The Powerful Impact of Positive Coaching Techniques

Let’s explore how to build leadership qualities first and what characteristics are needed to be an influential team captain.

Building Leadership Skills

Leadership is a process that requires self-awareness, practice, continuous learning, and mindfulness. Here are some critical steps to help you build leadership skills.

Self-Reflection

Start by understanding your strengths, weaknesses, values, and goals. Self-awareness is the foundation of effective leadership. Reflect on your experiences and consider what type of leader you want to become. Understand who you are and what you are doing.

Set Clear Goals

Define your leadership goals. What do you want to achieve as a leader? Having clear objectives will guide your development and help you measure your progress. Write them down on paper so you can expand the ideas.

Develop Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence involves understanding and managing one’s own emotions as well as the emotions of others. If you don’t have control, others will not, and it will be difficult to follow your lead. Emotional intelligence is a critical quality for a captain. Practice empathy, active listening, self-regulation, and self-control.

Communication Skills

Effective communication is the foundation for a leader. Work on your ability to express ideas clearly, positively, and constructively. Learn to listen and adapt your communication style to your team actively. Influential leaders are great motivators.

Build Confidence

Confidence is an essential trait for leaders. Believe in your abilities and decisions, but avoid overconfidence and being egotistical. Confidence, combined with humility, is a powerful leadership quality.

Resilience

Leadership often comes with setbacks and challenges. Developing resilience is the key to perseverance. Together, they create a powerful combination to bounce back from failures and continue moving forward.

Feedback and Self-Improvement

Be open to constructive criticism, not negative. You only see what you can see in the mirror. Others will see you differently. Use feedback to improve your leadership skills in a positive, constructive way. Don’t perceive feedback as negative and deconstructive.

Practice Patience

Building leadership skills takes time. Patience is crucial to understanding. Don’t expect to become a great leader overnight. Stay patient, persistent, and committed to your growth.

Captain Qualities

High school athletes who aspire to become influential team captains have a remarkable opportunity to hone their leadership skills. The lessons you learn as a team captain will benefit your sports career and lay the foundation for your leadership journey in life beyond the field. So, step up, embrace the challenges, and become the leader your team needs you to be to succeed.

1. Lead by Example

Leading by example is one of the core principles of leadership. As a captain, you must demonstrate the same behavior and work ethic you expect from your teammates. Whether it’s showing up early for practice, giving your all in every game, or exhibiting good sportsmanship, your actions will determine the team’s standard.

Consistently displaying the values you want your team to uphold will help you earn their respect and trust.

2. Effective Communication

Clear and effective communication is the centerpiece for any leader or captain. It is difficult to express your ideas without good, clear, and respectful communication. And expressing your thoughts and ideas concisely and understandably is essential. As a captain, you are often responsible for bridging the gap between coaches and players. So, the ability to convey feedback and concerns is critical.

Furthermore, maintaining an open line of communication encourages a supportive and harmonious team environment.

3. Motivate and Inspire

A great leader possesses the ability to motivate and inspire their team even in challenging times. As a captain, keeping your team focused and driven towards success is essential. You can instill confidence and determination to help your team easily tackle any obstacle by providing encouragement and positive reinforcement.

Your positive attitude and enthusiasm can spread like wildfire and aid the team in overcoming any obstacles.

4. Respect and Sportsmanship

Respect is fundamental to effective leadership, particularly when handling opponents, officials, and teammates. It is not so easily given, so you will find yourself having to earn it. As a team captain, it is your responsibility to establish the standard for sportsmanship. Encouraging honesty, fair play, and respect on and off the field. Remember that your behavior affects you and reflects the team.

If you desire to earn respect from others, you must demonstrate it in your actions.

5. Decision-Making

As a team captain, you may find yourself in situations that require quick and effective decision-making. For instance, during a game, you might need to make split-second choices or contribute to the team’s strategies and tactics. Or you might have to relax aggressive behavior.

Learn to develop your decision-making skills. Your choices will directly impact your team’s performance and success.

6. Embrace Accountability

One of the most essential traits of a captain is the willingness to take responsibility for their actions and decisions. Also, admitting your mistake and faults show you are not embarrassed. Acknowledging your mistakes helps you to use them as an opportunity for growth. This shows your integrity and demonstrates to your team that you are accountable and willing to learn.

Produce a culture of responsibility within the team, and you will create success.

7. Adaptability

Sports are inherently unpredictable, and plans can change abruptly. As a captain, it is necessary to remain flexible and assist your team in adapting to various situations, outcomes, and results.

Your capacity to adjust and stay composed under pressure will boost your teammates’ confidence.

Remember that leadership is a journey, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Everyone’s path to leadership is unique, so focus on developing the skills and qualities that align with your values and goals. Making leadership natural is the selling point, not being something you’re not.

Additionally, be adaptable and open to refining your leadership approach as you gain experience and learn from successes and failures.

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Teams can consist of people from different backgrounds that don’t always share the same viewpoints. Some of the most common disruptors of a team working together are differing popularity and socio-economic statuses driving athletes into cliques, and not interacting with others from the opposite clique.

Skill level and work ethic can also separate teammates into groups of those who work hard and/or are talented and those who have less skill, and those who simply do not care and are there because they are forced to be.

And most recently, political views have been a splitter of teammates dividing teams into opposing sides based on which party and beliefs they see as correct.

Youths are especially susceptible to taking on the actions and views of those commonly around or frequently seen in the media. It is not uncommon to see young children acting and speaking similarly to their favorite professional athlete they continuously see in the media or take on the viewpoints of a parent they hear speaking on certain topics. How young people deal with confrontation is subject to how they see major role players in their lives deal with conflict and what those people teach them. This can be parents, teachers, coaches, or anyone they look up to or spend a great deal of time with. It is the job of these major influencers in the young athlete’s life to shape them into leaders and teach them how to deal with confrontation and focus their team for the common goal they all desire: to improve and win.

How To Deal With Conflict Between Teammates

The long-term approach to dealing with division is education from adults who know how to deal with confrontation healthily and interact with people with different lifestyles or viewpoints.

There are many short term approaches to dealing with conflict and division within a team.

Your athlete is allowed to have a viewpoint and express it respectfully. It is essential to help athletes understand there are appropriate times for certain conversations. The answer is NOT to run away from confrontation. Your athlete’s objective should be to voice her opinions rather than try to convince someone else that they are right.

Before your athlete confronts someone, talk through the scenario help them see what they can, and cannot change.

The value of listening is the first step when developing relationships. Nothing can be resolved if the other person doesn’t feel heard.

Teach your athlete to practice empathy. You never know what another person is going through, and this is important to share with your athlete. Maybe the coach is grumpy because he doesn’t feel good, or the other teammate is having trouble at home.

Sometimes as a coach, it is simply not possible for you to make peace among all teammates, given that you may not have a tremendous amount of time with a team. That does not necessarily mean not to try, but it may just not work out. The most that can be done is to educate athletes and focus them on the common goal they share of trying to improve and win whatever the sport is.

Read More
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3 C’s of being a Captain

Care

As a team captain, your attitude and actions set the tone for the rest of the team. A positive demeanor, even during tough times, will build a stronger team dynamic. Your can-do attitude will motivate your team to give their all day in and day out. You should have passion for the game, for your teammates, and how to bring it all together in competition. Every teammate offers value, and the ability to recognize this is paramount. The bottom line, you should care. This applies both on and off the field. Pay attention to each individual teammate. If someone is struggling or having a bad day, take the extra time to find out what is bothering them. Showing them you care about them not only as a teammate but as a person will galvanize your connection and relationship as a leader.

Consistency

Compete, compete, compete. Day in and day out, you should be the hardest worker

in the room. Lead by example. Hold yourself to a standard of giving it your all each and every day, with the understanding that some days you can give more than others. You should embody the core values of the team and live them through the good and bad times. It’s easy to feel good when you’re winning. True character shines through when things get tough. As a consistent captain, you are the captain of the ship. Your team will look to you for direction and follow your example.

Communication

The ability to communicate is arguably the most important quality a leader can have. Great communicators are made, not born. The ability to communicate, like most skills, can be sharpened with time and dedication. It involves building trust and accountability by both talking AND listening. The ability to listen will help you to understand what your team needs as a whole, not just you as an individual. Good communication allows the team to know that their opinions are not only valued but appreciated. Fostering an environment where every opinion matters will help to forge team chemistry and, ultimately, a winning atmosphere.

Great leaders are willing to accept criticism and continuously learn from their shortcomings. After all, the best lessons often come as a result of past failures. Find your leadership style and be true to who you are. The ability to be genuine and completely yourself adds to your credibility as a leader. Show your teammates you care, consistently do the work, and listen. Hone in on these 3 C’s, and you’ll be on your way to being captain.

Kevin is a former collegiate baseball player turned Personal Trainer and Fitness Consultant to a global corporate wellness company. He is passionate about fitness and the importance of a holistic relationship with health/wellness. He loves anything outdoors, a good cup of coffee, and chasing his hyperactive 3-year-old (all of which oddly correlate with each other). To learn more, reach out to him at 5facetfitness@gmail.com

Now think about a few people that you consider a leader in your life. Are they exact replicas of each other? No way! We guarantee their qualities, their approaches, and their demeanors differ greatly dependent on the environment and people involved. This is the beautiful thing about human beings and our ability to be individualistic. Every person, every leader, will paint a different picture.

This is reassuring for us all! This means we will all have qualities of strengths and qualities of weaknesses. This also means that we can never do or lead alone. It requires a group effort to hold each other accountable to be our best selves so others may do the same.

RISE Mentor Elizabeth Beisel makes a great statement as she mentioned in the latest RISE video on leadership… “It takes a lot of bravery to stand up to an enemy, it takes even more bravery to stand up to a friend.” TRUTH. She goes on to say that you must be able to give and receive constructive criticism. In a team or group setting, this is inevitable, there will always be conflict needing to be resolved. Although there may be one elected team captain, everyone plays a part in creating an atmosphere that is conducive to pursuing excellence daily.

We would recommend rereading the below quotes from RISE Mentors Elizabeth Beisel and Ian Crocker a couple of times. Let it sit and simmer.

“If you are somebody that’s coming to practice every day on time, you’re working hard every single day, you’re doing all right things. You bring people up, you’re there for your teammates after a race, YOU are a leader.” – Elizabeth Biesel.

“Commonly, people think of a leader as someone who gives direction to a group. While this is true, I feel that one of the most important qualities a leader can have is listening to those they are trying to lead. We can all point to the top of a mountain and say, “go there”, but through listening to your flock you can best understand the way they need the message delivered. This has a profound effect on motivation throughout the journey. – Ian Crocker

Key Qualities: Doer, Empathy, selfless, indomitable, passionate, strong-hearted, bold, respectful, honest, genuine, outspoken, intentional, grace, open-minded, example.

Think about what these qualities mean to you and how you may resemble these as your version of a leader and the next time you get the opportunity to practice embodying these key qualities do it with confidence and pride.

RISE Blog Contributor

Jess Rocheleau

Original article posted on RISE

RISE Athletes are the leaders in youth athlete mentorship, with world-class Professional and Olympic level athletes mentoring the next generation to create strong mindsets and healthy mentalities. Your athlete can find the support they need, at rise-athletes.com. 

Some that may come to mind; outspoken, strong-hearted, passionate, communicator, decision-maker, inspirer, empathic, honest, confident.

Now think back to an experience when you were asked to make a decision or even just voice your opinion among your peers. How did that make you feel? Did you embody some of these qualities? Did you feel empowered? Confident? Nervous? Insecure?

If you resonated more with feeling empowered and confident…GREAT. If you felt more on the nervous or insecure side…GREAT. No matter who you are, you WILL feel all the feels no matter how young or old of age. It’s what you do after you experience these emotions that counts.

Do you hide away from the discomfort and fear or do you dive in head first to take reign of these emotions and practice turning them into your superpowers?

The situation above dictates those who become leaders and those who don’t. No one is born with any character enhancements. Although, many may like to use that as an excuse to lay low. Yes, it may come more naturally to some but that doesn’t mean it makes it any easier to develop what it takes to be a good leader. Behind the scenes, aka in your brain, the work needs to be done. Just like you practice your sport or a math problem or any life skill, success doesn’t happen overnight.

Practice makes perfect. Now, how many times have you heard this?! From teachers, coaches, and parents (too many to count) …but we must admit it holds much truth.

Cultivating the courage over discomfort mindset daily at a young age is supreme.

This means voicing opinions when appropriate, interacting with peers, feeling unapologetic for what you believe in, communicating with authority figures as an individual, and making decisions as an individual. All the above was done respectfully and intentionally.

When these situations become an intentional daily practice, confidence will blossom. Always learning and always improving the admirable qualities of a true leader.

BOTTOM LINE. Every single person has the born ability to become a leader. It takes BRAVERY to stand up and stand out. It takes ENCOURAGEMENT at a young age, so surround yourself with people who will help create an environment where you can learn, grow, and THRIVE.

RISE Blog Contributor

Jess Rocheleau

Original article posted on RISE

RISE Athletes are the leaders in youth athlete mentorship, with world-class Professional and Olympic level athletes mentoring the next generation to create strong mindsets and healthy mentalities. Your athlete can find the support they need, at rise-athletes.com. 

Pete Carroll, head coach of the Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks, is a prime example of a coach who isn’t afraid to build personal relationships with his players, and not just on a surface level. Carroll is truly committed to making his players feel cared about and loved.

These qualities are just as important—if not more important—for developing student-athletes at the high school level.

As I consult with high school and collegiate athletic directors who are in the process of hiring a coach, the most important questions that arise are “Can he or she relate to the athletes?” and “Is he or she a relationship-driven coach, or a win-at-all-costs coach?”

Here are the seven characteristics we teach coaches who wish to become relationship-driven leaders:

1. They See Themselves as Mentors, Not Just Coaches

They not only coach the technical and tactical aspects of the game, they also focus on developing the whole person. Mentors seek to have lifelong relationships. They are relational and they hold their athletes accountable.

2. They are Teachers, Not Screamers

They are process-driven rather than results-driven, and they constantly teach while being “easy to please and hard to satisfy.” They may be loud and get excited, but they are not mean-spirited screamers who are always looking at the scoreboard.

RELATED: How Coaches Build Team Trust

3. They Develop Trust, Not Fear

Relationship-driven coaches constantly cultivate trust with their athletes through consistency. They refuse to do anything that will dissipate trust, such as using shame and intimidation to motivate their athletes.

4. They Get Personal With Players

They have healthy and appropriate personal relationships with their players. They call them by their first names or give them positive nicknames that bespeak greatness.

5. They Walk Through the Locker Room Without Invoking Fear

The best coaches create a climate and culture in which the players welcome their coach’s presence in the locker room. They also know when to give a player some  space.

RELATED: Understanding the Coach-Player Relationship

6. They Make Every Player Feel Safe, Secure and Significant

Relationship-driven coaches lead in such a way that makes every player feels safe, secure and significant within the team structure.

7. They Develop the Whole Person

Today’s top leaders realize that for optimum performance, they must develop the entire person—not just his or her technical skills. These leaders hit all the components—developing the physical, mental, social, emotional and spiritual qualities of each individual.

Create A Positive Environment

Creating a positive environment starts with how you talk to your players. Be positive and encourage players while you coach them. When a player makes a mistake, remind yourself that they are trying to do it right. Don’t get angry, figure out how you can do your job better, and keep teaching them until they improve. Another good reminder to help you be positive and patient is that even the best players make mistakes.

Spread positive energy wherever you can. Clean up the locker room if you have one and post inspirational quotes. Give your players journals and have them write down personal and team goals. Share inspiring stories or quotes before or after practice. Bring in, motivational speakers. Use your imagination and find ways to encourage your team and create a positive environment.

Encourage Team Mentality

Teach your team the importance of treating one another with respect. Help the players understand what it means to be a team player. When players care about one another, they will motivate one another. By teaching the importance of teamwork, you are helping to motivate your team.

Set Goals

Having something to strive for helps give a team motivation. And getting the players involved in the goal setting is even better. You can have a big reach goal, something grand, larger than life. But also have smaller, more reachable goals that help keep your team on task. Goals that give the team small wins along the way.

Discipline and Hard Work

Set expectations from the first day of practice that you expect your players to work hard everyday. This consistency will help bring the team together, make practices run more smoothly, and build togetherness. To be a great team, you need to be disciplined and work hard. Practicing with this mentality makes each player better as well, which is motivating.

Have Fun

Nothing is better than having fun, especially if you’ve been working hard everyday at practice. If you allow your players to goof around all of the time, then it’s hard to get anything done. But they do need to have a little fun, especially if they’re a disciplined team. Run relays. Tell a joke. Play knockout. Shoot half-court shots to end practice. Find time for fun along the way, and your team will be better for it.

Game Day Motivation

What you have done during practices will be the greatest motivating factor when it comes to game time. Players who are prepared will feel more confident. There is no greater motivator than confidence. Still, there are a few things that you can do to reach players on game day.

Preparation And Small-Win Goals

As a coach, you motivate players by making sure they are prepared. Much of this you will have done at practice, but give them basic pregame information about the other team and then set reachable goals, depending on their skill level. Goals can be out rebounding the opponent, holding your opponent from scoring a specific number of points, taking a certain amount of shots on goal. Try to find achievable goals no matter the outcome of the game.

Positive Energy And Team Rituals

It is great to include a story, antidote, or quote that sets the mood as part of your pregame gathering. Often something inspiring gets the team fired up, although there may be times when you need to tell a funny story to get the players to relax. Spend time before the game to think about what your players need.

Keep your message positive and encourage your players to huddle, separate from the coach, before hitting the court or playing field. If you work with the captains to start this from the beginning of the season, the players will develop their own ritual, which can be the greatest motivator of all.