During his time on the UEFA Pro Licence course, Fulham's new manager, Scott Parker, discussed his coaching and leadership philosophy.
How would you summarise your own coaching/management philosophy?I believe in managing people. I believe in creating an environment and culture that people want to come to work in. If you create that then I think you have every opportunity to be successful. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying what happens on the training field isn’t important, because of course it is – but my personal thoughts are of creating good people and creating an environment.
Ancient Roman Theatre - Milos: Important Historical Site Close to Catacombs - See 263 traveler reviews, 182 candid photos, and great deals for Tripiti, Greece, at Tripadvisor. Top 10 Games That Shouldn't Even Exist. There have been several video games throughout history that have achieved near unanimous acclaim, embedding themselves permanently in our minds. And then there are games that don’t achieve commercial success but become cult classics.
What are the most important lessons you have learned from the coaches and managers you have worked with?I’ve experienced a vast number of managers in my career - some unbelievably good managers - but each one has been very different, with their own strengths and weaknesses.
When I look back, and I reflect a lot on this, I think back to the things that the best coaches and managers did. There is a common trait about the best managers and coaches and that’s their man-management and organisational skills.
Looking back over your playing career, what types of coaching sessions engaged you the most?The best sessions are player-led and you come off the training field still engaged. That’s partly down to the coaches and the way they put their messages across – but, ultimately, it’s when you have the right players who are engaged and willing to learn and want to do well.
The best sessions happen when you have a group of players who want to go out onto the training field and want to be successful.
Certainly the really good teams I have been in are player driven: the players drive the session and don’t accept things that aren’t right and don’t accept individuals who aren’t doing things right.
What are the ingredients of a player-centred environment?For people to thrive and to get the best out of people, the environment has to be right. It happened to me as a player. I’ve been at clubs where the environment hasn’t been right and I’ve not been engaged.
Whereas there are other clubs I’ve played at where I’ve thrived. It was because I enjoyed going to work in the environment and I was improving and everybody had the same expectations and expected a lot from each other.
It’s not just football. It’s the same way in which I view bringing up my kids, I view developing a culture at a football club in the same way as bringing up a family. If the home is a good place for the kids to come back to they are going to thrive, be happy, and do well at school. It’s the same as being a manager and managing your team.
Have you ever challenged a coach during a session?I’ve never challenged a coach in front of the rest of the team, but being the team captain at most of my clubs there have always been conversations with the coach. I have always asked questions as to whether we could do certain things better.
Similarly, I’ve always challenged other players throughout my career. Not in an aggressive way, but sometimes to explain to players that something isn’t acceptable and then to talk about different ways we can improve.
Ultimately, I think that comes back down to the culture that you try and set. The more players you’ve got like that the more the culture is player driven and the easier it is to challenge and improve.
Bring Your ‘A’ Game is an engaging curriculum for building the seven foundational workplace skillsof Work Ethic. Unlike boring training programs, this curriculum is instructor-led, interactive, and consistently delivers lasting impact. Developed with the needs of educators and workforce development professionals in mind, it is fully customizable to meet the changing demands of serving unique populations.
- The seven skills are based on interviews with more than 1,500 national employers
- The curriculum includes 65 modular experiential activities so that each trainercan focus on just the content that is most relevant to their participant’s needs
- With more than 50 hours of content, organizations can choose any length of training, from a 30-minute introduction to integration over an entire year of training
- To meet the specific needs of different audiences, the curriculum is available in three versions standard, youth, and veteran.
- Following completion, participants are eligible to earn their Certificate of Work Ethic Proficiency by demonstrating mastery through our online assessment
The curriculum was developed using research-based instructional design with the goal of not just developing skills but creating lasting behavioral change. By combining experiential learning, a peer-to-peer methodology, and a flexible design, the curriculum engages both intellect and emotion. The result is an interactive learning experience that delivers outcomes.
- The simplified design allows anyone to be an effective facilitator, without having to be a subject matter expert
- Experiential exercises increase retention of learning by allowing participants to contextualizing the content into their daily lives
- Participants validate the concepts of the training through peer to peer learning which leads to immediate adaptation of the skills being taught
- The flexible and modular design of the curriculum reduces wasted training time by letting facilitators focus only on the skills that need improvement
Curriculum Components
- Curriculum Guides (required)
- Participant Workbooks (required)
Getting Started
- Visit our web store
- Call us to learn more (303) 433-3243
Email uswith questions or order inquiries
Training Workshops with Trainer Certification
To better prepare teachers, trainers, and facilitators of our soft skills curriculum and certification program, Bring Your ‘A’ Game, the Center for Work Ethic Development offers a full-day or half-day Train-the-Trainer certification. Led by Josh Davies, CEO of The Center, this workshop serves as a companion to the Curriculum Guide and includes both instruction and practical application. At the completion of the workshop, each participant earns their Certified Work Ethic Trainer certification. Because the core methodology and application are the same across all three versions of Bring Your ‘A’ Game, the certification is valid for the youth, adult, and veteran versions. Please email info@workethic.org or contact your account representative to find out more about our exciting live training opportunities.
Here is what participants have said about their experience with our Train-the-Trainer workshops:
“One of the best workshops I’ve ever attended in 23 years of state employment.”
“I didn’t want the class to end. The best and most engaging workshop I have attended.”
“This was the most excellent presentation ever! Love Josh!”
“Absolutely wonderful energy for the workshop. I LOVED the speaker.”
Important Workdefinitely Not A Game Site Officiel
“Great presentation and perspective. Definitely thought-provoking.”
“The most comprehensive discussion of leadership I have ever attended.”
Important Workdefinitely Not A Game Site Game
“Full of valuable content. Thank you!”