Talent? or Coaching?
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Categories:
Talent Management,
Leadership Development,
Executive Coaching
I love the sport of baseball and have spent hundreds of hours coaching the youth in our area over the past 10 years or so. A good friend of mine, who also loves and coaches the sport, and I have had an ongoing debate about what makes a team good...what gets them over the hump to be able to compete with the top teams in their city, state, etc.
Is it primarily about having good or great talent? Or is how they are coached and motivated more important?
I have been closely observing a local high school basketball team over the past several years. One year ago (according to my evaluation) they had very average talent as a team, and had a coach who had
no previous basketball coaching experience of any kind. He didn't know what he was doing and team morale plummeted early in the season. If I recall (and I have spent a long time trying not to) they won about 3 or 4 games all year.
Enter a new coach at the beginning of this year. He has plenty of experience and a HUGE passion for the game. After a rough start where the new coach had to 'unteach' all the bad habits and attitudes of past years (3 wins and 9 losses through 12 games) this team with basically the same players as last year wins 10 of their last 13 games and this week gets rewarded with a spot in the state tournament.
Talent? Or coaching? It is easy to see the importance of coaching in my example, but the truth is that it is some of both. In your business you may have some 'players' with a tremendous amount of talent. But unless they are coached, unless you learn who they really are and what motivates them, unless you help them to develop a team attitude, they are likely to produce very average results.
You may have some very average players on your team. Can you get them to perform at a superior level? Maybe even win the state title?
I know of about 15 kids who are fairly realistic about their natural abilities. They know that they are going to have to fight and scrap for every win they get. But they have decided to pay the price, to give everything they have, because of one coach who has learned how to motivate them and has helped them to believe. Stay tuned to see how the tournament turns out...
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