Sports Illustrated Leadership In Sports Today
Table Of Contents 3…. Motivation In Sports Today 4…. Q & A With Tim Tebow 5…. Self-Awareness In Sports 7…. Self-Regulation On and Off the Ice 9…. Social Skills in Team Sports
10…. Cassie’s Corner 11…. Empathy and Leadership 12…. Empathy and Leadership cont. / Tips for being a more empathetic leader 13…. Two leadership styles, which one are you?
Motivation In Sports Today Motivation are the words that drive people to succeed. It lights a fire under people and keeps them moving forward, pushing them to succeed. We often see motivation from coaches, quarterbacks, and team captains. These people motivate their teammates and players anyway they can. That means yelling and screaming or positive encouragement,
it all depends on the people that around them. Many professional athletes are motivated purely by being the star player or by a huge paycheck. While they may get the job done, it’s the players who are motivated purely by passion and love for the game. These players strive to achieve more than what is expected of them. The people that are truly motivated are often called “perfectionists.� This simply means that they will never stop improving and learning until they are perfect.
Tim Tebow A Motivator? A quarterback like Tim Tebow motivates his players before the game, on the sideline, and during halftime. We sat down with Tim, after he just beat the Detroit Lions, and got to ask him a few questions about motivation.
Q: Tim would you say that you’re driven by money or passion for the game? A: Well Tom, I wouldn’t be playing if i didn’t have love for the game. I attended the University of Florida and obtained my degree so i could have a normal job, but it’s my love for the game that has kept me striving to achieve more. I set goals for myself at a very early age and until i completely achieve those I will never stop playing. Q: Would you say that you motivate those that are around you? How? A: I’d like to think so! Being a quarterback you have to be a motivator, and the way I motivate people is by leading by example and showing others how hard i work day in and day out! Q: Are you optimistic? A: I think you have to be optimistic to be a motivator! Once you give up who are your teammates going to rely on?
Self-Awareness In Sports Great athletes often have tremendous selfawareness. They have a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. They know when they are attempting to do too much such as using a weaker skill in critical moments of a game. Would Shaq shoot 12 foot jump shots in the last two minutes of a game? Not likely. He would drive to the hoop and use his size and strength.
Great athletes also are realistic and recognize their capabilities and limitations. This does not mean they give up on their dreams or do not try to get better. Instead, they work with and on their limitations. In practice great athletes work hard to overcome limitations such as only being able to use one type of serve or only being able to dribble with the dominant hand. And, during games they develop game plans and strategies to use their “weapons” or strengths against an opponent’s weakness. That is why you will see many tennis players like Steffi Graff run around their backhand to hit insideout forehands; they are using their “weapon.”
Self-Regulation On and Off the Ice
Ever notice how strong leaders have the ability to keep calm during high stress situations? That they possess the confidence to make difficult decisions and stick by them? or even accept new and innovative ways of carrying out the same task? Many leaders have all of these skills, but few like Henrik Zetterberg. It’s game time at the Joe, the third period just ended and the Red Wings survived an all out onslaught by the Maple Leafs in the waning moments of the game, overtime is a mere five minutes away. The Red Wings locker room is a scene of heads hung low from sheer exhaustion and the oh so familiar feeling of, “We’re going to lose in OT.” Something the Red Wings are all too familiar with. All but one share the same face. Henrik Zetterberg, the captain, can be seen cracking jokes in his stall with goaltender Jonas Gustavson until a minute before overtime starts. Until this point the players had been waiting for a speech from coach Mike Babcock, but to no avail.
Hank stands up and walks to the winged wheel in the middle of the locker room and is immediately surrounded by his team in a huddle. Once the creaking of skates and fumbling of pads settles he states as calmly as ever, “What's with all the sad faces boys? Sure we haven’t scored on them, but they haven’t scored on us. As far as I’m concerned the game just started. It’s the first period. Now keep your heads high and lets go play a hockey game.” The locker room air is completely changed. The walk down the tunnel is filled with players talking about how they’re going to score the game winning goal or how the first face off is going to be won and what to do afterwards. The team looks confident, and almost certain that they have the win this period. As the game goes on, Toronto comes out in full attack, how they ended the third period, and the Red Wings become even more downtrodden. At three minutes left in the period, Zetterberg is
standing on the bench and talking to fellow left winger Johakim Anderson about how he’d like to switch lines for the next shift. For non hockey fans, this is unheard of, switching a first liner for a fourth liner. Zetterberg likes the idea and informs the rest of the team. Eight seconds are left on the clock when Zetterberg takes his first shift on the fourth line. Right winger Justin Abdelkader is bringing the puck up the right side when both defensemen of the Maple leafs shift towards his side, unaware that a high caliber player, Zetterberg, was wide open for a one timer to end the game. Henrik Zetterberg displayed every characteristic of a self-regulated leader. He controlled his emotions even when everyone else had a negative attitude, was open to a new idea when Anderson suggested changing lines, and possessed the self confidence to end the game himself.
Social Skills in Team Sports When people think about sports they mostly just think about the physical activity aspect of it and the competitiveness. But social skill is a big part of team sports as well. It isn’t just about making friends and being sociable either. It’s about having purpose behind your actions and moving people in the same direction with you. This brings us into leadership, which is very important in life itself let alone in team sports. When a team doesn’t have a good leader, they tend to fall apart. A good leader has a lot of social skill. They motivate their team to work with them and with each other to strive for the same goal, but in a positive way.
Cassie’s
Corner Dear Cassie, is it better to start my son in sports at a younger age or wait until he is older to make his own decisions? A: You should definitely start your son in sports as soon as possible, because not only is it better for your son to start making friends at a young age, it’s important for him to develop that sense of unity with others. When you put children into these kinds of situations early, it’s easier for them to learn how to work with others and develop social skills. Your son could also learn leadership through these social skills. If he did learn to lead people in a positive manner then he could be very successful in sports growing up and even with life in general later on. -Cassie
Empathy and Leadership By, Jenna Gower
Empathy in Leadership. I’m sure we have all witnessed the lack of it. A key example of this is when players refuse to play for a specific coach due to his coaching and leadership style. A specific example of this would be a varsity football team that consists of all freshmen and sophomore players because the upperclassmen in the high school refuse to play for this football coach. Chances are the problem lies in a major lack of empathy from the coach to his/her players. Empathy in leadership leads to higher retention rates. Now I want to clarify what we mean by empathy. The Webster definition of empathy is, “The feeling
that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions.” Empathetic leaders go beyond just understanding and sharing emotions. They take it to the next level and take the players’ feelings and emotions into consideration when making intelligent decisions for the team. In my high school athletics career I had experiences with both a coach who had high emotional intelligence and and coach who had very low EQ when it came to the empathy aspect. My cross country coach showed great empathy as a leader. At the practice the day before every meet he would meet with each runner individually in order to discuss how we were feeling about the next days race. He would then use the feelings and emotions we shared with him to evaluate whether to have us race JV or Varsity for that meet. Also, if we were having any issues he would take all the steps he could in order to solve them. He also would take the time to explain to each of us why were being placed in the race we were to run. On the opposite end of the spectrum the women’s track coach at my high school had very low EQ based on empathy. My junior year of high school my cross country coach encouraged us eight girls who would be entering our senior year cross season in the fall, to run track in order to stay in shape. Of the eight who started the track season, one finished the season. The coach’s top and only priority was winning and he rarely ever took any of the girls on the teams’ emotions into consideration. Instead of giving the participants the events they would be running in advance in order to
give them time to mentally prepare he would tell them the day of. Also if girls had concerns about the event they were placed in or any other general worries, the coach would avoid addressing them. This coach showed low EQ based on empathy because he did not take players emotions into consideration when making critical team decisions. As a coach at all levels, high school, college, and professional, you have the power through empathy to either bring your team together or give them a weak foundation to fall apart.
Tips for being an empathetic coach: -Take into consideration all players emotions when making decisions -Do not try to please everyone, it will not work -Sense and understand the viewpoints of everyone on the team -Get inside the heads of players you are coaching and sense how to give them positive feedback -Know when to push for better performance and when to hold back
Two Leadership Styles , Which One Are You ?
Transformational A true Transformational leader is one who pushes their team in a way that is fair and well orchestrated. This type of leader Has high expectations for their team, Because they think that their team can achieve those goals. But, at the same time they stir their players emotions and uses those emotions to help their players reach the improbable. Their goals aren’t complicated, they are clear and precise so that there is no confusion. One of the biggest examples of a Transformational leader in any sport is the head coach of a team!
Servant It’s hard not to respect a coach who is willing to get down and do what his/her players are being asked to do. The servant leader type of coach is the cross country coach out running with his/her runners. Or the football coach showing his team how to run each drill. A servant leader strives to promote individual growth and keeps players engaged by getting down on the field right along side them.