We tried something different this year. We let the players come up with the core values and character values that we want to emphasis this year.
Here’s how we came up with them…
First we had a meeting to brainstorm ideas. BTW, this was our 10th grade boys team. Players came up with ideas and I wrote the list down on the whiteboard. When we were all done I took a picture of the list with my phone.
The next day I sent the following text message to the players…
Vote on team core values. Text me only your top 5 votes on what core values you think we should focus on this year.
They all texted back and I tallied the votes.
What do you think were the top 5?
Interestingly, here’s how the votes came out…
Value | Number of Votes |
Teamwork / together | 7 |
Communication | 6 |
Toughness | 6 |
Attitude | 5 |
Leadership | 5 |
Discipline | 5 |
Confidence | 4 |
Hard work / effort | 4 |
Resilient | 4 |
Selfless / help others | 4 |
Try harder | 3 |
Loyalty | 2 |
Honesty | 2 |
Be proactive | 1 |
Kind | 1 |
Be grateful | 0 |
So our 6 core values and emphasis this year will be:
Teamwork / together
Communication
Toughness
Attitude
Leadership
Discipline
We’ll see how things works. I think this is a pretty good list of things to emphasize. And the best part is the players came up with the list — so hopefully they take ownership of what we’re emphasizing and it will have a bigger impact.
We’ll see. In any case, I feel there will be plenty of life lessons and teaching moments this season.
Leave a Reply