ENCOURAGEMENT

"GREAT JOB!" "YOU CAN DO IT!" "WELL DONE!" It always feels good to hear affirmative phrases like these from people we respect when taking on a difficult challenge. The encouragement that we give and receive from each other plays a role in our confidence and our motivation. When we hear encouragment, two things happen - 1) we recognize that somebody else values the work we are doing and 2) they believe we are capable of doing that work well. When considering those two ends, the means that naturally come to mind are positive, uplifting phrases that make us feel good inside. Does that always have to be the case?

Last week, Bobby Knight resigned from coaching at Texas Tech University. Whenever Bobby Knight makes news it calls into question all of the antics that have made this Hall of Fame coach famous (or infamous) in the American sports arena. On ESPN, I was watching a video montage of Knight's coaching experience and comments from some of the men that played for him. There was the 1985 incident where Knight threw a chair across a court... There were the obscenity laiden post-game tyrades ... and there was the time Knight choked one of his players during a 1997 practice. I don't think anyone would mistake these incidents for acts of encouragement. However, No one who has seen Knight coach can deny how passionately committed he is to playing basketball the right way or that he firmly believes his players will succeed by proper ball movement, unselfish play, and tenacious defense.

I am not going to suggest that Knight's use of insulting, sarcastic, and abusive tactics for teaching are more effective than affirmative, positive, confidence-building strategies. I am suggesting, however, that encouragment doesn't need to leave you feeling all fuzzy inside all the time. Holding a teammate to a high standard is encouraging. Telling them that the effort that they are giving is less than what they are capable is encouraging. Pushing them compeitively to bring their best everyday is encouraging. In all of these cases, someone we respect shows us that what are doing is important and that they believe in our ability to do that work well.

Encouragement is a value of our Core Covenant because we believe it is important to support each other and to celebrate each other's successes. Getting excited when a teammate gets a block or calling out an incredible effort in pursuit of a ball is easy. We also believe that encouragement means holding each other to a high standard. That is often more difficult, but it is a true sign of how committed we all are to the standards we have for each other. We respect each other, we believe that our standards are important, and we believe that we can achieve them through encouragement.

TRUST

One of my favorite movies is Field of Dreams. In this baseball movie, Kevin Costner follows the urging of a mysterious voice to build a baseball field on his farm. He does this at a great expense, almost losing his home and life's savings, but trusts the voice, believing that in building the field he will help heal the wounds of missed opportunity for many individuals, past and present. He realizes, however, that the wounds he heals most of all are his own - reconnecting with his estranged father.

Whenever I watch this movie, I can't stop thinking about the amazing amount of trust that Costner's character placed in the voice. To do something so illogical without any guarantee of a pay-off takes incredible trust. For his wife to support him through the construction, the travel and the sacrifice, took even more trust because she never even heard "the voice." It would have been easier to cut some corners in building the field... not putting in lights or bleachers, saving more of the farm by making the field smaller than regulation, but there was no half-hearted effort here. He didn't go half-way to make sure that there would be a pay-off before finishing off the field. He was "all in" from the beginning. That sounds like more than trust to me... it sounds like faith.

Having trust in each other is more difficult than in this fictional reality of Hollywood (or Iowa). It takes time, a willingness to take risks, and most of all, it takes resposibility. It is a lot easier to trust someone who has an "all in" approach and demonstrates that commitment regardless of what pay-offs they see and when they see them. Trust is a requirement for this team because it demonstrates that our success is the responsibility of every individual member. If we take that responsibility, then we leave regret and doubt out of our gym. We trust that we have done everything possible to position ourselves for success and many times, as in the movie, the rewards are more than we could have possibly expected.