It has to be something really big for me to lose sleep over it. I’ve been losing sleep since Tuesday night. Over baseball.
No, it’s not because of the Rockies record. It’s my son’s baseball team. Not really the team, but the coach. The players and parents have been witness to some of the most alarming coaching behavior I have ever seen.
The coach speaks with sarcasm in his voice, in demeaning, humiliating and degrading language. Positive feedback or compliments are few and far between. His voice always sounds as if he is anticipating failure.
Sometimes, he mimics player behavior in a clown-like way to demonstrate to them how wrong they were. If a boy makes an error in the field, he pulls that child almost immediately. These are not high schoolers or college kids. They are 13 years old.
It reminds me of some corporate managers I’ve run across. They try to motivate with fear, threats and un-constructive criticism. When someone looks at you, arms out, hands palm up and asks with a sarcastic tone “Really?” What do you do with that? How do you know how to improve? It implies “what, are you stupid?”
Leadership, whether it’s in the office or on the ball field, is about teaching, painting the picture of what’s possible and clearing the way to success.
Even with adults, who aren’t as impressionable as 13-year-olds, positivity has been shown to be more useful in motivating behavior than negativity. Reinforcing the good and educating about the new always gets better results than making people feel stupid or humiliating them in front of others.
No one is perfect. Everyone has room for improvement. Managers, executives, plant-floor employees, coaches. I know I can always work to be better at my craft and at my interactions with others.
So far, our coach hasn’t had that epiphany.
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