ABCs of Mental Training: L is for Leadership

Aaron Peirsol was the 2009 U.S. World Championships men's team captain. (Photo by Al Bello//Getty Images).

By Aimee Kimball, PhD//Correspondent

“The great teams of the past all had great leaders within the group...Each had his own style but they all demanded excellence from the people around them. Not just once in a while, not just when things were going good for them, but all the time.”

–Rick Pitino

Leadership is not an easy thing. As basketball coach Rick Pitino said, leaders must be consistent in making those around them better, regardless of the situation. If you are currently a leader for your team or you aspire to be, here are some quick leadership tips to help you and your teammates excel, enjoy, and encourage each other.

Know what it means to be a leader

Sometimes athletes are formally named a team captain and other times they emerge as an informal team leader. In either case, it is important to really know what leadership is. I was once told that leadership is accomplishing things through others and that leadership is about the followers, not the leaders. As such, it is important to focus on what others need from you and the best way to know what they want is to ask your teammates what they expect of their captains/leaders. If they need you to be unconditionally encouraging, to give pep talks, to be a disciplinarian, or to lead by example, then your responsibility is to try to do these things. There are various types of leadership styles and maybe you aren’t comfortable being a vocal leader and giving pre-meet speeches, but sometimes being a leader means being willing to be uncomfortable to make others comfortable.

Part of what it means to be a leader is to recognize the many roles you play:

• Spokesperson/Representative
• Decision maker
• Scapegoat
• Motivator
• Messenger
• Mediator
• Friend/Teammate/Child/Sibling…

As a leader, you don’t just get to swim your race anymore; you have to do what you did before, plus fulfill these numerous roles. Ultimately, your job is to empower others to work towards success, to help them enjoy their sport, and to teach them how to cope with obstacles and to move forward.

Accept the risks and challenges

While initially most people enjoy the fact that teammates or coaches view them as a leader, it eventually sinks in that there are many challenges leaders face.

Some lessons leaders learn the hard way are:

• You are always watched and always responsible
• Trust and respect are fragile
• You won’t always be liked
• You must deal with conflict
• You may be disappointed
• The “right thing” isn’t always the easy thing

If you do fulfill your roles and you are successful at leading your peers, you will learn to accept that you will often have to make difficult decisions, you will be forced to be brutally honest with people, and you will likely have to resolve conflicts. These are all important skills to develop that will help you in all areas of life.

Develop trusting relationships

To be an effective leader, those around you must trust you. They must respect you and know that you are doing what you can to help all members of the team to be successful. To develop this trust, get to know everyone as individuals. It is easy to spend time with your friends or teammates who are your age or ability level, but it’s extremely important to develop personal relationships with everyone on the team. This helps you to know how to motivate and communicate with individuals and it gives them a reason to trust you. If they know you care about them as a person, they are more likely to follow your lead. This also shows them that they matter to you and to the team, which is something younger and less experienced members often need to be confident and motivated to succeed. Something else that can help to develop trust and respect is to be willing to admit when you are wrong. You may make bad decisions, but when you own up to these choices and admit that you made a mistake, people will eventually understand and respect your ability to be honest with them.

Create a culture

One of the most important responsibilities of a leader is to create a culture for the group. By creating a set of standards, values, and expectations together with the team, you can ensure that people will be on the same page. You can use these expectations to guide your own leadership, first by making sure you exceed the standards of the team but also by making sure you hold everyone accountable to living up to them. These standards aren’t necessarily revolving around specific achievement levels like finishing in the top 3. These standards and values should focus on behaviors expected of each team member, things like effort, attitude, commitment and even behaviors outside of swimming such as expectations for grades and healthy life decisions. Additionally, creating a culture where team members compete but cooperate can help to make sure your teammates are pushing themselves and everyone around them to be and to do their best every time they are at the pool.

Create a leadership game plan

You don’t have to just muddle your way through being a leader. You can create a plan for yourself that will allow you to utilize your strengths and be as effective as you can. You can do this quick exercise to identify the qualities you have that help you the most as well as areas you can improve on.

• What are your strengths?
• What will you continue to do to build upon these strengths?
• How can I use these strengths to resolve team issues?
• What areas can you improve on as a leader?
• What actions will you take to improve on these areas?
• 3 years from now what do you want former teammates to say about you?

Summary

Being a leader require more than just being a good swimmer. You must be a “people person” who sincerely cares about the success of the team and the happiness of your teammates. It takes time and experience to be an effective leader, but if you look at leadership like any other skill you realize it is a tool that will help you now and later in life.

Make it great!

Dr. Aimee

About Aimee C. Kimball, PhD:

Dr. Kimball is the Director of Mental Training for the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine. She is an Association of Applied Sport Psychology Certified Consultant, and is a member of the American Psychological Association, the United States Olympic Committee’s Sport Psychology Registry, the USA Swimming Sports Medicine Network, and the NCAA Speakers Bureau. She works with athletes, coaches, and parents to help them achieve success in sport and life.

For more information contact: kimballac@upmc.edu, 412-432-3777, http://sportsmedicine.upmc.com/MentalTrainingProgram.htm