Lessons Learned and Earned in 2011

2011 has been an unbelievable learning year. The opportunity to interact with top professionals in many fields made this past year special. Over the next few days I will share with some of the lessons I have learned and earned. I say earned because this is an ongoing accumulation of graduate credits toward my PhD in the school of hard knocks. Some of the lesson over the years and this year have been hard earned. Hopefully this will stimulate some thought and reflection on your part. Some of these are old lessons I had to relearn and some are new.

Lesson One – Coaching is a people profession. Technical expertise and scientific knowledge is necessary but emotional intelligence, the ability to connect on a personal basis is paramount. We don’t coach soccer players, tennis players or swimmers; we coach people who do those sports. It is so easy to lose sight of that and get caught up in the X’s and O’s, the technical and scientific and forget the people part, the human element. We don’t build athletes, we grow and nurture them, and it is a constant growth process with no set formula. Each athlete is a case study of one. The human element presents many unique and varied challenges. This is what makes up the art of coaching and what makes coaching so special.