Recently, Leading Teams founder Ray McLean revealed Australian Diamond’s head coach Lisa Alexander’s top quality as a coach was her ability to engage the players in ‘Possibility Thinking’. She argued that this psychological technique allows the Diamonds to challenge their limits and to reach beyond their own expectations in terms of their performance.
So what is Possibility Thinking?
Possibility Thinking was a term first applied by Anna Craft at the end of the twentieth century. It is a type of thinking that transforms “what if” into “what might be”, or, a form of thinking that turns thought into reality.
The key behind Possibility Thinking is drawing upon your own strengths as an individual to solve problems, cope with challenges and move forward in all aspects of life.
How does Possibility Thinking work for the Australian Diamonds?
Lisa Alexander puts the following questions to the Australian Diamonds to encourage Possibility Thinking:
- How do we increase the performance of the Australian Diamonds
- How can we move beyond traditional captain/vice captain leadership to a broader leadership base?
- How do we implement a system where the players choose their leaders?
- With these new leaders in place, how do we now give the leaders more influence in game preparation, training, performance and reviews?
- How can we develop a deeply ingrained squad mentality, rather than the current ‘seven plus bench’ approach?
All of these questions have been drawn from Ray McLean’s recent blog post, “The Possibilities are Endless for the Australian Diamonds” (http://netball.com.au/possibilities-endless-australian-diamonds/).
These types of questions encourage the players to challenge their current “what if” thoughts, to a proactive mentality of “what happens when.” Brainstorming for “what happens when” encourages forward-movement towards a new way of being, in an effort to increase performance, leadership and positive team mentality.
Lisa Alexander’s use of Possibility Thinking is pushing the Australian Diamonds to new and greater heights, showing that a strong coaching style along with demonstrated psychological tactics can push an already excelling team to new and greater heights.