Being a leader takes courage and confidence
I conducted an interview of a field and track captain at Texas Tech University in Texas State who has headed various athletic teams for field and track events of different groups in the state besides the university. Mr Smith is a twenty-five-year-old man whose passion, as he claims, has marketed his ability to become an athlete leader for various athletic teams in the state that are still craving for his experience in his field of expertise. The above explains the reason as to why he has featured in different teams of various clubs in the state. As an athlete leader, several qualities, strengths and motivating factors have led to the success of the teams he has featured in.
To begin with, Smith explained that he was passionate and remained committed to athletics being his favourite sports he has ever lived to know. Being passionate also triggers him to go a notch higher beyond the normal limits of the position he holds in the university to join players on the pitch during training and tournaments. He understands that being a leader, it is essential to drive the athletes towards their goals and objectives of winning every competition that they participate in.
Secondly, Smith had developed the art of communicating eloquently with players of the several teams he has been on together with members of the management of the athletics team of the university (Vaughan, 2015). He makes it clear to the athletes of what he thinks is needed to be done concisely for them to emerge winners in the events they participate in. He combines communication with the awareness of what takes place in field and track events courtesy of the vast experience he has in a bid to make his team stand strong. Consequently, Smith is visionary, where he has always had the best at heart for the teams he leads. Through his strong will in the teams winning, he lays down plans for the team, especially in training sessions that see them win most of the events that his team participates.
His strengths are manifested in his close interaction with the athletes of the university and the university sports management. With an enhanced form of interaction, it did not take him long to blend with the university athletics team despite having been in several teams before joining this particular one. The close interaction makes it easier for him to learn the members and any other athlete that joins after from which he can then deliver his duties as a leader effectively. Another strength that boosts his ability is the vast experience that he has gained in the various teams he had led. The experience has increased his knowledge related to field and track events such that he can aid in making major decisions on behalf of the coach. Because of his accuracy to make decisions and provide solutions for the team, he has made athletes, the coach and the management to rely on him especially on technical advises and decisions concerning the success of the team (Prive, 2012). Being a good decision maker has enabled Smith to generate solutions that could help the teams elevate their performance in the events that they take part in.
Smith is a great motivator of the athletes in both bad and best situations that the team has gone through. He usually shares credits with the team for the good results they achieved and takes the blame for the bad times that faces the team. At times he goes to the ground and tries to find out the problems that face the teams individually and address them through involving every member that took part in int and the concerned stakeholders. He makes conversations with players more personal to find out the real problems helping each other to provide solutions for better results in future times. As a captain, Smith has always urged players to remain calm and positive when things go wrong where he exudes a high level of confidence that permeated throughout the team. Due to great leadership skills and knowledge, he has always mentored his predecessors who have turned out to perpetuate his legacy of winning in the previous team he has led.
Smith’s tenure of leadership in the athletics team of the outside teams and the university has earned him vast experience of over ten years since he joined high school. It was before his twenties that he secured the position of a captain for the first time in his life in the high school athletics team. It had been a difficult moment for him since he had never led initially at any level. However, he had to own up his courage and went on to exercise the hidden skill in him. Being the head of a team, he had to enhance his ability to bring people together in instances of problems and coordinate every activity that required teamwork. He encouraged everyone to collaborate in a bid to create transparency in the team and integration for them to win multiple trophies (Fransen et al., 2014). The above saw his athletics team dominate the state and become champions for the next five years of his leadership as a captain.
The above saw him immediately become absorbed as a captain at Texas Tech University. His influence in the university team as a leader in the same position but a higher-level institution contributed to the uniting of the team which had previously been compromised as a result of bad results. It was during this time that asked every member to train everyday failure, of which many people were thrown out of the university team with the help of the head coach. Because of the great performance of the athletic teams of the university, Smith was appointed to become the head captain for the athletic team of the state where he led the team in the interstate athletics competitions. It did not take him long to learn his team and pulled off some members despite having been given a short duration for preparation. He worked in collaboration with the few remaining members in the highly contested trophies and finally Texas emerged the best with many trophies in the competitions.
From Smith’s leadership, we learn that being a leader takes courage and confidence, especially when it comes to the making of decisions that affect a few individuals. However, this has to be done for the success of the remaining people rather than harbouring those to bring down the team. It also takes effort to closely interact with team members at a personal level for most leaders since the majority of people in leadership positions are served instead of serving. Service helps in the knowledge of weaknesses and strengths of those you lead. A good leader should be eloquent with good communication skills from which he will be able to convince his subjects and be easily understood.