Mistakes In Holding Your Team Accountable

How NOT to hold your team accountable.

First step - Do NOT yell “Jesus f***ing Christ you guys!” when a mistake happens.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I did.

I was young when this happened, but still given a leadership role on my high school basketball team being 1 of 2 captains.

It was also embarrassingly bad that I said this considering I went to a Catholic high school…

It was my senior year and our team was very good and had high expectations. 

We all agreed we wanted to make it to State, meaning we would make it to the Final Four and play in Madison, WI where the Badgers play. Making it to State is a tall task for any team, even very good ones.

It was early on in the season when this incident happened.

It was at a closed door practice, thank goodness, and not in a game. 

I knew we had to hold the team, every individual, and ourselves to a high standard.

For a couple of practices we weren’t living up to that standard.

I was not happy.

I was also furious that it seemed like others on the team didn’t seem to care that we had multiple poor practices.

So when our Varsity team was losing to the JV team (something that should never happen) in a scrimmage, I snapped.

I yelled my infamous line right after my teammate made a very errant pass to the other team leading to an easy basket and an even bigger lead.

I yelled it loudly. I’m sure if anyone was in the hallways or school entrance they could have heard me even with the gym doors closed.

After I yelled the gym was silent. 

My coach looked at me, just shocked.

I am sure we was insanely angry with me, but it didn’t show.

Instead, he calmly told everyone to “get on the line,” which is the universal words for “we are going to run.”

And run we did. 

A lot.

In fact, we didn’t do anything but run for the rest of practice, which was about a half an hour.

I felt horrible.

And my teammates wanted nothing to do with me after that practice. Understandably. 

I didn’t feel horrible for myself.

I felt horrible for every single one of my teammates because they had to run so much and because I treated them so poorly.

I learned a couple of lessons that day. Lessons that I try to keep and mind and continue to work on (I am imperfect!).

1️⃣ Never speak to your teammates or people with anger, ever.

2️⃣ People can be held accountable without yelling or raising a voice. 

3️⃣ Speaking to your teammates in that manner is the fastest way to lose respect.

4️⃣ Remaining calm in emotionally charged situations allows for thoughtful leadership.

Week 25 of 52