A friend of mine recently brought up this interesting, relatively new sports-related camp: The Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy. You can check it out here: http://juliefoudyleadership.com/site4.aspx.
It got me thinking about leadership in sports. We constantly hear about players as leaders, coaches as leaders, and even administrators as leaders. How often have you heard phrases like "he's such a vocal leader" or "she leads by example" to describe a team's quarterback or star point guard. We're completely led to believe that a team without one clear-cut, natural-born leader is doomed to failure (the 2005-06 and 06-07 Gator basketball team notwithstanding). However, we rarely hear of TEACHING these leadership skills, and I don't know why. It could be because everyone has their own unique way of leading that's tailored to their strengths, so it's impossible to teach someone to lead YOUR way. Or, it could be because we believe that the ability to lead is something you're born with, and that it can't be learned. Either way, even if the camp is a fraud, I think it's an interesting and smart idea and I'm not sure why I haven't heard about more camps like it.
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4 comments:
You can only do so mcuh to "teach" about leadership. You tan tell people to go do something, but it takes that special quality to actually go and do it. I would say 95.7% of leadership is a quality that you are born with and that you can develop through your life experiences. The other 4.3% you might be able to pick up by Julie Foudy and camps like hers.
Good leaders have been thorugh many experiences. They know how to act when adversity hits. They are the backbone of your team and the ones that can calm down the chaos of many different factors. They have to know the personalities around them and understand how to bring all of those different people together. Sometimes its not the best player. I was the captain of my high school football team and I promise you it wasnt because I was a superstar kicker/punter. its about all the other things. Theres no camp in the world that can make leaders, maybe just polish them up a bit.
o yeah...forgot to mention it before. Welcome back to civilization you hoss. Hope your Research comp got dominated.
I agree with Pick on this one. Real leaders just have the capability to lead. They will always be that "go to guy" when the team is in that situation.
As far as learning the kind of characteristics it takes to be a leader at a camp...I don't think so. I think that a camp can make you become a better teammate or player. Real leaders are born with ability to lead and it only gets better with the experiences they have throughout their lives. Having your teams trust is a big part of being a leader. Going to a camp is going to gain the trust of your teammates. No camp is going to teach that.
I definitely think that we should all go through some type of leadership training or leadership classes in general which at least study leadership styles. Understanding leadership styles, and the way people lead is the first step in creating good working relationships. It is interesting that the success of so many sports teams seem to come on the heels of a single great leader; almost as if it takes that leader to make the team gel or work better with one another. I think that we are all born leaders. Everyone leads. I define a leader as a person that simply influences another in some way, shape, or form. This can be a good or bad influence. Thus, we are all born leaders. To effectively lead in a positive manner, however, may take leadership training as displayed by the Julie Foudy camp.
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