by Mandy Green, Selling for Coaches 

The more effective you have been in creating leaders on your current team, the more effectively your team will handle conflicts, remain cohesive, and work together to succeed.  In turn, better leadership from within can and will help in recruiting future leaders. 

How do you develop leadership on your team?  It starts with YOU coach!

John Maxwell in his book Developing the Leaders Around You, says “I really believe that it takes a leader to know a leader, grow a leader, and show a leader.  I have also found that it takes a leader to attract a leader.” 

While there are many things coaches need to do to develop leaders, I am going to talk about 3 important steps that you need to take first.  

Law of the Lid- John Maxwell

In his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell says that leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness.  Coach, if your leadership is strong, then the lid of potential to develop leadership ability for your team will be high.  The lower your ability to lead, the lower the lid on not only your potential, but your teams as well. 

John Maxwell uses the metaphor of walking up a narrow staircase - you can only go as fast as the person in front of you. When leaders stop growing, they quit climbing and impede the progress of everyone following them. However, when leaders grow, they ascend the stairs and create space for those behind them to climb higher.

If you desire to develop leadership within your team, then pay the price of getting better. Personal growth involves challenging yourself, and pushing beyond the realm of comfort.  As you grow and improve as a leader, so will those that you lead.  Remember that as your team follows you, they only go as far as you go.  If your growth stops, your ability to lead will stop along with it.
 
Model the behavior you want

Your team will do as you do, coach.   Positive model = positive response.  Negative model = negative response. 

You cannot demand of others what you do not demand in yourself.   Your team needs to see from you and your staff how things are going to be, not just hear how you want it to be. 

As V.J. Featherstone said, "Leaders tell, but never teach, until they practice what they preach." The best leaders embody their values. Their passion exudes from every pore and demands respect.

Create the right environment

Are you creating an atmosphere where it will be easy for the players on your team to succeed?  Are you creating an environment that will attract leaders?  For example, successful coaches who have developed great leadership within tend to have created a program where athletes know they will develop to their potential as players and as people and where participation on the team will enhance and inform their education.  They have programs where you work hard so you can play the game hard.  They speak often of commitment, integrity, excellence, and success.  They instill a sense of belonging and loyalty in the student-athletes and give them a desire to remain connected to the program and the people long after their playing days are done. 

Have you created this same sort of environment?   If you are not getting what you want leadership wise from you team, create a different sort of environment and see what you get. 

Coach, as you already know, it is hard to have a successful college program without leaders on your team.  You can’t expect your team to develop into leaders until YOU tell them, show them, develop them, and let them do it.   Develop your own leadership abilities, show them how to do it the right way, and then create an environment where they will be successful.  In turn, your recruits that want to be future leaders will see and be attracted to this new environment of leadership and growth potential!     

Tomorrow for Premium Members, you will get a list of Leadership qualities to look for in players you are recruiting.