If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Cory Booker
I’ve been very fortunate throughout my life to be a part of a variety of amazing teams who’ve accomplished some incredible things: undefeated seasons, championships, you name it. I’ve also been on some less-than-successful teams: some winless, some underachieving and underperforming, and some just simply not living up to their potential. To be completely honest with you, I’m equally grateful for all of these experiences as they’ve uniquely taught me lessons about life and teamwork. When it really boils down to it, at the root of all successes and failures, was good and bad leadership. Now, at IPC, we are surrounded by incredible leaders every single day; the unsurprising fact is that most of our best athletes are also great leaders on their respective teams!
While there have been entire books written on this subject and I’m by no means an expert, today I’m excited to dive into this topic and provide my own personal reflections on what makes good (and not-so-good) leaders through our lessons in leadership learned over a lifetime.
What is Bad Leadership?
Although it may seem counterintuitive, before we discuss what good leadership looks like, I feel it’s equally important to discuss what bad leadership looks like while dispelling some common myths and misunderstandings!
Bad Leadership is a Dictatorship: Just because you’re put in charge, whether you’re a coach, teacher, or team captain, doesn’t automatically mean that “what you say, goes.” Instead, good leadership is open-minded and collaborative.
Bad Leadership is Fake: “Do As I Say, Not As I Do,” won’t get you very far in the leadership game. Oftentimes, poor leaders will develop a sense of entitlement; “I don’t need to do that, I’m the captain!” They feel as though they’re above the team and, based on status, have earned the right to skip certain duties and responsibilities. In reality, an effective leader should seek to lead by example and work twice as hard as everyone else on the team or in the group in hopes of creating more leaders amongst the group.
Bad Leadership Always Follows a Rigid Chain of Command: While teams (be they athletic or professional) may designate a captain or manager, this doesn’t automatically mean that nobody else on the team is fit or able to lead. Especially through actions, every single member on the team has the power and capability to be a leader!
Bad Leadership is Automatically Entrusted to the Highly Skilled: Being good at your sport helps, but simply being highly skilled doesn’t automatically qualify you as a good leader. In fact, we’ve oftentimes seen the exact opposite. Some highly skilled players can become short-tempered and closed-minded when things don’t go their way, or they feel the rest of the team is not playing up to their standard. While the team may have a difficult time listening to and being inspired by the fourth-line guy who plays two minutes per night, and scoring a goal or two every now and then certainly helps, on-field sporting ability is just one of the plethora of factors that can contribute to high-quality leadership.
What is Good Leadership?
When looking for inspiration, we often look to the the ultimate team for guidance and inspiration: the military. In his book Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink states that, “there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” This quote in and of itself should help emphasize why leadership is so imperative!
Good Leadership is Humble: A good leader knows that they don’t have all the answers. They are open-minded, open to feedback, and collaborative. On all the best teams I’ve been on, coaches are genuinely interested in and grateful for players’ feedback.
Good Leadership is Positive: Good Leadership is positive, motivating, and uplifting to all involved.
Good Leadership is Realistic and Reasonable: The caveat to the above point is that there’s not much value in blind optimism and positivity. While we do recommend and appreciate positive leadership, a leader also knows when and how to have those hard and honest conversations that may be difficult in the moment, but will contribute to long-term growth and success through holding each other accountable. It may feel better temporarily to stay in our comfort zone and be told we’re doing well all the time, but true growth happens outside of this zone!
Good Leadership is Optimistic and Solutions-Driven: Good leaders will typically believe that even if things aren’t going their way right now, there is opportunity for improvement and a silver lining in the dark cloud; they carry a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset.
Good Leadership is Accountable and Well-intentioned: Leaders are human and are naturally bound to make mistakes, but the most effective leaders always have the team or group’s best intentions in mind, relating back to the concept of Extreme Ownership mentioned above. Remember two key concepts:
- When you play the blame game, nobody wins.
- When you point a finger at someone, you have three pointing back at you
Good Leadership is Fair: Effective leadership is unbiased. It doesn’t matter who your best buddy on the team is or who you may like more or less, but staying objective and doing what’s best for the team at all times is paramount to good leadership.
Good Leadership is Adaptive: Good leaders need to be chameleons who can deliver the message in different tones to different people based on how they may best receive it. Many adults grown about how “kids now are different,” as if they are lazy and uncoachable, but my rebuttal is that this is certainly not the case. I find that kids now still want to work just as hard as they always did, still want to be pushed, and still want to be motivated; they simply require a slightly different tone or delivery of the message. A good leader will be able to dissect and deliver this message appropriately.
Good Leaders Lead by Example: Good leaders walk it like they talk it, so to speak. Nobody likes to listen to the guy who yells about getting back on defence but hasn’t backchecked in years, or the captain who tells you to make sure you watch extra film but they, themselves aren’t doing the same.
Good Leadership is Motivational: Good leadership is the rising tide that lifts all ships.
Good Leadership is Infectious: Both good and bad leadership are infectious and contagious; choose accordingly.
Good Leadership is Necessary: I’ve been on enough teams to know that good leadership is not only ideal or important, but necessary! The most talented teams I’ve been on haven’t always won championships, and the championship teams I’ve been on didn’t always have the most talent. Success leaves clues.
Conclusion
They say hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, but I’d add that good leadership beats talent when talent is void of good leadership as well. We’re proud and confident in the fact that our best athletes at IPC are also great leaders on their teams and in their communities. It’s another reason why we’re so proud of our semi-private training environment as well; not only does training amongst some of the hardest working and most motivated athletes create the biggest physical specimens in the region, but it also helps create the next group of leaders in our sports teams and communities.
Are you looking to become the next great leader on your team? CLICK HERE now to sign up for our semi-private training services and experience it for yourself.
