Coaching, Creative Direction & Credit

This essay was written for the Makers of Sport® newsletter in October 2015. Monday Musings and Weekend Reads were the written editions of the newsletter that accompanied the podcast; the archived email is on Mailchimp. The newsletter's links and announcements are trimmed here.

I just wrapped up coaching my sons in their U6 soccer league. We went 8-1-1 and had some kids that improved immensely during the season.

[not to be that dad but my 5 year old scored 9 goals this season and since I’d never drop that stat in social media, I have to share it somewhere as my #dadbrag]

I love coaching kids. Not only does it teach me patience (anyone that has herded these little groups of wild 3-6 year olds knows what I’m talking about) and allows me to get better as a communicator (try explaining the concept of goalie to a 3-year old that has been told he/she can’t touch the ball with their hands when they get on the field).

At the early ages of sports, I don’t believe in focusing on wins. Wins are nice, and they make us feel good; but as youth coaches, we are not trying to get write-ups in our hometown paper about coaching our youth leagues to the title. The reward for us comes much later when the kids we coach move up and have the fundamental skills and learning mindset in the tougher and older leagues. We may not ever get credit for this. But if you care coaching youth sports for credit, you are doing it all wrong. I can’t wait to see some of these kids in middle school and high school one day knowing I was able to experience coaching them and help aid in developing their love for sport at a young age.

What I really try focus on when coaching young kids is to try to make each and every kid legitimately better by the end of the year. Not only from a skill level but also in trying to instill in them confidence. Something that many of these young ones may not have when it comes to playing what may be for some their first organized sport. Obviously statistics tell me that most of these kids may not end up playing soccer eventually as some may play other sports and some may not play sports at all opting for other extracurricular activities like music or the arts. But, my hope is that I am able to (if even subconsciously) instill in them confidence, discipline and a willingness to learn.

As I sit here and watch Kentucky basketball practice on ESPNU, it got me thinking of coaching and how similar it is to leadership in the world of the creative business; specifically creative direction. As a creative director — or someone that guides other creatives in keeping on brand/marketing strategy, fundamentals and offering constructive criticism — coaching and giving direction are really no different.

When I was in high school, I had a basketball coach that was very dictatorial in his approach to coaching. He modeled his coaching tactics after his favorite college basketball coaches Gene Keady and Bobby Knight. That particular coach instilled discipline in each of us, yes, but I can’t say that he was great at adapting to the style of players he had and a great strategy coach. He had a box, and he tried to make each and every player that came through is program fit in it. In public high school in the U.S. where you are not necessarily recruiting, I believe in order to have success, you have to be more flexible in your coaching strategy. Adapting it to the personnel you have. You can’t control who comes through. My senior year, we had a very athletic team; a team that ran and gunned all summer in camps and leagues using our athleticism but when the season came along, we were forced to play slower basketball. We weren’t great in any one fundamental half court offense thing, but we were fast and could run & jump. Yet those strengths weren’t played to and when we played the athletic teams from the Lexington and Cincinnati areas, we were forced to try to make them play our style of ball, slow, instead of playing to our strengths.

As a creative manager or art director, we have many people we work with that have their own visual styles, personalities and communication techniques. Oftentimes creative superiors get a bad rep because as they move out of the day-to-day of physically making and more in the world of pitching, art directing, and managing projects, they feel their talents to physically execute are dwindling. This may cause them to feel the need to prove themselves to the younger, talented designers. So their egos get in the way. They may take credit for work that isn’t their’s or soak up all of the award accolades since they are the superior on a team-oriented project.

That feeling of impostor syndrome and wanting recognition can be poisonous to our careers. We should check our egos at the door and use our expertise, experiences and talents to help those we manage get better. When others around us get better, we get better. Part of why I do this podcast is for that purpose. I want to use the things I’ve learned, continue to learn and my ability to engage in intimate conversations with guests about their own creative careers to help others get better. I may never get credit or get recognized for helping others. But for me, that’s fine. I have the internal satisfaction for knowing I can affect someone’s life with my work. I’m beyond the pats on the back the “attaboys”. I’ve found they don’t do anything but make me want more and more. And the cup never gets full enough so to speak.

As for creative direction and helping others you manage get better professionally, sure, one day they may move on using the things they’ve learned from us to do bigger and better things. But, if we are craving recognition for that, then we are leading and coaching others for the wrong reasons. Just as the kids I coach at a young age will move on to bigger and better things, including better coaches, I’m happy knowing I was able to offer a little help along their journey. And you should be too in regards to those that you manage.

Keep that mind this week as you head back to work tomorrow.

Cheers,

Adam