In the last few blogs I have been talking about coaches and leadership, a profession and role that is difficult to live, since it requires constant decision-making, building team development plan and managing euphoric and depressive moments. The coach, the manager as it would be better to say, since his job is to lead a team, to do so he plays different roles consistent with the situations of the players and the team. The description of this role multiplicity has been well described by Marguerite Yourcenar at regard of the Emperor Hadrian.
“It would be easy to construe what I have just told as the story of a too scholarly soldier who wishes to be forgiven his love for books. But such simplified perspectives are false. Different persons ruled in me in turn, though no one of them for long; each fallen tyrant was quick to regain power. Thus have I played host successively to the meticulous officer, fanatic in discipline, but gaily sharing with his men the privations of war; to the melancholy dreamer intent on the gods; the lover ready to risk all for a moment’s rapture; the haughty young lieutenant retiring to his tent to study his maps by lamplight, making clear to his friends his disdain for the way the world goes; and finally the future statesman. … But little by little a newcomer was taking hold, a stage director and manager. I was beginning to know the names of my actors, and could arrange plausible entrances for them, or exits; I cut short superfluous lines, and came gradually to avoid the most obvious effects. Last, I learned not to indulge too much in monologue. And gradually, in turn, my actions were forming me.”
The job of a coach is a risky profession given the frequency with which they are exonerated in soccer and requires, therefore, the development of a rather complex set of interlocking skills. among which stand out:
- possess a personal and professional vision that is consistent and in line with the club’s core values
- develop key skills in evaluating performance and giving constructive feedback
- optimizing the management of priorities
- understand and manage conflict
- improve communication effectiveness
- most effectively manage interpersonal relationships
- develop a network of personal and working relationships with staff and management
- demonstrate understanding of key skills and areas of player development
- cope with work overloads and balance stress
- achieve a work-life balance
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