Attitude Reflects Leadership

Every time that I watch Remember the Titans (Widescreen Edition) I reflect on this line and what it actually means.  As we go through life we all find ourselves in positions of leadership at one time or another.  Whether it is as a parent, teacher, coach, or even as a mentor.  The following is a compilation of some of the thoughts that I have come up with during these reflections.

Not all of the actions of our followers can be attributed to our leadership.

Our followers have many influences other than ourselves.  We can in no way assume that we are the only leader that our followers have in their lives.  We can however try to influence our followers within the context of our relationship and the attitudes that they take during those interactions for the better.


More of the actions of our followers than we would like can be attributed to our leadership.

I had a discussion this week with a colleague about our children and about the best ways to motivate them to be respectful and mindful of their family obligations (chores!).  This discussion led to the conclusion that often what we model has more influence on the behavior of our children than our words (sorry Alicia for leaving my clothes lay on the floor!).

Leaders often have to make tough decisions and those decisions have lasting consequences.

This is where the risk/reward comes in as a leader.  Make the right decision and you gain a loyal following.  Make the wrong decision and your followers start to splinter into factions.  Most of the decisions that leaders make do not fall into this category, but the few that do will define you as a leader.  How does a leader successfully navigate these decisions?  I think that the answer relates to an earlier post, you plan ahead.  A leader must have a set of values that she uses a reference to guide them through their decisions.  Ask yourself, will this decision reflect my set of values?  If so, even if the outcome does not go exactly as you would have liked, at least you can be comfortable with the decision you made.  One of the worst feelings in the world is when you make a tough decision that goes the wrong way and it was against your set of values as well - can you say Double Whammy?  That brings us to my next thought.


When tough decisions must be made, the leader needs to make a decision that reflects his or her values and not popular opinion or the opinions of the select few who are the most vocal.

When I look back at the decisions that I have most regretted in my times of leadership, they all have one thing in common.  They were all made in an effort to please my critics rather than being based on my own set of values or philosophies.  Upon looking back at these decisions, I usually realize that the loud voices are usually the minority rather than the silent majority.  On more than one occasion when listening to Don Meyer at a coaches clinic he tells a story about a guy who gave the advice, "You can't pwease everybody, so you got to pwease yourself."  In other words, make the decision that you can live with regardless of the outcome of that decision. 

In the end, a successful leader must follow the example of the most powerful leader of all time, Jesus Christ, and serve his or her followers.

One of the biggest mistakes that some leaders make is to try to gain power by exerting their force.  Although exerting their force is sometimes necessary as a leader, being a servant leader is more effective.  When I know that my leader has my best interests in heart, it is easier to accept decisions that I do not like.  If, however, I feel that my leader is placing his or her own interests ahead of the interests of the group I have a much more difficult time accepting the decisions of my leader.


I view my role as a coach at Trinity Strength and Conditioning as that of a leader.  I feel that at the gym it is important to have standards for our movements and to hold people to those standards.  Please understand this when I remind you to touch your chest on your push ups or to get lower on your squat.  This does not mean that there are not acceptable substitutions for movements that are outside current ability levels, it does mean however that if you are capable of doing a movement correctly you need to do it correctly or do not count the rep.  Over the past few weeks/months I have seen a number of you not count a rep that was subpar and applaud you for it.  This shows integrity to yourself which will in turn translate into integrity in your leadership positions.

Hopefully I will put the above thoughts into action as a coach here to make your experience the best that it can possibly be.  Feel free to let me know how I can better serve you.

Workout
"Fran"
21-15-9
Thrusters  (95#/65#)
Pull ups

Scaling:  If you do not have a pull-up, sub ring rows and scale weight.  If you have pull-ups, but weight is to heavy scale weight.  Just make sure to note the scaling that you used.

Note:  This is one of our benchmark workouts.  It will come up again later in the year.  We use benchmark workouts to evaluate progress throughout the year.