TrueSport Expert Series: Nadia Kyba, MSW, on Value-Driven Behavior

Nadia Kyba: Value-driven behavior are behaviors that people adapt that are based on their core values. So, when we believe certain things and we’re raised with certain values, our behaviors come out of that. For example, if one of my family’s values is hard work and I believe that hard work is an important part of who I am, my behavior, coming out of that value, would be that I would give it my all when I go to work every day, or if I’m on a sports team, I would try my hardest. So, that’s an example of values-driven behavior.

When coaches and athletes and different people who contribute to a team are able to understand the values of individuals who make up the team, they can leverage the diversity that they bring to the team and make the team stronger. So, an example of that might be that, if there’s an athlete on the team and one of their core values is courage, and that’s really important to them, and they demonstrate courageous behavior all the time, maybe they speak up when they see something that’s happening that they don’t agree with, maybe they take risks in the sport that they’re participating in, which really helps the team to progress, or maybe they get involved in public speaking and represent the team publicly. When a team knows that that individual has that as a value, they’re more apt to ask that individual to fill that role. Understanding our teammates core values really help us to understand how they can contribute to make the team that much better.

If a coach were to develop a code of ethics and individuals who are on the team do not see their personal values reflected in that code of ethics, it might be hard for them to align their personal goals with the team goals. And oftentimes on teams, that’s where we see conflict come into play. If everybody is not aligned on a team goal, it’s very difficult for a team to function at a high level and for athletes to have a positive experience in sports.

As a social worker, one of the things that I like to do, and sort of a social work practice, is to use a process where we define a team’s value, and the way that we do this, is to really dig in with the individuals on the team and help them to understand what their own personal values are. So, if individuals have several different values that are important to them and that guide their behavior in life, we help them to narrow it down to two or three values. And, an exercise that can be very helpful for a team to understand each other and understand individual values is to get team members to write down their two or three top values, individual or personal values, and then make a big list of all of the team’s values, and from that list, narrow it down into a team’s top four or five values. And from there you can start to look at how those values are going to shape the way that the team is going to show up in competition and outside of competition.

Hard work could be an individual value, and perhaps a team will also adopt that as a team value. So, when we’re thinking about linking values to behavior, hard work might show up in a team practice as punctuality. So, a coach might have an expectation that the team arrive at practice 15 minutes early, enough time to get their shoes on and be ready to go at the time that the practice starts at, and, so that then becomes a team guideline. And then when we transfer that to different contexts that the team would show up in, if there’s an athlete who’s involved in a car pool, and the team value is hard work and we’re thinking about the behavior of punctuality, that athlete is waiting outside of the house for the carpool to pick them up. So, when we think about it that way, we really are able to connect meaningful behavior back to personal beliefs and values that make sense to all of the team members.

The other piece of that that’s really important is that, if there are problems on a team down the road, which inevitably there are because conflict’s a very natural part of being on any team, a coach or another athlete are able then to address whatever the problem is by reflecting back on the listed team guidelines that have been developed by the team. So, if behaviors aren’t matching up with guidelines, it’s much easier to say, “Hey, we had an agreement about hard work and what that was supposed to look like was punctuality and being at practice 15 minutes before. I noticed that you were actually here five minutes before and you weren’t ready to go when the practice started. What’s happening for you?” Teams who are able to have those explicit conversations about how their personal values show up in behaviors, are able to function at a much higher level than teams who don’t. They’re able to understand their teammates, they’re able to understand what makes their teammates tick, and then they’re able to leverage some of those strengths that their teammates have when they’re in competition, as well as when they’re in the community or at school. And it’s a great thing when coaches create those opportunities for teams to come together and have some of those explicit conversations and come to some of those agreements when they’re forming guidelines.