RingoI’m heading off for vacation and still getting some of the previous pieces I have drafted up edited. I’d like to go more in depth about my thoughts on coaching vs captaining, leadership on and off the field, the different requirements between building a strong team and building a strong overall organization/chapter/club/gym, but for now I just want to talk about some positive leadership traits. In general my talks about leaders in the sport tend to be negative and full of criticism. This could just be because I’m a sad sally who loves to complain or it could be reflective of our culture and the numerous challenges and battles over leading that we have seen in the short decade this has been a sport. Either way, I want highlight the things I’ve seen and continue to see work, instead of bitching for once.
It should not be a surprise that a lot of the techniques or traits that create good leaders in other context are important in steel. Being willing to take responsibility for failure and to celebrate the success of the team and the members under them is a huge one. Those traits, Extreme Self Ownership to quote Jocko and Lief, are the most important to me. They play into some other very important ones. The idea of servant leader is also huge, the coach who does everything they can to facilitate what the team/club wants and puts the teams interests first. Owning their own training and fitness is also huge, being able and willing to put themselves through the same suffering they ask of the team, not just on the field, but in preparing to take the field.
Perhaps the most important though is the desire and followthrough on building deliberate culture. Lillis talked a bit with me about this in our conversation on clubs (which you can find on my YouTube if you back my Patreon) highlighting her attempts, with Hannah, to deliberately build a culture of openness and ownership, of support instead of pressure, of unity instead of individual ambition, and how they started from day one of building a team of trying to cut out the drama, politics, and back biting, that comes when people put pride above performance.
Becoming a good leader in this sport does means being willing to put your body on the line in my opinion, but being good at fighting is no where near enough. Understanding fight tactics is also not nearly as important as being able to bring a team together. Knowing how to teach techniques is not as important as knowing how to push fighters, without breaking them. You have to know how to be soft, and supportive and cuddling.
You also have to be hard. You cannot push people to excel without being willing to create stratification. You need to put some fighters above others and in some points leave others behind. A practice for the top end will not be helpful for those just starting. And likewise while you should not be a drill sergeant running PT to any new person walking in the door, you shouldn’t let those on the top team, that have willingly committed to putting in the work, quit when you know they have more in them. Shame is usually a terrible motivation tool, but when people have bought it, when you know how to use it, it is perfect.
Being a good leader in this game is tough. It’s an art no one has mastered yet I think. So much of our culture demands they have a level of in kit performance and I do not believe that is a bad thing in and of itself. But also we come from so many diverse backgrounds and have so many diverse goals, building a team requires learning how to motivate and bring together many different types. It means learning to cater to the needs of the top level athlete who wants to be pushed to the edge for breaking and held there. It also means getting the person who just wants some back yard fighting up the level of competence where they can have fun AND BE SAFE! It means learning how to balance these two together in the same training space and sometimes on the same list field. It is no easy job and I’m glad I no longer have it.
Sorry if this got ranty at the end. Planning on turning off internet for perhaps the whole week I’m up here and mostly reflecting on not having to deal with those issues while I’m away. It’s nice to get a break, but I think it means my mind is not really as focused. So I hope something in there made some kind of sense, and if not, I will probably have a lot more to say on these topics and those words will be a lot more refined, with my thesis better defined and explored. See you all in the lists when I get back