7 Characteristics of Successful Sports Leaders
Not every leader in sport is great, but they can be if they develop these traits
Being a top leader in sport is not that much different than being a top leader in any other field.
So long as you`re on top.
But when you`re challenged and not leading well you need to have more than just leadership characteristics.
That’s when you need support from others around you.
Without that support though, you’ll still need some defining traits that will make you successful.
So, here are seven needed to be a good sports leader.
1. Be humble because it will get you more respect from the players or athletes.
And it’s often underrated as a trait of leadership in sport. Because people think that you need to show huge brashness to scare off the other team or opponent, but this is not going to work over the long run.
Being humble is about being modest and stripping away your pride. If you are working with good sportspeople they want to be known as good sportspeople and quite often they’ll want to be given the credit for winning games or contests.
And that means the sports manager, coach, or owner will have to give them credit, even if it’s at their expense.
2. Have maturity. Because sportspeople are usually younger than a sports’ leader and they find it hard to keep their egos in check at that age.
Let’s face it billions of people in the world love sports and not every one of them has the talent to play at the highest level. And when people feel they get too old to play they settle down and have children and begin to give of their time to be a coach or manager.
But not every one of them is effective in their leadership.
Like many things in life, when it comes to sports leadership, some are made for it and many others are not.
And just because you like a sport or game and you can’t play it, it doesn’t mean you should be a coach or manager.
As there are many other types of positions in a sport that a person can take and if they don’t have the maturity to be a leader then they’re better off taking a different path.
3. You need to be able to be a great communicator especially if you have a team under your leadership.
And this does not mean you need to talk all the time. Many sports leaders use their words as their only way of communicating and this is why their team loses. Although you don’t need to be a professional speaker to be a good sports coach, you do have to have more communication skills than just being able to speak publically.
Communication is not only about speaking, it’s also about listening too and many sports leaders fail to understand this.
4. Often good sports leaders need organizational skills but to be a good leader you need great organizational skills.
As sporting contrasts are run over a sporting calendar, leaders need to be able to prepare the team and individual athlete within this time frame. And when you’re organizing this you need to know that each one of your players’ lives and lifestyles is not compromised by what practice, games, or contests that are being put into place.
But even before all of this comes into fruition, a sports leader needs to be organized in their life first.
5. A good sports leader needs to be fair in the assessment of his players’ or athletes’ performance.
Because if you’re leading a team all the players will want to see that you don’t have favorites. Yet many sports leaders do. And players and athletes may feel this is ironic, given that teamwork is so important for the success of all groups or players.
6. Accept that your leadership will be temporary.
Nothing in life lasts forever but in sport, it can last a lot shorter. Few if any sports leaders are heads of teams, organizations, or athletes for a long time. Success mostly dictates longevity of leadership in sport and very few organizations have the patience for a lack of success longer than a couple of years.
Unless your leadership is developing a team or individual into becoming better you’ll be on a slippery slope to keep your job.
7. Be responsible and open to learning because you will lose and when you do your players will look to you for answers.
And those answers will define how your team or players react in the next game or competition. As no one wants to be a loser for long. So as a leader, you need to be able to try new things or at least admit when you`ve made a mistake when things haven’t gone to plan.
Of course, these aren’t the only characteristics of being a good sports leader but they are the minimum of what you need to try to be.
And if you remain open to learning you’ll be open to others helping you achieve more too.
And this is what great leaders do, so why would you want to be only good when success usually goes to the great?
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