A Practical Framework for Coaching Character
I recently spent time training and learning with the Wake Forest Educating Character Institute. It has been a meaningful experience. The conference this past weekend about 30 people on character and sport generated a lot of ideas and learning for me. Over the next couple of months, I’ll share some of what I took away.
Before diving into those topics, I want to lay out a simple frame for how character is actually developed. My view, and I believe the research agrees, is that sport alone does not build character. In some cases, if we aren’t intentional, it can even undermine it. Coaches and sport leaders have to deliberately design environments where character is formed on purpose, not assumed.
One of the helpful anchors used at Wake Forest is the Seven Strategies of Character Development. These come from Lamb, Brant, and Brooks (2021). Their work focuses on university age character formation, but the framework applies broadly to coaching at any level.
Here are the seven strategies:
Habituation through practice: Repeatedly acting on a chosen virtue.
Reflection on personal experience: Making meaning out of successes, failures, and choices.
Engagement with virtuous exemplars: Seeing virtue lived out by credible models.
Dialogue that increases virtue literacy: Talking about what virtues actually mean.
Awareness of situational variables and biases: Understanding how context influences.
Moral reminders: Cues that keep values in front of us, things on the wall, etc
Friendships of mutual accountability: Relationships that reinforce growth and honesty.
I’ll unpack these more in future episodes and posts. For now, consider how these strategies show up in your own coaching or leadership. Would love to hear your thoughts on any of them….please comment below. I’d like to hear what connect.
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