By Dan Cardone
Dan Cardone is Athletic Director at North Hills High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., and a frequent contributor to Athletic Management. He can be reached at: cardoned@nhsd.k12.pa.us.
Athletic Management, 18.5, August/September 2006, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1805/expectations.htm
With all the duties and responsibilities of being an athletic administrator, evaluating an entire coaching staff can seem like a mountain of work. We know the importance of evaluating performance, yet this task is often viewed as a time-consuming chore.
“I have to hurry up and get these done,” is a common sentiment. Or we tick them off like sets in a workout: “Only two coaches to go and I will finally be finished!”
Here at North Hills High School, I have been working to make coaching evaluations efficient and simple, but also effective. I’ve discovered that the key is to begin with the end in mind. Know the goal of the evaluation, understand what will make it effective for both you and the coach, and try to see that the coach leaves feeling inspired to improve.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?
We all know the stated purpose of coaching evaluations: to provide a method for appraising coaching performance in a variety of different areas, from sport success to player mentoring. But each of us should develop our own, more specific vision of what evaluations are for. It should tie in with your school and department philosophies. It should also ultimately help you reach your specific goals for the program.
Here at North Hills, the evaluation is congruent with the statement of purpose of the total school program, which is to afford students the resources they need to be successful. For athletics, that means providing student-athletes with proper facilities and equipment, and qualified coaches in every sport. Evaluations are a key ingredient in ensuring that the athlete is receiving the best possible instruction. All in all, coaching performance ratings help us achieve our school’s goals.
Part of the mission of our athletic department is for every team to be competitive or working toward being competitive. Therefore, another purpose of our evaluations is to make sure each coach is striving to reach that goal. Even if vying for a league title will take five years, the evaluation process reveals whether the coach has our department goals in mind while running his or her program.
When implementing an evaluation tool for the first time, you may have to fight the perception by coaches that the instrument will be used against them. Their assumption may be, “You are doing this because you want to fire coaches.” I try to dispel that myth by very clearly stating that assessments will be used for a few specific reasons:
• To recognize and reinforce outstanding coaching.
• To mark accomplishments and note areas where improvement is warranted.
• To develop a plan of improvement for coaches who are not meeting expectations.
• To determine whether continued assignment is warranted.
I explain this purpose to our coaches when they are hired and reiterate it at every preseason coaches’ meeting. Talking about evaluations early in the game alleviates the fears a coach may have about being subjected to a review. It also helps the athletic director place the department’s standards of performance front and center for coaches. Just as important, it emphasizes that the evaluation is an ongoing process, not something that is only thought about at season’s end.
YOUR NEEDS
Developing a system for evaluating your coaches is critical. There are two factors to focus on. One, the process must be efficient, so your time is not wasted. Two, it must be meaningful, so it serves the stated purpose.
One way I have made coaching evaluations less time-consuming is by limiting them to head coaches. When a head coach in our district is appointed, he or she is placed in charge of the entire sport program, grades seven through 12. After the head coach is hired, every position under him or her is posted. The head coach is part of the interview process and has input into staff selection. It then becomes the head coach’s responsibility to evaluate his or her staff. Ownership in the program is established from the outset, and that includes overseeing other coaches.
By limiting my evaluations to head coaches, not only am I reducing my workload, but I’m allowing myself the time to do a more thorough job. So how do I make the evaluations meaningful?
First, I keep in mind what I wish to get out of the process. Specifically, I want to evaluate the coach in a way that either leads to improvement or justifies termination. That is the bottom line: I either want the coach to get better (even if he is a great coach, there is room for improvement!), or I want to ensure a fair process before we talk about termination.
The trick is devising an evaluation tool that captures the head coach’s most important responsibilities and provides feedback on them. One way is to identify the major components of the position, and then add descriptors that provide snippets and add up to a solid picture. A checklist could achieve the same result.
I do not like rating scales, because it is difficult to be consistent when attaching a score to coaching performance. Trying to say one coach is better than another is not desirable in my opinion.
Instead, I use a rubric that I feel captures the essential qualities of what I want in my coaches. It lists five overall criteria of a coach:
• Coaching style
• Leadership qualities
• Coaching performance/practice and game management
• Team management
• Administrative duties
Coaches are assessed on each of these qualities as:
• Outstanding
• Meets expectations
• Needs improvement
• Unsatisfactory
These four descriptors may look like a de facto rating scale, but that’s not the idea. I have set criteria for assigning these assessments that clearly matches the meaning of the words. Here is the verbiage I use for one of our criteria, “coaching performance:”
Outstanding: Coach demonstrates excellent knowledge of the sport and shows outstanding ability to impart that knowledge to athletes. Practice organization is above the norm, and coach provides appropriate time for individual, group, and team instruction. Positive, specific feedback is provided to players on a regular basis. Coach consistently adjusts to age and skill level of athletes. Contests show evidence of careful preparation. Coach shows outstanding ability to motivate staff and players toward defined individual and team goals.
Meets Expectations: Coach has good knowledge of his or her sport and imparts that knowledge to athletes. Practices are well organized, and time is allotted for individual, group, and team instruction. Feedback provided to players is both positive and specific. There is evidence of adjustment to age and skill level of athletes. Coach demonstrates the ability to motivate staff and players toward defined individual and team goals.
Needs Improvement: Coach needs to improve his or her knowledge of the sport and how he or she imparts that knowledge to athletes. Practices need to be better organized—there should be appropriate time allotted for individual, group, and team instruction. Feedback of a more positive and specific nature should be provided to players. Ability of the coach to motivate staff and players toward defined individual and team goals needs improvement.
Unsatisfactory: Coach has not demonstrated improvement in the knowledge of his or her sport, nor the imparting of that knowledge to athletes. Practices are not well organized, and there are not appropriate amounts of time allotted for individual, group, and team instruction. There is a lack of positive and specific feedback to athletes. The ability to motivate staff and players toward defined individual and team goals is lacking.
Keep in mind that the above examples are what fits into my goals and my style of motivating coaches. In defining your own criteria, ask yourself, what words describe an “outstanding” coaching style? What does “meets expectations” look like as you observe a practice? When you see a coach interact with an athlete, does that coach “need improvement”? What would be categorized as “unsatisfactory”? The criteria and language you choose must help you lead your department in the direction you want it to go.
COACHES’ NEEDS
To reach your goals with the evaluation process, you also need to think about what will be meaningful to your coaches. If you want your coaches to improve, the evaluation must point them in the right direction. It must motivate and encourage, but also be honest.
The first step begins long before you and the coach sit down in your office. While covering games and stopping by practices, watch with a critical eye for organization, interaction, and leadership. If a coach removes a player from a game and takes them to task for making a mistake, watch to see if this is a trend or a one-time misstep. What is working well during the coach’s practices and what is not? What are concrete examples of his or her displays of leadership, or lack of it?
It is very important that coaches know your assessments are based on real examples and data. Documenting performance means being accurate and relying on measurable and observable behavior, not hearsay or conjecture. For example, with the above coach, you may point out that he or she needed a reminder to turn in student-eligibility forms and twice did not return phone calls from parents.
You should also have examples of the positives. Maybe during a baseball game you saw a player throw his batting helmet in disgust after striking out. Then you saw the coach calmly pull the player aside, and the player retrieved the helmet and returned it to the dugout. The head coach addressed the situation, and no undue attention was focused on the player or the coach. That type of example is worth mentioning in the evaluation.
In addition to the categorized breakdown, I complete a narrative. Included in the written component is a brief summary of the season. I also include a statement about program direction. “Coach Smith has completed her third season as Head Softball Coach. Her record has improved from 4-12 in her first season to 8-8 last season, to 14-4 this season. They were section runner-up, and qualified for the playoffs for the first time in five years.”
The remainder of the narrative reflects the evaluation rubric. For example: “With regard to administrative duties, this individual is outstanding. She promptly responds to requests for information throughout the year. Reports and forms are above the norm and returned ahead of schedule.”
On the flip side, there are times when a coach simply does not measure up. They do not show improvement in areas that have been identified. The program is not moving forward. It is then time to review and remind them of the process that has been instituted from the outset. He or she may have been a great assistant coach who is not cut out to be a head coach. He or she may be enthusiastic, but just not exhibit any leadership skills.
As difficult as it sometimes is, the evaluation of this head coach must be very honest. If you feel enough time has been given for improvement, you need to tell them you are going to post their position. Letting a coach go when he or she is not improving is something that is a tough but necessary call.
One more aspect of our evaluations that I’ve implemented is asking each coach to do a self-evaluation prior to the meeting. This helps us to openly discuss similarities and differences. I also encourage the coach to keep a portfolio. This can include positive newspaper articles about the coach or team, or thank you notes from parents.
Coaches are reminded at the beginning of the season that they will be asked to hand in their self-evaluation at the end of the season, which I hope prompts them to continually self-evaluate. When they know I want their input on how they’ve performed, it also helps them buy into the process.
END ON A POSITIVE
The last characteristic of an effective evaluation process is that it proves motivational for the coach. Unless the coach is being terminated, I always end on a positive note. I become the coach’s coach and use my leadership skills to inspire them. I want to see a smile when they walk out of my office.
For instance, to a new coach who has potential: “I know the record does not reflect the amount of effort you put in this season, but you are on course. Keep doing what you are doing. Continue to encourage everyone around you to stay true to your goal of turning this program around. I see a lot of positives, and success is going to happen sooner than you think.”
Sidebar: ASSISTANT EVALS
At North Hills High School, each head coach is in charge of his or her entire sport and is responsible for that sport. Head coaches follow a simplified version of the system I use to evaluate them. Overall, they are asked to assess their assistants in the following categories:
• Coaching Style
• Leadership Qualities
• Coaching Performance
Each of these categories is then broken down further into more specific areas. If someone is a program detractor, the evaluation should reflect it. If a coach needs to work on some aspect of his or her performance, that should be discussed.