How to prevent your team from social loafing
This goes out to coaches, who want to achieve more with their team. There is a phenomenon in group environements, it’s called social loafing and probably you heard about it and even more probably you experienced it, even if you wasn’t aware of it. What it means is, when your teacher in school or your last training for trainers gave you a group task together with three other people, you was less enganged than when you would have done it alone. You were expacting the others to do the job or the other way around: you did the job while others were relying on your knowledge and work. This is a common human behaviour which occurs everywhere: in relationships and families, in offices and any company and… in your team.
For us, me as a sport spychologist and you as a coach, the important question is: How to prevent your team from social loafing? What can you actually DO, that you get everyone’s full energy for maximal performance and satisfaction. And honestly, if you look at the research, there are some key points that you should consider. Here we go.
1. The first and most important thing is, that every athlete knows, that his/her performance is perceived. Or even better, that their performance outcome is identifiable – make it measurable. Let’s say, during practice there is a group task to solve. To prevent social loafing, break it down into individual tasks for every athlete and make the performance of every athlete visible.
Do it in a way that every athlete feels seen… and loved. You’re not doing this to show somebody off, but to make your squat efficent and successful in the long run.
2. Second powerful tool: have regular meetings with every athletes to speak about personal performance developments and potentials, find process goals together and check them when the time has come. This is a way to show your interest and appreciation and will increase commitment to their personal performance and consequently also to the teams developmet – easy but very effective.
3. Increase the personal importance of the tasks. The higher the intrinsic motivation, the lower the risc of social loafing. How you do that? Be creative, e.g. give prices for specific tasks or reaching goals, announce a „team-player of the week“ or a „hard worker of the month“.
4. Next thing to cosider: the more important the group is for the individual the more work they will put in. What does that mean for you? Strengthen the coherance in your team through team building actvities. The goal is that being part of the team is a part of the athletes identity. They are not just any random basketball/volleyball/football palyer, but part of a supreme community. That means it’s important to build a team identity, something your team stands for and players can connect to. Then let any athlete be a special part of that community by defining his/her role and tasks. Make it really transparent. What are the expactations and how to fulfill them? Try to make the same rules for everybody and stick to them. All of this sounds difficult to you? Start that work from the prepartion on, go step by step and make it happen – it’s worth it. Any athlete wishes to have a coach who is doing this kind of work.
5. Here comes one more really practical and easy to implement tool: train in small groups more frequently – it brings more visibility of every individual.
6. During practice have a bigger focus on the fulfilling of the task and the improvement of your players than on competition between athletes and the outcome.
7. And last but least: have an eye on team members with a bigger ego and a high need for validity. Be consequent and take action if you get the feeling that somebody relaxes in the expense of others.
Now it’s your turn - try it out. Don’t forget that every athlete and every team is different and might need a slightly different approach to reach maximum performance.
I’m here to help with any question and looking forward to hear from your experiences!
Have a great day,
Berit
This blog was inspired by:
Ohlert, J. & Zepp, C. (2019). Gruppenleistungen im Sport. In Schüler, J., Wegner, M., Plessner, H. (Hrsg.), Sportpsychologie (S.395-425). Berlin: Springer.