Team Captains Leadership Development

I started out as a student-athlete in which I depicted great leadership skills and positive role model qualities such as diligence, enthusiasm, and passion for the sport. Hence, after my first year of college, I was named the team captain. I worked closely with the coaches, helped to resolve team conflicts, established the tone for practice, and modeled responsibility, decision-making, and a strong work ethic. I also promoted a positive attitude and team interactions, and encouraged and supported all of my teammates. Throughout my experience as team captain, I showed mental toughness by remaining confident and focus, and respond to individual and team mistakes in an appropriate manner.

The Student-Athlete Leadership Team is a program that was designed in order to develop the leadership skills of our student-athletes and will be facilitated by North Atlanta High School’s own Andre Regan. The student-athletes are nominated by their respective head coaches, most of which are team captains. The basics of the Citizen Leader Framework are leading self, leading with others, and changing your world are the core of the leadership model created by Andre Regan and so many other coaches nationwide. Discussion topics will include accountability, self-awareness, resiliency, communication, collaboration, and empathy with and for teammates and coaches, in hopes that the Student-Athlete can help their team on and off the playing field.

In the book, “Mastering Leadership,” leadership promises four universal elements, which include setting the right direction to create meaningful work, “engaging all followers and holding them accountable for performance,” ensuring that “processes and systems facilitate focus and execution,” and “maintaining relationships of trust to achieve and sustain desired results.” Within the scope of leadership are three developmental areas: leadership process, leadership competencies, and leadership consciousness (Anderson 2015 p.4). John Wooden, one of the most successful men’s basketball D-1 coaches of all time states, “A leader’s most powerful ally is his or her own example” (Haefner). The most powerful leader concentrates on being the best role model for his or her audience. Characteristics of an effective leader include, good communicator, passionate, creative, confidence, and driven by a goal. Leaders must convince groups of individual minded people to all believe in his/her method to complete a common goal (McNamara). In a study done by Chen, athletes who were lead with an autocratic or democratic leadership style and higher frequency of instruction, positive feedback, or social support behavior, produced higher overall cohesiveness. Chen’s team also found coaching leaders that demonstrated these characteristics, made athletes more motivated (Chen 2008). Anderson proposes there are six leadership practices that help a leader become effective in a team

Take every chance that there is to get better. If there are weights or any type of workout at 6:00 A.M., never miss it. Don’t take away any chances of getting better, when there are kids out there who can’t even try to get better because of health issues or injuries. When others see someone on the team wanting to get better, it makes them become a little more motivated to do the same. That’s a big part of leadership right there. A leader is someone who will admit that they are wrong and will say when they don’t know what the right answer is. Learning from the mistakes that are made is a big step for some and it might just be the step someone needs to master in order to be considered a good leader. It might be tough, but it’ll feel great after that person accomplishes it. A leader is someone who wants to teach little kids that things are possible. They want to be a great role model for those kids that are hoping to be just like them one day. Be the one that all the kids look up to just because of the type of person and athlete that you are. Part of being a good leader is teaching the little ones how to play the game. Give back to the community, as they are always there supporting athletics, no matter which sport. Clearly, there is so much more to being a leader than what the dictionary says, and other people will say the same thing.

My greatest accomplishment in the area of leadership was unanimously being voted team captain of my tennis team. My freshman year of high school, I decided to take a chance and join my high school’s tennis team. I had never picked up a racquet or played the sport before, but my eighth grade teacher persuaded me to join. By the end of tryout week, I was number seven on an eight person team. At the time, I could not care less that I was the second to last person on the team, I was just excited to be apart of a team. My friend Katie and I were the only new players on the team and played as doubles partners. In the beginning we lost, a lot, but we were always improving. No matter how many times we lost or won, our team was always there cheering us on. That was how the tennis team functioned. There was no gossiping, fighting, or disliking amongst teammates. We were a family who cared and encouraged one another to be their best.

Leadership is a skill that takes time and dedication to obtain and requires the ability to inspire a positive attitude in those around you. The leadership roles I have obtained will be useful in improving myself and the environment around me. I have been on the varsity lacrosse team since freshman year. Now that it is my senior year, I was appointed by my head coach as team captain. The position of captain has given me the opportunity to encourage younger players to continue the sport and settle disputes within the team while also providing the players with a mentor outside of lacrosse too. I met one of the incoming freshman players by inviting her to sit with me at lunch. This allowed me to build a friendship with the girl and establish a level of trust among the team.

Dyer (2013) stated that the leader must communicate with the team in regard to the purpose and goals of the meeting because the approach of sharing the purpose and goals would increase team’s awareness and knowledge. Also, leader should create a meeting agenda to prepare the team because the agenda of the meeting will guide them to focus on the subject and will enable them to execute a productive meeting (p. 67). For instance, the agenda should be structured based on the objectives and goals of the meeting and the topic of discussions must be organized in the sequence of importance to ensure a significant issue and concern are covered at the meeting. Simultaneously, the agenda enables the team to control time of the meeting by implementing time limit per topic to make sure all significant topics are covered. Additionally, establishing agenda is important because it enables the team to refocus on the objective if the team discussion stray away from the objectives in the agenda. Similarly, the next step is that leader and team members should be able to identify with the event that the team discussion deviates from the original subject at the meeting then the team can conform to the agenda. Furthermore, the outcome of the meeting should be summarized and disseminated to the members of the team for their action. The leader should make a clear statement that anyone in the team can initiate a meeting as long as it would improve team’s performance. Thus, all members of the team

The topics discussed by Northouse, Kouzes, and Posner are team leadership. Team leadership are work units that have are interdependent and share common goals (Northouse,2016). In this week?s unit, team leadership will be explained through the Hill Model for Team Leadership and how it applies to team effectiveness. Furthermore, virtual and non-virtual team will be compare and contrast and how to create cohesiveness. Team leadership theory is the key to developing success high performing teams.

The purpose of this research paper was to understand leadership and styles within sports organization, which organizations are the most effective and understanding which style leads to success within the organization. Leadership is important because it ultimately can effect an organization in a positive or negative manner. Each person within sports wants to develop into a leader and help give themselves the best chance of success. Athletic Directors, Athletic Administration, General Managers, and everyone down the line develops and relies on leadership and styles. Leadership can come in a variety of ways including different styles, individuals, and abilities. Throughout several decades now leadership continually develops and

Boettcher, M.L. & Gansemer-Topf, A.M. 2015. Examining leadership development through student leader outdoor recreation training. Recreational sports journal. 39, 49-58. Doi: 10.1123/rsj.2014-0034

A good sports leader will take the time to evaluate their own performance or other participants. Evaluating their own performance helps them to see their

According to Stephen, DeCenzo, and Coulter, leadership is the way an individual leads and influences a group to achieve certain goals (p. 337). Being a leader is not something anyone can do, considering the leader has to be prepared for unpredictable situations with no given solution (Hannah, Woolfolk, & Lord, p. 269). However, when looking at being a leader, whether it is in a corporation or on a sports team, certain traits are associated with leadership. In addition, transactional, transformational, and/or charismatic leaders will each see a different outcome based on the way they lead.

Basis the course I studied and my experience at work during my internship as yet, I would recommend my organization to formally plan some training sessions on Team work and Leadership Skills. I strongly feel the urge to recommend this training module in internship program and infact for the organization as a whole because I observed there is lack of cohesion and coordination within teams which sometimes impact the performance. I would like to substantiate my recommendation by sharing an incident I observed within the team I am a member of. The structure in my organization is like there are different Team leads who handle team members and interns and these team leads have individual team targets. Team leads report to Regional Head.

Experienced developer with the ability to perform the role of a team member or team leader as needed with a proven ability to adapt to significantly different technology specialties. I specialize in failure cases and non-happy paths. Proven ability in trouble shooting and determined effort at root cause.

I am a hardworking, reliable and motivated individual who is able to work independently or collaboratively as part of a team. I also have the ability to adapt into many team roles in either a relaxed or pressurised environment if such the need arises. Furthermore, I am able to switch between the role of a leader and team player interchangeably whist conserving a positive working culture. In all circumstances I have a high attention to detail and value continued professional development and patient safety as my priority.