7 Coaching Lessons from the World of Sport: #3

#3 Trust your team

So trust, it had to come up. So let’s think about this quote from Richie Benaud (one of the best, most impartial and knowledgeable commentators out there, in cricket, but also across the board):

“My mantra is: put your brain into gear and if you can add to what’s on screen then do it, otherwise shut up.”

There’s nothing worse than a commentator who talks too much. Telling the spectator what he already knows from the visual. Adding noise without adding anything beneficial. Richie trusts the pictures to do the job, and supports the pictures with impartial words when required.

As a leader of your team, do you trust your team to do their job? Where do you let the team have the responsibility and authority for their actions? Do you let the pictures play out when they’ve ‘got it’? Even if perhaps you’d do it differently yourself. Do you keep comments to yourself when they’re really not needed?

And if we trust in our team, we’re perhaps en route to breeding a general culture of trust. Have you noticed that high performing teams don’t ever really talk about trust? It’s just there.

On the rugby pitch, we see the most fluid play when the trust is there. Thinking about the off side rule, you can’t block or shield a player like in American Football, as you have to remain behind the ball. So what do you do? You support your teammate and ‘be with them’.

You see rugby players running really hard, ‘just’ to support and be there alongside the bloke with the ball. And that bloke with the ball trusts that they will be there, trusts that when he needs to pass, his teammate will be there in the right place. He’s just ‘doing his job’ – quite. But can we trust he will do his job – as he said he would, when he said he would, according to the plan.

So do our behaviours mirror that which is expected? Do we offer behavioural predictability? Simply, does your team know how you will react? Can it trust in your behaviour? Win or lose, can they predict your response? Are you consistent in your message?

Are you there from the start to the end? Are you there when you say you will be?

One video on sports coaching that I watched recently talked about the ‘trust account’ and noted that each action you perform which shows a predictable, consistent approach banks you some trust in your account. You can build that account, but unlike money, where every dollar is equal, not all actions in the workplace or on the sporting pitch have the same trust value. As leaders with our team and indeed with those around us in life, we need to remember that it is highly possible to completely blow and erode our trust account with one action.

Be predictable. Be consistent. Breed trust.