Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy - email to members

The semester has finally come to an end.  You have finished up your finals and now you have some time to take a step back and reflect.

I spent a little time that last couple days thinking about the Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy.  What are we trying to accomplish with the leadership academy and how are we doing?  I don’t have all the answers but I do know that each member of the academy brings something unique to the table.  We are all given the tools to grow our leadership skills.  I enjoy getting to work with you all and hope we can continue to build the program.

One area that I want to focus on is helping Leadership Academy members grow from being a Leader By Example to a Vocal Leader. Many young leaders have no problem leading by example. If fact, for many people it just comes natural, it is part of your DNA.

But what about that next step? Sometimes young leaders are a little nervous to step up and be the enforcer on the team, to be the person who vocally encourages and sometimes challenges teammates. Often times, especially in team sports, the junior and seniors on the team fill the role of Vocal Leader.  They not only enforce the rules and keep the team on track but they by their use of encouragement have helped build a stronger team.  There is often a learning curve to move from Leader By Example to Vocal Leader.

The leadership model that Jeff Janssen presents shows that the core of leadership is having the commitment, confidence, composure and character needed to be a guiding light to your team.  You are not telling (or yelling) the way, but rather showing them the way. You have heard coaches talk about doing things a certain way (maybe call it the Greyhound Way!)

The move from being the hard-working and diligent Leader By Example to the Vocal Leader takes time to develop and can seem daunting at times.  So what the Leadership Academy is doing is giving you the tools, the background and support to develop your Vocal Leadership skills.

Talk to your coach and get some feedback on what your coach is looking for from you as a Vocal Leader.  It might just be the role of Encourager.  Giving your teammate some praise after a great practice.  Giving a little pep talk on the side to a teammate that is struggling.  If you need some practice, watch this great pep talk by Kid President - http://youtu.be/l-gQLqv9f4o.  Pass this video along!

So your first assignment as a Vocal Leader is to talk to your coach, get some feedback and then start using your leadership to build your team up. 

A team ebbs and flows during the season. What can you do to keep the team afloat and racing towards success?

Have a great break and I look forward to seeing you in January.

Just a reminder the next session of the Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy is Sunday January 25 in the afternoon.

Oh – and since we are talking about

Best wishes,

Dave Gerrity

Associate Athletic Director

PS – Kid President mentioned Robert Frost so I thought I would throw this in –

The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Happy Thanksgiving

This is an email I sent to our leadership academy today....

Campus is really quiet today.  It is raining and slowly I can see the snow starting to mix in.  I hope all of you that are travelling over the thanksgiving break are safe and are or will be with the ones you loves soon.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year.  I enjoy seeing old friends and spending some quality time with family.  I hope you get a chance to express your thanks and gratitude to the people you have received so many blessings from during the year.  I want to thank you all for the work you are doing within the Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy.  I have two things I wanted to share with you all.

I wanted to gather as a group and enjoy a nice meal and have a chance to talk about being a leader and what we have learned during our time together.  I will send an invitation so please RSVP to that invite.  It should be a nice get together.

The other item I wanted to share was the Campus Ministry #Gratitude campaign.  If you get a chance send a tweet out to to recognize those who you are thankful for—and as the staff from Campus Ministry said - to use the month of November as an opportunity to "bring a little joy and delight to the ones who have meant so much to us." If you did not see the video  click here to check it out -  video from Felisa Velasco, '15, and Paul Lozowicki, '16.  After you share who you are thankful for, Campus Ministry encourages you to invite someone else to share his or her person of #Gratitude.  Use the hashtag and @LoyolaCampusMin.

And what would one of my emails be without a poem, I think this is perfect for gratitude and thanksgiving.… Enjoy your weekend…

Prayer for the Great Family

by Gary Snyder

Gratitude to Mother Earth, sailing through night and day—
        and to her soil: rich, rare and sweet
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Plants, the sun-facing, light-changing leaf
        and fine root-hairs; standing still through wind
        and rain; their dance is in the flowering spiral grain
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Air, bearing the soaring Swift and silent
        Owl at dawn. Breath of our song
        clear spirit breeze
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Wild Beings, our brothers, teaching secrets,
        freedoms, and ways; who share with us their milk;
        self-complete, brave and aware
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Water: clouds, lakes, rivers, glaciers;
        holding or releasing; streaming through all
        our bodies salty seas
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Sun: blinding pulsing light through
        trunks of trees, through mists, warming caves where
        bears and snakes sleep— he who wakes us—
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Great Sky
        who holds billions of stars— and goes yet beyond that—
        beyond all powers, and thoughts
        and yet is within us—
        Grandfather Space.
        The Mind is his Wife.
                            so be it.

                                                        after a Mohawk prayer

Gary Snyder, Turtle Island
New Directions, New York, 1974, pp. 24-25

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Dave

Last Year's Leadership Conference at USNA

This is an email I sent out to our student-athletes last year... I will be attending this conference again in 2015.

I returned yesterday from a trip to the United States Naval Academy.  I had the pleasure of attending the USNA Leadership Conference with Andrew McGill (Men’s Golf), Anna Bosse (Track and Cross Country) and our two student interns from Campus Ministry Ed Ortiz and Christin Campbell.  (If you bump into them ask them about the conference!)

There were 220 student leaders from over 60 schools.  There were regular students, ROTC members, Midshipmen and Cadets from military academies and also student-athletes.  The theme of the conference was Followership: The Evolution of a Leader.

I wanted to share just a couple highlights from the event and will share some more in the future.  The conference featured talks by former Vice President Dick Cheney, current VP for US Public Policy for Facebook Joel Kaplan, Lieutenant General Sattler of the USMC, Astronaut Chris Cassidy, and many more. It was amazing and the takeaways were numerous.

The first talk that I want to talk to you all about was by Captain Will Byrne, Commandant of Midshipmen at the USNA.  

The best way to describe his role in terms of Loyola is his position is similar to the Dean of Students.  He shared a simple message that when you take a look at it a few times you will smile and say I can do that.

He started by talking about a book that has all the secrets of life – All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum.

The following is from that book-

“These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten):
1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don't hit people.
4. Put things back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first worked you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.”  

It is so simple but so true.

His other point shared with us was based upon what he says to the new midshipmen when they arrive in Annapolis. 

“Be Excellent.”

That is it.  Be Excellent. 

He did expand to add the following –

Be Excellent – to yourself

Be Excellent – to each other

Be Excellent – to this place

He went on about each area briefly as well.

Be Excellent –

To yourself - eat right, work out, study, tell the truth, know the rules

To each other – be a good listener, share your time, be an active bystander

To this place – take care of your school, your dorm room, your locker room, etc.

These are two simple points to share with your teammates.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and please touch base if you have any questions.

Character and how to conduct yourself with class

I was just reviewing Chapter 5 of Jeff Janssen’s The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual.  It deals with the topic of character and how to conduct yourself with class.  

You often hear people say “Do the right thing” and in this chapter you find out how your team counts on you to do the right thing (even when it may not be the most popular thing to do!)

Janssen breaks doing the right thing down into four areas where your example will show your commitment to your team and university:

1)      In your sport

a.       Play aggressively but not dirty

b.      Respect officials

c.       Obey the rules of the game, conference and association

d.      Watch your language

e.       Be a gracious winner and loser

2)      In the classroom

a.       Apply yourself

b.      Attend all your classes

c.       Take good notes

d.      Maybe it is not straight A’s but always “Do your best!”

3)      In your social life

a.       It is important to relax to relieve pressure

b.      Everything in moderation

c.       Balance your priorities (social life should not rank first!)

d.      Be a leader by example – be responsible!

e.       Speak up when your teammates might be straying into unsafe behaviors

f.       Conduct yourself with class and expect the same from your teammates!

4)      In the community

a.       All of our teams give back – help drive community service on your team

b.      Giving back to the community is a “win-win” for all involved!

Take some time this week and think about your character.  Are you leading by example?  Are you a vocal leader when you need to be?

Remember – nobody is perfect, always try to do the right thing.

The last line of the chapter on page 68 – “Represent yourself, your family, your team and your school with pride and class and you will win the respect of many.”

Helen Keller once said - Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this and I hope you get a chance to lead by example!

Dave Gerrity

Confidence + Composure

 

Last week, we talked about confidence. The more confidence you have in yourself the better equipped you will be to deal with the many different things you have going on in your life.

Your academic success gives you confidence. Your athletic success gives you even more. Your social life being under control and living a healthy lifestyle adds even more to your confidence.

All of these areas feed upon each other and the balance you have in your life helps you to be successful in all of these areas.

What do you do when the pressure is on? How do you maintain your composure? In chapter 4 of Jeff Janssen’s The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual , you get a great dose of information on how to deal with pressure, but, even more importantly, you get some pointers on how to recognized pressure situations and how they can potentially impact your teammates.

The traffic light analogy is a simple method of assessing where you and your teammates are in regards to managing collective emotions. Think Green, Yellow and Red lights. Read up on this and it will really help you in your ability to lead by example and to help your teammates when they are looking to you for guidance. How do you handle a red light or yellow light and get it back to a green light? Look at some of the refocusing strategies presented on page 56-59.

Your ability to lead in pressure situations will teach life lessons that will by the example you set be contagious with your teammates!

I am going to leave you with one of my favorite poems. I really think you can apply it to your everyday life and your time shared with your teammates.
Just like confidence is contagious – so is composure.
Take a second to read Rudyard Kipling’s If.

If 

BY RUDYARD KIPLING
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)

So you are committed to your team and you are working really hard.

So you are committed to your team and you are working really hard.

What is another ingredient that helps take you to the next level?

Confidence.

You often hear coaches of professional teams talk about confidence and how it is that ingredient that is so vital for you and your team to be successful.  During the course of the year, you have lots of challenges. How you react and how you deal with the challenges will define your leadership.

Some people misread confidence for being cocky or over-confident.  If you have a clear sense of who you are and what your strengths are your leadership potential is unlimited.

On page 41 in Jeff Janssen's The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual there are four questions.

                1)      How comfortable are you with yourself and who you are as a person?

                2)      How much importance do you put on what others think of you?

                3)      What do you stand for? What are you all about?

                4)      Can you do/say what is right even though it might go against the crowd?

It takes a bit of maturity to answer these questions honestly.  Take some time this week to consider your answers.

If you are not feeling as confident as you would like, what can you do about it?

(If you do not have the book - here is the link to get it...

http://www.janssensportsleadership.com/resources/leadership-for-captains/)

Jeff Janssen provides a Strengthening Your Confidence Worksheet on page 44 of the manual.  Take some time to do this exercise.  Remember - it is your preparation, your strengths and your past successes that help build your confidence.  But here is something that really hit home with me - you can build your confidence by building up your teammates.  Praise your teammates when they are doing the right things in practice, in games, in the locker room, in study hall, in class, everywhere!

Be positive, Be Supportive, Be firm!

Confidence is contagious and it helps your build up the ability to recover quickly when things don’t go as planned (some people call them failures; I like to call them teachable moments!)

Remember that teachable moments are Temporary, Localized and Changeable!

Spend some time reviewing the manual and take chapter three really to heart. 

It will have a super-positive impact on you and your team and as this poem states – confidence is a single ember deep within you.  Have a great week!

The Fire Inside

by Anonymous

When all is lost and hope has fled When fear is strong and strength is dead When love and joy abandon you When mental anguish grows in you When the last of efforts fail to save When your fate is ill, your mind enslaved And when your head hangs low in misery This is when you'll find the key A single ember from deep within Burns hotter and hotter, as flames begin The fire of truth will light the way And help you fight, this lonely day The battle is long, the struggle is rough Never regret not giving enough For when we offer our very best, Our very soul is put to the test Stand tall and true and you'll prevail Just hold on tight and never bail You will survive if you don't quit Victory is there, if you reach for it One day in the future, you will look to the past, And know you had what it takes to last So never give up and good things will come, Not just honor and pride, but a job well done.

Congratulations Coach McClure

For years and years, Loyola tennis has had a couple constants:  Not the best facility to play their matches and Coach McClure.  One of those things is about to change and it isn't Coach McClure...

Visit the Loyola website for more information about the new tennis facility, which will be named in honor of Coach McClure.

$3.2 Million Gift To Fund Tennis Center In McClure's Honor

Here is a link also to the history and records for the Loyola Tennis program.

Go Hounds and congratulations coach!

Are parents setting their kids up for failure?

I have been doing some reading the past few months about the generation of students that currently in college or will be in college shortly.  There was a story on Washington Post that if you are a parent of a college aged student - you have to read.

How helicopter parents are ruining college students

I think you will enjoy it... Dave

A Salute to Joe Artuso

Best wishes to my friend and long time co-worker Joe Artuso...

The following is from the Loyola University Greyhounds website -

Aug. 21, 2014 BALTIMORE - Joe Artuso, Loyola University Maryland's Assistant Athletic Director/Director of Sports Medicine announced this week his intentions to retire after 28 years at the Charles Street school to spend more time with his family.

Artuso, who joined the Greyhounds' staff in January 1986, was hired as the school's Head Athletic Trainer and was promoted to Director of Sports Medicine in 2003.

"We are very grateful to Joe for the care that he has shown to a generation of Loyola student-athletes," said Jim Paquette, the University's assistant vice president and director of athletics. "Joe has always had the health and well-being of our teams first in his mind, and he has been a very important part of our success. Joe built the sports medicine department at Loyola and helped design a state-of-the-art athletic training facility at Ridley Athletic Complex."

In recent years, Artuso worked closely with the Loyola men's lacrosse program and was an integral part of the Greyhounds' 2012 NCAA Championship.

Artuso came to Loyola after spending the previous three years at the U.S. Military Academy. A graduate of SUNY-Cortland, Artuso was also the head athletic trainer at Tomkins-Cortland Community College and Moniteau High School in West Sunbury, Pennsylvania, while he completed studies for his master's degree at Slippery Rock University. He also served as an athletic trainer for the Rutgers' University football team prior to moving to West Point.

A national search for his successor will begin immediately.

Dealing with the Stress of News

There is so much going on the world everyday.  From the wars in the middle east and eastern Europe. From planes getting shot down or just disappearing.  For the average joe sitting at home watching this unfold it can be overwhelming.  What are some strategies to deal with the world's unrest?  Some people just do not watch the news or read certain parts of the newspaper.  This does keep the unrest at a distance, but it also leaves you uninformed.  How should you get the message delivered? Twitter feed? Facebook updates?  All of the news that is out there is also now not just reported upon, it is opinionatedly delivered via the left and the right.  The news is a political tool that is used to sway the under-informed.

Suggestions are welcome for the most non-opinionated news sources.

Where do you get your news?

Let me know... thanks for your point of view.

Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy Wrap Up Dinner

A group of 50 Loyola University Maryland Student-Athletes gathered to share a meal and some conversation about being leaders and to share what leadership means to each of them. 

Before the dinner began, the student-athletes took a moment of silent reflection to collect their thoughts following another busy weekend. 
The group considered this quote from Albert Camus– Life is the sum of all your choices.

As an icebreaker, the student-athletes talked to at their table about the following from the leadership perspective – Who Am I? (Am I a leader?) Why Am I Here? (Someone thinks I am a leader, Do I lead every day?) Where Am I Going? (Am I leading people in the right Direction?)

They then enjoyed a nice meal and more conversation about the role of self in leadership. 

As the meal was wrapping up, the conversation continued and moved into a discussion of “The Total Package.”

The question of “Are You the Total Package?” was presented and framed in the “Life is the sum of all your choices.”  The group talked about leadership and how leading by example in the areas of Athletics, Academics,  Spiritual, Social  and Service helps each student-athlete create a culture of winning and a culture of commitment.  

The first are that was considered was where each student-athlete currently stands in each of these areas and how this impacts their commitment level on a daily basis. They then took some time to share with their table some of individual thoughts.

In the future The Leadership Academy will continue with 3 sections – Emerging Leaders, Veteran Leaders and Leadership 360.  The student-athletes gathered with their teammates for the final discussion and they thought of other teammates, both current first year student and others that you see has real leadership potential. These recommendations will help select the next group to be part of the Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy. 

Finally as they were gathered with teammates they talked about how leadership can help propel your teams to even more success.
Loyola University Maryland has made a big commitment to provide leadership development training to our student-athletes.  This dinner was the culmination of the first full year of the Academy and the student-athletes that were in attendance all highly praised the program and look forward to being part of it in the next academic year.

visit here to see some pictures of the event - https://plus.google.com/106554644781305721427/posts/MVjn7pgqFDz

Loyola Greyhound Leadership Academy Thursday Email - Conflict Resolution

Hello and welcome to the Loyola Greyhound Leadership Academy Thursday Email


In Chapter 10 of The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual, there are two things I wanted to share that are vital for your team’s success.

They are - Six Steps for Resolving Conflicts and Ten Tips for Constructive Conflict.

 In this week’s email, let’s take a look at the six steps for resolving conflict.

Many times having a framework to have a discussion helps move things along and sets up a method to get through difficult times.

Jeff Janssen lays out the following six steps for resolving conflict –

1) Define the problem
2) Brainstorm possible solutions
3) Evaluate the possible solutions
4) Decide on a solution
5) Implement the solution
6) Evaluate the success of the solution

Before you can resolve a problem, you really need to understand or define what the problem or conflict is. Many times things bubble under the surface only to rear themselves usually at hard times during the season. Maybe it appears or intensifies after a difficult loss or after some negative that might have happened off the field.

By defining the problem and really making sure everyone knows about it and how it has manifested itself in the locker room or in practice is the first step to getting to the solution. And you will learn that as a leader defining and dealing with problems comes with the mantle of leadership.

Leaders build consensus.

By getting people to brainstorm, evaluate and decide on possible solutions to the problem, you as a leader help to get your teammates bought into the solution and its implementation. Sometimes this implementation of the solution is where the leader really earns the respect of teammates and coaches. Being a leader means you make tough decisions and you have to back the decisions up with action. An after the solution is implemented to bring this process full circle, you need to review the solution and determine if it was the right decision.

This is analogous to watching game film, how did that new play work?

There are many levels of conflict and the best way to deal with them is to not let them fester and grow. Leaders need to recognize when there are issues that need to be dealt with and they need to act to resolve the issues.

There are many times that the leader does this without having to go to the next level. Has your coach given you the ability to deal with conflict? Talk to your coach about this and see what ideas they have. 

Thanks for reading the Leadership Email - Have a great evening… https://plus.google.com/106554644781305721427/posts/eFG4kCefm6W

Loyola Greyhound Leadership Academy - Be Excellent

Good Afternoon Loyola Greyhound Leadership Academy – I returned yesterday from a trip to the United States Naval Academy. I had the pleasure of attending the USNA Leadership Conference with two student-athletes: Anna Bosse (Track and Cross Country), and Andrew McGill (Men’s Golf), and two student interns from Campus Ministry: Christin Campbell and Ed Ortiz. (If you bump into them ask them about the conference!) There were 220 student leaders from over 60 schools. There were regular students, ROTC members, Midshipmen and Cadets from military academies and also student-athletes. The theme of the conference was Followership: The Evolution of a Leader. I wanted to share just a couple highlights from the event and will share some more in the future. The conference featured talks by former Vice President Dick Cheney, current VP for US Public Policy for Facebook Joel Kaplan, Lieutenant General Sattler of the USMC, Astronaut Chris Cassidy, and many more. It was amazing and the takeaways were numerous. The first talk that I want to tell you all about was by Captain Will Byrne, Commandant of Midshipmen at the USNA. He is the Dean of Students at USNA. He shared a couple simple messages that when you take a look at it a few times, you will smile and say I can do that. He started by talking about a book that has all the secrets of life – All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. The following is from that book- “These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten): 1. Share everything. 2. Play fair. 3. Don't hit people. 4. Put things back where you found them. 5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS. 6. Don't take things that aren't yours. 7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody. 8. Wash your hands before you eat. 9. Flush. 10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. 11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work every day some. 12. Take a nap every afternoon. 13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. 14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. 15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we. 16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first worked you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.” It is so simple but so true. His other point shared with us was based upon what he says to the new midshipmen when they arrive in Annapolis. “Be Excellent.” That is it. Be Excellent. He did expand to add the following – Be Excellent – to yourself Be Excellent – to each other Be Excellent – to this place He went on about each area briefly as well. Be Excellent – To yourself - eat right, work out, study, tell the truth, know the rules To each other – be a good listener, share your time, be an active bystander To this place – take care of your school, your dorm room, your locker room, etc. These are two simple points to share with your teammates. Thanks for taking the time to read this and please touch base if you have any questions. David Gerrity

Thursday Loyola Leadership Academy Email

In honor of Throwback Thursday, here is a look at some of the basics with the Team Captain’s Leadership Model. Do you remember way back in the first chapter of The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual? Jeff Janssen lays out how you can break leadership down into two areas – Lead by Example and Vocal Leader. Leading by example, although tough at times, is really about pushing yourself. It is about your commitment, your confidence, your composure and your character. If you push yourself every day to be the best student-athlete you can be even when times are tough, you are leading by example. Leading by example is extremely important for the team to be successful. By setting the bar high in all areas - academically, athletically and socially – you are saying “I am a leader and I want my teammates to follow my example.” Leading by example can have a powerful impact on the team, especially when that team has most of the members “on board” or as Janssen says “committed or compelled!” Your leadership by example pushes members of your team who are compliant and existent. But this can only go so far and this is where Vocal Leadership kicks in. There are two types of vocal leaders – The Encourager and The Enforcer. Read the start of section 2 in the leadership manual pages 73-76, it will give you a really nice introduction to vocal leadership. Think about your team and make a list of teammates who are the encouragers and the enforcers. Both are vital to your team’s success. Now that you have that list, ask yourself another question – “How did these people become the vocal leaders on my team?” Many times it is people who are extroverted and outgoing who do not mind stepping out in front and communicating the team’s vision. Many times the vocal leaders are seniors on the team and this is great but this sometimes will stifle younger players who are worried about stepping on the toes of their older teammates. This is where communication is key – if you are an older member of the team try to nurture the younger players’ leadership – give them the opportunity to speak up too. If you are a younger member of the team, talk to the vocal leaders and see how you can be a part of the leadership team. Janssen says it best – “Remember your team must have one person who is willing to step outside of themselves to be a vocal Leader. Are you that person?” Thanks to Jeff Janssen and The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual. Pages 16, 73-76.