Work Day: Constructive Evaluation

Tuesdays are work days in the life of a college quarterback and football team. Its the first chance in the week to get out at practice and do some serious hitting and working on technique. There is no substitute for being able to practice at full speed. And the techniques and ‘every day drills’ that have been rehearsed and practiced are now put to the test in this heavy day of practice.

One thing about football, or sports in general, is that there is always feedback that is going on, after every play and every drill. This feedback from coaches and players can be positive, negative, constructive and destructive. The type of feedback given can effect each player differently and drive him to succeed, or to despair and quit. During this heavy day of drills, a large amount of feedback and evaluation is given to the team and to players about what they need to do in order to be more successful in the upcoming game.

John Madden has a great quote that says, “Coaches have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen to what they don’t want to hear.” As a coach, you have to invest time and energy into examining the weaknesses of your team and finding out ways to improve upon their individual and team skills. Developing and moving in a postive and upward direction is the only chance that your team has to be successful. Being able to evaluate progress and make adjustments is cruical to a team’s development.

Evaluation in the business world and in the family are also important skills to be learned. As humans, we are constantly striving, and constantly falling short. But our striving occasionally attains measures of perfection or success. It is this attempt to become better and improve that is the hallmark of human achievement and personal success. Constantly evaluating and giving feedback in the home and at work can move you and others into a better position to be successful.

Giving feedback and evaluating can be a delicate process and is different for every person. You must understand your personnel and their personalities, how they respond to criticism and remember the end goal: to help them be successful. As a player, I welcomed criticism and honesty from my coaches, and the times when they would consciously and effectively give me things to work on and to improve upon, I responded well and made good strides. But useless yelling and derrogatory haranguing were just a loud obnoxious noise in many of our ears, and we were not willing to respond to such criticism.

Being able to effectively evaluate and constructively analyze your strengths and weaknesses on a regular basis can give you an opportunity to improve and to become better, each and every day.