Court- front or Office front !!!!

A recent interaction with a young athlete/ sportsperson threw light on the concept of Social Facilitation. The athlete expressed lack of confidence in executing certain skill sets in a game in the presence of his team mates.

Social facilitation can be understood as the psychological effect experienced by people, when they perform tasks/ skills when others are watching. Playing in the presence of others can indeed have an effect on one’s performance. The presence of others can be categorised into Onlookers and Co-actors. Onlookers are typically those who watch others perform, also called the Audience, while Co-actors are those who play alongside, they perform the same activity (in principle) at the same time as the actors.(Zajonc, 1965) Team mates ( Co-actors ) indeed contribute to performance of others. Hence research predominantly says that the presence of others can have a profound effect on one’s performance.

The theory of Social Facilitation, ( Zajonc,1965) states that the presence of others can be facilitating for well-learned tasks and debilitating for not so well- learned tasks. This can hold true when playing in front of an audience, but what  could happen to a player/ athlete when he or she plays in front of team mates also termed as co-actors. Are the co-actors viewed as supportive, encouraging or do they criticize, are they judgemental of a teammates lack of ability or inability to deliver in clutch moments be it in a team sports or individual sports. Example a basketball player, faces pressure from co-actors because his free throw accuracy percentage is not very high, and when required to basket them in a close game, it can add undue pressure thereby leading to the player missing the shots.

What impacted me after the conversation with the athlete, was that this aspect needs a lot attention!

Coaches must be conscious  and aware of the inner dilemma of these players. Does a player get on- court support? Why is that despite being part of a team a player has to experience this conflict? Team dynamics and team culture largely rule the roost. Despite coaches encouraging team camaraderie and belongingness, a player suffers in loneliness on ground. This also can have an effect of increasing the arousal level of the athlete.

Arousal is the level of activation of the body or the performer’s physiological state of readiness (Cox, 1990). It includes both elevation of physiological levels ( heart rate, breathing, pulse rate, etc.) and also psychological arousal like worry, apprehension, fear to name a few. This can be explained by the Inverted U theory , ( Yerkes & Dodson) which states that as arousal level of a player increases performance also increases but up to a point. Beyond this point any change in arousal can lead to a drop in performance. Thus jeopardizing the performance of an athlete.

This scenario could be prevalent even at the “Office Side”. You are chosen to make a key presentation by the team lead or manager and your team members who are also your co-actors create an air of discomfort for you. Is there a co-actor whose presence intimidates you when you are making a presentation? Research says that if arousal levels are too high, it can lead to anxiety and poor performance. This particularly hold true when the task is difficult and challenging. Example new hires may make more errors when feeling watched by other members. When people are anxious, they may make mistakes or freeze up. This can lead to suboptimal performance on both an individual and organizational level.

Be it in sports or in office, the presence of others can affect athletes and office executives. Sometimes even well learned tasks can be jeopardised by co-actors and thereby making the individual choke at crux situations.

As a coach or team leaders how can we avoid being passive onlookers to this psychological dilemma faced by players/ executives ? How can we meander through these situations and assist the team? Some tips to navigate these situations.

1.Have team members play different positions/ roles so that they can understand the situation of others by placing themselves in difficult situations.

2. Let problematic players function as a coach or team lead.

3. Set up challenging situations as a coach/ team lead for team members that will push them to work together.

4. Create or simulate situations, where some difficult players may find it difficult to succeed, so that they learn that anyone can fail.

5. A team lead or coach can pay special emphasis on weak areas to help players/ executives to scale up their skills.

The presence of others can have an impact of performance. It’s important for players to develop self regulation skills like Imagery, Simulation training, use of cue words to maintain attentional focus.