Attitude Reflects Leadership.......Captain!

One of my favorite movie quotes of all time, and how true it is. So much of a team's personality relies on the leadership of the captains. The leaders on a team set the tempo and in most cases are responsible for the team's attitude. (As a side note I must also mention that it is the coaches responsibility to hold the captains accountable.) Captains, along with other leaders on the team, are watched closely by their peers. If they are working hard and enthusiastic the team usually follows suit. If they are complaining and just going through the motions, once again the team will follow suit.

Coaches must find a way to get the captains to buy into their system. Captains must have the drive, desire, commitment, confidence, and perseverance to lead their teammates for an entire season. Captains have a tough job. They have the delicate task of being the go-between of the players and coaches. They have to relay the pulse of the team to the coaches, keep teammates on task, and sometimes have hard conversations with their teammates, all while continuing to develop themselves as a player. Being a captain is definitely not a role that all players can handle.

Coaches must have a true understanding of the difficulties of being a captain/ leader. The coaches need to continually build up their captains, feeding the leaders the energy they need, so that they can pass it on to the rest of the team. So often coaches name captains and never take the time to talk to them throughout the season. This puts an extraordinary amount of pressure on the captains often causing them to shut down and become ineffective.

Attitude truly does reflect leadership: attitude of team reflects leadership of the captains, attitude of the captains reflects leadership of the coaches.