Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Team Management | Tags: communication, honesty, selection, Tony Hanks, Wasps
Dropping a player is never a good feeling.
I was going to say it would be great if we could just say “The team is…” and not have to justify any selections afterwards. Actually, the process of telling a player they are not in the team is a good learning experience for both player and coach.
A dropped player needs to know his worth and the reasons for not playing. You want him to continue to improve, even if you think he will never make the team again. Other players will be so close to selection, they might be playing next week. So not a good time to burn bridges.
From your point of view, you can learn much from the dialogue, about the player and about the team as a whole.
In recent weeks I have been speaking to many top coaches about “selection” and communication. Honesty is one word which keeps being mentioned.
Wasps director of rugby, Tony Hanks, said that it was difficult sometimes to be totally frank with a player, but vital not to be dishonest.
I have had a few very tough selection decisions in recent weeks, with, in some cases, very little to choose between two players who are both on the up and improving all the time.
I enjoy the job, but it can be heartbreaking at times!
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Skills | Tags: coaching, communication, drills, exercises, fun, intensity, training
As I look whimsically out of my window at the fog covering the snow capped hills outside Swansea, it is hard to remember a time when one of my teams actually played a game of rugby.
It has been a tough few months in the region, with terrible wet weather in November and December and then a bad cold snap that has covered the whole of the UK.
Amongst the gloom, the excitement of the Six Nations is brightening the rugby land, with players staking their claim to World Cup squad places. It won’t be long before we have Super 14 rugby as well.
But let’s forget thos bright lights for a moment and concentrate on our own rugby. Here are three ways I want my rugby to prosper:
1. Clearer instruction
Any exercise will be understood quicker because I have communicated what I want more effectively. I will pander to all the learning styles.
2. More intensity
I will identify exact moments when exercises and drills will be more intense and make sure that the players respond. Short bursts of high intensity.
3. More fun
Following on from last year, I will introduce more games and competitions into training.
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Now to action it. I can’t wait.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team Management | Tags: 93%, coaching and talking, communication, nonverbal
I have been editing a piece on nonverbal communication and decided to research some of the data. I found a couple of articles which show that nonverbal communication might not be as important a concept that some of the courses or communicators tell us.
The big myth about nonverbal communication
By Kim Harrison,
Consultant, Author and Principal of www.cuttingedgepr.com
You have probably heard this type of statement: “Effective personal communication is 55% body language, 38% tone of voice and only 7% content of the words you use.” This is an actual quote from a website.
These percentages are used over and over by communication consultants, body language ‘experts,’ media interview trainers, speech delivery coaches and HR instructors. How comforting it must be for them to quote such exact and scientific figures when this type of information is usually quite general or occurs in the narrow confines of an experiment.
Unfortunately, the figures are just an urban myth. For example, when you think about it, the words in personal communication logically should carry much more weight than a mere 7%. But this formula has been twisted and distorted, and has become a factoid, which is a false statement asserted as a fact.
Regrettably, the 7% 38% 55% statements continue to pop up in published works:
“Only 7 percent of face-to-face communication is actual words.”
“Studies in communication have shown that the verbal aspect – the basic content – only comprises 7% of the total message that we send or another person receives.”
“One study at UCLA indicated that up to 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues. Another study indicated that the impact of a performance was determined 7 percent by the words used, 38 percent by voice quality, and 55 percent by the nonverbal communication.”
Do a Google search and you can find variations on the same statement in many locations.
So, what is the truth?
The two original research projects on which this information is based, actually found something decidedly different. UCLA psychologist, Dr Albert Mehrabian, and fellow researchers came up with quite narrow and limited findings, as many research projects do, in their experiments going back to 1967.
The findings only relate to inconsistent communication – where contradictory messages are being conveyed simultaneously by words and other behaviors of a speaker. We may express something verbally while our facial expressions, postures and positions, tone of voice or gestures indicate the opposite.
Further, the findings only relate to an audience that doesn’t know the speaker, apply in situations in which “the cues are limited to feeling (pleasure, arousal, dominance) and like/dislike,” according to Dr Mehrabian (he only tested 9 words in the original experiment).
As a communicator by profession I was determined to find out what the facts were, and so I went to the trouble of buying Mehrabian’s book, Silent Messages, directly from him. Sure enough, Mehrabian’s claims were much more modest than the sweeping conclusions many others have drawn from his work.
He said, “Is there a systematic and coherent approach to resolving the general meaning or impact of an inconsistent message? [my emphasis] Indeed there is. Our experimental results show: “Total liking = 7% verbal liking + 38% vocal liking + 55% facial liking” [page 76]
“This can also be: “Total feeling = 7% verbal feeling + 38% vocal feeling + 55% facial feeling” [page 77]
“These assertions…are limited to feelings (pleasure, arousal, dominance) and like-dislike.” [page 79]
But “Numerical values in this equation are only approximate.” [page 77] “Implicit cues have about 12 times the power of verbal cues.” [page 78]
“In a recorded message or phone conversation, if the vocal expression happens to contradict the words, then the former determines the total impact. This can work either way: the words may be positive and the vocal expression negative, or the vocal expression may be positive and the words negative.” [page 76]
“Obviously implicit expressions are not always more important than words,” stated Dr Mehrabian on page 79. Implicit communication deals mainly with feelings and like/dislike or attitudes.
In many conversations, implicit messages are not even present, eg “I will meet with you at 2 pm next Wednesday.” However, if you say “I’m looking forward to meeting with you again at 2 pm next Wednesday,” with a pained facial expression or if you avoid looking at the person when saying the words, your expression will convey a stronger implicit message than your explicit message (your words).
From all this, when you hear someone self importantly quoting spurious interpretations of Dr Mehrabian’s work, just laugh in their face. I’m sure your facial expression and tone of voice will be consistent with your words.
References
Albert Mehrabian. Silent Messages. Second edition. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company 1981.
About the Author
Kim Harrison is a recognized authority in the public relations field. His website, http://www.cuttingedgepr.com, provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on public relations techniques and management.
