Sporting Models Role Away Leadership And Money
Sporting stars aren’t always the best leaders and this can effect the whole team and organization too
Sporting role models influence the world.
Think of this simple statistic for a moment and how powerful it is.
As of early 2021, Manchester United footballer Paul Pogba had more Instagram followers than the mighty Manchester United that he played for.
That shows you the power and respect that he has.
Yet many criticize him as a player.
Former Liverpool captain and manager Graham Souness has been quoted as saying Pogba is ‘lost in football games’. And the former Manchester United winning captain Roy Keane sarcastically questioned of Pogba that:
“If you think Pogba’s going to get Manchester United winning titles and challenging?”
And
“You keep saying he’s talented but that’s not good without desire or work rate. The guy doesn’t want to run.”
But there is no doubting the World Cup-winning midfielder’s physical ability. It’s been his mental game that’s been questionable for years throughout his professional football career.
And there are plenty of other sporting figures like Paul Pogba who have social media currency that influences millions of people all around the world. Why these people are influenced by someone who does not make the most of his ability consistently is an interesting question.
Yet for sure, his presence on social media manipulates sports players and fans all around the globe into thinking what great leadership and mentorship are simply because of the constant media press he gets and the vehicle of social media that he has to respond with his views.
Even more interesting is how athletes with popular social media profiles are influencing leadership and mentoring for most sports teams.
Most sports teams are not professional teams but are run by managers and mentors that are clocking in to a job at 9 am and out again 8 hours later. And in the evening, they give a couple of hours towards their local team to guide them along.
And most players that play are around the same ages as the players and athletes that are followed on social media. This age group devours tweets, posts, questions, comments, and shares as if it’s spending money at a fare.
For them it’s fun and a way to normally socialize.
When older managers and mentors ignore posts of what famous sports people and athletes say they’ll lose the interest and respect of their team. Young players want to see what their sporting heroes are posting because that’s what will be the dressing room banter when they speak about sports with their teammates the next time they go to practice.
But that doesn’t make what’s being posted is the right thing to influence others as even though an athlete has physical talents it doesn’t make him or her a role model.
In many ways, it’s a case of the blind leading the blind.
If leaders and mentors take all of what athletes say as being guiding words of wisdom then they’ll lead their players into disarray.
For not every athlete is a natural leader even though he’s been given the stage by a social media platform to air his views. And the influence that they can put out there can be misguided and ill-thought off before being shared with the masses.
In fact, most professional athletes are living in goldfish bowl to play their games, have excess amounts of money to live by, and lack life experience to preach from. And many professional athletes, through no fault of their own, have been given massive contracts at a young age and are given immediate respect because of this. And their opinions on social media can reflect this understandable immaturity.
But the reality still exists- that young person all around the sporting world are influenced by them.
From this, they can learn twisted logic behind what good leadership is and this can permeate into sporting circles and society at large and give a false impression of what mentoring is all about.
But then on the flip side, there’s always a person who without being taught leadership skills can recognize when something is amiss. Because even though leadership skills can be honed in people, some have more natural capabilities for it than others.
And it’s those that may flip the switch in the near future on their sporting social media accounts when they lead their teams to victory, and through their consistent actions of playing well and leading others may stay silent on social channels until their playing time is done.
As the old saying goes:
“Actions speak louder than words!”
And like many things in life-history often repeats itself.
With that in mind, it probably won’t be too long before leaders and mentors emerge to quietly go about their work again and let others copy what they’ve done rather that what idle momentary thought they post.
After all, isn’t that what a role model is?
The one who is actively seen to do rather than talk about how they did it.
In getting the job done followers may soon realize that successfully completing something consistently is to be admired rather than the latest hair cut that only shows you have more money than sense to show it off.
The day of the model is going fast and the role model is quietly making a comeback to guide others on a better path in sport and life as well.
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