February 23, 2021   |   Tagged Coaching,

Are you a persuasive basketball coach?

Do your players respect what you have to say and follow through? If so, you are a persuasive coach.

Persuasion means to help a student or mentee take advice all the way through to completion. How well do your athletes follow through to completion with the advice you give? Do you want to have a stronger result?

NBC Basketball focuses on the fifth characteristic: Persuasion. Persuasion is a tough word nowadays because it has evolved to be synonymous with many unsavory words such as “coax, induce, cajolery.” Not words Greenleaf would have promoted.

Persuasion comes from a better history. It comes from two Latin ideas meaning “advise” and “through to completion.” Instead of a leader demanding obedience and subservience from those they lead, Robert Greenleaf desired a leader to persuade people toward the highest and best way.

• Increasing your persuasion means making sure players trust your advice and they believe in what you say.
• Make sure your players understand the “why” behind a drill. The more they understand the why, the more investment they will give.
• Create autonomy on your team. Autonomy means that the energy, motivation, work ethic, follow-through, and inspiration are not coming from you alone. A gym with high energy means a healthy team. A gym with low energy is an indication of a deficit. Become skilled at understanding the source of the energy drain.

On Monday, a team had high energy, the girls communicated well, and the gym was full of strong voices calling for the ball and defensive positioning. On Wednesday, the gym was silent, the girls subdued. The coach, in frustration, tried to get the gym motivated but the gym was just dead. In her frustration, she yelled at the team, blaming them for a bad practice. The dark mood in the gym continued. She put the girls on the line and ran them the rest of the practice. The energy deficit continued the rest of the week.

How would you counsel this coach? Your ability to stay in curiosity and bring the girls to internal motivation rather than external motivation are keys to problem-solving in this scenario. Want more tips to change this scenario? Email us. We have tools for you to overcome energy deficits.