The 10 Commandments of Coaching Leadership

Coaching and leadership have always been intertwined. If leadership is, as G. Yukl suggests in Leadership in Organizations, "the application of intentional influence in order to achieve a desired result," then coaching is leadership in practice.

The universal principles that apply to effective leadership also apply to successful coaching and can be articulated as the 10 Commandments of coaching leadership.

Commandment #1: Thou shalt not blame thy players when thou lose. This commandment goes hand in hand with its converse: Thou shalt credit thy players when thou win. Urban Gavelin adroitly surmises that "accepting responsibility is really a proof of maturity."

Commandment #2: Thou shalt communicate with thy players. Coaches often take an egotistical approach and view themselves as being in an elevated position vis-à-vis the player. Professional distance serves to alienate players and parents. The denial of information is an abuse of the power conferred in the coach.

Commandment #3: Thou shalt not belittle thy players. Coaches need to evaluate, but to do so without alienating. This paradox is only apparent, not real. Skillfully delivered critical evaluations and performance counseling enhance both the relationship between player and coach and the targeted performance.

Commandment #4: Thou shalt think and coach innovatively. Drawing on Hooper's axiom that "teachers teach the way they were taught," it's probably safe to say that "coaches coach the way they were coached." It's not uncommon to see a coach try to "shoehorn" players into a pre-determined system, which is normally the same system they learned as a player.

Commandment #5: Thou shalt not be a self-centered coach. The only way some coaches can relate to players is by invoking personal history. Coaches should use the words "I" and "Me" about as often as they desire to see their mother-in-law drop in unannounced. If sports are indeed about building character in players, they cannot be about validating a coach's life choice.

Commandment #6: Thou shalt not cheat. Coaches routinely face principled decisions as part of their sport experience and must decide how to react. Participation in sports is supposed to encourage positive behaviors. Cheating begs the question of what kind of role model a coach is being when he cheats.

Commandment #7: Thou shalt not gossip. Too often, coaches spend valuable energy and effort dealing with fallout from evaluative gossip. This problem is exponentially worse depending on the size of the school. Generally speaking, the smaller the school, the worse the problem.

Commandment #8: Thou shalt mentor thy players. A successful coach spends a significant amount of time encouraging students to succeed at life, not just at the sport they are playing. Engelhorn claims that "coaches have an ethical responsibility for developing youth into productive citizens and to develop their abilities and attitudes for further learning and success in life."

Commandment #9: Thou shalt not punish thy players for the parents' transgressions. One of the toughest things a coach must do is to not punish the player for the parent's transgressions. This requires a level of maturity in coaches. For some unexplained reason, coaches are shocked when parents engage them about their child's playing time or role on the team.

Commandment #10: Thou shalt be a role model for thy players. If players see the coach do something out of kilter, they assume it's appropriate for them to do so.

Coaching is neither a job nor a part-time endeavor. Given the far-reaching implications and multi-faceted challenges associated with molding today's young people, those not wholly engaged in the coaching profession are doing a disservice to those they lead, in addition to themselves.

At the end of the day coaching and leadership are intricately intertwined. The leadership skills required to lead a platoon in combat are similar to those required of coaches at the high school and college levels. Just as there are things combat leaders must do correctly, there also are things in which a coach must not fail. These "no fail" areas can be collectively referred to as the 10 Commandments of Coaching Leadership.

Note: A full version of this article can be requested at no cost from Larry Wilson at lawrence.d.wilson@us.army.mil