Issue 750 - "Four Rules for Effective Encouragement"


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 750
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"FOUR RULES FOR EFFECTIVE ENCOURAGEMENT" John Wooden Video Clip (56 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "Please tell us about the poem- "How to be a Champion." Great clip to share and discuss with youngsters (and oldsters). There’s a difference between encouragement that sounds good and encouragement that actually works. "Encouragement that does not influence is activity without achievement." Here are four rules that help create effective encouragement: Rule #1: Your Example Is Your Most Powerful Encouragement John Maxwell, one of the most widely read leadership experts in the world, writes in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: "People do what people see." Coach Wooden didn’t just tell his players to be considerate of others—he showed them. After practices and games, he would pick up towels, straighten the locker room, and take care of small details others might ignore. More than a century ago, Edgar A. Guest captured it this way: "No written word, no spoken plea Can teach our youth what they should be; Nor all the books on all the shelves— It’s what the teachers are themselves." If you’re not living it, you’re not encouraging it. If you’re not willing to live it, don’t ask others to. Rule #2: What You Praise Becomes What People Value Carol Dweck, a Stanford psychologist whose research on motivation has influenced education, business, and leadership worldwide, explains in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: "Be careful what you praise, because you are teaching people what to value." Coach Wooden understood this long before it was studied. He didn’t use criticism from opponents in the press as motivation. Instead, he read letters from custodians at other schools thanking UCLA players for leaving the locker room clean and orderly. He reinforced consideration of others. What you consistently recognize, you are encouraging others to become. Rule #3: Encouragement Should Reduce Pressure, Not Add to It Not all encouragement helps. Some of it actually hurts. The parent yelling encouragement from the stands often increases tension for the youngster and diminishes performance. The intent is positive. The result is not. I have seen managers inadvertently do the same thing. Coach Wooden didn’t try to "fire up" his players with emotional speeches. He encouraged them to focus on their effort—to do their best. The result: Less pressure More clarity Better performance Great encouragement doesn’t add energy. It directs it. Rule #4: Know Your Audience Encouragement only works if it is received. Coach Wooden didn’t communicate the same way with every player. Some needed a gentle approach. Others responded to direct instruction The standard stayed the same. The delivery changed. Great leaders don’t just communicate clearly—they communicate effectively for the person receiving it. If the message doesn’t land, it doesn’t influence. Effective encouragement is not measured by what you say. It is measured by what changes. Encouragement that influences becomes culture. Encouragement that doesn’t... is just activity. Reflect on this idea of encouragement. How are you doing? Write it down. Share it with someone on your team. Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 750. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 750. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE The Boy Who Never Told a Lie With curly hair and pleasant eye— A boy who always told the truth, And never, never told a lie. And when he trotted off to school, The children all about would cry, "There goes the curly-headed boy— The boy that never tells a lie." And everybody loved him so, Because he always told the truth, That every day, as he grew up, ’Twas said, "There goes the honest youth." And when the people that stood near Would turn to ask the reason why, The answer would be always this: "Because he never tells a lie." Mary Howitt (1799-1888)
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