The welcoming ritual and how it correlates to a teams success
In 2017, the Green Bay Packers signed Robert Tonyan to their practice squad after he had gone undrafted and then was cut by the Detroit Lions during the preseason. According to Tonyan, he was the new guy in town and definitely the low man on the totem pole. Despite that, Tonyan wrote this describing his first day on the job: “I got to the facility early, checked in, and immediately — like as soon as I got there — the quarterback comes right up to me and shakes my hand. ‘Hey, I’m Aaron. Welcome!’”
Rather than reverting to negative forms of initiation, such as hazing (that often embarrass, degrade and makes others uncomfortable), Rodgers chose to display a more positive, transformational style of leadership by welcoming his new teammate even before he had a chance to “prove himself” on the field as an athlete. This sort of approach to leadership can go a long way in making others feel appreciated, and it offers sport teams a critical competitive advantage. Making new team members feel welcome allows them to get past any initial fear or nervousness he or she may be experiencing. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, all human beings (even professional athletes) must feel accepted and experience recognition from others before they can achieve peak performance. Therefore, overall team performance is tied to how newcomers are made to feel as he or she can not play at their best until they feel part of the team!
Transformational leaders act with empathy and consider what it would be like to be a new member on a team rather than giving them a hard time. On your team (sport, business, or family), what sort of positive initiation/welcoming ritual do you use? Remember, not only is welcoming a new team member the right thing to do, but it also impacts the overall performance of the team.
Coach Nelson holds a doctorate in sport and performance psychology and currently serves as a high school football coach. He has worked for multiple professional sport franchises, a Fortune 100 Company, a division 1 athletic departments and has won numerous awards for his LEADership abilities.
His mission is to positively influence the world through Love, Effort, Attitude and Discipline (#LEAD). To learn more about the LEAD philosophy follow him on Twitter Levi Nelson or reach out via email at rln10@zips.uakron.edu He’d love to learn about or help you in your journey!
PCA: https://www.positivecoach.org/team/nelson-levi/
This following resources were used to create this post:
Hoption, C., Phelan, J., & Barling, J. (2014). Transformational Leadership In Sport, M. A., & Beauchamp, M. R., (Eds.), Group dynamics in exercise and sport psychology (pp. 3–20). New York, NY: Routledge.
Mathes, E. W. (1981). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a Guide for Living. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 21(4), 69–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/002216788102100406
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/green-bay-packers-robert-tonyan-jr-football
Thompson, J. (2003). The double-goal coach: Positive coaching tools for honoring the game and developing winners in sports and life. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers ISBN-13: 978–0060505318
