An opinion on Accountability and Support in professional sports: Part One
The harsh conditions of playing in England for Aldershot Town, circa 2011.
This is the first of a two-part article that I wanted to touch on my views and experiences with accountability in professional football. In part one, I talk exclusively about my understanding of accountability, how coaching behaviours deploy accountability, as well as how accountability has influenced my own life.
Having worked in professional football since 2001, I have been exposed to many different coaching methodologies and philosophies. Previous managers that I have played for are Brendan Rodgers, Brian McDermot, Alan Pardew, Steve Coppell, Paul Lambert, Peter Taylor, Dean Holdsworth, John Aloisi, and Robbie Fowler. I think the time when I really started to be intrigued by coaching philosophy was during John Aloisi’s time with the Brisbane Roar and this coincided with me decided to start a PhD in this space. During this time, I began to think about how coaches manage to keep their players highly motivated. What is the thing that makes a coach effective in ensuring players perform when even the players are lacking motivation? It seems like this has been the secret that everyone is striving for in leadership since sport began.
The questions begs, how do coaches extract the most out of their players and why? In other words, how do coaches get athletes to perform? In my experience, we have to consider why performance is so important. It is clear to me that performing at a high level gives a greater probability of winning. Furthermore, the purpose of elite sport is to win, so it would seem that coaches and leaders would focus on this “winning process” to improve their chances of attaining a win. There are numerous ways to describe human motivation and their subsequent behaviours, such as Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset, Sophia Jowett’s Interdependence theory, and Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory. Within the many frameworks that exist to describe elite sporting culture, I believe there is a dance between accountability and support and so I term this the accountability/support paradigm.
Importantly, I am writing on this subject purely out of experience as a footballer of 20 years, as well as an academic of 12 years. This is my opinion on the concepts of accountability and support and why I believe they are related like a marriage, that robust cultures cannot exist without the two working in conjunction. Throughout my career I have come across phrases from coaches and peers such as “not good enough” or “meeting standards” as well as “hold each other accountable” and this has forced me to consider the notion of accountability in professional sports. Why is accountability so important and how do coaches and players apply this in their sporting environment? Most importantly, how does enforcing accountability impact players and coaches motivations, and their subsequent behaviours?
It is likely holding people to account for their professional behaviours can have positive and negative impacts on their motivation and well-being. I believe the key to facilitating or thwarting people’s motivation is how the information is delivered to them through autonomy-supportive and controlling behaviours. Often the choice of these behaviours are influenced by the situational context (A-League elite context), the personal orientation of the coach, and the perception of the athletes’ motivation and behaviours. A great illustration of how to describe leadership behaviours is Mageau and Vallerand’s (2003) motivational model in which they describe how leaders lead. I don’t want to get too bogged down in the technical aspects of coaching/leadership behaviours but the main point I’m asserting are the three variables: the coach’s personal orientation, the coaching context, and coaches perceptions of athletes’ behaviour and motivation. Ultimately, these variables influence whether a coach will lead through control or through autonomy-support and when they assert these behaviours. I hope I haven’t hurt anyone’s head!
Mageau and Vallerand’s motivational model of the coach-athlete relationship.
From the perspective of Mageau and Vallerand’s motivational model, I have observed coaches using controlling behaviours and autonomy-supportive behaviours in order to hold players to account. This is to show clear direction and clarity over their roles and responsibilities, which players must understand in order to flourish or even survive in an elite footballing environment. This process ensures that players know what is expected of them, through holding them to the established standard. Frankly speaking, if players can’t live up to that standard in an elite sporting environment, there should be a point where they will be released for players that can reach it. That is the very nature of an elite sporting environment. Often these behaviours can include aggressive shouting, physical fights, or coercing players into performing specific specific behaviours to ensure a winning outcome. These behaviours can be confronting and in other contexts such as an office are not tolerated, however in professional sport this is typical.
In my career there was a time when I played at Reading and I was emerging from being a youth team player into a young professional. This is one of the toughest parts of becoming a footballer because I had started spending time with older, senior professionals who had money and materialism and it’s easy to start thinking that I was on the same level of the other professionals from a competency perspective and a financial one. In other words, you think you have made it and want to appear to be good rather than being good and this is a dangerous notion because it is ego driven. At this time in my career, I was representing England at youth level and involved in the first team at Reading, which boasted full internationals with considerable amounts of money. Unfortunately, I had to find out that playing in real professional games, I couldn’t hide behind talking myself into being good enough. Once I crossed that white line, there’s no amount of talking in the world that could save me. It was time to walk! I had to find out the hard way that I wasn’t as good as I thought. The market spoke and I was released by Reading for another keeper, Adam Federici who now plays for Macarthur and has had a fantastic career in England. I underperformed when I was sent out on loan, thought I was too good for the level, and this cost me my career at Reading. The truth was, I wasn’t good enough and life dealt me with a reality check of what it is to be an elite footballer. I then spent the next 10 years struggling through the lower reaches of English professional football and I can tell you that is one of the hardest environments, because you have to perform to pay your mortgage, you have to perform to pay your bills, and you have to go through hell to get any recognition. Lesson learned!
Another truth that I have come to realise is that in an elite environment “everyone doesn’t get a medal," and the “weak die” and that is how it should be to because it’s an elite context.
I am not saying that people should be treated with anything less then the integrity and dignity they deserve. I am saying that if players are not good enough in an elite/robust culture, then they should be kicked out for someone who is. That is competition, that is life. The deployment of accountability and the impact on people’s motivation is often negative and soul crushing and I have experienced this in my own career consistently over a 20-year period as mentioned. Often I would let a goal in at training or someone would make a negative comment that I was insecure about and this would stay in my mind for days or even months, resulting in a real detriment on my performance and well-being. Or in a game I would concede a real ugly goal, and we’d lose as a result and these images can be seen all round the world and I would carry the judgement and shame of that moment. I won’t lie, sport can be cruel and it can be beautiful and I believe it’s the one’s who can endure and strive to become more than what they are who survive. Sorry guys and girls!
When accountability yields outcomes. Here I saved the winning penalty vs Western Sydney Wanderers after constantly being overlooked throughout the season. I stuck to my principles on a daily basis, held myself to account and didn’t give myself an excuse to feel sorry for myself in the months leading up to this game. I came off the bench in extra time to save the penalty which took us through. The emotion in my face says it all. Euphoric!
The upside to accountability in collective or individually is that there is no room to hide. This means it is clear where things are going right, where things are going wrong, and what needs to be done in order to attain a standard. The process is clear. It is the intention of improving or becoming something more. So deploying accountability from this perspective is just a matter or trying to find a solution to problems. In order to do this, one must remove their ego, however this can be often the most complex and difficult decision that athletes can make. It is all too easy to blame something or someone else to avoid responsibility, but this is the crucial time to show ownership during these moments. In my experience I try my best to focus on the intrinsic process of daily rituals and habits. It doesn’t mean I avoid being wrong, it means this is the time to take ownership of when I am. I hold myself to account and it can be painful to admit that you can do better, however I think it’s more important to understand why. It requires great resilience when outcomes result in failure, and great humility when outcomes result in success. To not get too down when things aren’t going well, and to not get too carried away when things are going well. Stay in the intrinsic process. Stay humble, stay accountable.
In 2011, I was playing for Aldershot and I was enjoying playing week in and out as first choice keeper. We beat West Ham in the Carling Cup and eventually drew Manchester United in the fourth round. I liked Manchester United because of Sir Alex Ferguson and what he had built in terms of the club and the culture that he established and I thought “wow, we get to play one of the best teams in the world. Unfortunately for me I had picked up a minor injury a few weeks earlier and the manager kept playing the other goalkeeper from then on. The game came and went and we understandably lost 3-0. If I’m being honest, I didn’t enjoy sitting on the bench. I couldn’t even look Sir Alex Ferguson in the eye because I didn’t think I was enough of a person. I deeply felt like I wasn’t enough. On the way home in the car I had plenty of time to reflect on this experience. I thought about my life, who I am, and what I wanted out of this experience. I didn’t play, I didn’t want it to pass me by like it meant nothing, it meant a lot to me. The conclusion I came to was that I would reward myself by studying my undergrad till 3:00 am. What this represented to me was that win, lose, or draw I needed to “refine the asset that is me”. I feel this is one of the best things I’ve learnt in my life. No fucking medals, no pats on the back, my purpose was to become something more then when I was before the game regardless if I played or not. Regardless if I was to receive any adulation and recognition.
Aldershot vs Manchester United, 2011. I sat on the bench for this game. It would spur me on to become more resilient not just in football.
Now 10 years on when I play for the Roar I have continued this practice routinely, especially if we win. To ensure that no matter what it’s important to keep the feet on the ground and there is always work to be done, that there are always lessons to be learnt, and no matter how well I’ve performed or underperformed, there’s always an opportunity to become something more. To “leave ego at the door”, and to remain humble. The intention to realise potential. I say that because it’s impossible to realise potential. It doesn’t mean that I don’t celebrate or have fun, it just means that I am really clear on what I do want. To be accountable to myself. It’s important to me not to work hard to look good in front of others, but because it’s an opportunity to become more, to learn and to grow. In other words, the more I know, the more I don’t know, and how important it is to constantly evolve, to not resist change, to embrace it. Working hard shouldn’t be worn like a medal. Outcomes and achievements gravitate because of hard work and therefore is a by-product of these efforts.
In my experience at the Roar, I am fortunate to have a goalkeeping coach (Jason Kearton) who holds me to account on a daily basis. When I boil it down, if I wasn’t performing, he will let me know. He is constantly making me earn it and I am confident when I say we have developed a mutual trust and respect. He is one of the greatest improvers of my footballing career, because he routinely tells me the fucking truth, usually when it hurts my ego, and I thank him for telling me “actually Jamie, you aren’t that good, you can try this option or think about that skill”. I think the biggest mentor in that respect has been my Dad. He has constantly showed me throughout my formative years through demonstration in his life that people may not like you, but they will respect you if you are good, if you are competent. That respect and trust aren’t given, they are earned, and so I have spent a life time following that template. And I think that is what it is to live an authentic life, one of where you become something more through competency, not because you are telling people how good you are.
On the whole if used effectively, the deployment of accountability can facilitate athletes to progress and to flourish as humans first, through the struggle of the process (I mean struggle in a positive sense). In contrast, deployment of accountability can and often has detrimental effects on people’s well-being to the point that it can force them into underperformance and depression. I have also experienced this in my life. Therefore it’s important to be aware, to be clear and direct about how applying accountability to others as well as interpreting it when receiving it. Accountability can develop humility when in success and resilience in failure, and the ingredient that we all need to become more than what we are is courage through being vulnerable. That constant ability to step into the unknown with no guarantees of a medal or a pat on the back, however the humble intrinsic satisfaction of self-improvement. And that is what it is to become resilient.
In the second part of this article, I will introduce the notion of support, how it is used positively and negatively, as well as my experiences in my own career and life.