‘Talking Tactically’

with Lachlan Tighe..... 

(a new weekly edition, commenced 12/9/2001, of thoughts, observations and commentaries on developments for bowls coaching and competition)

‘… leadership a recognizable quality’

(edition 72  - 2003 of thoughts & observations on lawn bowls)

James Hird is a highly regarded leader in sport and as captain of the Australian Rules Essendon Football club was quoted as saying that leadership to him was about honesty, no matter how much the truth might momentarily hurt others.  Hird epitomizes the definition of leader for what many of us view as a person having the qualities of leadership.

All sport teams / clubs, need leadership, however as only a few are, by definition of results, successful within their competitive environment, what these teams / clubs, have is not true leadership when at times the reins of leadership has to be undertaken by people bestowed with the levels of seniority without all the accompanying leadership qualities because of the limitations of the resources available to the club / team.

The absence of true leadership may be seen as a reflection of the prevailing culture in the club / team as it implies ‘…that is the way we do things around here’ reaction.  Leadership is most required when the doubt sets in with the ‘…true believers’ when values and standards are under threat.

The culture that best signifies success is one that is inclusive.   Though set and lead by the team / club leader(s), the successful culture embraces the club and team people via 

·         Selecting, motivating, rewarding, retaining and unifying members of the club / team

·         The marshalling of the resources within and beyond the organisation to pursue the vision set by the leadership in the team/ club.

People fall into 3 classes 

            Those who make things happen

            Those who watch things happen

            Those who have no idea what happened

And at times I am sure I like everyone else has romped around all three categories.

If I was to summarily describe leadership qualities in a person(s) it would include

·         Having a vision of where our team / club/ sport is heading

·         knowing how to chart a course for all

·         Providing direction for others 

·         the capacity of leader(s) to influence others toward set goals

·         not (simply) management for although leaders manage, management is planning, organizing, etc as an outcome from the direction provided by the leaders

·         developing an acceptable proud culture worth fostering as a legacy for successive people in the club/ team

Reasserting or redirecting team and club culture is an interesting function many of us read, see, or are even involved in with our sports.  It is a slow, sensitive and gradual process, however when a team (be it at local to national level) is grouped together at irregular and occasional notice there is limited time to foster the preferred culture so the answer is for the leadership to spread the responsibility within the teams / club to enable the people and the culture to merge and consolidate well before the competition event.

Involvement from players in teams/ clubs is simply attending training sessions and competitions.   

Commitment is that extra effort made and noted, those efforts that go the extra 1% at all times that makes and defines a culture as a success. I finished a report to my club today by saying

…..if YOU do what you always did, WE get what you always got.

Quotes on leadership

…a man is not as big as his belief in himself; he is as big as the number of persons who believe in him

…if you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing

…coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success

One more quote for the road to consider, one we are trying at our club

‘TEAM’          i.e. Together Each Achieves More 

‘TEAM’          or  Trust Enthuse Applaud Mates 

And guess what, still there are no guarantees (of success)……..that is true believing

NEXT WEEK….Coaches in leadership roles

Lachlan Tighe

‘… Lions: Brisbane’s king of the (sporting) jungle’