Volume 20, Issue 1 | September 1, 2020
What Are Your Core Values?
With two national championships in the past four seasons, the Villanova men's basketball program is one of the very best in the nation. So what's the key to their success? As Head Coach Jay Wright details in the video above, the team has established a set of core values that coaches and student-athletes adhere to both on and off the court. For Villanova, those values make up the Villanova Triangle, a visual that features prominently in the team's gym and embodies the team's philosphy. As Wright notes, these are also the measures by which the team evaluates itself after each game, win or lose.

Leadership guru Patrick Lencioni defines core values as "the deeply engrained principles that guide all of a (group's) actions." Establishing these values are critical for athletic teams at every level. As the Villanova example above demonstrates, these can be simple: focused on principles such as the effort or attitude put forth by the team or the way that athletes treat teammates and opponents. Coaches should help to develop these values, but as teams get older it's important that team members are also involved in the process of naming these values and assuring that everyone upholds them.

What are your team's core values? If you don't have these outlined, take a moment to consider them now and discuss this at your next practice. Once established, return to these values frequently and use them to evaluate your performance following practices and games. Doing so will develop an identity within your team and create practices that will help your athletes and team to grow into Champions.

Learn more about Jay Wright's core values in his book Attitude: Develop a Winning Mindset on and off the Court.
GROW: The Core Values of a Champion
The Play Like a Champion philosophy features an approach to developing Champions that provides an excellent road-map to establishing core values on your team. Rooted in the Cardinal Virtues, the GROW Approach emphasizes the importance of Goals + Relationships + Ownership in building a Winning team. Each of these elements contains keys to helping athletes grow individually and collectively.

Recall that every team should set physical, mental and moral Goals that help them to develop and maintain skills and character during practices and games. Teams should also emphasize the importance of positive Relationships, treating teammates, coaches, opponents and officials with dignity and respect. By giving Ownership to athletes, coaches allow them to become invested in the team and grow as leaders. Together, these components lead to a true understanding of Winning; recognizing that while winning is certainly fun, the real joy of sport can be found in competition.

Coaches, review the GROW Approach and consider how you can improve in each of these areas on your team, or incorporate these elements into your team's core values. By following this simple equation, your athletes will be well on their way to becoming Champions in sport and in life.


Goals + Relationships + Ownership = Winning
The Quotable Coach
In putting together your standards, remember that it is essential to involve your entire team. Standards are not rules issued by the boss; they are a collective identity. Remember, standards are the things that you do all the time and the things for which you hold one another accountable.

~ Mike Krzyzewski
The Head Coach at Duke University, Krzyzewski is the winningest head coach in the history of Divison I Men's Basketball. He is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Play Like a Champion Today Educational Series
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