By Dr. Robert Bunnell
Robert Bunnell, EdD, is a Senior Associate with Alden & Associates, Inc., in Amherst, Mass, bob@aldenandassoc.com. He is the former Director of Athletics at Franklin & Marshall College.
Athletic Management, 16.3, April/May 2004, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1603/difficultcoach.htm
If you’re like most athletics directors, the majority of your coaches are earnest, hard-working professionals whom you enjoy supervising. And then there are the difficult ones.
I’m talking about coaches who seem to be doing fine at first glance. They are winning games and representing your school in a positive manner. But on a less obvious level, their behaviors and attitudes are creating division and discord among the staff, while also challenging your patience and ability to keep everybody on the same page.
Their overall performance is not so bad that you need to get rid of them, but they sap your department’s energy, focus, and ability to succeed. I have listed below a sample of "difficult" coaching types, with a brief description of each. See if you recognize any of them:
Isolationist: These coaches see their program as being on a different level than all others. They feel that rules are for other coaches and assume the athletics director is there to serve them. This isolationist coach has little interest in any other program except if it is a threat to his or her own team.
Always Negative: Nothing is ever good enough for this coach. No matter how you try to help, it’s still not enough. Problems are always looming large for these coaches, who think everybody is against them and their team.
Bigger-than-Life: Because of a long tenure and/or success, these coaches feel they’ve risen "above the law." They like to remind you how popular they are, but their public persona does not match their in-house persona. They believe they are a large part of the institution’s identity, which gives them special privileges. They’re sure that, in a showdown with you, they’d win.
Borderline Criminal: These coaches are always pushing the envelope between ethical and unethical, yet never seem to put both feet over the line. You suspect something bad is going on, but can’t quite put your finger on it. They make you nervous all the time.
Svengali: These coaches hold some mystical power over people, including student-athletes. They play mind games with people, gaining control over their will. They can actually lead their student-athletes to unprecedented heights of accomplishment, but at what personal price?
How do you deal with these people? What can you, as an athletics director, do to gain some measure of control in the case of these, and other, difficult coaches?
Personalize Your Style: First, treat them as individuals. Just as you exhort your coaches to give each student-athlete individual attention and treatment, you must treat your coaches as unique personalities. As a college athletics director for 18 years, I found that if I treated my coaches all the same way, I might get some great performances from some, but not from everyone. I found that I needed to be able to use different styles for different people.
Set the Bar: Make expectations so clear that people tire of hearing them. By establishing up front what you expect from your coaches, both quantitatively and qualitatively, you create the criteria for their performance. Spend time on the qualitative aspect, because generally, we get too wrapped up in quantitative measures of performance. For example, establish standards for supervision of staff, player-coach relationships, quality of student-athletes’ experience, academic performance of student-athletes, departmental support and involvement, campus involvement, alumni relationships, and, oh yes, team success.
Go One-on-One: Spend a lot of one-on-one time with problem coaches, and don’t wait until they’re in trouble. Take a minute or two every day with those who need the most watching, and try to catch them doing good things. Then they won’t need to act out to get your attention, and you can deliver your messages personally all the time.
You can do a lot of great coaching in one-minute conversations if your message is consistent and positive. For example, in a "chance" encounter with an isolationist coach, you might remind her of your upcoming staff meeting and ask her to think about a particular topic that will be discussed, because you value her opinion and contributions to the whole department.
Drop the Drama: Deal with coaches and their issues as unemotionally as possible. Chances are you may have some type of visceral reaction to some things they do, and certain coaches just really bug you. You must overcome that emotional reaction and treat them fairly. Always talk about their actions and not their personalities.
Establish a Threshold: Set a limit on how much you and your department will tolerate to keep this person on staff. There may come a time when enough is enough, and no matter what you do, there’s no saving this person. Despite their competitive success, the collateral damage they cause is destroying the morale of your department.
To set a threshold, consult your supervisor and your personnel office. As a general rule, it’s important to keep in mind the parameters of student-athlete welfare, departmental harmony, and public relations as the big three when you’re establishing those thresholds. For example, if a "bigger than life" coach is discrediting the department, he may have crossed the threshold, and trouble is no longer a threat—it is real.
Tell Your Boss: When dealing with personnel situations, it’s always wise to keep your supervisor in the loop. That person can be helpful in guiding you through rocky times, and can serve as a sounding board. It is also a good idea to let your boss know in case something blows up regarding a particular coach—he or she will already have a clue as to what’s going on.
Document: There are few things athletics directors dislike doing more than documenting personnel issues and problems. However, if you feel as though a particular coach may be headed down the wrong path (and taking you along), it is critical that you keep a record of your conversations and observations. You may need to recall them to build your case for their dismissal, or to defend yourself.
Managing difficult coaches is one of the occupational hazards of being an athletics director. The tone you set at the outset, along with stating your expectations, will go a long way toward turning those problem coaches into positive members of your staff.