(reading time 3 minutes)
My beloved ice hockey team – Glasgow Clan – had a coach a couple seasons back named Malcolm Cameron, who made a somewhat controversial statement in a post-game interview following a particularly bad loss, and what he said has stuck in my mind. He said, “It’s the player’s responsibility to win games.” Implying, I think, that the loss was not the coach’s fault, that the coach can only do so much, and ultimately it’s down to the players.
As a coach myself, I thought this was an interesting comment, and up for debate! When a sports team fails to perform, the coach is often the first to fall on the sword. And of course I believe that a great coach is essential to forming a successful team.
But Malcolm’s not wrong, is he? He can’t go out on the ice and score goals, or defend his own zone. He can only stand on the sidelines and shout instructions. As I’ve reflected on this, I’ve come to the conclusion that the players and coach share the responsibility for success and failure, but that they have DIFFERENT responsibilities.
The coach’s job is to ensure that the players understand and follow their systems, and remain disciplined no matter what happens during the game. (In ice hockey, and probably other sports as well, when a team falls behind, their game discipline often falls to pieces as they panic and try harder to fight back.) The coach’s job is to make sure each player is playing to their strengths, and that they are all playing as a team, together, working towards a common goal. And the coach holds his players to account when they do not.
The player’s job is to go out and follow the team’s systems and agreed strategies. To go out and play their absolute hardest and their absolute best every minute of the game, no matter what. The coach can ask for that, the coach can demand that, but ultimately the player must decide to do it.
So to summarise my view – and this is only my view – the coach’s job is to find and recruit the best players, ensure each player is playing to their individual strengths, and motivate and inspire them to play their best. The player’s job is to then do it. Without a good coach, the players won’t succeed no matter how good they are. Without good and committed players, a coach can never be successful, no matter good he/she is.
Business coaching is no different. My job is to identify good business owners who want to win, work out what their strengths are, and get them to playing to their strengths (and help them build up their skills where they need to). My job is to get the very best out of them that I can, and to keep them disciplined and focused on their goals no matter what. But it’s the business owner’s responsibility to actually go and do it if they want to win, because nobody else can do it for them.
I would love to hear your thoughts! Please comment below…
