your coaching staff deserves to understand what they are striving toward, and where winning and losing falls into those expectations. Your athletes and parents certainly deserve to understand this completely, so their conversations over the dinner table reflect a similar tone.
Say, for example, that you state that “winning is an outcome of a process, and our staff is committed to teaching and instructing the techniques, fundamentals, and sportsmanship ideals of each sport, and then inspiring each athlete to perform to the best of their ability, individually and collectively, and reflect the values of our program”, or something like that. But that all goes out the window when someone on your coaching staff rants and raves about a loss, or loses control over a bad call in a game, or doesn’t necessarily have an effective process of coaching and teaching. Each and every day the process that your staff applies to his/her team is the measuring stick of whether your philosophy on winning is actually truthful. When your coaches coach as if they are committed to your philosophy, then your families will know with certainty where you stand. Systemic commitment to your philosophy of winning is a stronger statement than winning by itself.
Lastly, don’t shy away from this process, and don’t be afraid to support your philosophy with some examples and data where necessary. You also need an effective measurement and evaluation tool for post-season review of each of your teams, and that must reflect what you’ve been articulating about winning. Those examples will support where you fall on the value, or importance, of winning in your environment. When winning’s place isn’t defined in your culture, gaps are filled by the people who are less inclined to put it in the proper perspective, and that’s when trouble soon follows. Good luck with this very important process!