When was the last time you have taken a good hard look at your coach's office and the culture you are creating inside of it?

To be clear, by coaches office I am referring to individual offices as well as any common area where staff and players congregate.

Your office is a direct reflection of you, and trust can easily be won and lost by the appearance and the energy of your office. What do your offices say about you, your philosophy, your style, and your program?

Your office culture can be directly tied to the performance of your program. Could you use a few more wins this season? Make a change to your office and you give yourself a better opportunity to do so.

Although there is plenty of ways to improve the culture of the coaches office, let’s address three powerful things you can do today.

1. Appearance is Everything

For most of you, your offices are not located in the suites high above your school's stadium. They most likely are in modest places such as the locker room, weight room, the gym, or even your classroom.

Regardless of where it is, giving your office attention and making it look, smell, and feel welcoming is extremely important. What feelings would come up for you if you walked into your doctor's office and found gauze pads spread out on the counter, old needles in a pile, and a bunch of notes scribbled on a whiteboard? You would probably have a huge lack of trust and ready to find a new doctor. 

A common challenge I see is a coaches office often does not match the philosophy and words they are using on the field.

Now imagine the internal conflict young players have when their coach on the field is stressing being organized and prepared, but when they step into their office the opposite is true. It is messy and disorganized. Now consider what a player thinks when papers are littered on your desk, extra equipment is spread across your floor,

2. Live in the Present

If I stepped into your office would I be inspired to play for you?

Having your championship banners and trophies grace your office shows your programs successful past, however, what purpose do they really serve in the present moment?

Instead of showering your office with the past, which is really just serving the ego, create a space full of inspiration, success, and excellence relevant to this year's team and this space and time.

Since energy flows where attention goes, add to your office motivational quotes and inspirational phrases. Put up pictures of people who have made a profound impact on your life or on our society. With each picture comes a story, one that will be passed on from season to season as veterans tell your stories to the newbies.

Have your family present in your office so your players can see your intimate and loving side. Share this side of you, and ask them questions about themselves. This open dialogue helps you listen and learn about your players so you can better understand and lead them.

3. Office Language Must Change

I’ll be honest, this is the one thing I wish I could snap my fingers and change for every program across the country.

It is concerning why coaches continue to feel talking poorly about their players behind closed doors is acceptable and permit-able in a program. When coaches get together to talk about personal and the overall team, I still hear them calling players derogatory names, judging them, and expressing negative energy towards a player or a player’s performance.

This negatively, jokingly or not, is carried over into coaching of your athletes. You cannot help it. By talking negatively about someone behind their back, you cannot expect to come from a place of positivity and support when having to lead them on the field.

Players are going to make mistakes, and there are going to be some who you just do not relate to, however, in a position of leadership it is your job to help your players find what they are good at as well as what they need to get better at.

You need to work on cleaning up the language and attitude of your meetings and focusing on how you can positively help your players compete against themselves to get better every day. For some, it may be how to get their gear on properly, others it may be improving some advanced mechanics. By chalking up a player as worthless, stupid, or an idiot, is a waste of your time and theirs. They are none of these, they simply need to learn the skills to overcome their challenges.

As founder of The Recovering Athlete™, Cletus Coffey teaches and trains coaches, teams, athletes and professionals how to take skills and success learned on the field and apply it to life off the field. As a former defensive back/receiver in the CFL and Arena Football League, and as a first team all- conference football player and a college decathlete at Lewis & Clark College, he faced even bigger challenges once his athletic career was over. By combining his success as a professional athlete and a business/industry expert, he now helps others win at the game of life, not just sports. To connect with Cletus Coffey, email him  info@cletuscoffey.com and listen to his podcast here.