You know, there’s more to being a football coach than just showing up to the field on the weekend and calling in plays from the sidelines.

And so it is with any type of coach, especially the type of coach that manages a crew – like we do.

Our crews see us directing work, high five-ing when they do well, pointing out areas of improvement when it falls short and generally running the team.

And every day is game day for us.

But being on the field during “game day” is only a part of the picture of a well prepared coach.

It’s the time spent off the field analyzing and assessing that creates a successful coach.

Of course, every good football coach knows this quite well but I sometimes wonder if we, all of us as retail coaches, are taking this part of our jobs as serious.

Are we sitting down with our documentation notebooks and assessing our team?

Putting the “thought time” in to really analyze who’s strong, who needs more support and guidance, who needs to be off the team.

Looking at our log, we can see if we’ve been appreciating enough; communicating enough and spelling goals out clearly enough with simple steps.

What’s our personal game plan to move our crew forward?

Have we been putting in the ‘”sit down-get serious-look it all over” time needed to be that excellent successful coach.

As we begin this New Year it is great time to take stock and assess. Where do things stand with the team?