Ownership…
Coaches love this word, eh?
Just like “culture” and “first principles”, the more we sling this word around all willy-nilly, the less meaning it has. More on that, in this piece.
When coaches tell players to “own it” at certain levels of hockey…
It doesn’t always land. I’ve given a lot of thought to this idea of ownership after a phone call with a minor pro hockey player.
Here are some thoughts on how you might do it “different and better.”
Thought Experiment
Let’s paint a picture before I start throwing daggers.
Imagine you’re the head of a startup business in Silicon Valley…
You need to attract “A-Players” to come work for you in order for this thing to get off the ground.
How would you go about that?
Think about it before reading on…
What incentives can you dangle in front of recruits to entice them to:
Join your team
Work really fucking hard to see the business have “success”
The Solution Starts with “E”
Equity is the answer.
Equity is real ownership.
Not the stuff coaches talk about to their players while planning to cut them in 2 weeks:
If you own a small part of a company like Uber because you were on the team early, wouldn’t you work to a different level than an employee that doesn’t have equity?
Why is ownership such a powerful incentive?
It creates mission alignment. The academics call it task-cohesion… (sorry, just threw up a bit after I used that term)
Here’s a quote from a deeper dive on this:
In short, having equity in a company means that you have a stake in the business you’re helping to build and grow. You’re also incentivized to grow the company’s value in the same way founders and investors are. To quote Fred Wilson, founder of Union Square Ventures and blogger on AVC.com, employee equity “reinforces that everyone is on the team, everyone is sharing in the gains, and everyone is a shareholder.”
And I know what you’re saying…
“Drew, owners of ECHL teams can’t just hand out bits and pieces of organizational stake to the players. It’s impractical and probably not allowed.”
And I’ll say, duh.
But then I’ll pose another question to you:
You Can’t Own What Isn’t “Yours”
If a minor pro players is on a team in Knoxville for 4 games, gets traded to Roanoke for a weekend and then finishes the season in Pensacola, how can you be a part of anything? All 3 of the coaches you had at those stops probably told you to “own it”.
And your response as a player should be, “how am I supposed to do that?”
As a coach you can’t give them equity, but there is another way to get them to “buy-in.”
Let me end with one idea that isn’t mine and a 2nd crazy idea that is mine…
Create Ownership Like Lalonde
Michigan guy and resident Wings fan my whole life. So I’m keeping up with what is going on there.
Here’s a way Derek Lalonde allows for ownership with the Red Wings.
During training camp, he pulled his leadership group into a meeting room.
They struggled with back-to-backs in the previous season and the new coach wanted to open a discussion about it with the players.
Then he did something crazy… I mean New Wave…
He said, “How do you guys want to handle back-to-back games this year when the first game is at home?”
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