by Ben Honan - Senior Associate
My childhood loves were sport and the written word. As a kid, I was mostly found either with my head in a book or practising sport, which meant shooting hoops or playing hurling for hours on end. Memories of my school days revolve around daydreaming about fantasy realms or pondering questionable athletic achievements, only to be rudely interrupted by a series of bells.
After school and university, I moved from Ireland to London to start a career in communications, which felt a natural fit. The job would allow me to indulge my love of writing and teamwork, while affording just enough free time in the evenings to play some ball.
But it was only at the start of last year that I started actively looking to coach sport, when I was given the opportunity to help out at my local basketball club, Southwark Legends.
Since taking up the role of coach I have learned a great deal about myself and the game. In basketball, like many popular sports, the skills, tactics and playing philosophy are all straightforward, much of which you can find for free with little effort on the internet. This means that coaches can no longer impress based solely on their knowledge of the game. Frankly, anyone with internet access and a solid work ethic could claim to be an expert in a few months. These days being a good coach is all about execution, and so much of this comes down to good communication. Here are just a few of directly transferrable skills I learned through coaching basketball that also help me in my PR career.
Find the appropriate tone
I grew up playing for a demanding coach who set high standards and had a low tolerance for error. When coaching I first tried to replicate his style, often communicating with a critical tone when I thought performances were not up to the right standard.
One day, towards the end of a session, one of the kids I was coaching called another by the wrong name. His response to this error sounded both anxious and frustrated, but its effect on me was instant. I realised there and then that the tone I was using which was intended to elevate standards was instead conveying and inducing anxiety. From that moment on, I resolved to choose my words and control my tone of voice far more carefully.
In corporate communications, CEOs and other spokespeople all have their own temperaments that will inform the tone of voice they use naturally. But in certain situations, especially when giving broadcast interviews, the CEO will need to acknowledge, and sometimes moderate, their natural tones so that they don’t exacerbate any tendencies to be irritable, patronising or aloof. This means when CEOs are being media trained, the trainers shouldn’t be afraid to baseline their personal traits and use this to assess their tone as well as the messages they are seeking to deliver. In short, getting the tone of voice right is an essential part of good communications.
Less is more
When starting out coaching I called out every minor error or misstep the players made during practice. But I soon realised they loved the game as much as me and often were just as capable of diagnosing their errors as I was. By micromanaging them, I was not giving them the opportunities to correct themselves and showing that I hadn’t trusted them assess and reflect on their own performance.
A coach’s job is to condition the players to make the right judgments, not to rely on constant instruction. Speaking less means that a coach’s words carry more weight, and that the important lessons they impart are much more likely to be understood and applied.
In comms terms this does not always mean organisations should communicate less, it means they should use resources more strategically. A company’s comms team can maintain a constant dialogue with journalists and influencers, while aiming to use the CEO’s engagement more sparingly in order to render it more valuable. By only commenting where it most matters, the natural authority of the CEO’s role is preserved.
Don’t be afraid to delegate
The best way to speak less frequently is to delegate more. At Legends we identified a leader who had earned the team’s respect as a player. We offered him the task of running the warmup at the beginning of each training session, before handing over to the coach when the players were ready to start.
By delegating this responsibility to him it emphasises his role within the team, strengthens his leadership skills and keeps the coach’s powder dry. Most importantly, it underlines every player’s accountability to one another first and foremost, even more so than to their coaches.
In communications terms, by sharing spokesperson roles among the senior executives, it shows the strength in depth of the whole management team. This empowers several senior leaders, while leaving the CEO free to speak authoritatively only when the situation demands it.
These are main lessons I’ve learnt from coaching and applied to my communications career, but the beauty of it is that I am continuing to learn lessons from each role that can be applied to the other. In all professional walks of life, how we communicate will play a vital role in how well we perform. Whether we are charming a journalist or berating a ref, it is always a skill we can work on and improve.