Sports Team Culture
Articles and Videos
If you work with or in a team, this section is a must. We cover pre-season preparation, the development of teams, team selection, the secrets of great teams as well as all things related to building strong athlete engagement from team loyalty to building athlete responsibility. You may find our sections for our most recent articles, resources and materials, latest newsletters, or 5 Minutes with Bo Hanson video series valuable too.
Reflections on 2015 and Lessons for Elite Sport in 2016
By Bo Hanson 4x Olympian and International Coaching Consultant There is something about the transition from the end of November to early December. It’s not just that festive times are ahead. It becomes a time to
Create the Right Sports Team Culture: 10 Critical Factors
Culture is being discussed in sporting circles now more than ever. Why? Because it is a significant performance factor. If you have the “right” culture, your team is more likely to achieve sustainable success – not always winning, but always being in the hunt. If you have the “wrong” culture, your chances of any success, even fleeting success are almost zero. So how do you create the right sports team culture? In this article we discuss 10 Factors that Define Successful Sports Team Cultures.
What is culture? In its simplest and most useful description culture is the “way we behave on this team”. Behavior is a reflection of values. Recruiting and developing a common set of values helps create success.
ONE Element
With Athlete Assessments we have now worked with over 22,000 individuals from over 40 different sports. This work has given me a unique vantage point to see the recurring patterns or themes that create success. When I see these patterns consistently creating success, year after year, the evidence certainly mounts. With this in mind, here is one of those concepts I have seen create consistent success. I believe it is critical for any coach and all teams to clearly understand and apply this concept to improve performance.
The Circle of Safety in Sport
At Athlete Assessments when we work with clients one of the really critical models we refer to is the Circle of Safety. The Circle of Safety is not a concept we developed ourselves, it is taken from models such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and it is also taken from a lot of the work Simon Sinek has been doing, and the book that he wrote Leaders Eat Last.
What Coaches need to know about their Team’s Culture
In previous articles, we have discussed at length why a productive team culture is vital for sports teams to be successful. But how do you actually know what kind of culture exists in your sports team and whether it is productive or effective, or if it needs development? In this article we discuss the four DISC Culture Styles which are mapped to the four elements of the Competing Values Framework.
Why a Sports Team’s Culture Matters
Culture is a buzz word in sport. Coaches often attribute their success or failure to this ambiguous word. But at the crux of it why should you care about your sports team’s culture? The short answer
Team Culture and Identity in Sport
Getting the culture right in your team and organization is crucial for success on any level. So how do you ensure that your culture gives your athletes the opportunity to achieve their fullest potential? In this 7-part video presentation, Bo Hanson discusses the importance of team culture, and how effectively utilizing the GRIP Model during your season can go a long way to ensuring your team’s culture starts on, and stays on, the right track.
The Real Factor for high-performance in Sport
While it’s nice to have new buildings and equipment, is this the investment that will deliver the best return to your sporting success? At Athlete Assessments, we have been fortunate enough to have worked with more than 100,000 coaches, athletes, and sports administrators since our founding in 2007. This work has spanned over 40 different sports across the globe.
The Perfect Team Dynamic, Diversity, & DISC Styles
In this video clip, Bo Hanson talks about the perfect team dynamic, embracing diversity, and achieving championship winning results, irrespective of the combination of athletes you have in the team.
Rowers: Athletes Value Beyond their “Seat”
When you look at your rowers in your crews, what do you see? Do you see their technical and physical ability and how this translates into the performance of the crew? Is there anything a rower
Synergy in Sport Teams: Creating high-performance Teams
In sports teams such as football, synergy can become tricky when one player is outperforming the team’s result. In a situation where one of your athletes has achieved great individual statistics but at the end of the game your team has lost, your team has not achieved synergy. Your team is allowing the athlete to operate at a more individual level without the additional support of the team, and this is undermining the potential for synergy.
Team Life Cycles
Combining the Stages of Team Development, Conflict and the GRIP Model By Bo Hanson – 4x Olympian, Coaching Consultant & Director of Athlete Assessments In coaching there are often many models to understand, and it
high-performance Sport Teams-There’s No Time for Tolerance
Of all the aspects of his role at Athlete Assessments, Bo Hanson most values the opportunity to be involved with hundreds of different teams. It’s with this unique insight he identifies the common threads that lead
Demystifying Sport Team Culture
What’s critical in driving sport team culture? Culture is a buzz word in sport. Coaches often attribute their success or failure on this ambiguous word. Every team has a culture and even if you do
Pre-Season Sport Camps – What the Best Teams Get Right
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly By Bo Hanson – 4x Olympian, Coaching Consultant & Director of Athlete Assessments Today, pre-season camps are an important part of the sports program for professional and amateur
Destructive Sport Team Roles
By Bo Hanson – 4x Olympian, Coaching Consultant & Director of Athlete Assessments In previous articles we have discussed the importance of ensuring each of your athletes play a specific non-technical role on the team (and
The Holy Grail in Sport – Selecting Athletes for the Best Team
Ask any successful business person or entrepreneur what makes their business so powerful and most respond with some variation of the theme, ‘selection of their people’. Even ask couples with enduring and loving relationships, what makes them so happy together and they often say ‘tremendous selection’! Sport is no different. Ask any of the coaching greats what makes the most successful team and almost without exception their immediate response is ‘selection’. Selection is the fabric or building block to exceptional results on and off the field.
Sports Personality Clashes on the Front Page
By Bo Hanson – 4x Olympian, Coaching Consultant & Director of Athlete Assessments Last week, I read with interest the case of Pippa Savage being dropped from the Australian Olympic Team Women’s Quad Scull for reasons
Your Athlete’s Value Beyond their ‘Position’
When you look at the athletes in your squad or team, what do you see? Do you just see the number on their back? Do you see their technical ability, and how this translates into their performance? Is there anything an athlete can contribute beyond their technical contribution? Have you ever thought about the impact certain players have on the rest of their team, especially when they are not there?
Blame the Coach in Sport?
As sure as death and taxes, in every sports season there are winners and losers. More specifically, there is only one winner and then all the rest. For the teams who don’t win, everyone (fans, players, administrative staff, coaches, the list goes on…) has an opinion on why ‘their’ team was not successful this season.
Athlete Engagement in Sport – Do Your Athletes Care?
Athlete Engagement is a critical concept for all sports coaches to understand. ‘Engagement’ is a borrowed term from the business world. There, it is a measurement of the degree to which an employee’s heart and mind is committed to their role, leader and company. It is so important in business because engagement has a direct and significant link to profitability. Research shows engaged individuals deliver an additional 30% in discretionary effort compared to disengaged individuals.
Coach-Athlete Relationships: Bond Athletes to their Coach, Team and Club
As a coach ensuring your athlete is always striving to gain a 1% improvement in their performance can be one of the hardest parts of your job. At Athlete Assessments, we often speak about the importance of a quality coach-athlete relationship, and how this can be used to improve athlete performance. This article discusses how to improve emotional bonds and engagement, and how understanding these factors improves your athlete’s performance.
Sports Team Culture Case Study
Here in Australia, sport is part of the fabric of our society. Growing up, few achievements are more significant than to be part of a championship high school sports team. The relative glory this brings from the accolades of the past students who relive their experiences through to the younger generation of champions, to the proud parents, whose children must have inherited their wonderful athletic genes – everyone loves a winner. As part of my high school rowing team, I dreamt each year as I progressed through the age groups, about the opportunity to win the championship race, aptly named the ‘Head of the River’. What made the dream even more poignant was the fact that in my senior years of school, I was hoping to be part of the crew who would break the losing drought for our school. Not since 1948, when the race was contested in four man boats, had my school won the prestigious event. In 1955, the event was contested in eight man boats and this was the race I now found myself a part of.
Athlete Induction Programs: Best Practice for Success
Being strategic about your athlete induction program helps you to set the foundation for your program. We’ve compiled a list of seven things to get right to ensure your athletes start on the right foot.
Sports Team Chemistry and Dynamics in Sport
Using DISC to Create high-performance Teams Great teamwork happens when your athletes embrace the philosophy that they should be the best person for the team rather than the best person on the team. In the selection
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Learn more about Athlete Assessments
DISC Profiling
Learn how to master the people side of sport using DISC Profiling...
What We Do
We specialize in helping our clients create and sustain winning results...
Our Clients
See who we work with and read what they say about us...
