Accountability Systems

Accountability to team standards critically impacts all aspects of team performance.  If the coach is the only person holding members of a team accountable, adversarial relationships naturally form between members of the team.  Athletes eventually become uninspired or perhaps reluctant to perform their best.

Conversely, having an Accountability System in place helps teams own their standards, improves communication, team involvement, and team success.

Start with four tiers to your Accountability System.

• Personal Responsibility - Athletes must abide by the standards of the team -- the standards that s/he helped to create.  These are standards s/he must believe in.  They should have been created with the sincere belief that they will help their team achieve its very best.

• Team Accountability - As mentioned above, when the team creates their own standards, personal and team accountability naturally become part of your team culture.

• Team Involvement - If/ when a situation arises that threatens your team culture, the athletes on the team must be the first to step up to address it.  One athlete may address it on his/ her own, or a small group of athletes may join together to show their support.  Should this not be enough, then the whole team must join together to address the situation.

• Coach Involvement - Only when a meeting of the whole team does not resolve the threat should the coach get involved.