The Secret to Building a Team of Leaders

David Sammel, Head Coach, TeamBath-MCTA

In all the years of coaching and running programs with the responsibility of creating a fantastic team culture I have learned a lot of lessons. My second job in 1990 was accepting a position of Head Coach at a large indoor club where I was responsible for 8 full time coaches, a number of part time coaches, a pro shop, and a massive junior program of 600 kids a week. At this time I was reading a lot of management, motivational, and self-improvement books. I was incredibly eager to both motivate and create a team environment where everybody had the same goals and ambitions for the program. We would have weekly team meetings where I would share ideas, emphasize the values of the program and continually ask the other coaches for their ideas and input as to how they thought we could improve. Every week I was disappointed in the poor response. Every week we seemed to get bogged down with petty problems. A lot of these were internal tensions between staff, especially surrounding the allocation of lessons which were a bone of contention given that the reception desk would get the enquiries and charged with putting them out to the coaches in rotational order. However, there were accusations of coaches influencing reception and poaching students by talking to parents in the restaurant/bar area thereby undermining their colleagues.

The ambition to coach better players created further tension. I personally worked more with higher level players given my status in the game, and a natural pecking order was taking hold. Players needing lessons were very different, the beginners being much harder to teach than others, added to which the natural movement of players to different coaches taking place meant the less busy coaches felt that more and better lessons should be allocated to them until they had similar hours as the busier coaches.

The harder I tried to meet the individual needs and get a consensus among the coaches as to the best way forward, the worse things seemed to get. The bigger goals for the program and ideals of building a team were totally buried by the bickering and immediacy of solving each coach’s perceived problems. The team began to fracture into cliques and once that happened there was no hope of becoming a united group.

This was so difficult to handle because I felt I was being more than reasonable and willing to listen and learn, to include them in the decision making and encourage a mind-set of doing things for the greater good. I had a reward system in place for good work, which also became a source of aggravation as there was little gratitude or better co-operation. Often after an award I was accused (behind my back) of favoritism. Where was I going wrong? I even tried a few nights out and team outings to help bond the team together. Imagine my disappointment when things seemed to go so well during an outing, with everyone getting on and having fun times, good banter when competing at bowls or football, yet very quickly all this comraderie disappeared when we were back at work?

I was failing and had to change. All this new age philosophy I was reading about listening and bringing people with you, appreciating each ones talents, nurturing a friendly environment without fear to speak out was rubbish. Nope — what was needed was good old fashioned discipline and strong leadership. So I brought in a load of rules. No more freedom to express, just obey the rules and do the job or you could leave. "I had probably inherited and hired the wrong people" so if a few left great, because then I could bring in coaches who would understand the way things worked from the start and would not bitch and sulk at the "new rules."

Meetings became easier — we would tidy up everyday issues and I would discipline anyone who stepped out of line through a system of fines. I was not popular and morale was not high but at least on the surface things were more efficient and everyone was more careful with their moans. My way or the highway worked. It might not have been fun or overly productive given that no one did anything extra, but just the same, the squabbling went underground and my bosses were happier with tried and tested methods. Yet I was unhappy because my instincts told me that this was the wrong way, but the other way had failed. I also knew that although some staff were not the right people, others were good at their jobs and it was a mystery to me why I had failed to get their full support before the clamp down, and worse, these were the coaches that were beginning to leave when the right opportunities arose.

My first clue came when I thought about my relationships with players. The bonds were strong, the trust levels high and the enthusiasm to work hard to achieve goals was both fun and rewarding. I was good one on one. I inspired belief and confidence in individuals. My strength was taking complex issues and making them simple to understand. The amazing thing was that the squad of players I worked with were a good team — they supported and encouraged each other, enjoying any success that was achieved by anyone on the team. Was it because they were young? Was it because they all had a common goal to be better players which overcame most differences?

Again I knew this was not the reason because I had been in a college team that was fractious even though we had a common goal. Morale was not high and apart from the personal gain from the team doing well, we were quite happy to see most others on the team lose. We did well but did not achieve as much as we should have because we had not been a close team, just a team of good individuals. The leadership of the coach was poor and subject to the whims of his mood.

This experience influenced the way I approached my coaching. I made sure I was very emotionally stable on a daily basis, my philosophy to be firm but fair and to always communicate clearly what I expected from a player given the level of their ambitions which we decided together. I had no rules apart from bringing a good attitude. If a player failed to bring the right attitude, to this day I calmly ask them to leave and come back when he/she is ready. The minimum gap is 5 minutes before the player can return. When the player returns I reintegrate them into the session with no fuss or discussion. I've yet to have a player return to a session and display a poor attitude again.

So, why was the team spirit so strong with players yet seemingly impossible to re-create with staff? Why were team meetings so productive and fun with players and so terrible with staff? Why did outings with the squad of players energize the group and create stronger bonds in practice when the staff would quickly disintegrate into factions again? Why was the small team of three coaches and a trainer working with the performance players so tight knit, yet in the wider group unable to duplicate the dynamics of good teamwork? We decided it was because we were like minded and the rest did not understand teamwork and therefore it was not my leadership it was them — the wrong people. I believed this for a good while, but still it niggled me because fundamentally I knew it was not totally true.

Why could I not recreate a strong team of staff? What was the difference? I would love to say it was a thunderbolt that hit me and then I knew and all was a happy turnaround. The truth is that it was a long process of trial and error before I confidently could say: "I know the secret to creating a true team and a culture of excellence."

The tennis center was sold so the job ended, but I had increasingly been traveling with pro players leaving the running of the coaches to my assistant and the program had bundled along reasonably well as most businesses do, a den of petty politics and little personal growth or inspiration. I did however begin to perfect the team dynamics around a player which consisted of physical trainer, possibly sports psychologist, agent and parents so when the chance came to manage another larger program I was ready.

I had continued to read extensively on psychology, autobiographies by successful business leaders, and philosophy and listen to or attend seminars of various gurus on all manner of leadership and motivation. The change was slow but real and twenty years later although I still have enormous curiosity, I now take on bits that enhance my philosophy and discard plenty. I'm extremely clear about how to build a team and will categorically argue that the worst idea is that teams are built through team meetings, outings, seminars, challenges or any pursuit together. These actions lead to teamwork to solve the challenge of that day, but infuse little difference in the work place unless the following precedes any of these pursuits:

The secrets to Building a Team of Leaders

Meet each staff member individually. Very large organizations mean meeting the key managers, who then take the process down the ladder — only when they are properly trained to do so effectively. Staff members will have been tasked to prepare the answers and to discuss these questions:

• What is your ambition both in this job and personally?

• What is your job summarized into a maximum of two bullet points and how does your job add value to the team/company?

• If you could change one thing to make your job better what would it be? If it is a reasonable request that clearly will improve things, promise to implement it immediately and be good to your word. Nothing validates or inspires a person more than the oxygen of being listened to and to see his/her idea implemented.

• What is the vision of this team/company as you understand it? It becomes apparent if there is any clarity or consistency of a shared vision/plan.

Once you have this information you can quickly ascertain who is sharp, committed and adds or has potential to add value to the team. If possible, engineer out of the group the BS merchants and politicians who add no value other than telling you how great you are and how committed they are to the cause, but fail to outline exactly what they bring to the table.

Discussion in Charlottesville where Liam made the final of the Challenger with wins over Tim Smyczek, Ryan Harrison and Denis Kudla.

Modify your vision for the team from the information and knowledge gained and then arrange to have a follow-up meeting. In this meeting outline the vision and your ambitions for the team. Explain your philosophy and how you see them playing their part in delivering the vision.

Ask the question: Are you comfortable in playing your part and are you willing to except the trust that I'm placing in you to deliver the targets? Emphasize that you are interested in the results and not in telling them how to achieve, but prefer to trust them and their imagination and experience to find the best ways to accomplish the goals. Make it clear you are there to help but have every confidence in their ability to do their job. Listen Carefully so that you are both sure of what has been agreed and write it down. Read it out loud and agree again so that they understand that this is a true reflection of expectations.

Once the second meeting has happened with all the staff members, the group meetings become very productive. Everyone is clear about their role and on board before they enter the group meetings. The meeting's take on a collaborative feel where each person is focused on the task of achieving the vision and have freedom to be honest in the discussions because everything becomes solution minded in order to succeed.

Team of Leaders

It is imperative for success that everyone is supportive as a team, that each person sees themselves as a leader. This does not mean that everybody is a chief. My definition of a team of leaders is a group of people who look to support teammates when they drop the ball, colleagues who do not delight in the failure of others but rather work very hard to prevent any failure and genuinely want to achieve the vision that they all signed up to and agreed to deliver. As the overall leader of the team it is important to accentuate the value in:

• Being brave and trying new ways of doing things as long as it is thought through and the implications for others in the team are considered. It is impossible to evolve with out experimenting and many of these experiments that seem a good idea may well turn out to be rubbish. However a few ideas can turn into gold-dust.

• Understanding that life is messy and it is not our job to create a perfectly ordered system where nothing goes wrong. That kind of utopia does not exist. The trick is to negotiate a sensible path through the unpredictable vagaries of life and anticipate and innovate ways forward.

• True delegation — this is the real test of management. If you trust someone to do a job then let them do it without supervision. Agree on the deadline then leave them to it. Don't manage them through it or get involved unless they ask for help. In the main, managers cannot resist wanting staff to accomplish tasks in a way that they would go about it — "showing or explaining how best to go about it" and inadvertently disempowering and invalidating the staff member. True delegation is freedom from the stress of being semi responsible for multiple tasks rather than being responsible for evaluating the outcomes.

• True delegation builds an individual's confidence and therefore the confidence of the team as individuals stop trying to throw the ball back to you or others and begin to relish the freedom to perform. This mind set needs to permeate down through the team so that everyone delegates appropriately and trusts the person to deliver. As the leader your job is to lead from behind — which means among other things, observing, being available for advice and making sure that a fair balance of work is being achieved.

With Liam and his sister, Naomi Broady, at the 2015 Australian Open after his win over Jared Donaldson.

Allow me to iterate — life is messy and no matter how good your leadership skills become, how well you delegate and trust, challenges and issues still arise but overall the magic of forming a team through the Individual is beyond anything I could have imagined. Team spirit, trust and leadership at all levels grows and the fun of working with a team that is genuinely not afraid to voice strong opinions yet put their strength behind any action that the group or you as leader has decided is best is simply humbling. The buck stops with you, the boss/head coach so there are times when you have to be strong and explain that a task/operation needs to be done a certain way because you are positive through experience that it is the right way. If you have always followed through on delivering on an idea or change that you agreed improves the team or company then equally the team will trust your judgment.

The individual meetings must remain quarterly in the first year then no less than half yearly. Prepare a challenging question or two for every meeting and use it to explain the next steps and to discuss/sell evolvement of the program. It is only in these meetings that most people will open up and speak freely as long as you never betray their confidentiality. Never divulge information to another or the group without the individual's permission.

A few points about the Reality of Leadership and creating a winning team culture:

• The time and energy at the start of this process and length of time it takes to implement it is far longer than either the team meetings or 'my way or the highway' approach.

• The ongoing energy to inspire, especially during times when results are difficult and the goals seem impossible to achieve, is challenging. However the rewards are awesome as the team grows in confidence and strength.

• Short term this approach takes longer, but long term it builds a legacy and produces a healthy line of succession.

• The environment and culture is one of honesty and integrity and therefore mentally healthy and a fun place to work. Again it takes vigilance to prevent the laziness of "telling" and "unfair expectations" to creep into the program.

• Everyone is emotionally invested in the success of the project. The outwardly passionate and enthusiastic members can drown out the more reserved members. Giving the shy ones a voice is important as is managing the disappointment of the loud ones when the group does not submit to their enthusiasm for an idea. Over time these vastly different groups begin to merge towards each other and respect what each brings to the table - another slice of working heaven.

Finally hold your hands up when you are wrong. The message must remain clear that if the program or company is constantly evolving then mistakes are part of the process including your mistakes. A group never reaches the place where it can stand still for long and whether we like it or not the next challenge will present itself regardless.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about David Sammel's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.

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