Coach Development: Coping With Uncertainty
The only certainty is that nothing is certain. Pliny the Elder said that, or something like that. This is as true in coaching as it is in life. One minute you’re planning practice, the next you’re dealing with an injured athlete or an NCAA rule change or even a global event that trickles down to the boathouse. Uncertainty is an unavoidable reality, and learning to thrive in it takes practice.
Recently, I led a workshop for head coaches within a local college athletic department. They were feeling weighed down by the seemingly never-ending stressors of the job—winning, recruiting, budgeting, team management, staff development, long hours, and on and on. Not to mention outside stressors they brought up—campus leadership, national tensions, and, invariably, work-life harmony.
A common theme exacerbating a lot of the stresses these coaches were facing was uncertainty. Neuroscience backs this up. Research shows that uncertainty actually impacts our brains and bodies more negatively than bad news itself. In studies, people experienced higher anxiety, spikes in amygdala activity, and stress responses such as elevated heart rate and cortisol when they didn’t know when a small shock was coming compared to knowing it was certain. That lack of control, when unchecked, fuels stress, fear, and eventually burnout.
The good news, though, is that there are some mindset shifts and practical tools that I’ve seen be effective in helping coaches manage their response to uncertainty so they can lead better with imperfect information and focus on what really matters.
Keep the main thing the main thing.
If everything feels urgent, nothing important actually gets done, or gets done well. When you’re too busy picking fights with your administrator or re-rigging the boat yet again, you miss out on evaluating the team performance trends or ensuring that the team is actually living your team values.
The best coaches I know hold their personal values and team philosophy in their core. They use them to anchor every decision, from whom to recruit to how to respond to a misbehaving team member. Crucially, this knowledge also dictates what they don’t focus on. They can cut through the noisy distractions, decide what to let go of, and how to stay focused on the long-term development of their team, instead of getting whiplash from chasing the latest distraction.
(While Jalen Hurts didn’t invent the idea—Stephen Covey did— the Philly quarterback talks about it a lot. And he’s never wrong.)
Control what you can control.
It’s easy to waste a lot of energy worrying about things that, ultimately, we have no control over. We all do it. How much time have you spent fretting over the weather forecast or how another team is training? It’s only natural. But it’s a waste.
My recommendation: Use the circle of control. Take a look at everything that’s stressing you out. Group them into three categories: what you have control over (the circle of control); what you have influence over (the circle of influence); and what you simply cannot affect (the circle of concern). Be honest about where things really fall. For example, you do not have control over where a recruit chooses to go. You can influence it, but it’s up to that recruit ultimately. That falls in the circle of influence, at best.
Then you need to focus your time and attention on the first two circles and do your best to let go of the third. When you double down on the controllables, you feel more effective and therefore more steady, which is exactly what your team needs from you.
Make a plan.
Uncertainty leads so many coaches into two traps: overreacting (scrapping a training plan after one bad erg piece) or freezing (waiting for the perfect moment to lock in a lineup). Neither helps their crew improve.
Now that you’ve focused your actions on what really matters and what you have control over, you have to take action, even if it’s not perfect. Identify one or a few things you can tackle this week. Determine what obstacles could get in your way and decide how you’ll respond before they come up. Communicate this clearly to your fellow coaches and your athletes. Then, get going.
A good plan won’t eliminate uncertainty, but it will give your team, and you, the confidence that you’re steering the ship, even if the waters are choppy.
Uncertainty isn’t going anywhere. But when you know what matters, what you can control, and what your plan is, you can be an effective leader despite it. So instead of drowning in the unknown or lashing out with reactive actions, take a breath, consider these three ideas, and you can get back to leading your team with clarity and confidence.
Madeline Davis Tully competed as a lightweight rower at Princeton and on the U-23 national team before coaching at Stanford, Ohio State, Boston University, and the U-23 national team. Now a leadership and executive coach, she is the founder of the Women’s Coaching Conference.
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