What Are Your Boundaries?

Legendary University of Connecticut Women's Basketball Coach Geno Auriemma has admitted he struggles dealing with the newest generation of parents and players. It’s easy to dismiss him as “old school,” as not being in touch with the latest behavioral trends. But that’s not fair.

Auriemma has established boundaries to teach his team to win — and anyone who does not adhere to these will not play, regardless of talent. Auriemma recruits players who are enthusiastic, upbeat, love life and crave knowledge, even though, as he mentions in the video, finding ones who demonstrate these qualities is harder than it’s ever been. Young players observe professional players acting cool, not engaged, and feel they should emulate that behavior.

Author Jamie Gilbert addresses Auriemma's concerns in his book “The Principle Circle.”

“Practicing with the team is a privilege, not a right. In order to have that privilege, people need to meet certain standards of timeliness, effort, attitude and communication. Enforcing those healthy boundaries allows coaches to focus on essential pieces of growth and development —instead of putting out fires — and it creates a culture where the players have the power to choose. This not only elicits the best results, but it gets to the mission of equipping people for life.”

We as leaders must set the boundaries; we must teach those we lead what the standards of the program are. If you don’t have them, then, in essence, you’re not a team. You’ve instead become a collection of talented people who operate with their own rules that benefit themselves, not the group. And if you don’t enforce the boundaries, if you don’t set consequences, you’re not a leader. You’re simply an organizer.

It’s not old school to teach how to win; it’s not out of touch to stress the fundamentals or the details. They’re timeless — and unless we establish those parameters initially, how can we ever expect players to change their ways?

Remember, establishing standards for your organization is not power-hungry; it's culture-hungry. And culture wins every time.