Job Considerations
Skills and Trends
When we think about jobs and professional development, what is it that really matters? (Finish section discussing mental skills literature and then essential roles/responsibilities and skills development).
JOB TITLES
Cognitive Performance Specialist
Mental Performance Coach
Learning and Development Manager
Athletic Director Student-Athlete Development
Director Mental Performance
FIELDS
Corporate
Learning and Talent Development and/or Leadership Development are many of the buzzwords used in that field.
May be asked to coordinate with HR providing on-boarding, group training, and one on one coaching to individuals within an organization. Breadth and depth vary greatly from company to company.
Sport
Mental Performance and Cognitive Performance are key terms utilized in sports field. Be clear that cognitive performance in sport usually means different roles than cognitive performance in military. In sport, it is in reference to wanting experience with cognitive fatigue and readiness.
Asked to engage in a wide variety of roles to provide team training and one on one coaching across performance and mental health needs.
Military
Cognitive Performance Specialist. Means the same thing as mental performance coach. Asking individuals to primarily work in tandem with other professionals to create group education with individual coaching around it.
SKILLS
When it comes to skills, we need to keep perspective here. What skills do we want to develop in order to be best prepared for different jobs we will be asked to do?
Skill #1: Design
Having a variety of techniques is important, but when it comes to designing workshops, programming, or exercises we can actually get a lot more out of our “toolbox” by simply being creative in the design process.
For example, take the same exercises and utilizing it as partner vs. small group vs. individual reflections can provide different angles and varieties.
When brainstorming, reflecting across our experiences, knowledge, and fit with client experiences is critical.
Experiences: What experiences do I have with the topic that may influence how I teach the skill?
Knowledge: What theories and/or research influences how I understand this skill/strategy?
Fit: How does this strategy/skill fit within context of the athletes experiences?
Skill #2: Facilitation and Presentation
Presentations and workshops are not the same thing, but they require similar skills. How we present material matters and a great quote to keep in mind here:
"Tell me and I’ll probably forget. Teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” - Motivational Lines
(Side note, great company for finding quotes).
What this quote represents is our ability to use our clients and their experiences when teaching and presenting. Our skill of facilitation and presentation can help bring our first skill of design to life. Below are some considerations when presenting:
Get the audience hooked first, introduce yourself second. That way you capture their attention and then you can introduce yourself within context of the topic, instead of the same old “Hi, I’m x,y,z, a sport/performance consultant, etc.”. It’s boring and we can elevate our group work by changing the introduction.
Reflect on how we set-up and debrief exercises and/or key points. We can do this by how we ask questions. Make identifying powerful questions as part of your presentation and/or facilitation skills.
Always focus on the objective. This works for both skill #1 and skill #2. Powerful sessions of any kind of clear objectives. It keeps it simple and focused.
One skill, one concept. Unless you have multiple hours, don’t over teach. One skill, one concept provided with an in-depth exploration and application is far more powerful than covering too much..
Lastly, nobody cares about the research. Know your audience. When working with athletes that don’t have the slightest interest beyond its relevance to their situation. Build credibility through the relevance, not the research and theories behind the work.
Skill #3: Assessment Implementation
Many employers use some sort of assessment tool (Mental skills assessments, personality assessments, etc.). Build your confidence with assessments by reflecting in the following ways:
The role of assessments. Assessments can do way more than how we typically view them. Assessments can help us measure progress on mental skills (pre/post) training programs, they can help us monitor and support athletes along the learning curve, they can also help us elevate how we train skills - designing interventions and education based on the subfactors within an assessment.
Types of assessments. As mentioned we have mental skills assessments, but we also have a massive range of specialty inventories. Load up and have assessments and inventories for major areas of need such as motivation, anxiety, mindfulness, confidence, arousal, etc. This will provide opportunities to dive deeper in certain areas when required to do so and can be an additional source of creativity when designing skill training.
THE PATH AHEAD
When it comes to professional development, I believe in a practical approach. We all have our areas of interest that may or may not fall within the skills development of our job; however - when it comes to elevating our approaches, keeping perspective on major skillsets such as the ones mentioned above can be really helpful. The above list is not all inclusive, but hopefully gets the creative juices flowing when identifying areas of growth. Especially as each of the skills above are relevant for military, sports, and corporate positions.
The above link is to the AASP website. I would also strongly encourage looking through popular search engines and talking with recruiters. They can really help with the resume and identifying the types of jobs you are interested in.
Below are some fun resources, some within our community and others I enjoy a good listen to and/or read:
Our Community of Practice
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