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Filling Emotional Tanks

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Your emotional tank fuels your performance. People with full tanks perform better, and people with empty tanks aren’t able to go as far. Parents, coaches and especially teammates play very important roles as “Tank Fillers.” Teams that spend effort on filling each other's emotional tanks continue to work hard and improve, even in tough circumstances.

How can you fill your teammates' emotional tanks? First and foremost, try to avoid some natural human tendencies (frowning, using sarcasm, being overly critical, etc.) that contribute to emotional tank draining. In fact, research shows that optimal performance occurs when people receive about 5 pieces of positive feedback (tank fillers) to every 1 criticism (tank drainer). We call this 5:1 the Magic Ratio.

In this excerpt you’ll find specific examples of tank-filling tools. For example, praising your teammates works best when it is truthful and specific. Instead of saying “nice job” consider saying “Amanda, your hustle in the second half got us all going!” Become a Triple-Impact Competitor® by using these tools to refine how you give feedback and support to your team, and discover the power of the Magic Ratio.

The last page of this book excerpt includes an E-Tank Action Plan. Consider creating this so you can improve your current approach to filling your teammates’ Emotional Tanks.

This PDF was excerpted from Jim Thompson’s (@JimThompson18) book Elevating Your Game. To purchase the entire book, and to learn more about other PCA books, click here.

These books are used in PCA’s live workshops. To learn more about our interactive student-athlete workshops, click here.

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  • Type: PDF Document
  • Size: 487 KB
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