Impactful Coaching Project
Coaching the 21st Century Athlete- The "Three C's"
At the Impactful Coaching Project (ICP), we believe in the 3 C’s for effective coaching. They are:
Competent
Care
Constant
Without these, you can’t be an effective leader or coach of anyone. Especially the 21st Century athlete.
So, what are they exactly?
Competence is simply knowing what you are talking about. You have to know your sport and know it well. If not, you are a not long for the coaching world OR you’ll lose more than you should. In the realm of effective coaching, competence is primarily defined by the coach's deep understanding and knowledge of the sport. A competent coach is able to impart this knowledge to their athletes while staying up to date on changes and being aware of the other strategies and voices that are in their athletes ear.
Care is having genuine care and empathy for those you lead. The age old saying of “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” is cheesy but accurate. Coaches need strategies on how to demonstrate care to all levels of their program. This does not mean soft…far from it. But you have to care about people. Research suggests that the 21st Century athlete values coaches who are authentic, transparent, and who can provide personalized coaching. Futher, in a study organizational support, 90% of employees believe their leaders do not show enough empathy. I can't imagine athletes feel much differently. We are big believes in 3D Coaching at ICP and highly recommend their work. They have practical and highly effective strategies for demonstrating care.
Constant is showing up every day. It is caring every day and having principles and values that you stick to. Coaches who are inconsistent in their behavior or who fail to live up to their stated values can lose credibility and trust with their athletes. As odd as it sounds, we believe that the modern athlete can see through fraud quicker than past generations. While they are more in the online world and have relational skills that need to be developed, they can somehow sniff out inconsistent people or people that don’t care.
We'll delve much deeper into the 3 C's in our future discussions. Also, stay tuned for some insightful original research; we're currently collaborating with university faculty on several projects. Exciting times ahead!