Developing a Championship Attitude

I spent one morning doing a mental game workshop with the Miami Dolphins coaching staff to talk about developing teamwork and a championship attitude. What a great experience and a dream come true for me. In my preparation for the seminar, I did some research on the topic of a “championship attitude,” which I would like to share with you. From my point of view, you first must develop a championship attitude before you can become a championship team.

“Winning stems from commitment, and commitment begins with attitude.”
--Dennis Green

What is a championship attitude? A championship attitude is one in which the team members have a shared goal, collective will, are unselfish with personal goals, and are proud to wear the team uniform. In this newsletter, I share a few of the qualities of a championship team attitude:

(1) Leadership from within the team. Most championship teams develop an internal leadership structure in which two or more players act as the leaders of the team, such as Larry Bird was for the Celtics. This is a very power force for the team because the leaders set the standards in practice and games by example instead of the coach having to tell everyone how to behave.

(2) Team goals are more important than individual ones. Individual players are able to sacrifice their trophies and personal goals and adopt the team goals. Having a shared goal is the only way to develop team unity and have teamwork.

(3) Elevated expectations or self-confidence. Any championship team has the belief that they are ready, willing, and able to win the big one. If a team has doubts about it’s overall ability level, then the team will fall short of winning the championship. If you think your team can get to the playoffs, but not win the big game, then the team will realize this shortfall.

(4) No excuses to lose. I tell athletes I work with that if you show up to play with excuses to lose, then you might as well not show up to play. If you think your team does not play well under the lights, against a particular team, or when the conditions are not optimal, then you have excuses to lose. Championship teams don’t have built-in excuses to lose—they expect to win and will settle for nothing less.