Put Your Game Together: Ethical Management in Youth Sports and Business

by Donnie Howell

Overview

Donnie Howell was the kid who was raised on food stamps with little parental guidance. He discovered at a young age his needs would only be met through hard work and a game called football. In Put Your Game Together, Donnie puts together his story of childhood struggles and the lessons he learned along the way to illustrate how to achieve success in a fair and ethical way.

Donnie Howell discovered that his success in business came from treating people fairly and responsibly. He applies these principles to coaching young people in football and adds another ingredient—parents. Most coaches of youth football want to keep parents on the outside looking in, but not Donnie, he gets the parents involved. Whatever the task—managing a business or coaching kids—he believes that a leader who practices ethical behavior and builds a program fair to all will be successful.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440193460
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	03/03/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	222 KB

Read an Excerpt

Put Your Game Together

Ethical Management in Youth Sports and Business

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By Donnie Howell

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2009 Donnie Howell
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4401-9345-3

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Chapter One

Becoming a Winner

We all have hopes of being a successful person in the eyes of our peers and colleagues. Nobody sets out to be the coach who failed or the person who started a business that failed, so why do some fail? Because they are inconsistent with their decision making, they are not consistent in their principles, and they lack the courage to stay with their own created programs during the implementation period. They prefer to change in the direction of quick results rather than to ride out the learning curve.

The learning curve is extremely important because that is when it gets tested the most. If you allow yourself to alter or change your programs during the implementation period, then you are letting everyone involved with your programs know that with the right amount of pressure, you'll make changes to your programs from now on. Going forward, those programs are always challengeable.

As coaches, we want the parents to be proud of our work, and we would like the players to be proud of the program as well. Coaches generally feel they don't get enough credit or praise for the long hours they put into making a program great. In some cases, that is true. However, some coaches don't want to listen to others when it's obvious the program isn't working either. You don't hear them taking the blame for a program going badly, do you?

Let's stop worrying about credit and praise, and let's start worrying about taking some pride and ownership in what we are doing. Put pride on your side by doing the right things, and over time, you will get all the respect you can handle. If you don't have pride in the fact that you're doing the best job you can, and you haven't been dedicated and diligent in building a program that is designed to be fair to every single player, then you probably are not really working that hard at it and everyone knows it. If you are not 100 percent confident and proud of yourself, then why would you think someone else owes you compliments?

Let's start with being proud of what we are doing. Let's start with doing the right things the right way. Let's start by being committed to our principles and ethics. If you start with a mind-set for these things and you are committed to them for the duration of time, then you'll come out a winner, guaranteed.

Becoming a winner is not solely measured with victories. Victories are important and definitely make for a fun season, but you can also have a fun, successful season with everyone learning the game and competing. I'm all for winning games, just like anyone. Winning is more fun than losing; we all know that. The point here is that winning a game will not make you a winner. The victories will come, but that won't make you a winner. Winners have plans and winners stick to their plans because they believe in their plans, and soon others believe in their plans, and when that happens, they develop a team of believers.

You have to get respect from the players, and you have to get respect from the parents, and you have to get it because you're doing the right things.

You have been committed to the principles and ethics you set out to demonstrate. You have been thoughtful to the program and thoughtful to all the players involved, and you have stayed true to it over time. As your players and their parents see over time that you are committed to making kids better, and they see you take on challenges that come your way, over time, with consistency, they will start to learn what you are really about. I said "over time" because becoming a winner is just that: a long journey of consistent behavior, a long journey of decisions being made with good principles and ethics, tough decisions being made over time that are consistent with your beliefs, and staying true to your word and actions through good days and bad days.

Whether you have a firm personality or a meek personality doesn't matter. What matters is you are consistent with your decision making, and you constantly stay fair to the individuals involved. You don't waver on your programs because you put your principles and ethics into them already. You know what is best for everyone in the program because you thought about it and you employed the ideas from your coaching staff and your parents when you put it together. You asked everyone to get involved and be a part of the new program, and over time, they will be there for you.

So there is never a time when you will fold under pressure and be forced to make program alterations or changes. You won't be worried about that at all. You've been consistent, and you've stayed true to it over time. The only way time will hurt you is by not being true to your word; if you made up your programs that were not fair to everyone, if you built your programs in a half-hearted way and thought nobody else would notice, or if your programs had little thought and really did not apply to everyone, then most likely your plan will fail. Without putting enough time and thought into the program's potential downsides, someone could get missed and you will have problems to deal with. Mailing it in or not caring when program planning is concerned results in a program that will be full of holes, and you better be ready for some of those not-so-stupid people coming to you for explanations. They know you cannot explain your programs. They just saw you being inconsistent with other players. Don't make the mistake of thinking people won't know. It will follow you for many years.

Build your programs with good principles and ethics. Be fair to everyone when creating your programs. Short, tall, black, white, it doesn't matter. Just be fair to the programs you believe in, and stay consistent with them. I promise you'll end up a winner in the eyes of a lot of people. Take pride in what you are about to build. Make it a statement of who you are and how you want people to feel about you because that is just what you are going to get.

Players need to work hard at becoming winners too. Just being a fast runner or great at throwing the ball will not make you a winner. If you are the kind of athlete who is constantly breaking the rules or taking time off during practice because you know you're one of the best players on the team, then you are really a distraction and a disappointment more than anything else. You will let your team down at some point. I can assure you of that. You will be the guy who will force a weaker coach into changing his programs to suit you. This will cause other players to challenge the system also, which will lead to weakening the team. The coaches will become overwhelmed with pressure from the parents, and they will lose interest in coaching. They will look to blame others, or they will look to blame the players. There is nothing good that will come out of a selfish player or a weak program.

If you are that great player, then embrace your coach's programs and try to be a role model for the younger players. With your God- given talent, why wouldn't you want to be in the best program you could be in? Why not embrace discipline for yourself and your coach's programs? Working hard at your talent and working hard at getting good grades could get you a scholarship to college, but being a good teammate and being a good role model will make you a winner in the real game: life.

Our elected officials and our school administrators have a big role to play here as well. They also need to set standards for these programs to follow. They need to have programs in place to save our school sports programs. They need to provide programs to help with fundraisers to keep these programs active. They need to have a good program in place for hiring head coaches. They need to use good principles and ethics when developing their programs, just as we all do. These elected officials and our school administrators should have a program in place that will work closely with their school sports programs. They should be working closely with the Booster Clubs, and they should be listening to the parents as problems or concerns take place. They should follow up on complaints from parents and not just disregard them as if the parents simply made it up. Take some action and do some interviews from both sides; if nothing else, your coaches and parents will know you have a plan and a system in place that will work for everyone. There should also be programs in place to remove coaches who are not positive role models for our kids. So many times you see a sports program getting worse and worse as years go by. It never gets better because the same lousy head coach is still there coaching year after year. This is a problem that nobody wants, and it is a problem that has to change. After a period of time, the kids will start believing in losing and believing that they will never be winners. They will become too embarrassed to play for the school and stop playing sports. Then it could be on to drugs or becoming an uninterested student.

If you're an elected official or a school administrator, this is your chance to be a winner too. Why not develop your programs to help kids stay in sports, and why not have standards for coaches to follow when dealing with our athletes? With your help and with the coaches teaching the right things, everyone wins. When you're getting out there in front of the parents and they're seeing you participate in the betterment of the programs that are designed for their most prized possessions, their kids, they'll be very grateful and support you.

The athletes will learn lessons from the communities that you're building for them. They will become long-term players and supporters in the community themselves, such as business owners, coaches, congressmen, and community organizers. There are too many cities these days across America that have kids in them that cannot wait until they are eighteen years old so they can move out of their hometowns and start a life somewhere else, and to me that is sad; keep your kids home. Build them a community filled with activities and sports programs and make it fun and fair for everyone.

If the elected officials and the school administrators took some responsibility, we could get our sports programs back in shape. We would have programs with funding, and we would have kids who would be proud to participate in them. We would have a community that is full of elected officials and administrators who are all winners. You'll see it in the next elections because they will all come out winners.

Parents can be a distraction or they can be a big help. Which are you? The parents' role in youth and high school sports is to be supportive to the program. The parents should be willing to help when asked and should be dedicated to supporting their kids. They should also be policing the program in order to help keep the program going in the direction that was lined out from the beginning. In order for the parents to be winners, they too need to fulfill their duties and know their places. A big part of a successful program is having all the kids ready to play.

Parents need to be sure their kids are staying up with their grades, make sure their kids are attending school, make sure their kids are getting support and praise, and make sure their kids are supportive and respectful to the program. The parents also have a duty to report to the head coach when a program is not operating in the way it was described. The parents need to become vocal to administrators and elected officials should any program disputes reach a level that cannot be worked out between the parents and the head coach. Parents helping the program and not trying to run the program is what I'm saying here.

I don't want parents thinking they're in charge of the program. No, that's the head coach's job. But if parents fully understand the program description that was laid out by the head coach, then they have a duty to discuss it with the head coach. If the parents feel that the program is failing to stay on the course that was presented to them, then you bet I want them to have a discussion with the head coach and explain their position on the matter. Both the parent and the head coach are adults, and they should both know that communication is king, so I do believe respectful dialog between them is a good thing because they both should want what is right for the kids.

By trying to be supportive of a head coach's program and by asking to be a part of the head coach's program, the parents will be a welcomed part of the team's success, and everyone will come out winners. The ultimate team approach to winning is everyone's involvement. Everyone being supportive and everyone being a part of the plan is success for everyone to enjoy.

Knowing why you want to be a coach in the first place is important. It is just as important as knowing why you want your kids to even play the game. It goes for an elected official, and it goes for a school administrator. Why are you in this profession in the first place? If you are in it and you want your kids in it, don't you want to do it right? Don't you want yourself and everyone around you to be successful? Of course you do.

I coached with a guy who once told me that his biggest dream was to be a head coach and to be a physical education (P.E.) teacher at a high school. A year later, he had his dream come true. After several years of disappointments from parents, players, assistant coaches, and himself, he told me he wanted to go and coach somewhere else. I asked him why he felt he needed to go and coach somewhere else. He said because he had learned some lessons and would like to get a fresh start. He would do things differently this time. I said to him, "You once told me that all you ever wanted to be was a head football coach and a P.E. teacher. You now have your wish, so why are you letting yourself be a horrible head football coach and a horrible P.E. teacher? You don't have to leave here to be better. You just have to realize you've achieved something special, and you need to appreciate it and have respect by doing it right." I also told him he could change right here, right now. People will forgive and forget if you are sincere about changing for the better. It's never too late to come out a winner.

One of the reasons I wrote this book was because running a business, in many ways, is just like coaching football. Replace the players with employees or replace parents with clients. Perhaps change assistant coaches with coworkers and administrators with building owners. It is all interchangeable to me. You can be a winner in both. As a matter of fact, I'm sure if you are a winner in one, you will be a winner in the other. I'm also just as sure that if you fail in one, you're likely to fail in the other too.

Principles and ethics play a large role in the outcome of any successful person. To me, there are two types of people who become successful: One learns lessons along the way through trial and error. This successful person doesn't repeat his mistakes too often. This person gets smarter, and he gets more confident as time goes on. He also learns to keep his ideas and lessons to himself in hopes of staying successful. The other type of successful person also learned some lessons through trial and error and became smarter as time went on, much like the first successful person. However, this successful person wants to teach his lessons learned from trial and error to others in hopes of teaching them to become successful in a more efficient way.

People who can believe enough in themselves to teach others are people who believe they will never be less than great. Those are the kinds of people who will always be winners. They don't fake it, and they don't mail it in. They are not intimidated about starting over or being replaced. They are not worried that you will not like them or that you will hate their programs. They are not worried about a parent supervising one of their practices. They are not worried because they know they are doing it the right way, and they know the right way has never been wrong.

Trust yourself and keep doing what your heart tells you to do. Knowing right from wrong doesn't come from a book. It's already built in you. Keep making people happy, and over time, you'll come out a winner.

If you haven't done it yet and you plan on changing your programs to include your good principles and ethics and you plan on bringing your coaching staff and parents together, then let me be the first to congratulate you on your future success. Stick with it, and over time, you'll become a winner.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Put Your Game Together by Donnie Howell Copyright © 2009 by Donnie Howell. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

1 Becoming a Winner....................1
2 Building the Right Base....................9
3 Getting with Your Plan....................17
4 Think About It First....................28
5 Let Them Be Proud Too....................37
6 It's Their Time....................46
7 Stand Up and Be Heard....................55
8 Stay Calm When Pressure Hits....................62
9 Sharing Your Experiences....................72
10 Giving Support....................83
11 Camp Concord for Moms....................90
12 Repeat It Constantly....................99
13 Guidance Through Football....................108
14 Respect Brings Respect....................121
15 The Good Times....................129
16 Saving Our Programs....................140
17 Stating the Obvious....................148
Explanation Sheet....................154
Parent Cheat Sheet....................155
Seasonal Program Contract....................156