One sentence in the Harvard Business Review nailed the way a lot of coaches treat accountability among players on their teams.
“Accountability is a favorite word to invoke when the lack of it has become apparent.”
In other words, we don’t worry much about making our players accountable until their lack of it becomes annoying. Telling players to be accountable and actually holding them accountable are two very different things, and the latter is much harder.
Part of the problem is that the process requires coaches to stay on top of players and nag them into being accountable.
“That’s not my job,” coaches say. “That’s something their parents should have taught them.”
Like every problem, having the right tool is the best first step in the solution. DRIVN has several features that make players accountable for themselves.
“To help teach the players accountability, we started using the different features DRIVN offers,” said John Marinelli, Head Football Coach at Greenwich (Conn.) High School. “Its helped tremendously and made our coaches’ lives easier at the same time.
“The response required feature helps a lot,” explained Marinelli. “The kids know a message is there, and if they don’t respond it’s like missing a practice. They are accountable. And when I ask them to respond, they had better respond. It’s like a homework assignment.”
Marinelli’s program has four teams – freshman, sophomore, JV and varsity. He understands that the more questions he answers, the more he will get, so limiting the number of questions he and his staff receives on a daily basis is important. Now, his players know where to find the answers – everything is in DRIVN.
“The first place they go when they have questions or need something, is to DRIVN,” he said. “I had a kid ask me what time seven-on-seven was. I said, ‘Check your DRIVN.’ When a kid text messages me, I only respond through DRIVN. They know that’s the only way I’m going to communicate with them.
“They are learning how to communicate with coaches,” he adds. “They are learning the right things to say. They are learning how to say, ‘Coach, I am going to be late.’ Think about how many headaches you have – ‘Coach I tried to email you.’ I don’t want to hear that anymore. I have DRIVN. If you have service, you can use DRIVN.”
Start the process of holding your team accountable with a free demo.