What is a leader? Before taking this class I didn't have background information to help me answer this question. 6 months ago I probably would have said that a leader was somebody who could lead a group of people to success. But now I understand that leaders are all different types of people and exist in every environment. Being on the GBN Varsity Swim Team, the leaders on our team are the captains. The captains on my team have such a big impact on everyone and are involved in every aspect of what a team is. Planning team bonding activities, choosing team suits, helping teammates through hard times, making rosters, being mediators, and communicating needs between the team and coach plus many more are all things that captains do. Captains are such good leaders because they do all of this without anybody really even noticing that all of this is going on. I believe in order to be a good leader on a team you need to be able to be proactive and understand that becoming a captain you are putting the team before yourself now. This can be hard for some people making it very hard to find a good enough leader to take on the role of a captain of a team.
Captains need to be proactive because nobody is ever 100% sure how things are going to end. During the fall, I had 21 girls on my team and it felt that somebody was always going through something whether it be bad grades or family problems. Captains have to be able to communicate with our coach to tell him what is going on and what needs to happen in order to make the best out of a situation. Because they know that anything can happen, they must prepare for future problems. Captains are great leaders because they need to synergize with each other and our coach to do something that will be the best for the majority of the team. This can be very hard to do because captains are typically seniors and they are still pretty young and end up making big decisions that will affect everyone. Effective leaders provide the vision and motivation to the team so everybody can work together toward the same goals.
To be a good leader you need to have self awareness and work with your other captains which can be hard for some people. It is critical for the captains to be on the same page because they are leading everyone. Captains have to be good at understanding their weaknesses and trying to improve them. For example one captain may be better at communicating with the team while the other captain may be better at communicating with our coach. These captains need to have self awareness to understand what they are good at individually to then work together to create a strong communication team.
The captains need to carry the vision out of the team. Everybody has different goals and different meets they would be swimming at for their final meet of the season like JV conference, Varsity conference, Sectionals, and State. Although it is very important for the entire team to have a great final meet regardless what meet it is, the most important meet is State. The captains have a hard job of creating an atmosphere to show to everyone that they are important and their final meet is also but, they also have to put the message out there about State and how GBN should be represented. This is a reason why it is important to have a captain that will be going to State so they understand what is also best for the most elite group of people on the team because ultimately they are who people see at State. This can be hard when a captain is not going to state because then they have to make decisions that is putting other people in front of yourself. Since many people who are captains do not go to state it is very important for these people to have the ability to put other people in front of themselves without it affecting them too much.
Lastly the captains are kind of like the middle men of the team between our coach and the rest of us they have more power than just a regular member of the team but they don’t have as much power as our coach. To be a good captain they need to know the difference between power and authority. Many times our coach gives the captain's power to make decisions and speak for him but the captains cannot abuse this and turn it into authority. Power is coming from the person who has authority and is respected from that and a captain needs to know the difference between these and to not cross the line and become to authoritative. A captain at most has a 4 year age gap between the youngest person on the team and if a captain became more of an authority, it would defeat the purpose of having a coach and captain separate.
To be a captain you have to be good at so many things and have very few weaknesses. Captains cannot be shy and are going to have to put the team before themselves. Many people are not capable to be a captain because of the dedication the role takes. It is very hard to find a good captain that is good for the entire team and enjoys doing what they do. I believe that captains need to be dedicated, willing to put the team in front of themselves and be able to communicate extremely well to be a good leader.
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