Leading as a Student
Leadership comes in all forms. Having spoken to countless leaders on various D1 teams and been a captain myself, I can confirm that great leadership is nuanced; there is no one way to lead, and context is everything. There are countless books on leadership, but here are some of the keys for student athletes to be successful leaders:
Know who you are leading
It sounds simple but can easily be lost when trying in pursuit of lofty goals. By focusing too much on the goals, you may miss what is going on in the present with the team and challenges in front of you. Acknowledge what the team is currently capable of and draw a roadmap to their potential. Once this is realized, gaining buy-in from the players and coaches is simpler; ideally, you would create this ideal of your team together to empower everyone to achieve together. Take time to appreciate the opinions and positions of those on your team. It is not about having long, deep interviews with everyone in your team, but spending time with everyone and understanding more about them. This will not only help in terms of relationship building but also in understanding the needs of everyone, which feeds into team mentality. You must know who you are leading in order to fully understand how to motivate them.
Great leaders are not born; they are made
This is a well-known attribute of leadership. It is not about how you came in; it is about how you progress and develop. Leadership is the same as any skill; the more you practice, the better you get at it. The more you talk, the better you will be at articulating yourself, your desires, and motivating others. The more you understand your role and the roles of others, the better you will be at creating synergies between people. Knowing who you are and having confidence in your ability is everything, so start exploring what kind of leader you are.
Take accountability
Navy Seal Jocko Willnik said it best: “It's all on you, but it's not about you." It is your job to get the team to function, but you are not the reason the team is successful; they are. To be a great leader, you must be able to remove yourself from a situation and analyze it to make the best possible decisions. When all eyes are on the prize, you must decide how best to get there. This requires being accountable for your actions, the actions of your team, and the outcomes. When the team is doing well, it is the team that caused it. When the team is doing poorly, it is vital that the leader take accountability for it so the team can progress. This may be difficult to come to terms with initially, as it is a challenge for us all to accept responsibility for our misfortunes, especially in a team setting. When mistakes are made, you have to acknowledge what you could have done differently and how your actions caused the outcome. The greatest leaders do not shift blame but give credit. Blaming others divides teams, but accountability for our roles and positions unites teams and inspires others to do the same.
Don't be the loudest; make your contributions count
This ties into understanding those you are leading. As a leader, it is easy to miss the big picture in pursuit of goals. Removing yourself from a situation to gain perspective is an underutilized ability of many leaders. It is easy to get caught up in the vision and ignore the processes. It is vital that a leader stick to the process while all others focus on the goal. This enables us to fit tasks, people, and resources together to grow. Do not get lost in your own arrogance, and take the opportunity to learn from others and the process as time goes on.
Lead from the front
Set the standard. This goes beyond your playing ability to the things that require no talent. Get to practice early, practice longer, and clean the locker rooms—actions that others will emulate that add to the culture. You must live out the actions you preach and the actions you wish to be desired. To avoid anyone questioning whether you should be a leader, you must show your ability coupled with an undying commitment to your values and objectives. You do not have to be labeled a leader to lead; often the most influential people within teams are not titled leaders but have a strong commitment to their role and their team. To be the leader of your team, you must be the leader of your position. Leading by standards and taking complete ownership of your job, which is the underlying attribute of success. This motivates those trying to catch you, pushing the standards, but also encourages those in other positions to raise their game.
Build an understanding of when to switch on
This is about more than switching on for competitions or practices, but more so switching on mentally when it's time to do the difficult things. Making sure you motivate rather than beat down teammates and find ways to get them engaged when they mentally slip off. Time to have difficult conversations, discipline poor behavior, or call out errors. These are challenging things that take the correct attitude, approach, and timing to enable open and honest conversations about what is going wrong and how you can come together to fix them. Leadership is about being a facilitator of conversations and resources to enable your teammates and consequently the team to succeed. These conversations must be impersonal to encourage receptiveness; this must also be done at a time when there is the least amount of emotional involvement. Finding the appropriate time to address these issues may vary from fixing mental errors mid-practices to attitude problems in a quiet room with one player. Only with time and experience are you able to select which one works best, but doing nothing will ensure that problems are repeated. Take the time to observe positive leaders and learn how they are successful. When handled in the right way, you will get closer to your teammates as they feel the care, but to do this, you have to appreciate their perspective and work to solve the issue with them. Nobody wants to be the bad guy or call out problems, and nobody wants to be resented for doing this necessary task to ensure the team continues to improve. The best way to minimize the social impact of this role is to know when it's okay to let things go. There are some problems that are fixable and some that are fighting an uphill battle. The determining factor is the current team, the current culture, and the desired culture. Make sure your actions align with what you want to be a part of, the person you want to be, what the team needs, and what the team wants. Are you someone who wants to be successful? Are you someone who wants the team to succeed? Do you believe you can make a difference in answering these questions? Figure out how you can help lead, whether you are a freshman or senior.
There may be people better suited to having these conversations. Leaders are found throughout teams; offloading it due to fear is wrong, but if there is someone who can deliver it that will increase the likelihood that the message is received positively, then take the opportunity. This does not mean to pass it on when you don't feel like it, but understanding your rapport with others helps navigate this action. If you decide that this message will go down poorly with you, it is vital that you coach the leader who can have this conversation.
Leadership is not easy, especially as a student trying to navigate college sports and academics. You must first be able to handle your current tasks before taking on leadership on top of this. Leadership will require more time commitments as you work with others and sacrifice your time for the benefit of the team. It is a pleasure and a burden; you must be willing to take both sides. If you are not able to add a leadership position on top of your current schedules or it doesn’t align with your goals, it is important that you weigh it up before accepting. As mentioned, leaders don’t have to be titled, but titled ones do carry more expectations and time commitments. Leaders are everyone; don’t feel you have to be titled to lead, but know your boundaries when it comes to implementations, decisions, and power. This goes for titled leaders also, as you cannot overstep the coaches orders or introduce ideas without their inputs.
