Everything we do as a team must have an order to it. After all my years of coaching this remains my firm belief. When I coached football everything was to be done a certain way at a certain time, and nothing was to be freelanced, or basically just made up as we went along.

At the beginning of every season, we would have a team meeting, including the parents, to review team rules and expectations. The team consisted of coaches, players, parents. We were all part of the team!

Every team has to have a leader; that leader has to set the tone for that team. In other words, the leader has to clearly communicate what is expected and not expected of every team member. If this doesn’t happen, the leader can expect chaos to occur somewhere down the road.

The head football coach is the leader of the football team. In my opinion, the leader better make sure that everyone is aware of that fact! If he doesn’t he can expect chaos to break loose somewhere down the road and that’s a real bumpy road.

Clear communication to everyone on the team about their specific role is critical. They must know that role and know they can not deviate from their specific role. In other words, do what you are supposed to do and not what someone else is supposed to do. Do your job. Does that sound familiar?

When I coached, I communicated as clearly as possible at our team meetings to emphasize what everyone’s specific role or job was for that season. I kept it very plain and simple.

The specific roles were Coaches Coach, Players Play, Parents Parent. Now, I didn’t think I could make it any clearer than that. As a matter of fact, I would specifically ask everyone during the meeting if they understood their specific roles, and if they had any questions about their specific roles. I’m not saying that as the season went on everyone always did their specific roles, but that was handled on a case-by-case basis.

To me, when any of the three specific roles gets out of whack, bad things happen.

Parents Coach equals ‘not good.’ Coaches Parent (which sometimes happens) equals ‘not good.’ Players Confused by Parent Conflict with Coaches equals ‘not good.’ Coaches Coach, Players Play, Parents Parent equals good!

No matter what you do in life, you have to have a clearly communicated set of guidelines to follow to keep things in an orderly fashion. I for one don’t want chaos to break out when I am leading, or at any time, for that matter. Truth be told neither do you.

You must figure out what those guidelines are, then communicate them clearly. Most importantly, you must have the guts to live by your guidelines. Be assured, somewhere down the line,  you will have to back them up. There will always be people who will force you to make them understand the guidelines. In my opinion, those individuals have to be made to understand that they have two choices—get with the program or get out of the program.

It’s really pretty simple. As the head football coach or leader, set your guidelines in a clear concise manner and make sure everyone involved with the team understands and follows the guidelines of Coaches Coach, Players Play, Parents Parent.

This article is Takeaway #26 from the book, ‘Game Ready’ – 52 Takeaways for Winning! , by Coach Mickey Marley. Coach Marley is a 38 year football coaching veteran in West Tennessee.

The book includes short, concise Insights that fit any sport, profession and life in general and can make any individual, staff, leadership team, program and organization better!

‘Game Ready’ 52 Takeaways for Winning! includes a Forward by Phillip Fulmer and has been endorsed by the Tennessee Football Coaches Association.

Visit Coach Marley’s web site at http://coachmickeymarley.com