HOF Insights- Building Leaders

The Hall of Fame coaches were asked about the process of identifying and building leadership. 

Diane Lichtenberg- Bettendorf

There are a lot of expectations that go along with being a varsity athlete.  Being a leader both on and off the court was one of those expectations.  I talked a lot about this in our program, especially in the early part of the season.  I developed a player handbook with information on our offense and defense, which also included a lot of information on the intangibles.  I believe some of the attributes of being a good leader include:

·      Being responsible- on time, prepared

·      Being committed

·      Supportive and encouraging to your teammates

·      Great communicator- both verbally and non verbally, on and off the court

·      Positive role model

·      Always Model appropriate behavior

We had discussions about each of these attributes and what that looks like on the court, off the court, and in the classroom.

I spoke about these expectations during our parent meeting.  Many times parents do too much for their kids.  I wanted the parents to be supportive but also make sure that their child was being responsible and committed to our program.

 

To help develop leadership during practice I would use different players to demonstrate a skill or drill or to lead a group through a specific task.

 

Additional leadership work was done with the team captains.  The captains were selected by their teammates.  Before voting for captains, I would have those players interested in being a captain get up in front of the team and tell them why they would be a good choice for captain.  Once selected, I would meet with them weekly.  They were given extra responsibilities like leading warm ups at practice and on game day.  They took charge of getting the team “fired up” to play.  They were the spokesperson for the team during match play.  They were the floor leaders.

 

Each summer, I would have the varsity players help run the youth camps.  They would demonstrate skills, work with small groups of campers running drills and giving feedback.  I believe putting them in leadership roles helped them develop as a leader, gave them a better appreciation of the importance of communication, positive encouragement and of being a positive role model.

Tim Engebretson- United

I feel like we stressed the obvious traits that are important elements of leadership. Traits like humility, humanity, coachability, resilience, integrity, and work ethic. However, we never specifically addressed leadership development. Which in looking back was a mistake on my part. I will say we were lucky in that we had numerous natural leaders in my career. Leadership is interesting in that I feel like many of my teams had different visions of leadership. I also feel like coaches have different ideas on the best form of leadership. 

Some of my teams responded well to the verbal leaders. Some felt the most popular players were their leaders. A great majority felt like the best players were the natural leaders. Looking back there is no question in my opinion who the best leaders were. The person who leads by simple example is always the best leader. If you can get your best player to be your hardest worker you will have a great leader.

Jeff Parsons- Wethersfield

Attitude was the King of the chess court in our program. How are you when the going gets tough? Everyone can be good when things are going well. Adversity tells all. Meet adversity with a positive attitude and outcomes usually became positive.

The “We Not Me” trait was an important aspect. There is no way you can be a leader if you don’t have the bigger vision of the team first. If you are constantly thinking about yourself, there is no way to lead people in any direction, let alone a positive direction.

A leader is also focused on competitive greatness and athletic discipline. To be a leader, you must be focused to the rask at hand that involves doing whatever it takes to be the best that you can, when your best is needed. If a leader can do this, he or she will create followers and then as a coach, you know they are leaders. 

A leader stands up to his peers. They take the tough stance with out talking down to their teammates, but encouraging their teammates.  A Leader never makes excuses why they are not performing well. A leader doesn’t blame the referees for costing them the game. A leader accepts responsibility for their action and is willing to take the consequences if they or their team fail. Looking to blame others for their shortcomings doesn’t create followers, it creates resentment with in the team and putting up barriers for them to be successful.

A trait of “Swag”, which is confidence without arrogance.
Players will follow teammates that are confident but not cocky.
Cockyness portrays arrogance. Arrogance is not a trait of leadership. If you are good enough, somebody will tell you, if not you must work harder.

A leader also portrays the “standard”. The standard has to be set and created by the coach but had to be emulated on the floor with our Captains. The standard is what is the least amount that you allow. What ever you allow becomes your standard. The higher the standard, the higher level of success. 

A leader lastly, but not leastly has to “Believe” in the Team, believe in the Coaches and believe in their teammates. A good leader makes everyone around them better and excepts the same from their teammates as they do themselves.

We chose our captains that held all these qualities. We never wanted to leave it to a popularity vote and take a risk that the standard would not lead to success year in and year out.