Digital Dealer - March 2019 - 37

coaches are on the sidelines yelling and swearing
at officials and throwing
chairs, what message is
that sending to the players?
Watch your mouth because
everyone else is.

ing about you. If they were
interviewed, how would they
describe you as their leader/
manager? How many of the
basic qualities would they
anoint you with according to
their perception of you as a
person?
Do you find yourself
spending too much time
fighting stuff instead of
building stuff? If so, in
order to offer a few tips on
receiving an A+ from your
team, here are some simple
coaching playbook ideas for
specific convictions of what
the coach as a TRUE Leader should be consistently
reinforcing on a daily basis:

don't because they have
done things a certain way
for so long that they rarely
take the initiative to define
better ways of improving.
Debug your team from old
paradigms of training and
replace them with the new
21st Century professional communications and
developmental techniques.
The new consumer deserves and demands this
and will walk if they sense
"old school" tactics are
being employed on them.
The consumer has stepped
up their car buying game
knowledge and you have to
step up your game or lose

Be willing to learn and
willing to take the time to
understand correct mechanics, technology, strategies,
and the fundamental principles of the game (business).
You better be getting trained
along with your team, so
you will know what they do
as well.

A COACH MUST BE
A LEADER, TEACHER,
FRIEND, MENTOR AND AN
ADMINISTRATOR ALL AT
ONCE."

MASTER AND APPLY
CURRENT KNOWLEDGE.

DEVELOP INTERPERSONAL SKILLS. Develop

interpersonal skills especially open communication
skills. Have a sense of
humor but scrap the sarcasm. Players need to feel
that they can approach you.
If they don't feel that way
problems can multiply. Get
to know your team members
better and understand their
goals and ambitions.
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT.

The best coaches know and
recognize the importance of
"proper" training to improve
batting averages as well
as growing professionals in
the business. The lazy ones

them.

ELIMINATE ALL DEHUMANIZING LANGUAGE.

Treat each person with the
dignity and respect that
they deserve. Give positive
reinforcement rather than
negative feedback. Offer
solutions when criticism
is required and remember
to leave them with an "up"
statement like "I know
that's not like you and I am
certain that next time you
will do it much better". Some
managers I have seen treat
their dogs better than their
people.

CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS. Athletes treat the

coach as the role model and
will emulate their behavior. If

HELP YOUR PLAYERS
SET THEIR OWN GOALS.

Goals need to be established as a team and as an
individual. Goals should be
something that the individuals can actually achieve.
Coaches are there to guide
players in the goal-setting
process as well as the
evaluation of the goals, but
they are not there to tell the
player what their goal is or

what their goal should be.

LIVE IN THE PRESENT.

Players don't need to be
consistently reminded how
good you and/or your team
was last year or in prior
years. You may use the
past as an example of how
success was attained but
don't compare your players
or team to prior years. Too
many managers hang their
hats on yesterday. Ok, that
is past now let's do it again
but even better. Yesterday's
peacock is today's feather
duster.
PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUCCESS.

Provide good practices, time
for game planning, sensible
scheduling, and a pleasant
D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

atmosphere. The administrative aspects of the job
are just as important as
any other aspect. Planning,
preparation, training, and
budgeting are very important functions. A coach must
be a leader, teacher, friend,
mentor, and administrator all
at once.
Take a look at what bigtime coaches/players have
to say on the subject of
coaching:
 "Success is peace
of mind which is a direct
result of self-satisfaction in
knowing you did your best
to become the best you are
capable of becoming."
-John Wooden
 "To be as good as it
can be, a team has to buy
into what you as the coach
are doing. They have to feel
you're a part of them and
they're a part of you."
- Bobby Knight
 "Coaches have to
watch for what they don't
want to see and listen to
what they don't want to
hear." - John Madden
Every coach has the
ability to lead and grow
their people, but it takes
conviction and hard work
to become a good leader.
By following and living by
these guidelines, you will be
on your path to becoming
a better and well-respected
leader. And just maybe, you
will be on someone's roster
of the best leaders who affected his/her life and made
it better.
CHUCK BARKER is
president and founder of
Impact Marketing & Consulting
Group in Virginia. For more
coaching ideas, email Chuck@
impactgroupcrm.com
MARCH 2019

37
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