I brought back the Sunday Sermon. Did you know that great football coaches are better businessmen than most people in business? Also learn if you are taking the easy way out as a transactional leader , or are the more difficult , self aware- transformational leader.

All the thought leaders mentioned are on the podcast at soundcloud.com/timokeefe

In his book, InSideOut Coaching, Coach Joe Ehrmann describes two types of coaches: transactional and transformative. Transactional coaches, he writes, “use players as tools to meet their personal needs for validation, status, and identity” .

In contrast, transformational coaches use “their coaching platform to impart life-changing messages.” They are “other-centered. They use their power and platform
to nurture and transform players”.

American writer, Joseph Campbell, wrote, “The job of an educator is to teach students to see vitality in themselves.” As a coach, you must never forget that your job is to serve your athletes.

Transactional coaching is focused on actions. It’s about performance. Transformational coaching is focused on the person.

I am so lucky to have friends that are such great coaches.
I chatted with Scott Morrison earlier in the week and he dropped some huge nuggets inspired by his mentor on me that I really like.

Joe Erman teaches that there are two types of coaches.
Transactional and transformational.

The former measures their success in wins and losses.
The transformational in their learners transformation.

Coach Mo just taught me that.
He is a transformational coach.
What was meant to be a quick phone call of me asking for a favor. Turned into school time for Timmy. Wow.

Words like culture and process and mission.
He took me deep diving into purpose and values. Things that are quite emotional. But football games always end in emotion with plenty through the game

And mapping them into a process that leads to daily practices that is used in games and more practices.

That leads to a better man. A man who can handle adversity when his marriage stagnates, or loses a child, or gets pulled over by an aggressive police officer, or when his business or job is at risk.
An able and response-able man.

That there is no other team game where you are put onto a field and you had better focus, or there is a good chance you can get seriously hurt.

That somehow, when done right, football players walk and live with that something extra special about them. Like a man or woman who has come out of a military academy. They have a certain swagger. A certain charisma.
Then the games purpose.

That the purpose of a game to a transformational coach is not wins and losses. But growth.

There are games you can win by 40 and not be happy with performance. Effort may have been suspect, low will. Ok execution.

And then lose by 14 against a team with similar culture but just better working talent. And feel something beautiful just happened because the boys left it all on the field.
Not perfectly played because perfect is nearly impossible amongst violent chaos whereby 11 guys all are trained to do something. And the other 11 trained to stop them from that accomplishment. But extraordinary effort and will.
Nebulous terms that are difficult to measure. But you know when you have accomplish it.
That it is easy to talk this talk. About the importance of culture.

But it is extremely difficult to live it because games end emotionally. And the transactional short term payback is a seductive temptress.

To actually live that believing that you are ok to end the season with zero wins.But knowing with excellent culture, that can never happen.

A game ends with emotion. We smile or laugh or hurt or frown. But it always ends in a celebration at the banquet.

The juice is in the process, in the journey and to look back at what you have become. And that distance is hopefully a long way from where you started.

In every single drill or play is an opportunity for multiple wins to celebrate with the learner. It will never be perfect. But there is plenty to celebrate. And the more you focus on mini wins, the more the scoreboard will reflect that anyway.

Again, extremely difficult to achieve as a coach. This is our daily drill. Our inner competition with ourselves as coaches.

It is much easier to run a transactional program.