Team Culture- Building Winning Culture

Earlier this week I was listening to former college football coach, Rick Neuheisel. His conversation was about new coaches taking over programs this year in college football. He commented the most important job of a first year coach is not X/O's or strategy. The most important job is to "reshape the culture" of their program. His feeling was if a program is going to have long term success, it will be a result of a strong culture.

The other point he made was culture does not just happen, culture is built. And for a culture to be successfully built into a winning culture, it is a process. Just like you build skills in a sport with purposeful daily commitment, you build culture with a purposeful daily commitment. It doesn't just happen!

Here is an example of a foundation of values to build a culture:

Building A Winning Culture

Winning Culture- The shared behavior and beliefs that are characteristic of people who share a vision and passion for achieved excellence.

Desire Growth

• Willing to invest time, sweat, and work to make myself and my team better.
• Unwilling to accept short cuts, understand championships are won in practice.
• Bring energy to practice and games which allows me and my team to work harder than the average player and the average team.

Value Relationships

• Through your words & actions you show you CARE about other people.
• Unselfishly concerned for and devoted to the welfare of others.
• Treat all people in my life with dignity and respect.

Seek Excellence with Enthusiasm

• Desire to go beyond average, don’t want to be just like everyone else.
• Want to be part of something special and extraordinary.
• Become an energy giver, not an energy taker.

Handle Adversity

• Remain focused on your goals no matter the situation- toughness.
• Have the ability to go onto the next play.
• Don’t become selfish when things don’t go right.

Build Trust

• My character, values, and morals create a sense of trust.
• My actions on and off the court show I can be relied on by my teammates.
• Treat all people in my life with dignity and respect.