STEP 1
Log on to USASF.net to find downloadable and sharable videos that introduce a new word each month that supports the overall theme of “Integrity.” The program encourages conversation in clubs and studios about how athletes, teams, coaches and owners can personally be the example, and encourage others to be the example, of that month’s word.
STEP 2
At the beginning of each month, post one of the mini-posters from below in your club or studio as an introduction and reminder of the word your program will be working on that month.
STEP 3
Use the Conversation Starter pages to lead team-building talks with athletes and coaches. Each page includes the definition of the word of the month, a quote that puts the definition in perspective, and WE Speak Challenge questions to answer, share and encourage each other to learn and grow. Between both Chapters of What’s Your IQ, there are a total of 24 word to discuss. You can choose to use them in the order in which they’re presented or shuffle them in an order that makes the most sense for you.
Note: Best practices for printing the “What’s your IQ” posters
- Use glossy photo paper.
- Adjust the printer paper setting to glossy.
- Set the quality setting to Best if applicable. An additional option is to place the poster file on a thumb drive and take it to a copy center.
STEP 4
Learn and recite the “IQ Pledge” regularly (found at the bottom of each months conversation starter document)! It’s the perfect way to start and end the practice. The pledge will unify athletes and coaches in their commitment to creating an integrity-centered All Star program.
SHARE IT!
Start the conversation! Download the videos and the Conversation Starters from USASF.net each month, and share them with your teammates, on your website and in social media. Be sure to use #WhatsYourIQ when you’re posting! Each month has a different story that can be shared. We encourage you to enjoy the team time and use the hashtag #ThisIsAllStar to spread the transferable skills of All Star!
January – Encourager
An All Star athlete is someone who truly sees other people for who they are and lifts them up.
Concepts of being inspirational and supporting your teammates’ hopefulness and courageousness.
Inspirational – the action or power of moving others either intellectually or emotionally.
Courageousness – quality of spirit that enables you to lead others to face obstacles or things that make them afraid.
Be an encourager. The world has plenty of critics already.
– DAVE WILLIS
WE Speak Challenge:
Do you think being an intentional encourager will help your relationships on the team? Sharing specific praise to other team members is found to be an effective manner in which to lead.
Who are 5 people on your team that you can encourage today?
HOW can you encourage them?
List 3 ways you can encourage other team members during practice.
When you are encouraging others to watch their posture. Do you find they change their posture after you give them a compliment?
What encourages YOU? If you discover key phrases or actions that inspire you to be more courageous, use them on others!
View/Download Encourager Document
View/Download Encourager Mini-Poster
March – Appreciative
An All Star athlete inspires others to their greatest potential.
Concepts of being grateful and valuing someone and/or something on your team.
Grateful – showing or expressing thanks, feeling thankful for your team and program.
Valuing – considering it important or worthwhile, regarding your team and program with usefulness
At home, be grateful. At work, be appreciative. Gratitude is a gift we give ourselves. Appreciation is a gift we give to others.
– PICTUREQUOTES.COM
WE Speak Challenge:
What do you look forward to in practice each week? What was a win last week for you in practice? Share as a team and create a way to be intentional in having everyone feel successful and appreciative of All Star!
How do we as a team, know when we have done great work? How will we decide what makes a successful practice? How will we be appreciative of a great practice vs an average one?
What do we think we do well as a team? What are we appreciative of that we bring as a cohesive team with our skills and work values?
What can we learn from others and be appreciative of their practice drills and cohesion? How can we reorganize a specific part of practice to be more successful?
Reflect back on wanting to join All Star. What did you want to achieve? How do you feel about your journey? Be appreciative of the steps you have climbed to be successful and list how you will continue to grow.
May – Patience
An All Star athlete trusts the process and knows that patience is rewarded for those who are determined to achieve success.
Concepts of being understanding and persevering to achieve success personally and for the team.
Understanding – knowing how something works or what it means. In regards to teammates and being on a team, it is showing kindness and forgiveness to them.
Persevering – remaining constant and steadfast into a purpose, a goal, an idea, or a task in spite of obstacles.
Patience and time do more than strength or passion.
– JEAN DE LA FONTAINE
WE Speak Challenge:
Patience is easy to talk about but hard to do at times. One of the keys to developing patience is to discover your triggers.
What leads you to be impatient?
List 3 ways in the last week you became impatient. Were any of them during practice? What were the frustrations that led you to become anxious or impatient?
Is there a certain time of day that you are less patient? A certain time during practice?
How can you increase your patience?
Discuss how the team can become more patient with each other.
How can team members reward each other for being patient during practices?
July – Listener
An All Star athlete listens and demonstrates respect for others.
Concepts of paying attention to a teammate and/or coach and making the effort to hear something or someone with respect.
Paying attention – concentrating on the speaker’s words and actions. Being intentional in listening to their communication.
Respect – politeness, honor and care for a teammate, coach and other individuals.
Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you.
Listen in such a way that others love to speak to you.
– ANONYMOUS
WE Speak Challenge:
Our sport depends on learning, learning depends on listening. Larry King once said, “My first rule of conversation is this: I never learn a thing while I’m talking.” How is that relatable to your experience in All-Star?
If you can’t trust those who don’t want to learn, how can you trust those who don’t listen? Do you agree with this statement?
Listening demonstrates respect. Why?
Who demonstrates listening in your life? Who is the best listener? What can you “take away” from their example?
Discuss 5 ways your team can become better listeners during practice.
September – Kind
Concepts of being a considerate and good-natured teammate.
Concepts of being reliable, trustworthy and genuine to all. Worthy of belief and reliance as a teammate.
Considerate – showing respect for the feelings and circumstances of others on the team.
Good-Natured – a teammate who is naturally friendly and pleasant.
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
– MOTHER TERESA
WE Speak Challenge:
Spreading kindness goes a long way when working with others. How can you demonstrate kindness during practice?
People want to “be seen” and being intentional in noticing them reflects their value to you. Discuss small acts of kindness that you all can do for each other at practice, in school, for the community.
Kindness is contagious! How does being kind in practice rub off on others?
Bullying is a hot topic on social media. How can kindness be an effective deterrent?
Another aspect of being kind is to initiate positive self-talk. Google positive self-talk and watch the WE series discussion by Dr. Russell Kennedy:
Take steps today to discuss and initiate positive self-talk within your team and program!
November – Visionary
An All Star athlete is a forward thinker and open to opportunities.
Concepts of planning the future with wisdom and imagination. Able to listen to and develop strong, original ideas and share them with teammates.
Imagination – the ability to form ideas or pictures in your mind. Using your creativity in a new way.
Original – something that is different and unique. In the case of being a visionary leader, creating fresh and unusual goals/plans/concepts for your team to implement.
The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is a dreamer is content with having the dream while a visionary turns their dream into reality.
– GERALD BUBOSE
WE Speak Challenge:
Being a visionary means turning ideas into action. How have you grown in facing obstacles?
All-Star is known for seeing possibilities and identifying opportunities on the mat or the Marley.
How has it helped you do that off the practice and performance floor?
Are you more confident?
Beginning to embrace goal setting?
Becoming a better communicator?
Transferable skills, like being a teammate, communicator, working with others, are the non-skill-based lessons of All Star.
How have they impacted you?
What have you learned about yourself and your potential from these lessons?
Discuss your goals for this season. Share them with your team and create weekly practice goals so everyone can be team visionaries.
February – Accountable
An All Star athlete is someone who does what they say… always.
Concepts of being responsible and answerable to others on your team and program.
Responsible – having the control or power over yourself or other’s actions.
Answerable – explaining your actions to others and being held to a high standard.
Being accountable to somebody such as friends, family or a trainer can be a powerful tool to ensure progress towards your goal.
– PICTUREQUOTES.COM
WE Speak Challenge:
Did you know that statistically 50% of our population is above average in taking personal accountability and 50% is below average in personal accountability? (RMI Executive Research)
Let’s be intentional in developing our team’s and our own personal responsibility!
List a time when it was necessary to admit to your coach that you had made a mistake. How did you handle it? How did it make you feel afterward – better or worse?
Having someone become accountable means you are gaining their commitment to be better. What needs to happen in order for you to commit to being more accountable or to give 100%? For your teammates to become more accountable?
Being accountable is like having a “credibility bank”. You can put items in like being truthful, arriving on time and owning mistakes. But making withdrawals like being late and lying are devastating to your account. Unfortunately, others do not remember anything but your withdrawals, regardless of your many deposits!
List 5 deposits that you commit to investing in your accountability bank.
List 5 withdrawals that you commit to no longer “pull out” of your account.
Share your ideas with your team and create a checklist of being accountable to each other and your coaches.
April – Introspective
An All Star athlete reflects on their abilities and weaknesses and then CHOOSES to lead by example.
Concepts of being self-examining and inner-directed to better your leadership and strength as a teammate.
Self-examining – the thought that you give to your own character and actions. Contemplate what you bring to the team and your All Star program.
Inner-directed – to examine your own goals and values. Deciding that your thoughts and actions should be determined by your own values and not everyone else’s.
Success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection.
– SOICHIRO HONDA
WE Speak Challenge:
There are many questions that can be asked to take a self-reflective or introspection break. Some can be asked quarterly while others can be asked every day. Start with these and develop your own!
Am I using my time wisely in practice? Who can I reach out to for help with different sections or skills?
When did I push the boundaries of my comfort zone in practice? In school? In helping my community?
Answer this prompt “I really wish my coaches knew this about me in practice….”
What are my “blind spots” in being a leader on the team? Don’t know what a blind spot is? Google the definition and/or attend a BOLT/MARCH Leadership Workshop.
Finally, focus on the things that are going well in practice and at school that will lead to your future success. You may have negative thoughts pop up but do your best to release them and stay focused on positive talking to yourself. List them and create 5 new goals to achieve this year on the mat and Marley and in the classroom.
June – Generous
An All Star athlete has a servant’s heart and gives freely of their time.
Concepts of demonstrating kindness and being magnanimous.
Kindness – showing care, respect and concern for others by giving generously of time and being helpful.
Magnanimous – a style of carrying out the responsibility of being a leader with a large and generous heart.
Don’t waste time on what’s not important. Don’t get sucked into the drama. Get on with it: don’t dwell on the past. Be a big person; be generous of spirit; be the person you’d admire.– ALLEGRA HUSTON
WE Speak Challenge:
Who on the team is someone that you would consider a generous person? What traits or values do they demonstrate as they serve others?
What is the concept of “paying it forward” and how does this apply to the term generosity?
Can you ever be too generous during practice? What does that mean?
Spending time with someone means you “see” them and notice them. How does this impact an athlete?
Being generous can mean giving someone a chance or the benefit of the doubt. Describe how this could be useful during practice.
How can your team be generous with their time to each other? To another team in your program? To your community?
We have all been given the resources of time, money and being in All Star. In what ways can you demonstrate servant leadership by organizing team building games, sleepovers at the facility or helping your coaches organize practices?
August – Authentic
An All Star athlete is authentic in their actions and words.
Concepts of being reliable, trustworthy and genuine to all. Worthy of belief and reliance as a teammate.
Reliance – others being able to trust and depend on you as an athlete and team member.
Reliable – being stable and consistent as a teammate. Never wavering from your values and character.
Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.
– BRENE BROWN
WE Speak Challenge:
Show genuineness by action.
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. Oscar Wilde
Does this inspire you? Why?
Being authentic may mean battling peer pressure. What are 3 ways that you combat peer pressure and remain authentic to yourself? Has it been helpful?
Authentic leadership encourages others to be sincere and give input to a dilemma.
Being authentic includes being authentic on social media. How can one be authentic on social media?
Discuss social media accounts as a team. Share ideas on how to be authentic as a team and avoid Finsta and Anonymous accounts online.
October – Communicator
An All Star athlete speaks the truth with compassion and intention.
Concepts of speaking with intention and conveying information/ideas to the team.
Intention – a purpose or goal. Planning and aiming to achieve something with purpose. Communicating with intention is being clear and conveying goals or specific ideas.
To be a good leader, you have to be a good communicator. As a leader, you have to communicate your intent every chance you get, and if you fail to do that, you will pay the consequences.
– WILLIAM H. MCRAVEN
WE Speak Challenge:
Being a communicator is not about YOU, it is about those you are on the team with.
Speaking truth with kindness will make you a better teammate and your team stronger. Discuss how eye contact is a valuable tool in communicating an idea kindly.
Being able to share your ideas is vital in All Star and in life. Practice leading What’s Your IQ 2.0 presentations with your team.
What public speaking concepts do you need to work on?
Body language and the HOW of presenting ideas is important. Google notes on public speaking postures. List 3 ways a good communicator should present themselves physically.
Sharing thoughts in a compassionate, kind and truthful manner is a necessity in All-Star both on and off the mat and Marley.
What are some effective ways to give criticism at practice? How do you like to receive criticism? Share your list with your coaches and teammates.
December – Intuitive
An All Star athlete cares for others and has the power to sense when something is bothering a teammate.
Concepts of having insight and being quick to be perceptive of a teammate’s moods and feelings.
Insight – having a clear and deep understanding of a person, complicated problem or situation.
Perceptive – realizing or noticing things that are not obvious to someone or something.
The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.
– JOHN C. MAXWELL
WE Speak Challenge:
Being intuitive means having the power to sense when something is bothering someone. Being empathetic is one of the top leadership traits to develop. Be observant over the next week during practice and in school. Look for physical signs of stress or happiness from coaches, teammates and friends.
Take the time to help someone who is showing signs of being overworked or overwhelmed with the holiday and competition season. Discuss with your coach and team how you will all relieve stress during the upcoming season.
Create a calendar of team building games and activities to assist in relaxing everyone over the next four months.
Study different leadership styles and concentrate on learning your teammates’ preferred method of being a leader. A few examples are: Leading by Example • Leading by being Positive • Leading with Courage • Leading by Speaking Truth.
Interested in learning more about leadership styles? Attend a BOLT or March workshop this summer.
Being intuitive means that you are not self-absorbed or living in your own bubble, you notice others around you and make them better. Use the holiday season to give back to others on your team, your program, and your community. Plan a party or service project to reinforce your commitment to giving back and serving other’s needs.