The Platinum Rule -by Coach Dave Stricklin http://www.hoopskills.com
In the mid 1990's business motivational expert Tony Alessandra wrote a book entitled The Platinum Rule whose basic premise could have a profound effect on us as coaches if we start to apply it to the way we interact with our players. Alessandra admits that the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you," may be extremely powerful as a guide to personal values, but he also contends that it can create many conflicts when it comes to communicating (coaching). How? Because if I coach all my players the way I would want to be coached then I would obviously have to coach them all exactly the same way. I would drive all of them extremely hard, in a very intense, straightforward, blunt, no nonsense; results are everything, kind of way. But what if they don't respond to that type of coaching? What if some do, while others completely tune me out? What does that do to the coach-athlete relationship and to the entire coaching process? Instead of the Golden Rule, Alessandra says that we should be following the Platinum Rule, which is essentially, "Do unto others as they'd like done unto them." As a coach that changes everything! It means now we should push the ones who respond favorably to pushing and pull the ones who respond to pulling. Some we can yell at but others we need to whisper to. Some need pats on the back, while
1 The Platinum Rule-hoopskills.com