👉 I care.
👉 I care that what I say reflects reality - this is ingrained in anyone who has worked in science and academia.
👉 I care that I'm honest in what I say. Sometimes that comes at a cost. I meet people who believe my job is "academy bashing". It isn't. I just care.
In my pursuit of honesty, reliability and ensuring what I say reflects reality, I test myself. I take opportunities to ask people what they think of me (ok - on occasions, people tell me what they think of me 😂). I don't take any feedback personally, but I take feedback in the same way I ask players to, as an opportunity. As a reflective tool.
🧐 I wanted to share this process with you
Having appeared on a podcast recently, I was contacted by someone who works in Player Care, who told me they had listened. I took the opportunity to ask them:
This is the exact message:
And their reply?
I, of course, asked if I could share this feedback anonymously. Anonymity is a key component of my work. Those working in clubs, of which there are many, many good people working extremely hard, are also conflicted at times. We need to be kind to them as well at the same time as being honest.
Want to hear my "balanced opinion"? You can listen to the LifeThroughBall podcast with the excellent Tarek here: