Leadership

"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision.” - Mike Eruzione of the 1980 gold-medal United States hockey team

"True leadership lies in guiding others to success.  In ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well." - Bill Owens

"The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there." - James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States

"The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born - that there is a genetic factor to leadership.  This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not.  That's nonsense; in fact the opposite is true.  Leaders are made rather than born." - Warren G. Bennis

                I find that leadership is one of the most interesting qualities to teach young people because so many people feel that it is inborn.  The prevailing notion is that there is some leadership gene and that natural leaders on a team will just step forward.  Many teams do have such “natural” leaders, but they were not born that way.  These “naturals” probably feel comfortable stepping into a leadership role because they have learned some powerful examples from role models in their own life.  It is great to be on a team that has these leaders just step forward, but it can also be highly damaging as a coach if you just sit and wait for someone on the team to take the reins.  More often than not, it is the coach’s responsibility to teach the kids on the team how to lead.  The coaches on a team are always its leaders, but my experience shows me that teams become much more potent when there is a strong feeling of leadership and ownership from the athletes themselves.  It is one thing to be pulled aside by a coach for doing something wrong.  It is another thing entirely to be pulled aside by a respected teammate and asked to correct something.  When both the coaches and the athletes provide leadership, the results will be better.

                It is all well and good to say that leadership needs to be taught, but that is not exactly the easiest thing to do.  How do we teach our athletes to get on a teammate for missing practice?  How do we create accountability within the team for the actions of all athletes?  How do we teach someone on the team to call a team meeting when practice efforts have been slackening?  If the coach has to tell the team leader to do any of these things, then the team isn’t necessarily displaying good leadership.

                One way that Fred Miller and I try to instill leadership in our athletes is to give them a great degree of ownership over the workings of the team.  We try to emphasize to our athletes, the juniors and seniors in particular, that it is their team.  We are conducting the experience of being on the cross country team for them.  The work being done is not to edify our own egos.  It is to create experiences that the athletes will find fulfilling.  Now we give a great deal of direction in workouts and race strategy, but we are finding that much of this responsibility can be transferred to the team.  For example, the team leaders set the goals that the team wants to accomplish each season.  They develop the team T-shirt.  They choose many of the runs to be done.  In the summer, they often choose the distance and pace of both our runs and our interval workouts.  During the season, we sometimes let them come up with their own race strategies.  Every bit of ownership we transfer to the athletes increases their stake in the situation.  The results of competition are thus tests of their own directives and initiatives.  By allowing the athletes to configure their own experience, we encourage them to take responsibility for the results.

                Team ownership increases the stake of the athletes in their own experience, but it does not solve entirely the problem of leadership.  Who is going to say something to the team when things are not going well?  Who is going to hold his teammates accountable for their actions and attendance?  Most of the time, athletes need to be prepared from an early age to take on these responsibilities.  If seniors are supposed to take the reins each year, then they need to be taught how to be leaders before then.  We like to start leadership tasks out small.  Different athletes lead our sets of push-ups and sit-ups each day.  I may ask a certain athlete to ensure that the proper warm-up and cool-down procedures are followed.  Having athletes ensure the procedures of the team is a great way to teach leadership.  We encourage our older athletes to host a team dinner each year and set up a fun experience on the Friday night before a big meet.  As the kids become juniors and seniors, they may start to do things like calling teammates that skipped summer running.  They may drive younger athletes to or from practice.  Doing these tasks encourages them to take responsibility for the team and allows us to see who might make an effective team captain.

                A great leader on our team has to display a ton of intangibles in order to be effective.  A great leader must care wholeheartedly for the well-being of all athletes on the team.  He must serve as a model for proper behavior within the sport and demonstrate integrity in the other areas of his life.  He must be respected by his peers.  Lastly, and most importantly, he must be a great communicator.  Effective leaders know when to praise and when to criticize.  We try to make sure that the kids on our team, especially the captains, maintain a positive environment.  No one wants to be screamed at all of the time, and we make sure during runs and workouts to encourage each other and give constant positive feedback about performances.  When we pass each other on runs, we say “Good job” and “Keep it up.”  These things may sound simple and stupid, but this positive reinforcement goes a long way toward building a strong team bond and keeping guys motivated.  We demand that our leaders be positive forces on the team and in the school.  Good captains know that they must stand up and rebuke teammates from time to time, but these instances are more than balanced by the positive energy they direct at other times.  We have strong rules against hazing and highly disapprove of double standards for older versus younger athletes.  We want to make sure that everyone feels safe and accepted on the team.  Good captains help us to create this environment and serve as positive and encouraging forces, especially for the younger and slower athletes.  Our best captains know when to offer suggestions for improvement or even get in a teammate’s face for lack of effort, but their primary role is to help us build a positive environment where everyone can have fun and get better.

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