Welcome to Winning With Words

The Meaning of Home and Language

When you think of the word ‘home,’ what comes to mind?

Do you imagine the house you spent your childhood in?

Do you imagine the town you grew you up in?

Do you imagine a place with all your family and loved ones?

As you begin to answer this question, you may find that ‘Home’ is less about a physical structure or location, but rather a feeling you experience. It is a word that describes where you feel a sense of belonging, peace, security, love, and/or comfort. It’s why you can move into a new house, but it doesn’t feel like ‘Home’ at first.

This is why language is so powerful. Words don’t just refer to things, but also express the way we feel about things (Shackleton-Jones, 2019). Our words can evoke feelings and reactions for others causing them to shift and move their minds, bodies, and hearts in a specific direction. Our language directly influences whether those we lead operate from a space of fear, belief, trust, etc.

In the world of sports and leadership, language is more than just words; it’s a vehicle for inspiring, teaching, and guiding those you are serving. Think of a coach’s language as a “playlist” for the team: the right song (or word) at the right time can turn a rough day into a championship moment. And much like that playlist, it’s essential to update it. No one gets inspired by “Eye of the Tiger” every single time.

So, it’s worth asking: Are your words lighting a fire in your team or just burning them out?

Despite the significance of language and communication for coaches, few invest time, energy, and resources into honing this skill. The bulk of coach development approaches focus on the X’s and O’s or technical aspects of the craft, while areas such as human psychology, language, communication, and behavior change are more of an afterthought.

This newsletter aims to flip this script.

The Road Ahead

Here’s my hope: That this newsletter becomes your new ‘Home’ for inspiration, guidance, and practical insights that can help elevate your coaching and leadership.

Each week I’ll share a story, analogy, metaphor, or any other source of inspiration I can find to help you be a catalyst for change and transformation in others. I am quite confident that not every story or message will land for you every time, however I am confident that they can strike a chord for someone you lead.

My intention is to help you become more agile in how you communicate so you avoid the popular “I’ve told them a hundred times and they still don’t get it” trap. Additionally, I want this newsletter to be practical so I won’t just put an emphasis on “What” for each story, but also the “So what, now what?”

Lastly, let me be quite clear that I have very few original ideas. The vast majority of these future stories and messages I’ve borrowed from others, but I’ve done my best to remix or curate them with the knowledge and experience I’ve acquired over the past decade as a mental performance coach. At the conclusion of each piece, I’ll offer my acknowledgment for whatever (or whoever) helped inspire each message. Think of these as my version of “shoutouts” at the end of a game.

All this to say, if you’re still reading this, thank you for joining me on this journey. I’m excited to learn alongside you. They say “the best way to learn is to teach” and I’m approaching writing as a new method for the latter. My hope is to help myself (and others) be more purposeful and intentional with our communication.

I’m excited to help you shift from intention to impact by choosing language that resonates, inspires, and transforms those you lead.

Inspiration for This Piece:

• Shackleton-Jones, N. (2019). How people learn: Designing education and training that works to improve performance. Kogan Page Publishers.