Core Values

In my previous post about developing core values for your athletic department, I wrote about my experience following this process for our athletic department.  While I was engaged in that process, I was working with my assistant coaches and athletes to do the same thing for our football program..  I think sharing what we did would be helpful along with some lessons and how I will revise when I do it again.

If you’re serious about developing a “championship culture” I highly recommend checking out Brian Cain Peak Performance.  I’ve been a member of his online group, the Inner Circle, as well as an attendee to his four day Athletic Director Event in Las Vegas.  I am not exaggerating when I say that I have used what I learned at that event ever single day since I returned home for personal or professional development.

I’m going to start with a list of five things I think I think I know about setting core values for an athletic program or team:

1. Select characteristics that you either want your team to represent, and/or do an autopsy of your program and identify what has been holding you back and address it.
2. Keep it simple.
3. Package it in a way that kids and coaches can remember.
4. Get input from your major stakeholders to increase buy-in and ownership.
5. Sell them at every opportunity.

Select characteristics that you want your team to represent and/or address things that have been holding your program back.

There are several ways to approach the process of selecting your core values.  The first method I would suggest is to sit down and ask this question: “If an outsider were to come and watch five minutes of our team at practice in a game, practice or off season training, what would you want them to say about our team?”  We call this the “5 Minute Rule” (I got this from Craig Howard at Southern Oregon University).  I really like how that question cuts things down to three to four characteristics that are observable and concrete in the minds of kids and coaches.  The weakness of this method is that we often tend to ignore or recognize something called “Moral Character” as being a value we want to stand for.

An example of what the “5 Minute Rule” produced for our program is “Toughness.”  If you watch us play football, “toughness” will definitely be on display.  It is something our kids are proud of and feel is a major strength of theirs.  If you came to our practices, games, training, etc., we think you’ll see toughness and if not, it is something we need to address right away.

Kevin Bryant, CMAA and PHD candidate has been conducting research on whether high school athletics morally matter.  In part of his research that I was involved in, he drew a distinction between what most of us select as our core values, Social Values (i.e. hard work, perseverance, dedication, sacrifice, etc), and Moral Characteristics (i.e. honesty, justice, respect, responsibility).  I’ve seen plenty of the latter included in examples of core values but, I believe that most athletes and coaches tend to focus on social values.  I think the important thing here is to be aware of both and be intentional about which ones you select to promote as the cornerstones of your program.

Another method of selecting core values that I’ll discuss is what I’ll call the “Autopsy Method.”  Typically, this is going to be when your program or team is either rebuilding or when it has had a history coming up short in one way or another.  Dave Crowell, the head wrestling coach at Nazareth High School in Pennsylvania told me one year his team had a terrible finish at the state tournament and as a result, he went home and broke down every single shortcoming and deficiency the team had.  He used that as the basis for improving the program and his own coaching practice.

This is similar to the process that I originally used to develop our athletic department non-negotiables that I wrote about in the last post.  The issue with doing this for your core values is that it emphasizes what your program isn’t.  I would suggest going through this process as a healthy part of the annual review of your program and include it in the process of selecting your core values but, make sure that you include characteristics and values that your program exemplifies as well as needs to improve upon.

When we did our program “autopsy,” we felt “Attitude,” was an important area that needed to be addressed.  Our kids traditionally have reacted poorly to adversity in the past and resorted to playing the “blame game” rather than rallying around one another.  Being an “energy giver rather than an energy vampire” have been a major emphasis for our program.

Keep it Simple

The problem that I’ve had when going through this process is that there is always another idea, value, characteristic, etc., that I want to include in the process.  In my first attempt at athletic department core values, I  selected too many things for our coaches to focus on and for me to emphasize.  One of the things I love about Jon Gordon’s book One Word That Will Change Your Life and how Brian Cain encourages those he coaches to have a “One Word Focus” is that it is simple enough that you can focus on that one aspect of your life but, that’s something for a different blog post.  There are exceptions to this but, the fewer core values you select, the more impact I think you’ll have with them.

Package it in a Way Your Kids and Coaches can Remember

The easiest way to do this to come up with an acronym.  We used our mascot to do this:

• Passion
• Attitude
• No Excuses
• Toughness
• Hard Work
• Excellence
• Relentless
• Selfless

If I were to do it again, I think we might try to figure out a way to cut it down to just four core values:

• Grit (Passion and Perseverance–read Angela’s Duckworth’s book Grit)
• Unified
• Toughness
• Sacrifice

My friend Randy Jackson at Grapevine High School in Texas does not use an acronym for his program’s core values but he combines two other effective ways of helping kids remember their core values.  First, each day of the week has a core value or two that is associated with it.  Monday is Tempo/Energy, Tuesday is Competition, Wednesday is Toughness, etc..  Then, they combine this with a hand routine where they sign through their core values.  The thumb up and stirring things up is Energy/Tempo, holding the ring finger is Family/Appreciation and so forth.  I think combining these two is a great way to teach and retain these concepts.

Get Input from Your Stakeholders

Depending on the situation you are in, including your athletes and coaches in the process of selecting your core values will increase their buy-in and pay dividends in the long run.  It’s a great lesson to teach them and probably worth while for that alone.  There are several ways that you can do this.

Coach Driven–This is typically the way I have done things in the past.  I do my analysis, I discuss with my coaches and then we share with the kids.  I think if you’re taking over a new program, or your program is dysfunctional, this might be the preferred method.

Team Captains – Two years ago, we elected team captains and had them go through training that included having them develop core values for the team.  I asked the captains to present and teach the values to their team mates.  The issue we had is that I didn’t emphasize this enough throughout the season and our captains had a hard time remembering and expressing what our core values even meant.  If you use team captains, this might be a good way to start the practice but I think finding other kids and your coaches a way to involve them in the process

Team Meeting – The process we used this year is that I had a lunchtime meeting where I served pizza and needless to say, it was well attended.  During the meeting, I shared my vision for our championship culture and that we were going to select our core values.  I had put together a Google Form that asked a bunch of questions that I hoped kids would have reactions to.  After the kids responded to the Google Form, we sat down and started bunching the answers into categories.  For example, “dedication” and “committed” could be put together as well as “toughness” and determination.”  We then took the responses and shoe horned them into our acronym.

The shortcomings of the process we used to gather input from our kids and coaches:

• Timing – we had our meeting in the middle of February.  Since most of our kids are two and three sport athletes, I think going through the process had less impact than if we were on the verge of starting our off-season program in earnest.  In retrospect, I would have put together a retreat/meeting/etc., prior to the start or during our spring football season.  You should consider what will give you the most impact and create the most momentum.
• Lack of Moral Values – As outlined above, I think the values we selected would be enhanced had we included one or two that bring a moral element to what we’re teaching.  Respect instead of Relentless would have been my choice in retrospect.
• Fewer Core Values – While I can remember all of our core values, I think I would do a better job of emphasizing them if there were fewer.

Sell them at Every Opportunity

I am a big believer in creating habit loops.  If you want to teach your core values and make it an emphasis for your program, you will need to find ways to build in “spaced repetition” into what you do daily.  We have adopted the practice of meeting before each strength and conditioning workout to cover some aspect of either our core values or championship process (more about this in another post).  We also did this during the spring before practice and will continue to do this when we start camp and doubles in the fall.

Another thing I picked up from Randy Jackson was to create posters and put them everywhere.  We created a poster as well as a pennant that every kid got that purchased our spirit pack this past spring.

Combating Core Value Fatigue and Confusion

Finally, I will address an issue you may have if multiple programs across your school adopt the “MVP” process that Brian Cain teaches.  You may be concerned that multi-sport athletes will either become confused by multiple programs having different core values or that they may develop “core value fatigue.”  There are two parts to my response.  I think having fewer core values is a good antidote to either of these.  Southern Oregon Football’s CSH is short, sweet and easy to remember.  If you have a laundry list of core values, this will only compound confusion by athletes in multiple programs.

If you are at a school that is dominated by multi-sport athletes, getting together with other coaches to share the same core values isn’t a bad approach.  In order for this to work, all parties would need to be on the same page and singing the same song.  If so, it can be tremendously powerful.  Our boys basketball coach has asked if he can use the same core values as our football program which I think will be a great thing for both programs.