Lead yourself.

In our locale there is a political rift between the mayor and the president of the local chapter of the NAACP.  Their feuding has boiled over into the local social media in a purely negative manner. I find the whole thing terribly embarrassing and can only wonder what others must think of our community.

As I pondered this situation it occurred to me the quality of leadership can be found to be lacking. Believe it or not, that is not a condemnation of either of the primary individuals involved in this on-going dispute. Rather, it's simply an acknowledgment that leadership has many levels and a certain diligence must be put into the process of leading if we are to have the best possible leadership.

What in the world does this have to do with soccer?

(Hit the jump for the rest of the article)




I'll tell you.  LOL

I was a gym rat. I still am although I know longer play competitively. In fact, I rarely play at all these days. But I am still a gym rat.  All the hours I spent in a gym or on playgrounds working on my game I did of my own accord. No one forced me to do any of it. I led myself.  I led myself to the gym, the playground, the fields or diamonds.  I worked on improving my game unsupervised and purely self-motivated to do so. Hours upon hours spent on my own doing what I loved and dedicated to the proposition of getting better each day. I led by example.

Because I led myself, my game improved. As my game improved others began to look to me for leadership. And so, I began leading my teammates. Initially by work ethic and dedication to improving myself, but as I grew into the role I became more vocal in leading my teammates.  I was an encourager and facilitator seeking to bring out the best in each team member.  I became an organizer using my IQ for the game to help position myself and my teammates for success.

Out of this grew several opportunities to serve as a captain for teams I played on and eventually to my becoming a coach.  I grew into the role of leading teams.  I'm still a gym rat in the regard that I spend countless hours preparing for practices and games. I spend countless hours developing and honing the skills required to coach successfully.

When I went to the gym, the batting cages or the fields to work on my game it wasn't about being seen doing so.  The purpose behind all those hours of individual workouts were not to impress the coaches. I came to get better. Period.

I recall certain people who would only workout with me if they knew a coach was in the vicinity.  No coach watching = no working out for them. I labeled these individuals fake gym rats. They were not internally motivated to become the best they could become. They were externally motivated to secure a place on the team without actually putting in the true effort to make both themselves and the team all they could be.  When such a person was successful in bamboozling the coaches they might be named a captain.  A fake captain in my book.  And the team invariably suffered.

In the local political rift it seems to me we have some fake gym rats and and fake leaders.  That's simply an acknowledgement that better leaders and better leadership should be the goal.  Our current leaders could work diligently on improving their leadership abilities - who couldn't, correct?  The greatest of coaches continually surround themselves with others of equal or greater ability.  There exists an openness to new ideas and growth. Individual growth and collective growth.