Football and workplace coaching, part four: Don't be a coach of players, be a coach of coaches

Those unfamiliar with American football might not realize that there is more to the game than size and strength. Toughness and force are important to a player's success, but limitations in size and strength can be overcome through technique, precision, and cinematic montages.

I spent my playing career on the offensive and defensive line, positions that I now coach. The best players on the line are those whose first steps are quick and decisive. I've always found that the best linemen are the players whose hand placement and pad level are calibrated to maximize leverage, and whose attention spans are capable of constantly critiquing the minutiae of the form. The adage "the low man always wins" remains true in the sport of American football - but being the "low man" requires a decisive mastery of a surprisingly complex skillset.

It's my belief as a coach that to be successful in the most physically demanding position in the world's most physical sport demands a commitment not just to aggressive play, but to consistent execution, evaluation, and improvement.

Yet despite the necessity of great technique, most football teams have only one coach to work with dozens of players in a given position group. In a fast-moving sport where up to five linemen can take the field on one side of the ball, the best coaches quickly realize that there's far more coaching than one person can realistically provide. There are too many movements to watch, too much technique on which to focus, too many moving pieces in the system. As a linemen coach, I am responsible for watching more than my eyes can take in.

In the workplace, people leaders are increasingly finding their coaching efforts limited by time and space. As remote working arrangements and geographical distribution of employees become normative in the digital workplace, people leaders have fewer opportunities to coach their teams, aside from a few minutes set aside for a weekly Zoom or a bi-annual performance review.

That's why the most influential coaches, in football and in the workplace, are not the best coaches of players. Rather, they are the best coaches of coaches. The most effective coaches build a culture of coaching, erasing the arbitrary demarcation between coach and contributor so that all are empowered to coach in the moment.

To be a coach these days is about training others to become coaches themselves. Coaching is about upskilling others on the team to ask powerful questions. It's about encouraging others to provide realtime, contextually relevant feedback. It's about helping team members to step back from subjective judgments and to lean into conversations about actions that will affect performance outcomes.

I regularly remind the linemen I have the privilege to work with that my role as their coach is to put them in a position to coach one another. When we get into a game and I stand on the sidelines, some 80 feet away from the action, I and the other coaches don't have a great vantage point. In these moments, there's not much that I can do to affect the outcome of a game. If I want the unit's performance to improve throughout the course of the game, I need to empower the players to make themselves better. I need to be a coach not of players, but of coaches.

Football and workplace coaching, part three: Coach different players differently

I discovered how most people managers approach coaching in 2006 while stocking Beerfest DVDs at the Grand Chute, WI Best Buy. "We have to hold everyone to the exact same standard," the manager barked at me on my first day of the job. "We have to treat everybody exactly the same."

With this comment, the manager, who oversaw an operation of CD and DVD shelf re-stockers during the holiday season, expressed a commonly held yet ultimately misplaced theory of people leadership. The idea that everyone should be treated the same has its place in a Kindergarten classroom, yet falls apart when applied to the workplace. And like most of my insights about people development, I discovered an alternative way to lead while out on the football field.

Football coaches, many of whom work with dozens of players at vastly different skill levels, quickly learn that you cannot coach everyone the same. To coach a sport is to realize that you must coach different people differently. Individual contributors require individualized standards, unique goals, and specific plans for attaining those goals.

As a football coach, it's my job to understand what each player needs in order to achieve a personalized performance standard. An under-sized freshman requires a different performance target and a different approach to coaching than a senior all-state athlete. A talented player who struggles with motivation and consistency requires a different approach than a struggling player who brings energy and commitment day in and day out. And as is increasingly the case in football's new landscape, players who are concerned about the game's physicality need something different from their coaches than players who love the collision aspect of the game.

In the workplace, it's a leader's job to recognize what team members need in order to realize individualized performance goals. A basic skill/will matrix would suggest that high skill and high will performers should be held to different objectives and ought to approach those objectives differently than would a low skill and low will contributor. The role of the coach is to be aware of the variable skills and motivations on their team and to facilitate different coaching conversations based on this distribution.

With that said, there are some commonalities with which to approach all coaching - whether on the football field or in the office, for a seasoned All-American or a new junior associate.

• All team members require coaching from a trusted source.

• All contributors need a coach who knows how to collaborate on goal setting and action planning.

• All players need a coach who won't tell them what to do, but who will ask powerful questions so that the coachee can self-discover.

As a workplace coach, you should be coaching different people differently. What matters most is that you coach all of your people, not to be the same, but to be themselves.

The Reformations we need, 502 years after Luther

This past week marked Reformation Sunday, the Lutheran church's annual liturgical commemoration of Martin Luther and his legacy. As we wear red, sing "A Mighty Fortress," and drink strong coffee, we in the Lutheran tradition are not actually celebrating the contributions of a historical figure. Rather, we are reminded of God's dynamic and ceaseless work in the world. It's a Sunday in which we remember that God always calls us to love and to serve - but the specifics of that call are ever-changing.

502 years ago, Martin Luther began a movement to reform the way we thought about church. The Protestant Reformation is not significant because it started a splinter group of denominations. Rather, it is significant because it catalyzed a reconsideration of what it means to be the church in a time of rapid change.

Descended from Luther's tradition, the church of today needs another Reformation. It's been said we need to reform our understanding of social issues, our use of digital technology, and our political stances. All of these may be true, but the Reformation we need today is more expansive. As was the case with Luther's Reformation, the changes the church requires 502 years after Luther won't just change the church's actions, they will change the church's understanding of what it means to live a life of faith in an age of tremendous change and uncertainty.

502 years after Luther, we need a reformation of belonging. Many organizations are intentionally committing to inclusivity while realizing the value that comes from diversity. Meanwhile, the Christian church continues to draw firm boundaries between insiders and outsiders with its antiquated concept of membership. In much of the mainline Protestant tradition, long beholden to a colonialist mindset, membership and attendance metrics remain the focal point of church leaders.

With a reformation of belonging, a church defines itself not by the concept of membership, but by the needs of the community in which the ministry is situated. With this reformed mindset, the ministry is defined not membership nor attendance nor the number of people who look and think like one another. Rather, ministry is defined by the extent to which the church connects and collaborates with its community for the sake of service to the neighbor.

502 years after Luther, we need a reformation of place. Organizations are beginning to understand the depth of relationships that form from hybrid connections, the encounters that happen in both physical and virtual space. Meanwhile, the Christian church continues to insist that the core expression of the tradition takes place in person during a one-hour timeslot on a weekend morning.

With a reformation of place, ministry is defined not by a building or a timeslot, but by a commitment to live in relationship with digital culture, a culture where the online and face to face experiences have equal standing. Digital connection is no longer seen as shallow or disingenuous. When we reform our understanding of place, we in the church can start to use digital technologies not for marketing and advertising, but for ministry and relationship-building.

Finally, 502 years after Luther, we need a reformation of leadership. It's time to stop depending exclusively on the clergy to steward the Christian tradition. It's time to hear more perspectives on Sunday mornings. Ordained leaders have an important role in today's church, but that role is closer to a coach than a chief executive. The leaders of today's most successful organizations are typically not charismatic, authoritative decision-makers. They are visionary, collaborative facilitators who trust their people and know how to delegate. Still, Sunday mornings seem increasingly like pastoral performances where the community is seen primarily as an audience.

With a reformation in leadership, all who gather for word, sacrament, and service are seen as co-equal contributors. The community collaborates to determine a vision for ministry. Liturgy truly becomes participatory. Attendance and "excellence" are jettisoned, replaced by wide collaboration and deep engagement. The leadership priority is no longer institutional survival. The leadership priority is responding to God's call to be a fountain of grace in a time of division and skepticism. The leadership priority is to return the work of the people, back to the people.

The mighty fortress that is our God is indeed calling the church to change. In Fall 2020, I'll be releasing a book with Fortress Press on these Reformations, and more. Follow this website for more on this important topic!