Part 3 Leadership and Character Academy
This is Part 3 of a Leadership Academy Series.
You can read all other posts from the series at this link: Leadership Academy
“As The Challenge Escalates, The Need For Teamwork Elevates”.
Leadership is a very important issue because every successful team has a leader or leadership amongst its team. It may start with the head coach or one of his many assistants; however, a better quality team has its leadership within the players! Not to say that good leadership shouldn’t start at the top with the Head Coach, because that has to be level one leadership. The other factor to make a team really go is one where leadership is developed amongst the team members…either self-developed or team developed! Naturally, the coaching staff all should be good leaders, but let’s face it, every coach on every staff is not always leadership material. While they may be good coaches, they may not possess those innate characteristics necessary to be a good leader.
As stated earlier, there must be strong leadership from amongst the team in order for greater opportunity of success. A player-driven team allows for more accountability amongst peers. Players likely are more apt to follow their peers’ lead with most things, either negative or positive. With that said, if there are no natural leaders on the team, then we have to try to develop some.
#4 The Law Of Mount Everest
“As The Challenge Escalates, The Need For Teamwork Elevates”.
- Never under estimate the difficulty of the climb.
- As our challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates.
- Nothing much happens without a dream. For something really great to happen, it takes a really great dream.
- Our potential is only as good as our current team. That’s why we must always know who is joining us on our journey.
- A great dream with a bad team is nothing more than a nightmare.
- Many people focus too much attention on their dream and to little on the team.
- The challenge of the moment often determines the leader for the challenge.
- The size of our dream should determine the size of our team.
Type Of Challenge –Type of Team Required
1.New Challenge – Creative Team
2.Controversial Challenge – United Team
3.Changing Challenge – Fast and Flexible Team
4.Unpleasant Challenge – Motivated Team
5.Diversified Challenge – Complementary Team
6.Long-Term Challenge – Determined Team
7.Everett-sized Challenge – Experienced Team
Type of Person On Our Team:
1.Enthusiastic Beginner – Needs Direction
2.Disillusioned Learner – Needs Coaching
3.Cautious Completer – Needs Support
4.Self-Reliant Achiever – Needs Responsibility
5.The Law Of The Chain
“The Strength Of The Team Is Impacted By Its Weakest Link”
Not Everyone Can Take The Journey To Become #1 or reach team goals because:
1.They can’t keep pace with other team members.
2.They don’t grow in their area of responsibility.
3.They don’t see the big picture.
4.They don’t work on personal weaknesses.
5.They won’t work with the rest of the team.
6.They can’t fulfill expectations for their area.
We all must take pride in our responsibility to the others.
A weak link is a member who doesn’t want to change, grow, or conquer new territory.
What happens when a weak link remains on the team:
1.The stronger members identify the weak one.
2.The stronger members have to help the weak one.
3.The stronger members come to resent the weak one.
4.The stronger members become less effective.
5.The stronger members come to question the leaders ability.
You lose the respect of the best when you don’t deal properly with the worst.
As long as a weak link is apart of the team, everyone else on the team will suffer.
Remember, no matter what kind of situation we face, our responsibilities to our team come in the following order:
1.To the School We Represent
2.To the team
3.To the individual
Our own interests and comfort come last.
You can read all other posts from the series at this link: Leadership Academy
About the Author of this post:
Jerry Campbell has over 30 years of high school and college coaching experience. He has experience as a head coach, offensive coordinator, and various position coaches. He has written numerous football coaching articles in various publications, is the author of over 30 books on coaching football, and has produced 12 coaching video series. Additionally, he is a nationally sought after speaker on the coaching clinic circuit.