The Need for Coaching your Star Performers

When I was coaching Little League, I had a player named Lizzie who was the best player on the team. Highly skilled and a great teammate, great attitude, coachable, and never caused an issue. She was a true pleasure to be around.

Now, in a game that we needed to win to remain in the playoff hunt, we were in the field. We were winning by three runs at the time. The other team had players on First Base and Second Base with two outs. So, I yelled to my First Baseman, “If the ball is hit to you, step on First.” I yell to my shortstop and second baseman, “If the ball is hit to you, get the out at Second.” I don’t say anything to Lizzie who is playing Third Base because Lizzie is my best player and she knows what to do. She knows that if the ball is hit to her that all she needs to do is step on Third Base and we’re out of the inning.

So, what happens next is that the batter hits the ball to Lizzie. I’m thinking this is great because the ball was hit to my best player. Now Lizzie will take two steps back, step on Third Base, and we’re out of the inning, three run lead intact. Beautiful. However, Lizzie had other plans. Lizzie fielded the ball, and instead of stepping back to get the force out at Third Base, she threw the ball across the infield to get the out at First Base, and sailed the ball over the First Baseman’s head. So now, I have a player on second, and two runs in, and our three run lead has evaporated to one run. Luckily for us the next player for the other team struck out, and the inning was over and we were still in the lead.

At the end of the inning, Lizzie was running off of the field, she ran over to me and said, “I’m sorry Coach.” 

Now, a lot of coaches, would have viewed this situation as a player failure and reacted as such. But I saw it differently. This was my coaching failure. I didn’t tell Lizzie what to do in this situation if the ball was hit to her. I took it for granted that she knew what to do. So instead of telling her something trite like, “don’t worry about it,” or, “it’s ok, but don’t do it again,” I responded to her by saying, “No Lizzie, I’m sorry. I didn’t do my job as a coach. I didn’t prepare you to make the right play. This is on me.”

How many times have we as managers and leaders, took our stars for granted, and then wondered what happened when they messed up or did the wrong thing? Did we look inward to see what as managers and leaders we could have done to prevent what happened? Did we provide the right coaching?

Listen, our stars are stars for a reason. They’re committed, knowledgeable, and hard working people. That doesn’t mean that they don’t need coaching like people who may not be performing at their level. It is incumbent upon us as leaders that we need to set up our people for success. Don’t forget about your stars.

Finally, I apologize for not posting in a while, especially after I committed to posting each week. I understand that if I am going to commit to doing this I need to budget my time better in order for me to make the time to engage in this endeavor. Therefore, I do again pledge that I will post each week unless in advance, I let you know otherwise. Thanks for reading and your continued support.

Be well.