The 3 C’s: The Foundation Everything Else Is Built On
A lot of new people have joined us over the last six weeks, so we thought it would be worth doing a brief overview of the 3 C’s in this week’s post. This is the framework at the center of everything we write about at ICP. It’s a working model for how coaches build trust and get the most out of the people they lead.
We were just at the Wyoming High School Coaches Association Conference, and every time we speak we’re reminded how much the 3 C’s resonate with coaches across every sport and level.
Competence. Players will follow a coach they believe knows what they’re doing. Competence is your command of the craft: the ability to teach, to make adjustments, to put athletes in a position to succeed. Without it, nothing else you offer carries much weight. But competence alone gets you respect, not connection. Plenty of knowledgeable coaches lose their teams because they stopped at this one.
Care. Athletes don’t just want to be coached. They want to be known. But care isn’t a feeling you hope shows up on a given day. It’s a system. As we write about often here and in our books, care is something you build and repeat: the routines, check-ins, and structures that make sure every athlete is seen and invested in, not just the ones who are easy to notice. Care as a system is what earns you the right to push someone harder than they’d push themselves. When athletes know you’re for them, they’ll go places they wouldn’t go for a coach who only wanted results.
Constancy. This is the one most coaches underrate. Constancy is showing up as the same person every day, steady when you’re winning and steady when you’re not, consistent in your standards and your presence. Athletes are always reading you. When your mood sets the tone in the building, they spend their energy managing you instead of getting better. Constancy is what makes competence and care believable over time.
Competence earns respect. Care earns trust. Constancy makes both durable. Coaches who live all three build environments people don’t want to leave.
We also just launched the ICP Daily app, a short and practical dose of this thinking every day, built for coaches who want to sharpen one thing at a time. It’s $1.99/month and available now in the Apple App Store. If the 3 C’s resonate, ICP Daily is how you keep them in front of you once the season gets busy.
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Things That Are Making Us Think
The Team on the Sideline Already Quit by Rolf Götz : Great article by Rolf. Hope you check it out.
Thank you for the shout out! :-)