The Importance of Leadership

Today's Blog comes to us from Social Foundations of Coaching student Bennett Jackson, a junior, and corner back for the Notre Dame Football team.

As leadership develops, so does the character of a team. Each person on a team becomes more intertwined with one another’s everyday lifestyle, allowing them to learn more about their teammates. As individuals learn about their teammates they build relationships that create team chemistry. The chemistry of a team is the main factor that creates great teams.

When you compete with your teammates and share similar emotions, feelings and times together, you grow as a team. As the relationships amongst a team grow, so does leadership. When I say leadership grows, its not necessarily one person stepping up and being that individual who pushes the team forward in the right direction. Team leadership builds as teammates begin looking out for each other and keeping one another in line.

Real leadership begins with the coach. The coach is the one who lays down the plan and the players are the ones who follow it. The coach must be consistent with his or her description of the plan. Players will need to be taught how to follow the plan by simply growing as a team and being coached to make the right decisions by their coach. Eventually the players learn what is right and what is wrong, they know the plan at task, and they know how to stay on the right track.

Once the coach does their job of providing the guidelines to becoming a successful team, the players take responsibility in their actions; they respect the plan because its what they put all their hard work into. As competition picks up the team will go through tough times, and these times will build the character of the team. Teammates will lean on one another for support, and this is where true leadership will occur. When a teammate puts all his or her confidence in the player next to them, and isn’t let down by disloyalty respect builds amongst their relationship.

When teammates respect each other, they will listen to what one another have to say. I know from a personal standpoint, when I didn’t respect my teammates, and looked at my team’s possible outcomes from a personal, individual outlook, the team never had that extra edge we needed to succeed. Being a part of a team where each person has respect for the one next to them gives you something else to play for. You play for the person next to you. When you see one of your teammates step forward to set an example, or a group of your teammates step forward and put in that little bit of extra effort needed to keep the team on the right track, leadership is in the air. A team with great leadership will be a great team no matter the outcome of their battles, but a team with poor leadership will never truly help develop a player into being a successful person in our world today.