How is leadership defined in your culture?
My definition is stolen from Brian Kight.
Leadership is taking responsibility for things you can’t control.
If you want to lead you have to:
bring a great attitude and energy
catch unacceptable levels in others and bring them up to standard
It’s hard. Especially the second one.
Don’t expect all of your players to want to sign up for that.
The Mistake
Looking back, I made some mistakes. One of them was this:
I assumed everyone wanted to be a leader so I looked to develop them all in leadership.
The reality is some people only want to take control of themselves, and honestly…
Some don’t even want to do that.
If you can take responsibility for people other than yourself, be a leader.
If you only want to be great in your own 20 square feet of the team, that’s fine too.
Teams Need Followers
A lot of people will follow and gladly go 2nd, so you only have to identify a select few that will lead them in the right direction.
Find out what players willingly want to take responsibility for others and skill them up in leadership behavior.
Teach the rest of them to absolutely nail down their mindset, attitude, effort, and other personal responsibilities.
Some might grow into the idea of leadership over time.
I think teaching it to everyone was a waste of time to a lot of them.
Inspired by this video that hit me over the head with insight:
Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.