The topic for this week is what is the red team? AKA the cancers, the slackers, the bottom feeders, the renters. You know this concept, but do you have a name for it in your program? The reason you have to have a name for this in your program, so you can identify it and remove that type of behavior. That's just the power of language.
If you don't have a name, like the red team, you can't identify it. And if you can't identify that behavior, you can't remove it.
, what is the red team? In our language, the red team is when somebody is below the standards. Whatever those expectations or standards are. Let's say being on time to practice. You're not on time to practice. You're in the red team. If your expectation is to grow, give great effort in. Uh, conditioning grill, drill, and somebody doesn't give great effort in a conditioning drill. That's red team behavior. If the expectation is to be prepared for the game, maybe knowing your plays and a player shows up and doesn't know their plays, they didn't prepare that's red team behavior. If a player BCDs that is they blame others.
They complain about their circumstances or they defend losing behavior. That's red team. So, for example, they're late, but they blame their parents.
They're late, but they complained that the coach's in a bad mood and just picking on them. Or they're late, but they defend why it doesn't matter that they're on time. That's BCD. The question for us is as leaders, how do we handle the red team? The first thing you have to know. Is that your team has to have clear standards for everybody. Coach's think, Hey, on the first day I gave out a packet and it's set all the rules. That's not making it clear for everybody. As a leader, you might think I've talked to this person one time about that behavior.
That does not mean that it's clear for everybody.
If there aren't clear expectations for everyone on the team. You can't then turn and say, Hey, that's red or below the line behavior. It has to be clear up front to everybody. Those have to be in place. They have to be repeated and used on a daily basis by everybody, not just the coach. Not just the seniors, not just the captains by everybody.
And everyone has to speak that language.
At this point, ignorance, isn't a defense, a teammate. Can't say, I didn't know. It was important to be on time in this program because your program talks about it every day. And your coach may not. That's okay. That's why they have leaders like you on the team. And you start every practice with, Hey, great job being on time.
You guys know that's a big deal in our program. Always be five minutes early. Or everybody's on the bus on time. The coach may not say I'm going to praise that behavior because it's just what I expect. But you fist bump people and say, Hey, great job. Way to be on time. That's an expectation of our program. At that point, the next week, when a player shows up late for the bus, they can't say, oh, I didn't know what matter that I was on time.
I didn't know. That was a big deal. Because you have clear expectations and they're repeated every single day. And everyone on the team knows what those are. If you don't have those. Here's what you're going to hear. I didn't know where to be on time to practice. Coach never said that workout was required. I didn't think we had to show up to that.
I thought it was optional.
We have a term for red team, we have clear standards. Now, what do we do with red team behavior? This is the hardest part for student athletes to learn. Some of us, our knee-jerk reaction is we just remove the person. We remove the teammate, we cut the cancer out. We kick them off the team. There's a difference though, between removing the player and removing the behavior.
And while sometimes those can be the same. At first. What we want to try to do is remove the red team behavior. How is that different from removing the teammate? Well, the first time you're late as a leader. Should you get kicked off the team? The first time a guy misses an optional workout. Should they just be done for the season? Probably not. There might be a consequence for that.
Especially if you, as a leader, aren't meeting the expectations, you know, you're held to a higher standard than everybody else. But we want to change the behavior. Without necessarily having to get rid of the player. How do we do that? Well, the first thing to know is by tolerating that behavior you're encouraging it. And the analogy that I always think of is if you let this slide. You might as well go get a giant neon glowing sign that says, Hey, everybody. This team accepts X, Y, Z behavior. So let's say a player misses a practice on a Monday.
You have a game on Friday. And they still play. I don't care if they're the captain, the starter, the quarterback, the point guard. You might as well put up a giant glowing neon sign in your locker room that says, yeah, you can still start. If you miss a practice on Monday. Now that might be up to your coach to enforce. But you can always be a leader and say, Hey. You know, it's important to be on practice. You know, it's important to be at practice on time. And the expectation is you're there all week.
If you want to play. If you don't address it somehow. You might as well be saying, we accept that. What's tough is everybody says, oh, I hate confrontation. Or when I try to do that, people push back, listen to last week's episode. Season two episode four. When we talk about the cost of leadership, you said you were willing to pay that to get out of the sea of same or off the mountain of average.
You're going to get pushed back. So get over it. That's just part of being a leader. But we can be direct that is go have a talk specifically with that person specifically about that behavior. Without being a jerk. Now you will find in the adult world, this is a rare trait in leaders. One person will be late to work and everyone in the office will get a generic email.
Hey, remember to be on time. That does not work. That is not how leaders operate, especially when addressing red team behavior, you go straight to the source. The 24 people on time and practice do not need a lecture. About how important it is to be on time. The one guy or lady on your team who was late. He needs that, but not everybody else.
So be direct. How can I be direct without being confrontational? Here's some examples of red team behaviors. You see all the time. Somebody's late. Go to that person away from everybody else. After practice in the locker room on the bus ride home. And you could say, Hey. I saw that you came into practice late. Do you need a wake up call tomorrow?
You know, coach, isn't going to let that slide. That's direct. That's not a group text. Hey, everybody. Be on time tomorrow. That's straight to the source. Specifically about their behavior that day, but you're not being a jerk saying. Why can't you be on time or that's not good enough. You're just saying, Hey. Can I help you with that?
And if they're a good teammate, they'll appreciate that. Here's another one. If a player is complaining about playing time. They say, you know, oh, coach didn't let me get my minutes or I'm not in the rotation. And they say that in the locker room. You have to address that. Cause you know, that's not the standard of your team. So how can I be direct without being confrontational? You could say, you know, it doesn't help us when, when you are negative about your minutes.
So we're being direct. I'm glad you care about our team and the sport. So talk to coach about what you need to do in order to get more minutes. You know, we don't BCD about playing time here. That way, the person knows I'm going straight to them about their specific red team behavior, BC ding, about playing time. But I'm connecting it to, Hey, I know you want to win.
I know you care about our team. I know you care about this sport. So if you care so much, go talk to coach, see what's going on and fix it.
Another one. You'll see. Players vaping.
You see them on the bus? Uh, I've even had kids, I didn't know, during, but after the fact potentially vaping during halftime of a game, they're so addicted. So you're on the team you hear about this, you see it happen. You can't just let it slide. You can't just send a group text. Hey guys. Don't vape on bus trips. You go straight to the source and you tell the person. Hey, I know a lot of people vape, but we're athletes and we're held to a higher standard. You know, coach will bust you if he finds out. That way I'm being direct about the red team behavior.
I'm being specific to that person. But I'm not being a jerk. I'm not judging them. Like what kind of loser vapes? You're saying, Hey, you know, you're going to get in trouble and hopefully you do have a coach that would bust you if you're vaping. So you just remind him, like, dude, don't do that. You're going to get kicked off the team.
We're going to lose without you, whatever. Then it's not a confrontational talk, but it's still a direct talk.
If you're saying to yourself, but Coach Makelky, I don't want to confront teammates. What are the standards and do you really want to live up to those? Or they just a poster on the wall. Do you really want a team that's built on those standards as a leader? You have to be on a mission. And you have to be taking others with you. You can't be on a mission by yourself. And you can't just have a group of followers wandering around. To be a leader.
You have to be on a mission and taking others with you. You can't just meet those standards yourself. You have to pour courage into your teammates to get them to want to, or see themselves as the type of people who meet those standards as well. Pour that courage into them and get them to want to meet the standards. Once we've identified and confronted a red team behavior.
We have to allow teammates to make their own choices. You can't go through their bag every time they get on the bus and search them for vapes, you can't pick them up every single day and make sure they're on time to practice. You can't follow them in the locker room and make sure they don't BCD about playing time.
You have to step back as a leader and say, Hey, the standards were clear. This teammate's below them. That makes them red team. That behavior's red team. I specifically addressed it with that individual. And we talked about that particular behavior, not passive aggressively, not in a group chat or a remind message to the whole team.
I went straight to the source. Now you have to let them make their own decision. Next week. What we'll learn about is how do we address those red teammates who continually make red decisions? They keep vaping, they keep complaining. They keep showing up late. They keep skipping optional workouts. When they can't change or won't change their behavior on their own.
How do we handle that as leaders and where do we go from removing red behavior to removing red teammates?