April 6, 2022

Off-Season Talks – Coaching the Bigger Game

Off-Season Talks – Coaching the Bigger Game

In Episode 76, our fourth off-season talk between Seasons 5 & 6, Phil talks with Paul about the long-awaited Coaching the Bigger Game program, which helps coaches elevate significance in sports by elevating self-leadership, leadership of their...

In Episode 76, our fourth off-season talk between Seasons 5 & 6, Phil talks with Paul about the long-awaited Coaching the Bigger Game program, which helps coaches elevate significance in sports by elevating self-leadership, leadership of their individual players, and leadership of their teams. As Coaching the Bigger Game strives to help coaches help themselves, their players, and teams flourish, we at HSEL strive to be part of a movement that encourages a lifelong love for the game, leadership and character development, and human flourishing.

 

Resources and Links from this Episode

 

 
Transcript

Phil: Welcome back to How Soccer Explains Leadership. Thanks again for being a part of the conversation we are having on this show. I'm Phil Darke, your host. And with me today, again is my co-host Paul Jobson. Today. We're kind of mixing it up a little bit, cause Paul is going to be asking me some questions today.

So why are we doing that? Paul? What's going on?

[00:00:20] Paul: Well, so first of all, it's time to mix it up a little bit. You know what I mean? I think I said on a previous podcast, like you're, I think you're overworked and underpaid on the podcast and it's, you know, maybe I need to step up a little bit, so, but no, you know, I think for the last number of shows or whatever, you've been teasing all of us with the Coaching the Bigger Game program, and, you know, we, we keep hearing tidbits of it and that you're throwing in some, some different things.

I think folks would just love to hear a little bit more about Coaching the Bigger Game, what you and Christian are doing. And I think just taking this opportunity for you to tell us a little bit about, you know, kind of where that, where that all came from and what, what you guys are doing with Coaching the Bigger Game.[00:01:00]

[00:01:00] Phil: Yeah. So it's, it's kind of cool how it all, how it all happened. Cause you know, started this podcast what a year and a half ago or so. And I've always had the, vision to multiply leaders. I've, I've just always felt that I love helping people who help people. Right. So I love, you know, as I know, help, help people flourish and make good things better.

That's my, why I've said it many times on here and I I've always had a heart for the leaders who will multiply leaders. So. Help, you know, basically if I can get coaches who have impact over tens, sometimes hundreds of people, that's what I love pouring into. And so that's just, that's kind of the background.

And then throughout this podcast, I've been meeting really cool people and one of them was Christian Devries and he has some, some different programs for athletes. He's got this program called athletes of significance, which is similar to warrior way where it's talking about, Hey, sports is more than. Playing [00:02:00] a game and going out and winning or losing it's it can develop you into the, the person that you were created to be, and it can bring out a lot of things that other things will not bring out if you're intentional about it.

And so I talked to them about that and he said, Hey, I'd love for you to, you know, help out some of these things. And I said, well, you know, really my heart is with the coaches because the coaches are, who are impacting, you know, so many more people. And not that I don't care about the internet. Of course I do.

I'm a coach. I love coaching individuals and I love building them up. But if we're doing something like this, I just, I just really have a heart for coaches because most coaches, we get trained on the X's and O's so to speak, we get trained on the. Any certification program, it's going into how you can do training plans, how you can do your, for your practices, the different things, to be able to get the, you know, first touch to be solid, to be able to have, you know, run a four, three through the different formations.

What are you doing? Right. So it's all about the game itself. And so what, what I said is how do we, how can we train [00:03:00] them on the people's side of the game? How can we train them on, on how to develop the human beings? Because how often do you get unfettered access to people for five days a week in the case of high school, college years, or seven days a week sometimes to be able to develop them into who they can be.

Right. And so we focus a lot on the soccer piece, but we don't focus a lot on the people piece of it. So that was something that I just said, how can we do that? And what does that look like? And, and it was interesting because because, oh, and, and also I've been, as, as we've talked about on the show, Piloting this unbeknownst to me, I didn't realize I was going to be creating a program, but with the high school team that I coach to be able to say, Hey, how can we, you know, do the people's side?

How can we incorporate DiSC into it? How can we incorporate best practice organizational health principles into a high school team? Does that. And I found out, yeah, it does work it's we just had our banquet the other [00:04:00] night with the team and it was so awesome just to be a part of these, these girls' lives and to be able to send some off to college and get excited to see how they're going to be leaders, wherever they go, whether they play soccer or not.

It really has nothing to do with this. This side of it is whether they play soccer, the rest of their life, where they stop in high school. They're going to use these principles there survive. That's why we did this podcast. So Christian and I talked and, and Christian said, actually, it's funny you say that because my heart is his coaches as well.

And I've had this program kind of on the shelf that I've been wanting to develop in my mind. And I've been waiting for someone to come along to help me build it out. And so we, we spent, we've spent time together over the last several months building this program, and now we're ready to ready to launch it.

We're going to be launching it in April and which is when this is going to be releasing. So if you're listening to. Definitely check out the show notes for the link. You can go to coachingthebiggergame.com, but if you forget that for whatever reason, you can go check out the [00:05:00] link, you can go there, you can you know, sign up for more information and sign up to really, to start the program.

And we can, we can get on a call and figure out what the best fit is for you. As far as the. Aspects of the program.

[00:05:11] Paul: Yeah. Well, I think you're right. I mean, there are so many programs out there for, for the, for the, for coaches as it pertains to the technical tactical aspects of the game. Right? How do you, how do you plug in?

How can you be a better coach on the field? How can, you know, train your players to be better, how to develop players. But as we all know in leadership, you know, you got to lead yourself first, right? And you need to know. People but taking care of yourself also. So I think programs for coaches is an overlooked I hate to say niche, but it really is overlooked.

And as a, as a coach, something that be very favorable especially had, I had it early in my career too. Not that you can't, it's not good to have, you know, throughout your career, but I think a lot about a lot of young coaches, but had the opportunity to finally meet Christian at the United soccer coaches convention with you and super impressed with him and just seeing you guys.

Work [00:06:00] together. And how you guys converse. I'm really excited about what you guys are putting together and can't wait to see how this all kind of plays itself out and to start hearing the responses. I know because I know you and Christian, and I know what you guys are putting into this and how valuable this is going to be, but I can't wait to kind of get on the other side of it and hear the responses that people are going to have after they've gone through.

This program. Can you give us just a, just a little bit of like, what's the process? Like, how does the program, is it how's it structured? How does it kind of actually work? If I'm a coach who's interested in the things that you're saying, how would that, how would that kind of work for me? If I was going to dive into

[00:06:35] Phil: this.

Absolutely. You know, and, and I just want to take a real one more step back and say, you know, what we're talking about doing is really to empower coaches, hopefully coaches you're listening, or people who know coaches. We're telling, we're talking to people about, Hey, if you know, coaches who really want, who want to have a greater impact on their players and the teams they coach, they really want to not just have it be about winning and losing [00:07:00] games and that being the gauge of success, this is for them. And we're talking to people and say, Hey, if you're looking for gifts to give your coaches at the end of the season, rather than a gift card to Applebee's or whatever, you're giving them a gift card to, you know, give them, give them this program because this will actually.

Them to develop in who they are, and it will give back to your kids and other kids like your kids to be able to help them to be better too, because you know, they're having so much impact on your players, man, this will help them to really do it more intentionally. So on that note, as you talked about it, it really goes through the first, first part is to, we talk about elevate significance in sports.

So we talk about elevate yourself, really to be able to. Build yourself and yourself leadership up to be able to be a stronger self self leader. And that really goes starting with your, why discover your, why your life purpose. You hear me ask that question all the time on this show. And it always is interesting to me how few people have actually really thought through what is their life purpose.

These are [00:08:00] some great leaders and some of them are like, yeah, you know, I thought about doing it. I just haven't done well when you do it, you actually have a filter that you can use to put everything through. And so it's just a, we walk through that. We've walked through and we talked about starting with your eulogy, starting with the end in mind, we do that.

We walk through them and help them understand that to develop the mission. Then we'd go into a really self-awareness disk and then self care how we can be able to. Take care of ourselves. If we're not healthy, we're not going to be able to lead healthy. Right. And then after the self-leadership conversation, we go into leading the individual player, because if we have a bunch of unhealthy individuals, it's also going to be very hard to have a healthy team.

No matter we, how healthy we as a leader. R. So that second part is how can we communicate and connect with each player? How can we challenge and empower our players? What does that look like? There'll be strategies for that. There'll be exercises for that. There'll be practicing. A lot of that is helping them understand the things you [00:09:00] learned in the self-leadership part as well.

So that's the second part. And then the last part, which is what I think a lot of people skip to when they talk about the people side, most people just say, Hey, how do we get a healthy. And we've talked a lot about healthy culture on this, but it's really hard to have a healthy culture without having a healthy coach and a healthy individual players.

As you know, we've talked about that. If you have a couple of toxic players on the team, it's, it's very contagious. Those viruses, as we know about viruses, they're very contagious, right? And, and they can literally shut down a society. They can also shut down a team. And so that's something that we talk about last on purpose, elevating the team, talking about culture, talking about accountability, talking about inclusion, talking about it in the sense of how can we really have healthy leadership teams?

How can we have healthy team cultures and, and how can we also have consistency in team culture? Understand how it needs to evolve as well with each new player and [00:10:00] new year as we've talked. I mean, we talked a lot about that on, on your interview. And I actually have, you know, your interview is part of the curriculum.

So this, this podcast we part of the curriculum. But it's mostly just a lot of stuff that Christian and I have learned over the years. So you're basically getting our collective wisdom of decades of coaching and leadership in different capacities. Being able to help you get a huge headstart if you're younger, or even if you're older and been doing this a long time and never really thought about these things at these dip levels, I hope.

Different intergenerational people to be able to come in and be a part of that, to share each other's wisdom with each other. The last part of it is just leave a, leave a legacy. What is your unique mark? You can leave on this world. So we talk about that. What does that look like with all the other things that we have learned?

So that's, that's really the program in and of itself. And, and then we have three different ways. You can go through it as well. One is self guided. If you just want to do it on your own, and it will be an online course, you'll go through the modules on your own without. Additional [00:11:00] feedback from us. That's one option.

And we'll have that. If you're just a self-starter and you don't like to talk to other people chances are, you're not a coach, if that's you, but you know, there are some people who will just say, Hey, you know what? I don't have time to do anything else. So I'm just going to get this self guided that will get you the result that will get you results.

As much as you put into it, you can get out of it. What I really think are the other two pro the other two parts of it that that really will help you to be able to go deeper. One is monthly teaching calls. We'll have, we'll have coaching calls that you will be able to hop on a calls with Christian and me.

And we will walk you through the program and be able that you can answer. You'd ask questions. We'll be able to answer questions that you'll do that in a group setting and be able to hear from others thing I love about the group setting is sometimes they ask questions you didn't even know you had, right?

And so you can hear all that. And the last, which I think will be, is like the gold standard package is the mastermind that's coaching and a cohort. Basically you will, we will have 10 to 15 coaches from all over the country, hopefully the world to be [00:12:00] part of these cohorts. That, again, you'll go through that with them.

You'll go through the program together build relationships with each other. We'll. A retreat once a year, we will get together in person and on top of it all, we're going to bring in other experts in all these different areas. So for instance, in the, when we talk about self care, we'll bring in mental health experts from that we've had on this show and other people who we know to be able to come in and help you understand deeper about how to go into these things that we're talking about in, in the program itself.

So it's just going to be. Something that I, I hope and pray will be transformational, not just for the individual people who will be part of it, but for the game itself, because we will start having this be a norm in clubs and in coaches and in people rather than just be this exception that we say, oh yeah, there's this really cool coach I had.

And this one coach that I, that made an impact on me and he would man, he was, I wish all the coaches were like that. Well, we can be. We just need to be intentional about it and put the work in and [00:13:00] understand ourselves, understand our, our individuals, and then be able to, to have that great team culture.

[00:13:06] Paul: Yeah, that's awesome. It's extremely valuable. And like I said earlier in, you even mentioned, you know, for a coach of any experience, but especially if you are a coach yourself, or you're a parent of a player who has a, has a coach, this could be so beneficial for their development and growth. Like I said, I wish, you know, this is something I'm going to enjoy the journey with you through this.

But I know as a younger coach could have been very, very valuable because you step into coaching, you know, and you're you want to do it for the right reasons. You want to do it for the kids. And that leads you to, how do I, what kind of culture do I want? Blah, blah, blah. But if you don't have the base and the foundation in place you find yourself as a coach scrambling all the time to create the right culture, because maybe you hit it, you hit it.

It's like, you know, you hit, you hit the jackpot every once in awhile and maybe you get lucky and you get it right. And all of a sudden, a wide. Great. Now we're at one point and then it sagged this because you don't have the pieces in place, the foundation. Isn't right. To have the [00:14:00] consistency of what you're trying to bring to the table.

And I think the program that you guys have put together is really going to be formational foundational for a lot of coaches, and I'm excited about it. And I know you have Christian on at some point, I know you're gonna do an interview with Christian at some point to go more depth into this, but excited for people to have the opportunity to jump on the website and dive in and, and get in touch with you about, about what you guys do.

[00:14:22] Phil: Yeah. So we just wanted to give a little taste, like you said, I'll get Christian on so you can meet him and hear from him and his heart for this, which, which, you know, I I've grown to, you know, love this guy, like a brother. And I'm excited to get this thing going, because I know it will impact teams.

And I want to see teams be impacted. Like the teams I've been able to. To impact and you've been able to impact and to be able to bring that to others and help others to understand that it's not just luck of the draw of what well, you know, we had these great group of girls are a great group of guys.

You know, it's something that you can intentionally [00:15:00] create. But it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot of relationship building and trust building that There are ways to make it a lot more likely than than if you just kind of wing it. So hopefully we can help people, not just wing it, not just go for one, you know, a half hour seminar that you went to at a conference or something you heard online, but something that you can really pour into and commit to it as you would any certification program, you know, people go over to Europe to get certification programs, to learn better drills.

This is something you can do from your home and to be able to, but meet up with a lot of people from all over who are like-minded in really growing themselves. So. I, I just, I I'm excited if you can't tell I'm excited about it. I don't know if, can you tell Paul?

[00:15:47] Paul: I did tell him, man, it's been fun to watch this process over the last little bit kind of come to fruition.

I'm all pumped that this thing is launched and out there, and that people are going to benefit greatly as a, as a coach and as a brother of [00:16:00] yours, I'm excited about what you're bringing to the table. Cause I think it's just it'd be great for our players in the long run. And like you said, Developing others to develop others is a big piece of what I think we're all in it for.

So man, I'm excited for you. I'm excited for those that take advantage of this. And looking forward to see, seeing where this goes, man. Any last last comments on this before we head out of this, out of the segment?

[00:16:20] Phil: Nope. Nope. I think you can just go check it all out at the howsoccerexplainsleadership.com, show notes.

You can, you know, if you don't want to go to the show notes, just go straight to coachingthebiggergame.com. You've heard that website quite a bit over the course of this podcast. And, you know, I wouldn't share if I wasn't excited about it. So you have that and. As always as we sign off, I just hope that you take in what you're learning from this show and you're using it to help you be a better leader.

You're using it to help you be a better spouse, better parent. And you're continually reminding yourself the soccer does explain life and leadership. Thanks a lot. Have a great week.