021 - Praise in Public and Criticize in Private

Today’s Quick Tip Is:  Praise in Public and Criticize in Private It sure would have kept the member and me, from feeling uncomfortable and having to explain to the member that it could wait and she was what is important now. Believe it or not, When you criticize in private, that shows respect and when you show respect, it may give you that edge that you need.  I have even got called out in meetings before, and found out later, and it did not feel that good.  When you do it in public it only only Embarrasses the person you’re criticizing and. , Even though you may think differently, does not make you look all that good in front of everybody.  So if you have an issue with anyone, even your supervisor, try to find out a smooth way to do it privately and if you can give accolades in public, go for it. We have a Service of Excellence program here where you can do it on a card and they all get posted for all to see. Now while teaching, you still want to try to follow this rule.  But remember, some people are more accepting of compliments, good and bad, than others. In a group setting, it’s easy just to pull the group in and talk to them as a group if you see some common issues between, even only a few players. Or, you can pull someone aside during ball pick up and explain to them what want to see different. Even when discipline players, pull them aside and do it privately. I remember I had a group of cocky high school kids when I first started and they were not into conditioning in class at all and one time one of the players said, we didn’t pay to be conditioned, we paid for tennis.  My response was, you just paid to sit in my office and call your mom and tell her why you are in there, if you can beat me to it. Now I said that in front of the group and probably shouldn’t have, but you can gauge that.  The rest of the class conditioned without any complaints. When it comes to praising someone, say it out loud in class, that only will motivate others to want to try to do the same.  But be careful that you just don’t do it to one person the whole time because then that can cause some issues for sure, because now it looks like you are favoring players and that is not a good thing either. The key for me, and this was a bit harder, was to know where everyone was in their development. We used to do a variety of exercises when it came to conditioning Now there was on kid that could only do ONE pushup but after  10 weeks he improved by 1000% (he could do 10) so there was a lot of room for praise in public and he won the Ironman award for most improved, even though he still did fewer than anyone. Now, in a private, it’s fairly easy because It’s only you and them, but I found out to get someone to be more receptive to criticism, praise them first and then tell them what they need to do differently and why. Now this might seem a bit like the command coach, so how would a cooperative coach do it? Well a cooperative coach might ask open ended questions to get the player to come to the conclusion, like…… Why do you think most of your shots are going long? Now if they have a definite answer,  right or wrong, go back and actually test it out on court.  Let them use the process of elimination until they get it and if they do not choose your correction, find a way to get them to bring it out. Just get to know your players to make the learning more efficient. Bottom Line: be sensitive to those around you that you work with and who you coach.  If you treat them as you want to be treated, then it should make for a great environment.