The Most Important Value Learned in Hockey

As the Minor Hockey season winds down we are reminded that minor hockey instills an important life skill in our youth. Sportsmanship is important in any sport but in minor hockey, it is especially significant. Youth hockey players need to develop a strong appreciation of the game. Practicing sportsmanship will help players have fun, stay active and sharpen skating skills.

Who Should Practice Sportsmanship
Sportsmanship in minor hockey isn't limited just to players. Coaches, parents, officials, and spectators must set an example for young players.  Fairness in game play time, despite size or skill level is an important aspect of establishing an example that all players will follow. Spectators need to remember that these are children playing and that no one's NHL career is made or broken during a single game or even a single season.

It's about Core Values
Sportsmanship develops a strong character. Hockey players learn respect. Showing respect to other players, teammates, and coaches establishes a strong sense of character. Respect spills into other attributes. Responsibility, determination and integrity each weigh into the value of sportsmanship.

It's about Fun
Youth athletics are rewarding but they also instill a sense of fun. Good sportsmanship ensures that the game provides a safe experience for participants and families. Winning isn't everything. Coaches and parents need to stress to young players that building skills and having fun should be a top priority.

Establish a Code
Adults and minor hockey participants should understand the elements of fair play. Many leagues require parents, coaches, and players to sign a conduct agreement before play begins. Most agreements include these standards:

• Respect rules
• Respect opponents
• Respect officials and decisions made
• Keep self-control
• Support teammates and allow everyone time on the ice

Sportsmanship is key to all athletic endeavors. Learning how to be respectful and how to have fun will be lessons minor hockey players can use on and off the ice for the rest of their lives.

Aran Awards Hockey Sale is on now!

How Sports can Help your Child

The way to build a child’s self-esteem is by teaching them how to set goals, work hard, accomplish tasks, understand the body, and learn from failure. Introducing your child to sports is just one of the ways they can build these skills.

Goal Setting: Playing sports gives the child an enormous pool of goals to choose from like mastering the basic skill set, becoming more fit, getting stronger, or winning the league championship.

Individual sports like running, swimming, or golf are great for children of all levels because not only can they compete with a team, but they can also compete against their own scores or times.

Hard Work: Through sports, a child will learn that practicing diligently with the team may not be enough; to improve they will need to spend extra time practicing certain skills on their own.
Doing so will not only build confidence, but it will also garner praise from the coach and teammates, while putting the child in a leadership position giving incentive to his teammates to improve themselves as well.


Accomplishing Tasks: After losing a game the child can learn that there is no shame in working hard and coming up short. The key is effort, personal development and having fun.

Understanding the Body: In sports children learn to value their body for “what it can do” not simply for “how it looks”. Children who play sports have a more positive body image and experience higher states of psychological well-being than those who do not play sports.

Learning from Failure: Children gain self-esteem by playing a game hard, losing, picking themselves up, congratulating the other team, and then going home and working hard with hopes of defeating that team the next time. Working hard to improve is something that can help children gain confidence thus bolstering their self-esteem.

What is Employee Engagement anyway?

Today in North America job satisfaction is at an all time low with fewer than 1 in 3 people being engaged at work. In the past 25 years a marked loss of "job satisfaction" has put less then 35% of people happy or proud of their work, the environment they work in or their current position within a corporation.

Disengaged employees cost the North American economy up to $350 billion per year in lost productivity.

What can be done?

GREAT leaders need to focus on engaging employees with :

GROWTH

• Meet one-on-one to assess the career goals of your employees
• Acknowledge what skills, experience and knowledge they need in order to identify those goals
• HELP them to identify ways to close the gaps between their goals and the where they are now in their career
• Offer mentorships, job rotations, meetings and job training

RECOGNITION

• Show appreciation readily, but make sure it is deserved
• Don't just say it or use email. Written notes are highly valued
• Offer recognition in public or with their peers or a boss present
• Ask people their opinion; get them involved

TRUST

• Your words and deeds must match
• Be transparent; share the bad news along with the good news
• When you make a mistake; acknowledge it
• Never say anything about a person that your wouldn't say to their face
• Constantly remind everyone of the Big Goal and the Plan that will get them there

The Pressures of Being a Minor Hockey Goaltender

IN THIS DAY AND AGE, you might think of minor hockey as one of the safest sports around. After all, the equipment of today is lighter and more protective than ever.

The irony is that while the padding players wear is more advanced than it has ever been, the pressure that players find themselves under has only escalated. The player under the greatest stress on a daily basis is the goalie, the last line of defence. Once the puck gets past the grasp of the goaltender, a goal is scored, and the pace of the game changes immediately.
While some goalies handle stress better than others, the bottom line is that the tension always exists, and, unlike the rest of the team the person in net has no one to fall back on.


Goalies are often referred to as a “different breed” for good reason; not every kid is up to the awesome task. Behind the pipes, the goalie is often the last hope that a team has and can make, or break, the outcome of a game, and sometimes the greatest game-to-game competition they face is to a chance to play in the crease.
Goaltending is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Way to GO!

Recognition goes far beyond a paycheck. Great recognition can spark a revolution that motivates your team to go above and beyond, from required to remarkable. Employee motivation can be as individual as the people who work for you.

Unfortunately, motivating people is far from an exact science. There's no secret formula, no set calculation, no work sheet to fill out. In fact, motivation can be as individual as the employees who work for you. One employee may be motivated only by money. Another may appreciate personal recognition for a job well done. Still another may work harder if she has equity in the business.
But you can boil down employee motivation to one basic ideal: finding out what your employees want and finding a way to give it to them or to enable them to earn it.

Employers often fail to realize that some of the most effective things they can do to develop and sustain motivated, committed employees cost very little or nothing at all.

• Interesting work. No one wants to do the same boring job over and over, day after day. And while any job will always require some boring, repetitive tasks, everyone should have at least a part of their job be of high interest to them.
• Information. Information is power, and employees want to be empowered with the information they need to know to do their jobs better and more effectively. And, more than ever, employees want to know how they are doing in their jobs and how the company is doing in its business.
• Independence. Few employees want their every action to be closely monitored. Most employees appreciate having the flexibility to do their jobs as they see fit.
• Increased visibility. Everyone appreciates getting credit when it is due. Occasions to share the successes of employees with others are almost limitless.

Say THANK YOU to your employees today.

New Year, New Goals, New Rewards

Happy New Year!

Have you thought of the goals and plans for your business in 2013?

Making a plan for how you want your year and business to grow is an important step in the right direction. But while making plans for you business don't forget to recognize and reward your employees for their hard work and dedication.

Changing the way you manage your employees is a great first goal for 2013. Prioritize employee recognition and you can ensure a positive, productive, innovative organizational climate. Provide employee recognition to say thank you and to encourage more of the actions and thinking that you believe will make your organization successful.

Create goals and action plans for employee recognition. You want to recognize the actions, behaviors, approaches, and accomplishments that you want to foster and reinforce in your organization. Establish employee recognition opportunities that emphasize and reinforce these sought-after qualities and behaviors.

Motivating Employees: 3 Unusual Things GREAT Bosses Do

Where employees are concerned, great leaders don't take. Great leaders give--especially these three things:

They give unexpected attention.
Everyone loves attention. Unfortunately you don't have unlimited time to devote to each employee.
So make the most of the time you do have. Don't just comment on the big stuff, the stuff you're supposed to focus on.
Notice a small detail. Praise a particular phrase she used to smooth the transition from customer conflict to problem resolution. Praise how he swung by another employee's desk to grab paperwork he could deliver on his way to another office. Pick something small, something positive, something helpful--something unexpected--to show you really pay attention.
Pick out details and employees know you're watching--in a good way--and not only will they work harder, more importantly they will feel better about themselves.
They give employees a break.
He messed up. Badly. Not only are you a little pissed, this is a teachable moment. You feel compelled to talk about it, possibly at length.
Don't. For a good employee, the lesson is already learned. Catch his eye, nod, let it go, and help him fix the problem.
Once in a while employees can all use a break. When they get one they never forget it. And they try really hard to show they deserved that break--and to make sure they never need another one.

They give an undeserved compliment.
Compliments don't always have to be earned. Sometimes a compliment can be like a self-fulfilling prophecy
.
When you see something in employees that they don't see--at least not yet--they often try hard to fulfill the belief you have in them.
That happened to me. I went out for debating in ninth grade and was nervous, scared, intimidated--pick any fearful adjective. It fit. A week or so into practices I heard the teacher talking to one of the seniors. "That kid there," he said, referring to me, "will be a champion by the time she's a senior."
He was wrong. It turned out I wasn't. But I immediately felt more confident, more self-assured, and incredibly motivated. Those feelings lasted for a long time.
He believed in me.
And I started to believe in myself.