What's So Unique About "Sports Leadership"?
What's So Unique About "Sports Leadership"?
Paaah-paaah-pahpah-pah-pah-pah. Okay, that’s the best I could do to translate the prelude of the Olympic fanfare and anthem to text. If you use a bit of imagination, you’ll get it…maybe.
~5 min. - Read, read along as you listen, or just listen to the voiceover.
Click here to listen to the real Olympic fanfare and anthem as performed by The United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own.”
Last Friday, July 26, 2024, the long-awaited Paris 2024 Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, started. In the 2024 Olympics there are forty-four different sporting events, from breakdancing (really?) to badminton (well…okay?) to swimming (yes!) to gymnastics (you betcha!) to rugby (absolutely!). In the USA major coverage of the Olympics is being handled by NBC and its affiliates, including its streaming service, Peacock. Coverage is 24/7 and it is expected that people will gobble it up. In Washington DC, sports bars are even staying open all night for people to gather and watch the games.
Why are people so Olympics crazy this year? Remember, we didn’t get our Olympics fix in 2020 due to the pandemic. Japan’s Tokyo Olympics were postponed until 2021 and, even then, there were no spectators allowed.
Now, in 2024, the Olympics are back…and so are the commentators. (Sigh.) Nothing against the commentators but there is only so much sports jargon the ears and mind can take. One of the concepts commentators like to drone on about is “sports leadership,” usually shortened to simply “leadership.”
Without ever defining what “sports leadership” means, commentators will say things like, “She shows real leadership to her team,” or “He’s an amazing leader on the field.” That’s great, but what does that really mean?
Not having a clue, I did the most logical thing. I asked Perplexity. (Perplexity is an outstanding search engine that summarizes its findings AND then cites them.) Perplexity, from multiple sources, listed eleven different characteristics of sports leadership.
You can read what I found here and since you can read for yourself, I won’t take the time to list them.
However, I do want to focus on the summary that Perplexity provided:
Sports leadership extends beyond just coaches and captains. It can come from any team member on the field, and also includes roles in sports management, administration, and business operations. Ultimately, sports leadership is about understanding people, inspiring high performance, and creating a cohesive team that can achieve extraordinary results.
Three things about sports leadership stand out to me in this summary.
First, sports leadership can be done by anyone on the team, including those who are “behind the scenes.” To the degree that others on the team, and in the team’s organization, can step into leadership, it can be a form of collective leadership.
Second, sports leadership is relational leadership. It requires connecting with teammates, understanding them, motivating teammates in ways that strengthen relationships instead of weakening them, and establishing a positive team culture.
Third, sports leadership is about being a decent human being who has the will to always do their best while helping others do their best, too.
Now, I could actually re-write those last three points, replace “sports leadership” with simply “leadership,” and it would still work, right? Why is that? Because its “sports leadership” when we are referring to leadership in athletics and simply “leadership” when we are referring to it in any other context. In that sense, sports leadership really isn’t all that unique, is it?
Now, back to the breakdancing competition.
Moving into (Mostly) Retirement
Remember, for the near future you can find Tom Klaus at tom@tenaciouschange.us. You can also continue to follow him in the Tenacious Change newsletter, Change It Up! and through Getting to 3rd Space with Lamar and Tom.
However, if you’d like to stay in touch with him personally click on the button below and sign up for his personal mailing list.
Now Playing on Getting to Third Space with Lamar & Tom
Watch the podcast now on the Tenacious Change YouTube Channel or listen on Spotify.
Be sure to subscribe to Change It Up! and be among the first to know when new episodes are available.
To learn more about our work with communities, organizations, and groups, visit us at our company website at www.tenaciouschange.us by clicking on the image below:
I can't get the voiceover to work..??