My past as a competitive soccer player has given me the opportunity to be both a leader and a follower within a team. As I was just beginning my soccer career, I looked to my teammates to guide me and to help me develop into a stronger player so I could be a more valuable asset to our team. From these teammates who were leaders to me, I have been able to identify and develop the skills necessary to lead a team effectively.
The ability to make decisions decisively has shown to be so important in order to lead a team effectively. The decisions a leader makes ultimately reflects the decisions of the team so it is very important to have the ability to know how to make a decision that will benefit your team’s success. As a soccer player, you constantly need to make decisions quickly and correctly. Who to pass the ball to and whether to take a shot or not are common decisions a soccer player needs to make throughout a game. One bad pass or one bad step could result in the other team scoring a goal, so every decision needs to be made with precision. As a leader, your decisions are put under a microscope. As the captain of my soccer team, if I were to make the decision to pass the ball to the center of the field when I was near our defending goal, that not only puts my team at risk to get scored on but my teammates will most likely see my decision as acceptable and imitate it in the future.
As a leader, and specifically as the captain of a soccer team, the ability to motivate others is another extremely important skill to posses and practice in order to achieve leader effectiveness. One thing I have learned from soccer games played against tough competition is that if one person begins to slack off, it will definitely affect the team in a negative way and may result in others starting to slack off too. It’s so crucial to always be motivating your teammates to keep going and to try their best. I have seen games where one team was winning by 5 points and began to loose motivation and slack off, which usually resulted in the opposing team to make a huge come back because their motivation was still at a high level. Often times the team that started out ahead but then lost motivation, ended up loosing the game. I have countless memories of teammates getting tired and loosing motivation to sprint to the ball which always ended up producing a less effective result than if they would have kept their motivation level high. As a team captain, what I have learned is to always stay motivated and always help others stay motivated. If teammates saw me loosing motivation during a game, there would be a domino effect resulting in an unmotivated team rather than just one unmotivated person.
Strong communication skills are another vital characteristic I have needed to posses in my soccer career. Before I was a captain, the importance of communication was always being stressed to me. As I began to use it, I realized my ability as a player was getting much better. People started passing the ball to me more because they knew where I was on the field and if I was open or not, which resulted in more opportunities for me to score a goal or show off my skills as a soccer player. As a leader, my communication skills became even more vital. I still needed to communicate to my teammates where I was on the field but it also became my duty to communicate to my team what plays we were going to do and what we should do in order to win.
Being a captain of a soccer team has taught me to see things as a whole rather than focusing just on parts. You can’t win a game if you only focus on one part of the field. It is vital that you can see and utilize the entire field in order to be successful. I used my communication skills to motivate my teammates and communicate decisions and help my teammates make decisions on the field. I believe these three skills are main components of an effective leader in any setting.
As a leader, and specifically as the captain of a soccer team, the ability to motivate others is another extremely important skill to posses and practice in order to achieve leader effectiveness. One thing I have learned from soccer games played against tough competition is that if one person begins to slack off, it will definitely affect the team in a negative way and may result in others starting to slack off too. It’s so crucial to always be motivating your teammates to keep going and to try their best. I have seen games where one team was winning by 5 points and began to loose motivation and slack off, which usually resulted in the opposing team to make a huge come back because their motivation was still at a high level. Often times the team that started out ahead but then lost motivation, ended up loosing the game. I have countless memories of teammates getting tired and loosing motivation to sprint to the ball which always ended up producing a less effective result than if they would have kept their motivation level high. As a team captain, what I have learned is to always stay motivated and always help others stay motivated. If teammates saw me loosing motivation during a game, there would be a domino effect resulting in an unmotivated team rather than just one unmotivated person.
Strong communication skills are another vital characteristic I have needed to posses in my soccer career. Before I was a captain, the importance of communication was always being stressed to me. As I began to use it, I realized my ability as a player was getting much better. People started passing the ball to me more because they knew where I was on the field and if I was open or not, which resulted in more opportunities for me to score a goal or show off my skills as a soccer player. As a leader, my communication skills became even more vital. I still needed to communicate to my teammates where I was on the field but it also became my duty to communicate to my team what plays we were going to do and what we should do in order to win.
Being a captain of a soccer team has taught me to see things as a whole rather than focusing just on parts. You can’t win a game if you only focus on one part of the field. It is vital that you can see and utilize the entire field in order to be successful. I used my communication skills to motivate my teammates and communicate decisions and help my teammates make decisions on the field. I believe these three skills are main components of an effective leader in any setting.