Team Code of Honor
I just got back from delivering 4 Positive Coaching Alliance workshops for the town of Sisters Oregon. The 
leaders are up to big things for a small town (pop . 1750). The goal is to a youth sports “council” comprised of members from community sport groups.
I met with coaches, community leaders, athletes and parents. On the way home, it hit me that an important piece in developing a culture or “the way we do things here”, is to create a written code. I’ve worked a bit with Blair Singer, author of The ABC’s of Building a Business Team That Wins: The Invisible Code of Honor That Takes Ordinary People and Turns Them Into a Championship Team.
A Code of Honor is a set of simple, powerful rules that govern the internal behaviors of any team, organization, family, individual and even a nation, Singer says. “These rules determine how individuals behave toward one another within the team. They are what people are willing to stand for, defend and be accountable for.”
Last fall I spent a weekend working with the Cal Women’s tennis team and incorporated Singer’s idea of a Code of Honor. Here’s what we did:
1. Worked as a team. Everyone had to participate and everyone had to agree on the point in the code.
2. First we looked for recurring behavioral patterns that posed a problem to the performance of the team i.e being late, blaming etc.
3. We then talked about the various incidents and how it impacted the team both positively and negatively. Players talk about how they felt.
4. Once we agreed upon one element of the code, we wrote it into a statement for example, “We keep all time agreements”.
5. We were careful not to “legislate mood” (especially important with women) by saying “Always be optimistic”. Instead we stated, “If you have something good to say, say it. If you have something negative to say, best to deal with it privately and not dump it on the group”.
6. We kept the list to maximum of ten items.
Here are a few other examples:
Pattern to Eliminate: Pointing finger No blame and justification.
Code: We all take Personal responsibility for our actions.
Pattern to Eliminate: Arguments
Code: Never leave an argument for tomorrow.
Pattern to Eliminate:Take things for granted
Code: Celebrate all wins!
FYI – the team went on to the NCAA finals!
Good Luck!
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The idea of establishing a “code” to live by has worked for years with the Juniata Volleyball team. Check out their amazing record. They have been in every NCAA tournament since it’s inception, since that time – they have never lost a conference match, made the final four 23 times, won 2 national titles and have produced 32 All Americans.
Juniata’s coach Larry Bock is a living legend, coaching the women’s program to success year-after-year and has become one of the most accomplished collegiate coaches in the sport of volleyball, regardless of division. He holds 1,182 wins against 182 losses in 32 seasons leading the Eagles’ women’s volleyball program, an impressive 86.7 winning percentage. No NCAA women’s volleyball coach has more wins than Larry. ( You want to know what works? Talk to him!)