Chantal Vallée: Ask for criticism if you want to improve
Champion basketball coach took a long look at herself before transforming last-place U of W Lancers team.
Before Chantal Vallée became a five-time national champion head coach of university basketball, she took a long hard look at herself in order to improve.
With pressures on the court and on campus coaching the University of Windsor Lancers women's basketball team, Vallée has spent a lot of time acting as a coach and a counsellor to her student athletes.
In the latest installment of her ongoing series on CBC's Windsor Morning, she shares her advice on how people can improve themselves by asking for feedback and criticism.
Transforming yourself
The question I get asked the most as a coach is what did I do to transform our program into a five-time national champion.
My answer is always the same: First I had to raise my own standards and transform myself. To do that, there was a big self-evaluation of who I was as a leader.
So, I asked for anonymous feedback from the people I worked with and my players. That was quite excruciating. People can be brutally honest.
Asking for that criticism anonymously was important because that's how you really get the truth.
Their responses were really tough and humiliating at the time, but it was necessary for the transformation. If I wanted the program to rise from worst in the country to No 1, I knew I needed to raise my own personal standards.
Raise your own standards
As the head of the organization, I did not want to be the limiting factor to our team success. I made decisions on things I would no longer tolerate in myself or my leadership style and made decisions on who I aspired to become.
I wanted to be a true leader that could transform teams. It was a difficult process but, through the years, I grew and I became able to lead in a much more effective way.
Former Lancers team co-captain Emily Abbott told me between 2007-2012 that I became a much better coach over my five years at the school.
This is then something I was able to share with my team and implement. If we want to be successful, we need to raise our standards.
To transform yourself, I suggest you identify your goals. What is it you want to improve at? Then, follow these steps:
- Ask for feedback and accept it
- Seek out new ways to grow and improve
- Work at growing and achieving those standards
Just remember that transformation takes time. Be a little patient.
Vallée appears every other Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. on Radio-Canada's Matins sans frontieres 105.5 FM and 1550 AM and at 8:10 a.m. on CBC's Windsor Morning, 97.5 FM.