Football Culture Agreement

Derby Football Culture Agreement

“Inspired by the One Degree Compass”

Culture is a hot topic when organizations and teams look at their performance levels. Studies

have proven that the great organizations and teams who have a great culture within,

outperform their peers.

Glassdoor, a global jobs website, surveyed more than 5,000 adults to determine their priorities when it came to job satisfaction. According to the study, 56% of workers ranked a strong workplace culture as more important than salary, with more than three-in-four workers saying they’d consider a company’s culture before applying for a job there. Although corporate culture was a priority for the majority of respondents, it mattered more to younger adults.

We have a Culture Agreement for our football team at Derby High School. Our culture

agreement consists of 3 principals....

1. Whether you work on culture of you don’t, you still have one.

Every team or company has a culture whether they know it or not. It’s up to you as a leader

to develop the type of culture that you want. You are going to have a culture regardless of if

it’s a priority or not.

2. Culture isn’t what you say you do, it’s what you do.

We live in a social media driven world. We can get on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at

any given time, and find inspirational quotes and messages. Coaches all across the nation

are posting stuff on social media, mostly stolen from other coaches. You can walk into any

weight room or locker room and see motivational quotes plastered on the wall. Are you that

coach that posts quotes but doesn’t put it to action? Words inspire but those same words

are empty if there is no action behind them.

3. Our players will never be happier than our coaches.

We all have bad days once in a while. Some more often than others. Think about this... If

you walk onto the practice field and something made you madder than heck during the day,

and you take that attitude on the field..... How do you think your players will respond? Do

you think, even though their coach is madder than heck, screaming and yelling all practice,

that they will somehow be in a great mood and run through a wall for you? No! Think of it

this way... Say you walk into a gas station to get a fountain drink. You are greeted at the

cashier by and employee that starts screaming and yelling at you. Will that put you in a

good mood? Will that make you want to come back to that particular gas station to get

another fountain drink?

Culture Agreement Challenge

Talk to your coaches about the “Culture Agreement”. Let them understand that they help

drive culture whether it’s intentional or unintentional. Great Teams have great Cultures!