The trainer kicks his legs high and rotates his hips flexibly…he’s a shining beacon for his players’ activation protocol… He provides a model for his players to mirror…and look in this video how they perfectly match his enthusiasm, his commitment to mobility, the detail in his movement… Dripping with excitement, you can see player commitment to excellence. No shortcuts. They know the importance of this process…warming up safely, injury prevention, building and maintaining a base of physicality that seeps into their ability to execute technically and tactically. And because they recognise its importance they set about their tasks with glee. Day after day they do this and yet despite the repetition their enthusiasm never wanes. No sir. And look closely at how they use this activation activity as a mental warm-up too. Look how they’re directing their attention onto the intricacies of movement. Look how, as they activate their bodies they’re activating their minds - a mental intensity - a deep engagement…prepping alertness and boosting mental readiness. Prepping alertness and boosting mental readiness… And look…just look at how they’re dedicated to executing their actions with energy-forward. A conviction and a commitment. Purposeful. Proactive. The kind of approach behaviour you’d want them to take onto the game day pitch. And finally…those social connections. Those bonds. Those inter-personal ties that bind…an activation exercise with psycho-social skills galore! ***************************** I am, of course, being facetious. Engaging players…engaging people…is hard. It’s difficult. Leaders have to be able to influence and organisations have to create systems that capture attention and captivate attention. The brain gets bored by the regular, and for alertness and readiness to be tapped, novelty is so often required and interest in the form of enjoyment is so often needed. And so it’s incumbent on leaders to engage players. And in high performance team sports, it’s necessary to create an environment where player leaders are working to engage their teammates. An all-in approach to engagement. Engagement in sporting and corporate environments is critical. It’s the gateway to learning and performance. It can never be taken for granted nor dismissed as the responsibility of the individual. How are you engaging your people? And how are you helping them engage as individuals and as teammates in your environment?