In reading Joe Maddon’s Book, The Book of Joe, (Joe Maddon 2022), I was able to
gain valuable insight into his rarified world of managing a professional
baseball team. One thing that caught my attention was when Maddon wrote the
chapter about professional baseball players and the differing attitudes that make
up the levels of development for the players. It is Chapter 8: The Five
Levels of Being a Professional. I am expanding on it, in the context of junior
athletes and coaches.
My take is my own, I am not putting words in Joe Maddon’s
voice. I am writing to figure out what I think about the subject. All
interpretations and reasoning, as well as errors are mine.
According to Maddon, he was contemplating the levels of the
professional players after they have reached the major league level, these
levels are results of the combination of the player’s variable emotional and
maturity as they evolved through their stint in the big leagues. His epiphany came
as he asked the question: “What am I seeing here? What are the big leagues
about?” What each individual mentally adopts as the answer to his question
places them on a defined level of emotional and maturity that are commensurate
with their readiness to be a professional ball player. He believes that there is an arc to a
person’s growth when they arrive at the highest level of their profession. He
categorized the different levels of evolution The Five Levels of Being a
Professional:
· Level
One: Happy to be Here.
· Level
Two: Survival.
· Level
Three: I Belong Here.
· Level
Four: Make As Much Money as You can.
· Level
Five: All I Want to Do is Win.
I am renaming it more accurately as The Five Levels of
Being a Developing Athlete, and The Five Levels of Being a Coach.
Characteristics of Each Level
Maddon levels are intended to identify those who have
already reached the pinnacle of their careers, they are at the major league
level. What goes without saying is that as each athlete stagnates in any one of
the levels, they will inevitably stop advancing towards the last level, backtrack,
and drop out of the major leagues.
I draw the parallel between Maddon’s chapter on those who
have already reached the pinnacle of their sporting careers with developing
players and coaches. Equivalently, there is a good possibility that the players
and coaches can fall into a rut and stagnate on any one of the levels.
Coincidentally, Maddon’s levels can be roughly shoehorned
into Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. (Figure 1 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs)
·
Maddon’s Levels One: Happy to Be Here and Two:
Survival being commensurate with the Safety level of Maslow.
·
Maddon’s Level Three: I Belong being
commensurate with the Love/Belonging level of Maslow.
·
Maddon’s Level Four: Make As Much Money as
Possible being commensurate with the Self-Esteem level of Maslow.
·
Maddon’s Level Five: I just want to Win
being Commensurate with the Self-Actualization level of Maslow.
Figure 1 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Level One: Happy to be Here.
As the name implies, the person feels overwhelmed; they
can’t believe that they have achieved this level, even though this is what they
have worked toward as a goal. They know that they have only managed to get their
foot in the door. They are not sure how they fit into the grander schemes, and
they are also not sure about how they can contribute to the group. On a
positive note, they are not afraid of making mistakes because they are running
on adrenaline and instinct. They also don’t know enough or are aware enough to
feel that they are being judged.
As a Player
We have all had these kinds of players, those players who
can’t believe they made the team, the ones that are willing to do anything
because they cannot believe in their own good luck; many do attribute their
presence to luck.
They can’t believe they belong, but at the same time they
are too unaware of the larger scheme to question their status within the team
or the organization.
The novelty will wear off as the novelty usually erodes
quickly. Usually, their burgeoning confidence will take them to the next level.
As a Coach
The beginning coaches view their role as both a mission and a torment. They
understand their responsibilities to the players, and in many ways, they are
fearful over how they could and would engage the players in practice, in games,
and all that down time in between. If they are familiar with youth sports, they
should also be in deathly fear of dealing with parents.
Those who had played organized sports will try to recall all
the drills that they have ever done as a player and work in futility to make sense of all the
“Why?”, “How?”, and “What-if?” questions.
Those who are new to the sport are putting all their attention
on amassing drills, tips, and any accumulated wisdom that they can find. They
don’t question the veracity of what they have amassed. It is more valuable as a
safety blanket, and a crutch to lean on while dealing with the vast and in
their minds, unbridgeable chasm between existing knowledge and what they feel
is necessary to do the job.
Neophyte coaches’ cycle through the first level as they
become more comfortable. The routine of coaching will settle in and what was
once new evolves into the routine and procedural.
Level Two: Survival.
Maddon warns that this is the most dangerous level, where the
individuals begin to feel comfortable, but not completely comfortable. They still
feel like they don’t belong; ironically, their focus is on how they can stay, but
not on how they can be better, which is how they can stay. They overthink, over
analyze, and overreact in response to their internal conversations, which
revolves around how they can fake their way into staying. You don’t always make it when you fake it.
As a Player
The player is now aware of and appreciates the position they
are in. They like where they are, and they are focused on what they need to do
to stay where they are.
This is the level where the imposter syndrome begins to
creep in. Many will adopt the attitude and strategy of just treading water and
staying alive while not daring to take chances and pushing themselves to get
better.
They focus on doing the nots: not screwup, not
calling attention to themselves, not daring to try new things because of
the potential for failure, and are not willing to ask questions for fear
of exposing themselves as frauds.
As Maddon points out, this is a dangerous level. This is
where the player can easily and willingly get into a rut. The player’s reasoning
is that it is safer to do what brought them to this point, never questioning or
daring to do anything different from the tried and true; not realizing that
this is the sure path to stagnation, regression, and getting left behind.
But, if the player realizes that staying the same is not a
good strategy if they are desirous of another level of performance, if they
dare to change and do more than survive, they will eventually get to the next
level.
As a Coach
The coach has gotten over the initial adrenaline rush of being
called a coach, or the immense responsibility of coaching, organizing, dealing
with the players and parents, and has settled into a rhythm. They like it and
they want to maintain the status quo. They want to do the familiar, they want
to do what they have always done, because: why change if everything is
copacetic. What they don’t realize is that people and teams are dynamic and
fluid.
By choosing to not change, in the false belief that the
worst thing that they can do is unnecessarily rock the boat, they are instead
paving their own path to stagnation, regression, and getting left behind.
If the coach can progress emotionally towards a more mature
outlook on what they are doing, they will progress to the next level.
Level Three: I
Belong Here.
A Taoist quote: “When the student is ready, the teacher will
appear.” This is the level where the individual
feels that they belong, they understand where they fit in the grand scheme of
things, they understand how they can contribute, what their role is, and what
is expected of them; more importantly, they understand that they can perform at
the expected level. They no longer feel like impostors, although no one is ever
completely freed from that shadow.
As a Player
The player has developed to be an all-around presence, they
understand their game, their value to the team, they feel plugged into the team
social dynamics, and they are comfortable with their roles on the team in both
the sports and social milieus.
Many players will stay at this level because it is easy to
be comfortable and satisfied. The next level seems like a natural development
for most players, but their evolving into the next level is not guaranteed. It
may also be that the player skips the next level and goes directly to the fifth
level.
As a Coach
At this stage the coach is feeling comfortable with his own
coaching style. He is pleased with his own philosophy, in terms of both
coaching and team management. The difference between this level and the
previous level is that the coach is relaxed enough to thing about their
decisions critically and start to question his own decisions without fearing
what other people may think. They become curious because they are not satisfied
with what they already know and have the mental space to learn while also not
having the fears that would prevent them from learning.
Level Four: Make
As Much Money as You can Get as Much Recognition as Possible (Respect).
In a professional athletic context, making as much money is
the bright shiny focus once they are assured that they belong, and they won’t
lose their niche within the team.
In the non-monetary context, this is the level everyone is looking
for esteem and respect; they are seeking to gain leverage by gaining in how
others view them. One way to look translate this level is to equate monetary
compensation with respect and esteem.
The individuals at this level are confident and are assured
about their abilities but now they are looking to gain recognition and approval
from people other than themselves. They feel secure in their niche but need to
be assured extrinsically through external rewards: money, opinions, and
respect.
Their confidence derives from having achieved at a high
level, their comfort with their place on the team is unassailable, and they
understand their gifts well enough to be able to self-regulate.
As a Player
The player at this level closely straddles the line between
confident and arrogant. Their performance is motivated by public praise and
extrinsic attention rather than intrinsic desire for mastery.
This is particularly evident in those players who are being
recruited for college. The motivation is extrinsic: that college scholarship.
Their concern is less about the team and more about being seen by the right
coach. Winning and losing only matters
if the individual is shining in a good public light.
The player’s behavior shifts its focus from being team
centered to self-centered. The motivation is extrinsic and egocentric. Many
players are stuck in this level, and often this is where they will stay never
achieving level five.
As a Coach
The coach has evolved in ways that are similar to the
player. They have achieved a level of excellence where they are self-assured
and confident in their coaching abilities.
Win/loss records are a regular part of being a coach. Each
coach is well aware of their own records. The difference in this level is that
the coach is primarily motivated by their record because that is the most
direct route to recognition, by their peers, players, and their bosses.
This focus on the extrinsic does affect the way they coach,
but it takes the coach’s focus away from their players and the team. It places
the coach’s own ego squarely in the middle of the radar, making recognition the
center of their motivation. The motivation is extrinsic and egocentric.
One particular comment encapsulates this level of coach.
This was said during a sideline harangue during a losing effort: YOU are making
ME look bad.
Level Five: All I Want to Do is Win.
This level is the ultimate, it is the elusive nirvana, this
is where the individual’s altruistic self asserts their dominance. They are no longer
just happy to be there. They don’t need to just survive, they are far from
being uncomfortable in their roles, they know emphatically that they belong,
and they don’t need anyone’s approval. They. Just. Want. To. Win.
This is where the magic happens in a team. Getting all the
players to just want to win on the same page. They all are willingly
sacrificing their personal glory and egotistical needs to just win. This is
what the slogans come true: there is no I in team.
As a Player
The individuals are willing to do whatever it takes to win:
for their teammates, their coaches, their friends, families, and for
themselves. Because everything else in their hierarchy of needs has been met.
They are humble, because they know they cannot win by
themselves, they want to win so their focus is on HOW to enable the team to
win, they apply themselves towards improving themselves, their skill, their
mental acuity, and their decision making; all to win. Indeed, they willingly subsume
their own selfish and petty egotistical needs so that they can do whatever it
takes, even to the detriment of their personal glory —i.e., the opposite of
Level Four— to win.
As a Coach
Similarly, the coach has been freed of the ego, everything
that they do as a coach is geared towards winning: all the technical,
intellectual, and emotional aspects of being a leader are aligned with whatever
it takes to win. Since they have proceeded through all of the other levels of
development, they have those experiences to recall and act as scaffolding toward
implementing what it takes to win.
The Environment
Getting all the players on a team at the same level is
difficult, unless you are coaching a developmental team, where everyone is just
happy to be there. It is because of this incongruency that the interpersonal relationships
amongst the players are difficult to navigate.
The different levels of each individual frame of reference create
a dynamic environment for the players to navigate. The blending of varying
levels of skills, maturity levels, and knowledge is what makes coaching junior
players difficult. A disparity in the levels is much more complex to manage than
dealing with the varying skill levels, it is hitting driver: every difference between
the players is amplified and exaggerated. Trying to manage the differing expectations
from the level where the player resides is complex and has an infinite number
of moving parts.
This is where the environment and culture must assert itself.
The environment should be flexible and forgiving enough to accommodate all the
players at the different levels. The culture, however, must be unified. The
trick is for the coach to get all the players on the team to put their skin in
this game, to buy into the culture completely, even as they occupy different
levels of development.
Summary
When I first read Maddon’s Chapter 8, the varying levels
struck me as the perfect categorization of the players on teams. I can identify
the Happy-To-Be-Here player, the Survival player, the Confident player, the
Look-At-Me player, and the I-just-want-to-win player. Each team that I have coached
had each of the five levels of players in different ratios. Coaching some of
these teams was more trying than others. I admit that I had mishandled the
environment and culture for some of the teams. While others operated smoothly. I
had never really thought about why these teams operated with the varying levels
of successes in the player’s development level context until I read this
chapter. To be clear, I understand how the fluctuating skill levels of the team
members impact the team dynamics, I had not thought about what their mental
development levels could impact the team dynamics.
Identifying these levels of players early on would have been
helpful in helping me negotiate the trials and tribulations of coaching the
teams. Of course, I didn’t think in these terms when I coached them. I know
better now. At least I hope so.
References
Joe Maddon, Tom Verducci. The Book of Joe: Trying
Not to Suck at Baseball and Life. New York: Hatchette Book Group, 2022.
