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Athletic Coaches: Winning vs. Ethics

Life Coaches, we’ve all heard of them and it seems to be a growing career interest among many. Flexible hours, good money and helping people -- doesn’t seem like a job could be much better than that. But what if you’re in the business of hiring coaches, perhaps even more specifically college athletic coaches? When coaching others, in whatever capacity, certain skills need to be apparent.

• Communication. Success of your coach and thus athletes/clients is determined by how well the coach is able to communicate expectations and goals.



• Organization Skills. How often will the coach practice/meet with the athletes, enabling training and enough time for the athletes’ other obligations?



• Understanding of their Responsibilities. Coaches must be aware of all of their responsibilities. A skewed view of always winning while ignoring other school responsibilities can be disastrous.

During the hiring process, not only should the potential coaches be interviewed, but an in depth pre-employment screening should be done. It’s not enough to merely do background checks, but nowadays behavioral and psychological assessments can be performed to help determine certain personality traits and how they may behave under stress. Athletic coaches can be under a lot of stress especially if they feel they must win at all costs.

A recent example in Georgia Southern’s men’s basketball program demonstrates this. There had been claims of academic fraud and an investigation began in December, 2008. Apparently a former assistant coach had written essays and tests and also performed online chats in particular courses for a couple of the players. The two players were subsequently suspended. Although both the school and the NCAA neither named the assistant coach nor the basketball operations director, an assistant coach was fired, the director of basketball operations left after the season, and the head coach resigned after the season. Wins have also had to be forfeited from the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. In addition the men’s program will lose one basketball scholarship each year for three years (Georgian Southern men hoops placed on probation).

Perhaps the responsibilities weren’t clear or the pressure was too great. Either way, as the ones hiring, we must use all avenues to judge if the fit is right and that we make the responsibilities clear. Here is a list of some of the main responsibilities, specifically for a college athletic coach:

1. Compliant to the NCAA rules.



2. Representative for the school. Understanding all appropriate school rules, even cheating.



3. Responsible for visa requirements for international players.



4. Maintain eligibility requirements for their athletes via monitoring their academic status.



5. Organizing team practices and scheduling tournaments.



6. Recruiting athletes.



7. Safely transport players during an away game or other similar trips.

Obviously there is great pressure to succeed and this weight is usually on the shoulders of the coaches and their staff. The college wins more games, they attract good athletes and thus win more and the reputation of the college increases. It can be a vicious or successful circle, depending on if we tip the scale using unethical practices. If we do, it’ll come back and bite us. Do your background checks, your behavioral assessments, and spell out the responsibilities clearly, and the ball will be in your court -- pun intended.

Crazy Employees

To run a successful business, we need not only a good business plan but dependable top-notch employees. Too often we hear stories of staff who show up late and leave early, or employees who are always bickering and gossiping about each other. There are also stories of those workers who simply don't take direction or are needy in some way. As irritating as these scenarios are, probably the most frightening are those where fellow employees or managers feel threatened by a staff member who's lost complete emotional control. Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out this youtube video where an employee goes crazy in the office.

As managers or bosses, we must be vigilant in our hiring process, using all the tools available to us. Times are different and the available resources expand to match the needs of our society. Background checks and employee screening aren't just extras beyond the interview, but rather they are crucial components in the hiring process. We now also have psychological and behavioral assessments available to us. While we can't predict employee behavior in all situations, we are able to shine a light on personality traits and how they may handle stress. No one knows when and if a person will snap, but we can start with all the preventative tools available to us. Say an employee does crack as in the video, what do we do? In these stressful times, we also need to educate ourselves on how to deal with such a situation. We can retaliate, become defensive and even confused. That's the most likely reaction but probably not the smartest. This is the time where we need to prepare ourselves to exert self-control and even some assertiveness. So what are some specifics?

• Remain calm while acknowledging the employee's anger. Be supportive and listen calmly, not becoming angry yourself. Let them speak and vent before you answer. Don't behave anxiously or antagonistically but rather concerned. This can be done through body language and tone of voice and will diffuse the explosive situation.


• Change the environment. You want the atmosphere to be as non-threatening as possible so move to somewhere private where the employee can sit down, relax somewhat and share his grievances.


• Discover the problem and find solutions. When the employee has calmed down, you need to seek out the real problem that's ignited this outburst. So ask questions, focusing on data rather than emotions. Be objective and see if it's time to find a solution. A reasonable person will have hopefully calmed down at this point, if not other measures would have to be taken.

Absenteeism at Work

What's the link between absenteeism at work and stress? A person's psychological make-up along with external factors contributes towards an individual's stress level. A recent survey was conducted by benefits consultant Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc. They surveyed 282 companies with at least 1000 employees and nearly half of these companies discovered a higher use of counseling and stress management services during this tough economy. And of these surveyed companies, 22 % have seen an increase in unplanned absences (Read the article here).

Clearly we can't control the economy and external factors that may cause stress to our employees, but we can have an awareness of our employees' psychological make-up and how they may respond to stress. Psychological assessments performed in the prescreening phase when seeking out potential employees gives us extra vital information. We will make judgments on where our candidates will perform best, what task they will handle well and where they may need improvement or extra guidance. Foreseeing potential stressful situations for our employees and preparing them accordingly or placing them where they are better suited may decrease health care costs and absenteeism in the workplace.

When we are physically and emotionally healthy, we can deal better with stress. Even prescreening candidates -- knowing what their psychological strengths and weaknesses are -- does not enable us to create a complete stress-free environment. In order to truly have healthy employees and thus a healthy company; we need to incorporate some kind of wellness program. A successful wellness program would target specific health goals of our employees. For example obesity is one main reason for health care costs increasing. Perhaps we could offer weight-loss challenges incorporating better eating habits and an exercise regime. Incentives could be exercise classes offered at convenient times or a fitness allowance at a local gym. We can also offer stress management classes and counseling services.

It's clear that stress affects our health and thus the work environment. If our goal is a healthy productive workplace, we must set the example through healthy balanced living and encouraging this behavior in our employees. Stress will decrease, absenteeism will decrease and health care costs should stabilize.

Check the Box

When a company has a position it needs to fill, there are several criteria that the job candidates must satisfy before they can progress through the screening/interview process and be hired. Employers want someone with relevant experience and a record of success. Frequently, particular skills are required and education minimums must also be met.

Employers prefer to avoid hiring candidates that will later become problem employees. In order to identify these individuals before they become employees, they use a number of tools. One of the most frequently used tools is a criminal background check. This type of check will most often result in a database search for criminal records related to the applicant. Occasionally, researchers can be sent into the courthouse to manually review and verify the records.

But is that enough?

The criminal background check is, by definition, a review of an individual's past for criminal activity. While this is certainly a good thing to check, what about the offenders who have not yet been caught and prosecuted? What of those whose personalities and psychological well being put them at risk to themselves and your employees who would be their coworkers, your clients with whom they might come on contact, and vendors or partners with whom they might interact?

The recruiting, selection, and onboarding of a new employee is a well defined process in many companies. The process may have been defined by the head of HR or by a consultant who specializes in the HR function.

The steps included in the selection process were designed to identify the desirable candidates and separate them from those who are not what the organization is looking for in a new employee. The group or individual who designed the process had this primary goal in mind when they designed the process. However, those whose job it is to execute the process are not always trained on the purpose of the process but instead on how to follow the proces. They are frequently not given much latitude in making decisions about what types of background checks to run. They are instead instructed on how to follow the process, to know which checkboxes need to be checked, and which actions to take in order to get the box checked.

The perverse consequence of this "check-the-box" approach is that organizations can hire the wrong sort of employee and consequently experience the very negative consequences they had sought to avoid. To illustrate the point, let's look at a recent news event.



You may have missed it with all of the news covering terrorist attack by Maj. Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, TX; but there was another event in Florida involving a former (fired) employee who blamed his former coworkers for the difficulties he was encountering in his life. He returned to the location of his former employer and shot six people killing one of them.


Bear in mind that the shooter was not a recently fired employee, but instead had been let go over 2 and a half years earlier. His life had not gone well after being let go in 2007 (divorce, foreclosure, bankruptcy, periods of unemployment) and he not only blamed his former employer and coworkers for his troubles, but exacted his revenge on them.

There are not any news reports of any prior offenses, so a standard criminal background check (although necessary) would not have revealed his capacity for violence and what may result in a conviction for murder. More and better tools are needed to give light to these possibilities. That's why tools like our very own Tescor Survey should be used more widely as they can provide the opportunity to gain insight into the propensity for violence that a job candidate might have.

Identifying these troubled individuals (and not hiring them) is one of the primary goals of this type of diagnostic tool so that events like the one this past Friday in Orlando can be avoided.

Screening Security Guards

When we think of security guards, we often think of strong, husky men ready to protect both a building and the people within it. At least that's what I picture. Of course these men are stable; after all they're the ones kicking out the crazies. Recently though, the screening for security guards has been scrutinized. What if the security guards have passed all background checks with flying colors, yet they’ve never been psychologically assessed. People snap and scheme even if they have a seemingly clean background.

Recently an unarmed Newark Liberty International Airport security guard -- John Breck of Linden, N.J. -- was charged in a shooting threat against President Obama, resulting with three state felony counts. He was overheard making comments the day before Obama was due to arrive at Newark Airport. Breck had passed all the criminal background checks, but no psychological assessment had been required. Apparently under New Jersey state security guard licensing requirements, no psychological evaluation is necessary. A slightly unnerving thought if they're the ones keeping guard (Threat Suspect had passed Background Checks).

Perhaps you run a security guard business or you require security guards to protect whatever business you're in. A security guard is hired as part of a risk-management strategy; they are there to protect our assets. The problem is that most companies don't really care who the guard is, as long as they have one from their contracted security company. If we aren't the ones employing the security guards -- but rather contract this out to companies who do employ guards -- we never see their references and trust that background checks and a screening process has been performed. If contract security companies then contract to sub-contracted guards who aren't even their employees, then chances are no reference checks have been done, at least to the standard of the security company's employees. And then the business owners who have security guards protecting their premises may need protection from the guards themselves. This guard then has access to everything, even restricted areas.

When hiring a security guard for your company, be aware and ask questions. Does the security company have specific training for their guards? Have they had a background check and as importantly, have they been assessed psychologically? However if you are the security company, it's in your best interest to do these assessments and checks which will result in a reputable company with stand-up security guards.

Job-Fit Success

Looks can be deceiving; a magnetic personality can be a cover-up. We all make assumptions when meeting people for the first time. We like to categorize: outgoing, shy, confident, loud etc., but we are too complex to be labeled and sealed into a box from mere observation. Maybe it can seem harmless -- we miss out on a few friendships that we've judged too harshly too soon, but in the workplace it can be a different story. Hiring is more a process than simply observing the clothes our candidates wear or the cars they drive, and whether they smile, making many claims of their skills or cowers in the corner, mumbling their responses. While these factors are important and can be telling of certain behaviors, it's not enough. We need to go farther and make a valid prediction of job-fit success. How will this candidate's behavior, personality, abilities and values interact on the job and affect his/her work? Employment screening by way of checking criminal history and validating a candidate's skills is crucial but still falls short. A key ingredient within the employment screening process is behavioral and psychological assessments. In this way, personality and abilities can be assessed. Past behavior often predicts future behavior, but not always. Even with no criminal history, an employee can turn and sometimes a psychological assessment is the only clue.

Take the recent case of a plant employee, Derek Valdez, who's been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a co-worker in Pleasant Grove, Utah. It wasn't such a pleasant day for a 21 year-old man, starting his first day at work -- a frosting company for cakes. His trainer, Derek Valdez, offered to take him out to grab a drink, but they never stopped, passing the local convenience store and numerous gas stations. Anytime the victim protested that he wanted out of the vehicle, Valdez sped up. Eventually the 21 year-old man escaped when he ran into a local A&W, claiming he had to use the bathroom. Valdez was caught and booked into jail for investigation of kidnapping. Valdez' employer was bewildered, having had no problems with him and finding no history. Perhaps an involved psychological assessment may have provided some clues (Read the full story here).

We can't control all factors in predicting job-fit success, but a good start is a behavioral assessment. When choosing an employee screening program, don't skip this step. Are our future employees open, agreeable or perhaps a little neurotic? What is their approach to solving problems and executing a plan? Successful employee performance -- one of the goals of all companies -- is motivated by a good personality fit.

Are Your Employees Stressed Out?

Melissa Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher, was accused of a horrific crime: The kidnapping, rape and murder of an 8 year old California girl, Sandy Cantu. Melissa Huckaby tried to hurt herself while awaiting a court hearing and has attempted suicide in the past, according to her husband (Read the full story here). Even in volunteer work environments -- especially around children -- behavioral assessments and psychological testing should be done as part of employee screening. Maybe if signs were detected, the outcome could have been different.

When people undergo stress, strange and erratic behaviors may occur. Think about when you've been on a deadline and you feel pulled in a hundred directions -- that's the time when we may either lash-out, or merely give-up with a kind of apathetic attitude. Perhaps we're seeing more of these behaviors in our employees which is understandable -- to a degree -- with the state of jobs and the economy. However even with the acknowledgement that times may be tough, these types of behaviors can still be unsuitable at work. With this in mind and with the possibility of increased work stress, there may be some behaviors we can turn our heads once or twice. These are your basic annoying behaviors where we love to call these types idiots or even simpler; jerks. Their behaviors are pretty harmless and these employees may even have a mild temper tantrum. We let it go. However, there are other behaviors where we should pay more attention for the well-being of the employees and the general work environment. These behaviors may be pointing towards something deeper going one. Are they silent? Do they seem depressed? Do we even know the signs of depression? Have our employees recently undergone a divorce, an illness, a death in the family, some kind of rejection? Perhaps they have undergone one or more of these and with ungrateful clients or extreme work stress -- they may be pushed to the limit. There are other behaviors to be noticed also -- are they harassing others, discriminating or even creating a hostile work environment? Or are they the ones being bullied -- thus the silence or depression. Performing behavioral assessments and psychological testing as part of our pre-employment screening beforehand is crucial as it can weed out the criminally deviant, but stress can bring out all sorts of behaviors. Even with a stressful economy, it's not a hopeless cause. There are some behaviors that we, as managers, can encourage.

1. We can have open communication with our employees so they feel validated and understood.
2. We can encourage our employees to focus on the present but plan for the future, eliminating the what if mentality or the apocalyptic doom and gloom.
3. Encourage exercise programs through an employee incentive program.
4. Even purchase them books such as Don't sweat the small stuff at work. Or set up some kind of library system where employees can bring in their favorite positive book and they swap. These types of positive messages will be reinforced which can be a reducing stress strategy.
5. Teach relaxation techniques such as deep breathing exercises or even just encourage employees to learn these techniques. They’ll respect you because you care.

Employee Personalities & Communication

Good communication skills -- whether in a marriage, family or work environment -- are necessary if progression or peace is important to us. If we spend our time resolving differences and combating everyone we encounter, no energy will be left to actually pursue positive endeavors. And if we're the boss, the same philosophy would apply to our employees. If they're always bickering, skirmishing over personality differences, don't count on much productivity. We're emotional creatures and emotions -- when strong enough -- can rule and overpower our more rational parts of our brains. Not only is squabbling a tiresome activity, but as a boss it can affect our bottom line -- money. As an employer we can screen our employees by performing background checks and psychological assessments, thus ensuring we don't hire a criminal or someone perhaps prone to deviant behavior. But still, we can't predict everything and when personalities clash, the tempers and passive manipulative behaviors can overrun the work environment. Psychological assessments can help in determining the personalities we'll be hiring but as a boss it's important to know how to interact with these personalities and even encourage all employees to brush up on their communication skills.

A good example of what we want to avoid was a story from the U.K. An investigation into council chiefs' severance pay was being conducted. Apparently these pay-offs were as large as five hundred thousand pounds and there had been concern that these departures were because of personality clashes with elected officials -- an expensive payment for a personality clash (Read the full story here).

Before we can learn how to better communicate, we need to understand who we're communicating with. We all make jokes about Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus but just as we may baulk at the notion, we know there's some truth to it. And within the same theme, there are core personality traits that can sway and even define a person's behavior. Let's look at some specific employee personalities. We have those employees who suffer from delusions of grandeur -- they can do no wrong, or the brown-nosers -- the overly ambitions high-achievers, and finally the deaf ones -- they're unreceptive, deaf to any conversations as if they'd never taken place. Obviously with each personality we'd need to deal with communication differently. Maybe the deaf ones aren't really deaf at all but rather our communication was unclear. Our kings and queens assume they're perfect so communication should not be construed as an attack, and the high-achievers perhaps need a blunt talking to -- chill out.

So we understand that we're all unique -- just as our mothers always told us -- and with that, communication is unique in every circumstance. For an effective communication dynamic for different personalities, let's start by changing what we do and then regardless of high-achievers, brown-nosers or deaf ones -- we are the ones promoting a strong communicative relationship. Let's keep what's already working and add communication skills as we encounter different personalities. This should help ensure a cohesive working environment and thus remain a productive work environment, setting the tone for all employees.

Texting at Work: Is it a Problem?

As an employer, what should you do with employees who struggle to see their shortcomings? Of course, it's not your job to belittle and demean, but it's certainly your job to make sure you have employees who are efficient and work well. It's not just a matter of who's the boss, but the success of your business and livelihood may depend on it.
We can take all the precautions before hiring, such as background checks, employment screening and behavioral assessment tests. With the behavioral assessments, we should have a good idea of how our candidates will behave in a certain situation -- what their strengths and weaknesses are -- but still we can't predict all behaviors between coworkers due to interpersonal dynamics or work stress. But the behavioral assessments -- psychological and integrity testing -- can help us to know what to observe and what we're looking for from particular employees.

So let's talk about current trends that may pose problems at work if not monitored. We're all familiar with social websites and texting. These are fabulous tools that enable you to locate old friends, keep in touch with current friends, and even keep in touch with your teenagers who prefer texting over phone calls. They can be addictive because communicating to friends is made so easy now. Not so bad, you say. It's a good addiction to fill your life with good friends. But what if it hinders employees from focusing on work? Should you ban texting and social websites from your workplace all together?

Maybe the solution need not be so extreme unless it puts those around you in danger. I read recently a good example of this in the Chicago Tribune. Just this month, the Chicago Transit Authority initiated a zero-tolerance policy which bans employees from having personal electronic devices while working. We've seen what happens to distracted drivers so this was a smart move. Read the full story here: No texting, no phones for CTA rail workers

So if we're not in the trucking, taxi or transit business, we -- as employers -- don't need to be quite that strict perhaps. What are some laws we can lay down that are reasonable?

1. Save your social time for lunch breaks and after work. Of course personal phone calls/emergencies do happen during work hours, so make them brief if they're necessary -- depending on the emergency -- and then refocus on work.
2. Set up an internet policy with your employees that is clear and concise, depending on the nature of your business.
3. Contract versus salaried workers may be treated differently. After all with contract workers, we are paying them by the hour, not by the number of friends they've contacted during the completion of a project. If they're salaried, when work is done, is it considered free time?

Even if we've made some clear rules around the office and we've set up an internet policy, it's still important that we observe all ages of employees; it's not just the younger generation. Older people may be on the phone all day or answering personal emails. And actually the main problem here may not be texting or social networking at all, but rather that the work is not getting done. You decide if you want to be a boss who wants to know what your employees are doing every minute of the day -- sounds kind of stressful -- or the kind of boss who sets up some guidelines and then puts their trust in their employees. Sounds a bit like parenting to me -- good parenting that is.

Abuse of Power and Position

Being rich, powerful, influential, well-educated, etc. provide no immunity from doing some really dumb things. The news is filled with stories where someone who should have known much better gets caught in a serious crime and their life's work and reputation is destroyed overnight.

Bernie Madoff and R. Allen Stanford are excellent examples. WorldCom and Enron execs from a decade ago are still memorable. With all of the great examples of people doing dumb things and getting caught, you'd think there might be a chance that others would learn from the mistakes of others and avoid them, but you'd be wrong if you did.