March 18, 2024 - 10 Feet Tall

CREATING A CHAMPIONSHIP CULTURE

by Dr. Greg Shelley, Leadership Academy Director at Fordham, Lafayette, and Colgate

As a coach you wear many hats.  You are a teacher, mentor, disciplinarian, administrator, leader, parent, trainer, and coach.  Still, at the end of the week, you are expected to win . . . and an important part of winning is developing and maintaining a winning culture.  But for some coaches, the ongoing and weekly pursuit of winning may deter them from creating the long-term Championship Culture that is most desired. 

Although there are many factors impacting culture (e.g., skill and talent, commitment, confidence, personality, coaching style, character, intensity, toughness, response to adversity, responsibility, support, accountability, and leadership), the team culture you most desire must be taught . . . and if you do not take the time to appropriately manage your team culture, it will likely manage you.

Some teams have a Comfortable Culture, some have a Country Club Culture, and some have a Championship Culture, (i.e., a culture that is value driven and centered on trust, respect, unity, passion, and a relentless commitment to winning).  No doubt, a winning culture takes time to develop and refine . . . and your culture will ebb and flow with the changing of personnel and circumstances.  Yet, creating a Championship Culture will take a long-term commitment by you, your staff, and your players.  (taken from Janssen Sports Leadership site)

I write often about TEAM and CULTURE… so much of the New Testament is written to the plural “you” called the body… the church… could be called the TEAM. Most of what is revealed of Go’s will for us as His children… as members of His TEAM… deal with building a proper TEAM or CHAMPIONSHIP CULTURE! The Greek word for “ONE ANOTHER” appears 100 times in the New Testament.

This is on my mind for a couple of reasons… 1. I have been watching a lot of tournament hoops this past week and just filled out my tourney brackets for the upcoming March Madness Big Dance – and observing what the team attitudes/culture is like. 2. As I mentioned in last week’s Game Plan, I just officiated a wedding and my studies for the challenge to the couple continued to take me back to God’s direction for a proper TEAM CULTURE.

So, I started looking more at this idea of the word champion. Of course, we use it for the winner of tournaments… BUT could it be that you could win and not be truly a champion? The word has its roots in the idea of a fighter or gladiator… someone competing for a cause. This is what leads to ideas like in the intro, that a championship culture will include unity (singular focus on a goal), passion (a common drive to said goal), etc. AND I WOULD ADD that a championship culture typically involves a fan base that is committed to this as well. It boils down to a fan base that makes even road games seem like it is a home court advantage. A home court advantage is driven by support that makes the players feel 10 feet tall… the cheering and enthusiasm is uplifting! You an win simply by having the best shooting night… or lets face it, by having the better players/athletes…. Thus maybe even being crowned a champion but not necessarily creating a championship culture.

For God’s team we are commanded over and over to consider one another to stir one another up… to lift one another to greater hieghts… etc. it involves, as the intro talks about, trust and respect… the only thing I would change in the copied paragraph is that the ‘long-term commitment” is not to winning but instead to one another and the team’s values… scoreboards are temporal barometers!

But quickly back to the importance of the fan base… I just watched an education Ted Talks with a presenter named Rita Pierson. Ms. Pierson has been in education for 40 years and you can see she is driven by her love for the team of kids she gets to pour into. She said this, “every child needs a champion… an adult who will never give up on them… and insists they become the best they can be.”  In other words, everyone needs a biggest fan… one that makes them feel invincible, even when the scoreboard may show otherwise.

Now to the Scripture that jumped out at me during the wedding studies. In Ephesians 5, Paul starts challenging husbands about their role in the marriage… and he likens it unto Christ’s goal for the church… the team…

Ephesians 5:27 that He might present he to Himself a glorious church, not having spot of wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

 There is a challenge to the team to have a different culture!

And this is imagery for a marriage team as well… and how is that accomplished? Well I’m going to delve into a quick marriage counseling session.

Ephesians 5:33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his on wife as himself…

You know I have never heard a wife complain that her husband is too sacrificial to her… that he loves her and thinks of her as much as he loves himself… never heard a complaint that her husband is her biggest fan championing her cause…

The verse goes on to say: and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

The word respects carries the idea of revering… of looking at with awe… and you know I have never heard a husband complain that his wife is his biggest fan… or that she cheers him on and makes him feel 10 feet tall…. I’ve never heard a husband say I wish my wife would criticize or question me more… I wish she would point out more of where my stat line fell short… (all of these things are the equivalent of a boos!) – never heard a husband complain that his wife champions his cause

A successful team is one that develops a Championship Culture by Championing for One Another!

Cheer on your teammates today… cheer on your mates today… (men are especially ego-driven… make your man feel 10 feet tall!)