Make them feel Special and reap the rewards

Over the last two weeks I have worked with 5 different school boy sides from two different sports and some interesting things have occurred to me. In fact numerous things have, but the most marked thing for me therefore, is that if you treat people like they are special, they will often produce special things. Simplistic as it may sound; it rings incredibly true in my mind. Although these guys are at a youthful stage in their life, and you may feel that it is not relevant in the stressful adult environment I feel some common traits can be identified. Pushing new limits, and making it appear that people are gaining extra insight, or are just plain made to feel like superstars, can often have a massive effect.

Psychological studies have been done indicating that just by giving special attention to people, the results that they produce are often of a greater quality. The Hawthorne effect is a known piece of research that shows that people will often perform to greater heights in an experiment situation, as they know that they are being studied, and not for any reason of ability. This has similarities, in my mind, to the notion that increased attention, more specifically positive attention, can produce better performance. As mentioned in a previous article, the more work you put in, the more you are likely to get out, but now I’m also saying that the more positive attention given to players, the more they are likely to put out.

The teams I have recently worked with have done fairly well in the short term. As much as I’d love to attribute this solely to my influence, I’d be a fool to do this. In fact, just by the fact of the team getting someone new in who has a field of expertise that they believe helps their play, their play will improve. On a conscious or subconscious level they feel that they may indeed be better prepared than their opponents thus increasing their confidence. Obviously the information they have learnt about themselves and the added motivation such sessions often bring will also play a part in the improved performance, but I believe the idea of increased attention and making them feel special may be the key factor.

Having seen these teams being pampered and given everything they can possibly want, has shown me that although some people battle to give out too much praise, or don’ t like to have to put in too much ‘extra’ work, this can often be the difference between success and failure. Yes, technical expertise is crucial, but in a competitive world you often find that the more special you can make people feel and the extra mile that you go for your players and colleagues, is far more likely to produce the desired results. Therefore I say - do things differently and make people feel more special with new ideas, harder work or just plain praise and you will be amazed at what comes out.
T