I was chatting on WhatsApp with one of my friends, a part-time tipster, and bettor, about the recent UEFA Champions League soccer match between Manchester United and Paris Saint Germain, and I wondered, “Why does mastering mental maps help you to influence others?”
Can a coach’s mental map and influence affect the result of a football match?
As much as I would love to give a no, the answer is yes.
The way you perceive an area, a problem, a situation and interact with it is what we call mental mapping. We, humans, live in our world the way we create and view the world. So, two people can live in the same house and relate to the building and their neighbors and environment differently. I want to believe Ole Gunnar Solskjær interacted with his team situation differently than his counterpart Thomas Tuchel of PSG. One thing Ole Gunnar Solskjær has done well is using his mental map to influence his team.
The Contrast of Two Legs
As much as I loved Manchester United to trash PSG in the first game, the reverse was the case. The match ended in the most baffling result of the month for me. My friend lost a $1000 bet on Manchester United winning the first leg at home. With their good winning spirit of the past 2 months, the Manchester United team under Ole Gunnar Solskjær ought to trash the PSG team with ease. PSG beat them at home! My friend gave me a match tip for the second leg. He said: “Manchester United will win the second leg in France and qualify”. My response was an emoji that opens a wide mouth and a huge laugh.
Have you ever imagined how you could make the impossible possible? Imagine what happened on Wednesday 6th March 2019 in France when Manchester United qualified on the away goal rule by beating PSG three goals to one. That is making the impossible possible. Solskjær has done something right? He lost one of his best players, Paul Pogba, to a red card in the first leg and the team could still turn the table around in their favor. The coach must have done something right.
How the Mind Works
Your mental map helps you get through situations either better or worse than the next person. The map of your city helps you reach your office, your shopping mall, and places you want to get to, easier and faster than someone unacquainted with the area. The mind helps you build trust in your neighborhood. That is why you live where you do. This is less what you see and more what you feel. Mental maps help you navigate a road familiar in a style other than what is the norm. Our mental maps are different. This is not like a static geographic map. This is generated by a person regarding an area, situation or circumstance. It is different in each of us.
How a Coach’s Mental Map Influenced His Team
In sporting competitions like soccer, the coach, the players, and the staff will have their work tested. I must note that competition is not a contest or war, but a form of a partnership of fair play with an opponent towards a quest for excellence. When you see competition as war, it becomes an unhealthy contest. The leader and coach must understand and use his understanding of mental maps to move his team ahead of the opponent. The burden of getting them to a state of excellence rests on his shoulder.
A coach in any team is an influencer. His or her sway on the team will dictate the team’s performance. Take, for instance, the power of Jose Mourinho on the same team that Ole Gunnar Solskjær took over after him. The Manchester United team was almost knocked over by all teams in the English Premier League during the Jose Mourinho’s time as the team manager and coach. But the team won, with a 15-game winning streak since Ole Gunnar Solskjær took over.
Influencing a team or a group of people is an important part of leading to success. One of the best ways to persuade people is to allow their own metal maps to thrive. Look and listen to them. This will help broaden and improve your own mind map as a leader of the team. Giving people the chance to express themselves is a way of building them up to become a better part of the team. When people express their views and opinions, they feel relieved and eager to do more. This will build the team and the team leader.
How To Influence Your Team
AJ Kitt, the former US-born World Cup alpine skier, once said “You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do”. This means you can tell people what to do but you cannot make them do what you want them to do. You can only control whatever you want to do. Maybe you play a sport in a league with your friends and colleagues. You and your team are powerless over the referee’s decision, your opponent’s performance, and the weather. But then there is one thing you can control, your team’s performance.
That is your only power. That is the part you need to focus more on. But there are better ways of making people do what you want them to do. It is called influence. To persuade someone or some people, you will need to work from inside their mental maps. You will, after listening to them, understand what they talked about within the context of their feelings, and articulate your own ideas.
Always remember that your control over people is limited. Our mental maps are different. We all want to do things our way. Team leaders influence the team to go in a certain direction. Yes, you want them to do your thing your way. You will gain true control when the team achieves its goal using their individual mental maps. You can persuade your team in this way as well by allowing your team members to submit their input in the methods to reach your goal. Get inside their mental maps and work from there to achieve the team goal.
Be the Big Dreamer
You must not forget to dream big. Dreaming big is a way of saying, “I will persevere.” Don’t dream ordinarily. Aim to achieve the dream. There is no success story in sports or even in life without the ability to dream and aim high. I am sure some members of the Manchester United crew would laugh to themselves when Ole Gunnar Solskjær spoke to them about qualifying for the UEFA Champions League. Their opponent PSG is a team filled with great players. Manchester United was without one of their best players for the game. But the coach offered the biggest dream – qualifying. To be impactful, you need a bigger dream than the people you want to persuade.
Positive Self-Talk
Another interesting part of our mental maps is our positive self-talk. How about a manager or coach who has a big dream, wants to push his players and coaching crew but does not trust himself? When you cannot tell yourself, this is what I am going for and I must achieve it, then there is a problem. Your mind should contain the strategies needed to achieve your big dream. When you conceive the strategic idea, the only thing to make it real is your belief; the hunch it will work. You must pass your self talk to your players. “We will win” and not “they will lose to us”. Always stay positive, have self-determination and trust in your ability to achieve your dream and then you can pass this to your team.
When you use it and do it right, you will listen and understand the mental maps if those around you. You will use the big dream, just like Ole Gunnar Solskjær did with the Manchester United team. You will become a great persuasive force on your team when you understand how mental maps work.
