When I was in my first coaching job fresh out of college hockey I used to hold classroom sessions where we'd hold what I called pre-emptive strikes. I barely knew what I was doing (still don't) but here I am 20 years later and the topic of derailers comes up in the spring of '24 during Amanda Blanck's presentation at TCS Live. 

What can disrupt your season? What can get in the way of success? What does failure look like and how do we avoid it?

Back then I wanted to get in front of any possible outcomes that would make my life as a coach difficult. These days I understand that difficult times and challenges are the name of the game, so I embrace them when they come up. But the concept remains: how can we identify problems before they rear their ugly heads?

Blanck's four fears of leadership are:

• Threat: what might threaten your success?
• Failure: what does failure look like in any given situation?
• Self Worth: how do you measure yourself?
• Exclusion: oh god is everyone talking about me

A lot of our fears end up fizzling out, but the fact we have fears as coaches and leaders is a worthy conversation. It's something we shouldn't hide from - our worries can inform the future and inform our process. I'm currently with a new team and I've found I've been fairly reactive during the first half of the season. Maybe I didn't have time to ponder this potential problem early on, but it's just a fact of the role for me at this point. Yeah, shoulda been more dictative, but I wasn't, so now what? What does failure look like moving forward? 

Failure is failing to act on this realization. The threat to our operation is doing things the way they've always been done. My self worth is measured in bringing new ideas and doing things differently. Exclusion? I don't think I care about that. As long as the players and the organization are on the same page then that's all that matters. 

Pressure is a privilege. The obstacle is the way. Identity the threats before they wake up.

Check out this snippet from Blanck's presentation and view the full video here a membership to The Coaches Site.