Overview
In this article, you’ll learn the steps we recommend taking once you’ve secured a consulting/coaching position with a new team and AFTER you’ve done your due diligence based on the recommended steps in the Networking and Marketing portion of the Endorsement Course.
These steps are not “conclusive” nor are they the only path to success. The less experienced you are in navigating the acquisition process in terms of setting expectations, getting specific non-negotiable “got to haves” established in advance with the instructors, etc. the more closely we recommend you follow this order of events. The less experienced you are with the specific competition environment a group faces, the closer we recommend you stick to these steps. And lastly, the more “random” (i.e, you didn’t have a prior relationship to the group) the team to you, the more these tend to apply.
Step 1: Observe & Clean
Observe the team and their practices and focus your teaching on fixing EXECUTION-related issues. Change NOTHING procedurally that you aren’t 110% sure is both correct per the manual AND (and this is the big one) actually competitively viable in their environment. You may know the manual but if you aren’t also familiar with the metagame, you may make a “right-wrong” change. If you know the area – and perhaps you’re there because you are highly familiar with it – then keep reading for how and when to make such suggestions.
For now, just focus on CLEANING. Help the team clarify sequences they’re unsure of or executing differently from person-to-person. Give them advice to clean up what they’re doing.
Change NO processes (i.e. how the team “does business” off and on the deck) except those which facilitate your ability to teach. For example, instituting a protocol for listening to feedback is one thing. Giving them a list of things to sound off with before they step out of the classroom for practice is another -and not what we should be worried about.
Change NO exhibition sequences except where safety is concerned or where the team has specifically asked you to assist.
You may have been specifically brought in to make such changes: make ONLY those you have SPECIFICALLY discussed with the instructors and the team. Focus all your effort on proving your value in terms of the team’s execution.
Step 2: Grow Your Rapport
Continue the above process giving more and more technical instruction to improve the team’s execution rather than just offering “spot check” fixes. This may look like giving a mini-class on marching technique rather than just providing feedback and cleaning their marching. It may look like breaking down rifle manual rather than just correcting and cleaning angles. Use this time to prove your worth in terms of the KNOWLEDGE you bring to the table.
As you go, you may begin to notice that the instructors and team give you permission – or even encourage you – to make changes to things. This is what you want: you want THEM to take the lead with what’s OK while you operate consistently and methodically. The insistence on taking things at a measured pace avoids you looking frantic for change, something that is generally off-putting even with the “greenest” groups you’ll encounter.
Step 3: Test the Waters of Change
Once the team trusts your guidance, choose an essentially meaningless adjustment – it could be in regulation or exhibition – and explain your recommendation thoroughly to the team. You cannot over-explain in this stage because it’s important to be transparent. You don’t want the team to think, “Fine, SHE’S right…,” you want them to think, “Wow! THAT’S right!”
When you suggest this adjustment rely on phrases such as:
- “Can we maybe try_____?”
- “Would it be crazy if we did ____ instead?”
- “How married are y’all to _____?”
Gauge the team’s receptiveness. Again, choose something trivial here. This is about proving your recommendations make sense and will improve the group.
DO NOT recommend changing anything systemically that doesn’t directly impact your ability to teach. The horrific state of the armory can wait. It’s not stopping you from teaching.
Oh, and NEVER use the word “change.” It’s always “adjust, ” “tweak,” etc. no matter how drastic the recommended course of action.
Step 4: Adjust Away
Deploy additional adjustments based on your feel for the team and their instructors. Make a list. Order that list by priority. Cut off everything below the top three to five possible adjustments and put them out of your brain for now – perhaps even for this season.
For more experienced drillers/coaches, this will be the hardest step. You cannot change everything in one go. Don’t be fooled into trying. Push and pull the group gently.
Step 5: Systemic Adjustments
Once the team, instructors, and everyone involved trusts that your recommendations both make sense and carry significant weight, you can now feel free to make suggestions for adjustments to how the team functions on a systemic level. These are likely the most important adjustments because you know that without fixing ____ OFF the floor, the team’s performance ON the floor will suffer. But patience is a virtue. You need a sizable body of data that suggests to everyone, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your “improvements” are actually “improvements.”
Conclusion
How fast you move through these steps is basically determined by the way in which the entire program – the instructors AND cadets – “buys in” to what you’re offering. If you’re on a short-term trial basis, sticking to the flow is even more important because you’re working to prove your value while you assess the team to make sure that it’s a good fit for YOU. If you’re highly experienced, you may run through these in a matter of days. Kirsten and I routinely set the expectation in advance that teams should expect significant, non-negotiable systemic change to support our consulting with the team. After 20 years in the activity, this is something that is important to us and over time, you too will find your own set of “non-negotiables.” But the less experience you have, the more you should work through these steps methodically and deliberately to get the results that you want from the team – and so they get the results from you that they desire.