Coaches are the biggest culprits. Why do they answer the simplest questions with cliché-laden paragraphs packed with tons of words that manage to communicate nothing at all? Don’t know what I mean? Here’s a classic clip involving Seattle Seahawks head coach, Pete Carroll, talking endlessly and saying absolutely nothing.
From what I gather, coaches use coach babble for one of at least three reasons:
1. Fishing for Words. Coaches often ramble because they are unable to find the precise set of words to answer a question briefly. Legendary coaches like Knute Rockne aside, most are not widely regarded as word connoisseurs, so they’re forced to expend extra words while circling around the point they wish to slam home. I refer to this as the “we won’t run into them at a MENSA meeting” reason for coach babble.
2. Mimicking Others. This is the one that burns me the most, and I think it’s the biggest cause of this coaches’ epidemic. Who wrote the coaching manual that coaches are required to read before taking the job? Coach speak includes:
· “we just need to take this one game at a time”
· “we just need to take care of what we can control”
· “we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves”
· “we’re just going to approach this game like it’s any other”
The only explanation for the incessant use of throwaway phrases like these is that coaches think you have to say them to be considered a real coach. Coaches also pace the sidelines, animatedly holler at referees, and publicly debase their players on national television. They do as the other coaches do. Ever hear one of those over-the-top mic’d up pre-game locker room speeches? Please. (Incidentally, is there any reason why more coaches don’t mimic John Wooden, arguably the best coach that’s ever lived? Who was at one point, notably, an English teacher!)
3. Withholding Info. Giving coaches the greatest credit possible would be to position their babble as a strategic way of not revealing game plans or team-specific secrets. Ok, stop laughing. Mike Krzyzewski and Joe Torre appear to deliberately reveal very little about what goes on behind their proverbial curtains during their interviews, and yet they answer every question at length.
Costs of Talking Much, Saying Nothing
Who cares, right? What about corporate managers who do the very same thing? Are there costs to those who lean too heavily on coach—or manager—babble when communicating with their teams? (Click here to see a great list of classic manager babble phrases.) Here are a few:
1. Diluted Message. The more words you say to get your points across, the less likely it is that people will actually get the message you’re trying to communicate.
2. Employee Tune-Out. If you regularly fly into predictable manager babble, employees will inevitably turn their focus somewhere else. It’s not personal. They’re acting efficiently! If you’re delivering a same song and dance routine they’ve heard countless times, your people will find ways to make better use of their time. They know they’re not missing anything substantive if you’re talking but saying nothing.
3. Disconnectedness. In my company’s employee surveys we conduct with clients, among the most sought after qualities in a leader employees list is “realness.” Tough to be real when you’re constantly recycling other people's words and trying to be someone other than yourself.
Your team doesn’t need you to be Knute Rockne. But a little forethought about what your core message is and how you plan to say it—in your own words!— can go a long way toward tightening your message, keeping your employees engaged and focused, and connecting with them in a real and meaningful way.
About Sean O'Neil
Sean O’Neil is an expert in workplace and team dynamics. He is also Principal and CEO of One to One Leadership (www.one2oneleadership.com), a sales and management training firm with clients that include the National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, News Corporation, First Data, ADP, Xerox, the Oakland Raiders and the New York Knicks. Sean and John Kulisek co-authored Bare Knuckle People Management: Creating Success with the Team You Have – Winners, Losers, Misfits and All, which is due to be published in May 2011. Sean has contributed to or been featured in, among others, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Selling Power Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He can also frequently be seen pacing the sidelines of a youth team he’s coaching.
