6 Core Values of Succesful Coaches and Trainers

Coaching today's athletes requires a different approach than it did twenty years ago. In our Sports Axiology Course we discuss your core values in coaching and are they serving your program or are they hindering it?Below are six core values of the top successful coaches and trainers:

1. Babysitting the greatness in athletes OR Challenge the athlete to be great
2. 'Do as I say' OR 'Let me figure out how I can best help you'
3. Coaching for results OR Coaching an athlete how to leverage their strengths
4. Fear-based coaching OR Designing a training environment for the player to take risks
5. Dictating to players how they should act OR Being a model of who you want them to be
6. 'Make it in..' mindset OR 'Beat it by' mindset

What coaching shifts have you made in order to help realize more potential in your players?

On '5 Questions Every Athlete Should Ask Themselves'

Yesterday I came across an article titled '5 Questions Every Athlete Should Ask Themselves' writting by Jonathan Conneely. His article makes a great point that the best athletes consistently train hard on a daily basis and are action oriented and dedicated. He goes on to present five questions for his athletes that can be easily broken down into the value dimensions of formal axiology:

1. How bad do I want it? (internal extrinsic)
2. How bad do you really want to be great? (internal intrinsic)
3. Why do I want it? (internal systemic)
4. What am I willing to do until I get it? (internal extrinsic)
5. How much time do you put into what you do? (internal systemic)
6. Do you really love it? (internal intrinsic)

These five questions create a great foundation for building clarity around self-awareness, self-identity, and self-discipline! The key word here being SELF, or internal directed questions.

It woul be great to expand this list to also include external (world) based questions to help the athlete further identify for themselves their thinking/belief system beyond themself.

For example how about:

1. How important are teammates and coaches to you? (external intrinsic)
2. How clearly do you understand and value the cause & effect action of your sport? (external extrinsic)
3. How well do you thrive in a competitive match? (external extrinsic-attitude)
4. What is your reponse when things do not go as planned? (external extrinsic- negative attitude)
5. How well do you understand the demands of your sport and level of play? (external systemic)

These are just a few additional questions that help to create a bit more intensity for the athlete if appropriate. The initial five in Jonathan's article are a tremendous way to spark self-reflection and clarity for the athlete as they have to make some key decisions for their own athletic journey.

It is important to remember that no matter what the answers provided by the athlete that there are no wrong answers at all. Simply that is where the athlete is mentally in this point and time. The goal is to take their answers and match them up with their long term goals to see where the disconnect may be. Once this is identified, the art and science of coaching then comes alive in working with the athlete to get them to their own definition of 'what could be'.

Axiology vs Psychology

I had a chance yesterday to take part in a fun discussion on the topic of happiness along with a positive psychologist. I am definitely a fan of positive psychology.

The point I made yesterday to the group is that the purpose of using formal axiology is to add more 'good qualities' to an individual in order for them to live a better life, perform better at their job or sport, etc.

The second point I made yesterday came from a discussion I had with Vera Medford of The Value Source Group. The biggest difference between the two can be summed up as Normative (axiology) versus Descriptive (psychology).

More on the second point tomorrow!!!

Future Directions for InnerTactics

Wow what a crazy ride this has been the past two years! I have primarily focused on bringing formal axiology to the world of sports which finally came to fruition about six months ago. We are making leaps and bounds in all sports and at all levels and it is a blast! In fact we are in five different countries already!

Throughout this journey we have now expanded into the world of business and life itself! That is actually one of the greatest benefits of formal axiology is that it can be applied to literally anything!

Sports and Beyond

Until now the majority of the posts on this blog have been geared towards basic principles of formal axiology and how this ties into the world of sports. However, many of you have requested that I broaden the scope of this particular blog and add in some practical life and business examples.

Therefore, I will be creating a few different catagories of posts for this blog so that it may be easier to read and digest for all audiences! I will included examples from life coaching, business and financial coaching, etc.

BE READY!!!

Applying Axiology to the World Around You

Formal Axiology can be used as a logical framework in helping to make meaning of something or someone. Using the three basic dimension of axiology (intrinsic, extrinsic, and systemic) take a look at the simple chart below:

Write down two or three words that come to your mind and try and break them down into the three dimensions and see what you come up with! In fact, post them here on this blog so others can learn as well!

An Advanced Axiological Exercise on 'Money'

One of the biggest benefits of formal axiology is that it can be applied to literally any situation, person, event, etc. I had a number of emails asing me to go into this framework a little deeper. Therefore...



Given the current state of the US and World's economy I thought it would be an appropriate post for an axiological exercise for the word 'Money'. Keep in mind that the targeted profiles will reveal an individual's clarity in a specific dimension (aka maturity) and their emotional conditoining patterns within that dimension (both positive and negative). This exercise is taken from the Value Source Group Certification Manual:

Example #2 Money

• Systemically, a system for exact value exchange for all society



• Positive valuation: having money provides a sense of safety & security.
  


• Negative valuation: having it may be short-lived, may lose it, have to pay more taxes – so it is hoarded.



• Neutral valuation: objectively weigh pros and cons – having enough to meet needs
  


• Extrinsically, a means of transaction in coin, currency or bearer bonds



• Positive valuation: I can do and accomplish alot more with more money



• Negative valuation: adds worry to daily living – have to guard and preserve it



• Neutral valuation: objectively weigh pros & cons: earn enough of it to get by and survive in life, being relatively comfortable.

• Intrinsically, loving money, loving to have it and accumulate more of it with no end in sight
  


• Positive valuation: having money is the center of my self-identity and self-image. I can use money to help others in need and pay for college for my kids



• Negative valuation: dangerous! Someone may try to kidnap my child or even kill me for my money



• Neutral valuation: objectively weigh pros & cons: having money is good for me and promotes my growing into a better person, a person who can give to others.

On 'Searching for Patterns'

I just read a blog post by Andrea Sigetich titled 'Searching for Patterns'. Here is an excerpt from the post:

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Jake noticed something interesting -- one time he could be performing a task and have a great time -- really feeling like he was working from a place of strength. Another day, a similar task let him feeling cold, bored, and engaging a weakness. The tasks were similar -- and Jake became confused about his strengths!As my client worked with him to look for the patterns of circumstances underlying the times he felt he was engaging his best strength, Jake had an ah-ha! He realized that his strength was not about the task or the skill at all -- it was all about the relationships he was engaged in when performing the task.

When he performed this task alone, he was disengaged. When he performed it with colleagues and others at work, he had a great time. Soon Jake, and his boss, realized that Jake's strength is in relationship. He loves working with others. He enjoys the interplay and the creativity -- and he manages to build collaborative relationships into most all of his work.

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Recognizing an individual's pattern of strengths is critical in helping other's reach their potential. What's great about this example is that it can be directly applied to formal axiology (the science of human value).

In this specific case Jake leads his decision making pattern with the intrinsic dimension first following by the task itself second, the extrinsic dimension. What is not known is whether Jake is engaged because of his high clarity in the intrinsic dimension or by his emotional bias pattern.

This is where the power of the values targeted profiles come in to play! The profile help's an individual or organization immediately identify a person's strengths and weaknesses based on their decision making patterns revealing both clarity and emotional biases within each dimension of thinking.

A completely different coaching approach would be taking depending on whether he is more emotional driven with a negative bias along with lower clarity....or... he has very high clarity in intrinsic value (understanding others) which therefore his emotional pattern would play less of a part.

Pattern Based Thinking

What if you could identify your unique pattern of decision making based on how you make values judgements? In fact, we have now identified thirteen external (world) view patterns and thirteen internal (self) view patterns for a total of twenty six patterns. There is no good or bad pattern, instead, each pattern is a starting point to help the individual leverage their strenghts and manage their weaknesses.

I would recommend finding a copy of Andrea's book titled 'Play To Your Strengths' in any major bookstore...outstanding information!!!! In fact I will be posting some specific examples from her book in upcoming posts! Thanks Andrea for such practical advice!