In this episode, Renata talks about having Growth as a value for your club and how it impacts everyone in your organization. She also discusses three main areas of growth she had in 2022.
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:03 Introduction
This is The Your Sports Resource Podcast, where each week you’ll learn actionable strategies that you can implement. So, the operations of your club support your coaching staff and the direction of your organization. We are committed to excellence in youth sports leadership. Let’s get started.
00:00:29
Hello and welcome to The Your Sports Resource podcast. My name is Renata Porter, and on today’s episode we’re going to continue with discussing values. Specifically, we’ll talk about the value of growth.
00:00:46
I’m excited about this one because I felt it was a great way to kick- off 2023, that is with the value of growth. In previous episodes we have discussed connection and passion. So, if you’re interested in hearing about those, please go back and have a listen.
00:01:05
I love that many clubs incorporate growth into their values. think often we attribute growth to just what we learn in a school or a formal setting of some type. The opportunities for growth are really everywhere, it’s just whether you choose to view life lessons, mistakes and successes as opportunities to capture what went well. So, you can repeat it or what went horribly wrong, so you can learn from it.
00:01:36
One thing I have noticed in working with so many people throughout my career is that you can tell a lot about someone by simply understanding if they have a growth mindset or not.
00:01:48
Those who feel they’ve mastered everything, meaning they have all the answers and are unwilling to consider other spots and ideas. Yeah, that’s usually a dead giveaway that they are headed for a very hard lesson.
00:02:02
When I say growth mindset, I don’t really mean someone needs to sit down and study. It could be that. But it could also be just wanting to learn a new skill or hobby, or to understand something new.
00:02:18
It could be how someone handles feedback or how they learn from experiences. Getting bad right? If they have successes, do they find ways to parlay that into something else or share it with others?
00:02:37
And if they have a misstep, do they evaluate it and ensure they learn from it so they don’t make the same mistake?
00:02:45
Having growth as a value in your club shows that you understand that life is a journey and we all have our opportunities to learn and understand more. And to better ourselves in some way, shape or fashion.
00:02:59
Remember when you’re creating and establishing your values, they are for everyone in the club, so your values are for the board, the coaches, the staff, parents, swimmers, anyone who is involved with your organization.
00:03:16
I’d like to give you some examples of behavior statements around the value of growth from clubs and universities that I’ve worked with.
00:03:23
Just to go back a second for those who haven’t listened to the other episodes, for every value, I asked clubs to come up with behavior statements that basically are examples of how you walk the walk of that value.
00:03:37
I believe it’s important to think behaviors through because it makes the value real. Something everyone can connect with, and when you’re able to recognize true examples of living the value, it’s easier to talk about it, encourage it, and make it real for others.
00:03:57
Okay, so here we go with some behavior statements that support the value of growth.
00:04:04
- Get outside of your comfort zone.
- Recognize failure, persevere, and build from experience.
- Embrace new ideas and trust the process.
- Growth is a journey.
- Be innovative, creative and coachable.
- Have an open mindset and trust the process.
- Learn from your values, recognize progress and appreciate your successes.
- Be your best self.
- Failure creates knowledge.
- Celebrate all progress.
- Reflect, then respond.
- Persevere through adversity.
- Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
I love that one.
- Understand failure.
00:04:56
Now these are all great statements. And before we move on, I want to tell you that we have completely revamped our website, www.yoursportsresource.com
00:05:05
It’s much easier to navigate and you can find all the articles and tools you need right at your fingertips.
00:05:12
Did you know that we have over 25 free tools that you can download and use today? You don’t need to give me your e-mail or fill out any forms. Just download any tool that you would like to use. They’re there for free. Just go to www.yoursportsresource.com
00:05:30
As I’ve said in other podcasts about values as adults, we should be actively teaching through example and purposeful conversation why we should be keeping values front and center.
00:05:43
In the behavior statement, learn from your failures, recognize progress and appreciate your success. I feel like that’s an easy one to put front and center for the swimmers.
00:05:53
Not every race is going to be perfect. The quicker you can get them to understand what went wrong and actually recognize what went wrong in itself is growth. Because it sets them up not to repeat that same misstep next time they step on the block.
00:06:09
And it doesn’t always have to be race oriented either. It can be getting to practice on time. It can be how they treat their teammates.
00:06:17
Being your best self is a great reminder when they want to get into the muck and be negative about their teammates, coaches and parents.
00:06:26
And we should be paying attention to ourselves as well. Yes, we should be teaching the swimmers, but this can’t be a do as I say, not as I do type experience, I watch adults not living up to the club values more than I care to.
00:06:41
You can’t have a behavior statement that says get comfortable being uncomfortable and then as a coach completely not be open minded about any operational changes because of some sort of belief that you didn’t have enough input or it didn’t come from you.
00:06:59
If it helps the organization, then it’s the right decision.
00:07:02
For the board, you can’t embrace new ideas as a behavior statement for growth, and then you know dismiss every idea a new board member puts forward, because that’s not how you’ve always done.
00:07:16
I understand these are more negative examples, but they reflect how everyone in an organization has a duty to uphold the club values and I truly believe that growth is a spectacular value to have as an organization.
00:07:30
It’s too easy to get stale and complacent and then wonder why your membership is falling off. If you make growth a value and actually live it, then I believe you set your club in motion really in the right direction for success.
00:07:46
Since this is the first episode in 2023, I thought I would share a couple of my big lessons this year to demonstrate how I’m trying to grow.
00:07:57
I’ve had actually quite a few different lessons throughout the year and mostly I’m working with clients for my business, but not all of them would be appropriate to share, so my hope is that you can relate to these two examples in some way, but here they are alright.
00:08:16
So just like no one program fits every client. When I’m doing my consulting, all clients are not going to grab hold of the work that we do together and put it into action.
00:08:31
And the lesson is that. What they choose to do with the implementation really isn’t a reflection on me. They have to make those choices.
00:08:41
So, I have clients who take our work together and implement like crazy. Then I have clients who pick and choose pieces and then there are clients who I really believe enjoy the show more than the work to improve and that means they really don’t implement anything.
00:09:01
Those who don’t implement is something that I took pretty hard and personally. You know what’s the old adage, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink? No matter how often I check in and ask how I can help or if we need to shift gears or change something if it’s not working, sometimes it just falls on deaf ears.
00:09:22
My passion is to help every club thrive and be sustainable, so I’m really driven to help them.
00:09:28
I had to learn to let go of those that really didn’t want the help to begin with and to celebrate those who keep pushing for improvement whether it’s something that we did together or not.
00:09:41
Now my other big lesson for the year is really for me and my own mental health.
00:09:48
I love what I do. I love my work and I love the work if I’m honest, but there are times when the brain and the desire have really hit a roadblock and no amount of pushing and chastising myself makes better. So, I’ve learned to give myself space to be OK with walking away from my desk.
00:10:10
Sometimes for even a couple days. Just doing you know the bare minimum of the administrative work. While I allow my mind to relax in my body to catch up.
00:10:21
Sounds kind of hokey, but the big lesson is to be mentally okay with doing this, instead of beating myself up for not being at my desk and doing the deep work that needs to be done.
00:10:34
I know in my gut that taking the break allows me to be better at what I do, but sometimes this personal roadblock comes at the absolute worst times.
00:10:44
I just had a big one at the end of the year where I had so many deadlines, but I still walked away and tried my best not to fret.
00:10:53
I held on to the belief that when my brain and body are willing that all crushing on the other side, which I have to say I did pretty well.
00:11:02
OK, so those are my two big growth lessons for 2022. I hope you and your club embrace growth in your own way and figure out how to make it work for you.
00:11:15
Thank you for listening and please subscribe, rate and review this podcast so we can grow our your sports resource audience.
00:11:22
Thank you for spending time with me.
