Sports and Leadership Part II

What does it mean to be a dynamic leader in sports? What lessons from sports leadership can be translated into our own leadership journeys? As soon as these questions were introduced, our hands were reflexively in the air. Sports and leadership, leadership in sports….sports and leadership……leadership in sports! Tossing modesty out the window for a moment, who better could answer these questions than Alea Gage and Zach Blume: two passionate sports fans and players and two Fellows in the deep throes of leadership training here at the Coro Center of Civic Leadership? Well, here’s our best shot. . .
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Sports are a surprisingly powerful and influential medium. Lessons from sports can be applied to other walks of life. Nothing can make you feel so distraught or so jubilant as the fate of your favorite sports team or player. It is a world (and I’ll delve into a few clichés here) where the impossible is possible, and the probable never really happens how you expect it would.

Sports are also an endeavor that requires superb leadership for success. Turn on any sports commentary show, and you will invariably hear how the successful teams have “great, veteran leadership” whereas the unsuccessful are mired by an “utter lack of chemistry and leadership.” A sports team can have all the talent and expectations in the world (see the 2006 Denver Nuggets, the 2007 San Francisco 49ers, or any New York Yankee team of the last five years) but without the guidance and leadership it takes to nurture chemistry and teamwork, they will not succeed. All too often, players will become frustrated and confused with their roles, will quickly lose motivation, and the impetus to perform.

In my own personal experience playing sports, a leader is someone who leads by example and who understands his/her teammates. It is someone who will give their all on the court and who will practice modesty and composure off it. A skillful leader will help highlight the strengths of his/her teammates, and provide back-up for their inevitable shortcomings. A leader will help each teammate understand their specific role and value within the team’s structure, and will empower teammates to strive for more. A leader will foster class and maturity, camaraderie among team members, and the motivation for team members to watch the extra hour of film, to work on their jump shot after practice, to run their routes a few extra times, or to work to perfection the mystery of their knuckle-ball.

I can really only speculate on the role of leadership in the collegiate or professional ranks. But examinations of the importance of sports leadership on the professional level only reinforce my own first-hand experiences with leadership in sports. Leadership lessons from my high school basketball experience are lessons that are present within me to this day.

When I review all the characteristics I have included in the make-up of a dynamic sports leader, I realize that they are all traits that could make a powerful leader in the community (everything except for the perfect knuckle-ball of course). As we are continually subjected to the images of more and more disturbingly negative professional sports figures, it is important to take time to learn from the courage, humility, and class of some members of the sports world.

--Zach Blume
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As my experiences as a Coro Fellow have reinforced, there are two crucial and distinct manifestations of effective leadership: (1) the leadership associated with being a team player, inserting oneself after surveying the needs of the group and intersecting your strengths and abilities accordingly, and (2) the leadership associated with dynamism, the ability to cultivate a collaborative and cooperative environment through your abilities to guide and drive your partners or team players forward. My experiences in softball illustrate both these manifestations of leadership, but there is another variable at work here. Through my participation in sports over the years, I have not only witnessed but incorporated these leadership skills and styles into my own development. From the moment I learned to throw the ball, an awareness of leadership was already at play and becoming an integral force in my experience.

While we are surrounded with examples the intensely competitive nature of sports in the professional and pee-wee sports worlds, at its best, sports are a practice in framing achievement in an individualized and principled way, so the hero is not the big performer, but rather the smart, savvy and steady performer. Thought about in this way, sports afford the ability to appreciate performances above and beyond an individual’s skills, celebrating victories according to the level of challenge the task posed to the athlete.

Whereby knowing your own strengths and limitations helps you act in sync with the rest of the team, the rest of the team also benefits from understanding and capitalizing on your unique contribution. Under this arrangement, other players come to value your unique skills and contributions, as you do theirs. Given your strengths and limitations, you can engage with your teammates to help them close the gap and to work on yours.
Through my softball experience, I learned that my impact was individualized and a matter of choice, self-knowledge and self-awareness. Participating and contributing to the collective team morale did not hinge on my size, choosing to cheer and coach my teammates on or carry a bad attitude onto the diamond after a strikeout were choices that affected not only my own play, but reflected the depth of my commitment to my team. Finally, I learned to identify my strengths and shortcomings, whether they be size, strength or other factors, and how – in spite and because of those strengths and shortcomings – to stay competitive, crafty, positive and always on ball.

--Alea Gage