KEPIMPINAN adalah faktor yang penting dalam sukan.

Ia terlalu penting sehingga

kadangkala tokoh yang sama menyandang jawatan di beberapa persatuan berlainan. Ini kerana
tokoh berkenaan amat sesuai bagi sukan-sukan yang diterajuinya selain faktor kemampuannya
sebagai pemimpin sukan. Pada suatu ketika lalu, kepimpinan dalam sukan sering menjadi isu
apabila ada pihak-pihak yang menentang pelantikan ahli politik untuk mengetuai mana-mana
persatuan. Alasannya supaya tokoh berkenaan tidak menjadikan persatuan tersebut medan
perjuangan agenda politiknya. Begitu juga, pernah ada pihak-pihak yang menyuarakan
kebimbangan terhadap pihak istana mencampuri urusan persatuan-persatuan sukan, sama ada
di peringkat nasional mahupun di negeri. Namun keadaan sudah berubah sekarang. Tidak ada
perebutan bagi jawatan-jawatan utama dalam kebanyakan persatuan sukan kerana bukan
mudah memimpin sebuah persatuan sukan dan adalah sukar menjadi pemimpin yang boleh
diterima oleh pegawai, atlet dan peminat. Ini menyebabkan tokoh yang sudah bersara atau
meninggalkan sesuatu persatuan atas sebab-sebab tertentu sering menjadi pilihan untuk
menerajui semula persatuan berkenaan, jika berlaku kekosongan.
Sementara itu dari aspek gaya kepimpinan pula, jurulatih yang berkesan pasti berjaya
mempengaruhi suasana dan sikap atlet terhadap beban tugas dan tanggungjawab yang
diberikan. Secara tidak langsung ini dapat meningkatkan lagi kepuasan dan prestasi atlet
sendiri. Situasi ini berlaku kerana adanya interaksi antara jurulatih dengan atlet. Menurut Fouss
dan Troppman (1981), interaksi antara jurulatih dan atlet merupakan kriteria yang penting dalam
menentukan keberkesanan sesuatu program latihan. Gaya kepimpinan seseorang jurulatih atau
pengurus
pasukan ketika berinteraksi dengan atlet semasa mengurus program latihan, sama ada ketika
offsite competition atau onsite competition memberi kesan terdapat atlet. Kesan yang diperoleh
atlet adalah berkadar terus iaitu jika wujud hubungan yang positif dari aspek interaksi antara
keperluan dan kehendak jurulatih, pengurus pasukan dengan atlet, maka kepuasan serta
prestasi
akan meningkat, atlet akan mencapai kejayaan. Proses interaksi antara jurulatih dengan atlet
adalah satu komponen yang sangat penting untuk meningkatkan prestasi dan kepuasan
seseorang
atlet (Gibbons, McConnell, Forster, Riewald, & Peterson (2003); Frontiera (2006) dan Serpa,
Pataco, & Santos; 1991). Menurut Mallet (2003), jurulatih memainkan peranan yang sangat
penting dalam melahirkan atlet-atlet dengan kemahiran dan pengetahuan yang diperlukan bagi
meningkat prestasi atlet dalam sukan yang mereka ceburi. Jurulatih juga mempunyai pengaruh
yang sangat besar dalam mewujudkan keseronokan dan kepuasan serta penyertaan berterusan
atlet.

Gaya Kepimpinan Jurulatih Kepuasan Atlet

Dimensi Latihan dan Arahan
Dimensi Demokratik
Dimensi Autokratik
Dimensi Sokongan Sosial
Dimensi ganjaran
Terry (1984) dalam kajiannya yang juga menjalankan kajian jenis sukan individu dan
berpasukan mendapati atlet-atlet yang menyertai sukan berpasukan lebih menggemari gaya
kepimpinan latihan dan arahan, demokratik dan ganjaran.
Dari segi perbezaan jantina pula, kajian menunjukkan terdapat perbezaan yang
signifikan dalam kegemaran lelaki dan perempuan pada gaya kepimpinan jurulatih dalam
dimensi demokratik, autokratik dan ganjaran, P<0.05. Hasil kajian menunjukkan atlet lelaki lebih
meminati gaya kepimpinan autokratik berbanding atlet perempuan, manakala atlet perempuan
pula lebih meminati gaya kepimpinan demokratik. Hasil dari kajian tersebut juga didapati atlet
lelaki lebih meminati corak kepimpinan ganjaran berbanding atlet perempuan. Dapatan kajian
ini telah menyokong kajian terdahulu yang dijalankan oleh Chelladurai dan Arnott (1985) yang
mendapati atlet lelaki lebih menggemari gaya kepimpinan autokratik manakala atlet perempuan
pula lebih menggemari gaya kepimpinan demokratik. Selain daripada itu, kajian yang dijalankan
oleh Chelladurai el al. (1988) juga mendapati atlet wanita lebih menyukai jurulatih yang
memberi sokongan sosial dan demokratik sementara atlet lelaki pula lebih menyukai jurulatih
yang bersikap memberi sokongan sosial dan autokratik. Keadaan ini mungkin disebabkan atlet
perempuan secara semulajadinya lebih suka kepada cara yang demokratik berbanding atlet
lelaki yang lebih suka kepada corak autokratik. Sehubungan ilu, dapat disimpulkan bahawa
secara umumnya kajian yang telah dijalankan ini menyokong kajian lepas walaupun umur dan
tahap kematangan sampel berbeza dengan kajian yang dijalankan sekarang.
Sementara itu, kajian Shaharudin (2004) mendapati alet muda lebih menggemari gaya
kepimpinan jurulatih jenis latihan dan arahan serta sosial. Dapatan kajian ini tidak menyokong
kajian Shaharudin. Ini mungkin kerana lempoh penglibatan atlet bersamajurulatih dan ahli
pasukan adalah singkat. Di samping itu, kebanyakan pasukan sekolah menggalakkan atlet
berlatih sendiri semasa latihan pusat dijalankan. Oleh itu. pergaulan sesama atlet dan juga atlet
dengan jurulatih adalah terhad dan menyebabkan mereka tidak memahami gaya kepimpinan
yang ditunjukkan oleh jurulatih.

A good sports leader can direct certain sporting situations or sports sessions to help guide and
motivate groups of people on skills, regulations and health and safety for example. Sports
leadership is how a sports leader achieves their aims of a session or competition. Successful
sports leaders combine good performance and leadership skills. This helps achieve both
personal and team goals. Sports leaders possess common factors as well as specifi c skills and
qualities that make them successful in sporting situations. A good sports leader will show
leadership qualities through their planning, delivery and evaluation of each sports session.
The Five Components of Excellence in Sports
In order to perform at a level of excellence in sports, one must have five components working
for them in tandem:
Information
Motivation
Proper equipment
Fitness
Skills.

Leadershipandtheroleofaleaderinsports
Successful teams have strong leaders and the importance of this role is evident in all categories
of sports. The performance of a leader is very clear in interactive games and during matches.
Although less obvious in co-active situations, the leaders contribution to the effectiveness of a
teams performance is also influential.
Leadership maybe considered as a behavioural process that influences individuals and groups
towards set goals. As such, a leader has the dual function of ensuring player satisfaction while
steering the individual or group to success.
The qualities of an effective leader:

There are three traditional types of leadership used in sports varying from an amateur level up
to the elite level. Many coaches across team or individual sports will have characteristics from
one of these styles if not all.
1)

Autocratic Leaders

2)

Democratic Leaders

3)

Laissez-Faire Leaders
Firstly, the Autocratic style of leadership tends to make all the decisions and is motivated

to complete the task as quickly and effectively as possible. This leadership style is authoritarian
and does not take into account the opinions or preferences of the group. The autocratic leader
will not delegate responsibility and focuses on group performance and achieving groups. This
style would be most effective when quick decisions are needed for large groups/teams i.e.
whole team warm up session, when groups are hostile and discipline is needed, in the cognitive
stages of learning (Beginners).
Secondly, the Democratic style of leadership tends to share the decisions with the group
and is often ready to delegate responsibility. This type of leadership believes in consultation and
is interested in developing meaningful interpersonal relationships within the team. The belief is
that is that by giving ownership of the task to each individual, the group will work harder,

developing unity and a common purpose. This style would be effective in a co-active game or
when time constraints are not as exacting , personal support may be required , if groups are
small and when in the autonomous stages of learning has been achieved (elite level).
Thirdly, the laissez faire style, the leader will stand aside and allow the group to make
its own independent decisions. This style can happen automatically and will result in a loss of
group direction if the leader is inadequate. Lewin (1985) found that when subjected to this style
of leadership, group members were inclined to be aggressive towards each other and gave up
easily when mistakes occur.
The characteristics adopted by the leader depends fundamentally upon the favourableness of
the situation. As is seen in the table below, the most successful teams will have a strong leader,
the task is clear and understood by the players and there is a positive relationship between
leader and players.

Going back to the leadership styles, an autocratic leader will be most effective in both the most
favourable and least favourable situations, whereas a democratic leader will be most effective in
moderately favourable situations.
From reading this article, you should understand how an important role leadership plays in
sports, the different types of leadership and how each is suitable to different demands and
situations. Above all, that question everyone thinks about, how to be an effective leader.
Successful coaches ranging from Sir Alex Ferguson to Warren Gatland , use all the three styles
of leadership within their role , switching from one to the other depending on the situational
need.

THE 5 KINDS OF LEADERS EVERY TEAM NEEDS TO BE SUCCESSFUL

Your leaders are absolutely critical to your success for a variety of reasons. Finding and
developing just one effective leader can be challenging enough for most teams. However, in
actuality, you really need 5 kinds of leaders if your program is going to be successful on and off
the playing field.

The 5 Kinds of Leaders Every Team Needs to Be Successful include:

1. Performance Leaders (Competition Captains)
2. Locker Room Leaders (Culture Captains)
3. Social Leaders (Chemistry Captains)
4. Organizational Leaders (Campus Captains)
5. Reserve Leaders (Sub Captains)
While some of the five leadership functions can overlap and be fulfilled by the same person,
each of them has a slightly different skill set and impact on your team. Lets take an in-depth
look at each of the five kinds of leadership.
1. PERFORMANCE LEADERS (COMPETITION CAPTAINS)
Performance Leaders are your primary on field/court leaders.They take charge of your
team in practice and competitive settings to focus people and keep them on task. As
Competition Captains, they provide the strong vocal leadership necessary to help your team
perform to its potential during practices and certainly come game day.
Your Performance Leaders need to be highly results-oriented. They set the tone with their
own strong example and work ethic and make sure their teammates play with a high level of
intensity and accountability. Your Performance Leaders are typically your most committed and
competitive athletes on the team. Because they tend to have a certain edge about them, they
raise the level of play of everyone around them. They are serious about success and very
motivated to accomplish something special with your program.

Carolina womens soccer coach Anson Dorrance says, The most attractive type of leadership
to me is the student-athlete who is a coach on the field. I want a driving verbal force who wont
let standards slip. Thats how teams with ordinary talent can win championships. Without
leadership, even a team with great talent will struggle to become a champion.
Unfortunately, many teams lack a strong vocal Performance Leader. Some athletes shy away
from this role because they lack confidence in their leadership skills. They dont demand enough
from their teammates because they worry too much about what others think of them. This lack
of leadership then puts the onus on the coaching staff to continually set the tone rather than the
athletes stepping up and taking responsibility and ownership of it themselves. Worse, when the
team struggles in competition, no Performance Leaders step up to calm and refocus the team to
get them back on track. The team often crumbles when adversity hits because they lack
Competition Captains.
2. LOCKER ROOM LEADERS (CULTURE CAPTAINS)
Arkansas pitching coach Dave Jorn says, "A lot of your success and failure is going on in the
locker room. Your leaders are key to managing the locker room." Detroit Red Wings assistant
coach Tom Renney echoes his statement when he says, If you don't have good people, first
and foremost, in your dressing room, it will be a long season.
Locker Room Leaders serve as the critical creators, champions, and caretakers of your
teams culture. Through their words and deeds on a daily basis, trusted Locker Room Leaders
mold, monitor, and maintain your teams culture into one that is positive and productive for your
program. In their role as Culture Captains, they determine and dictate what is acceptable and
unacceptable to do in your program, both on and off the field/court/track/etc.
Effective Locker Room Leaders take pride in your programs culture and do everything
they can to enhance, protect, and preserve it. If someone acts in a way that is outside of
what is considered appropriate, the Locker Room Leaders will step in and set the person
straight. They willingly and quickly confront those who do not act in a way that is aligned with
your programs vision, values, and standards. Often, youll find that effective Locker Room
Leaders contribute more to your programs success with their leadership than they do with their
individual physical talent.
It is critical that the coaching staff and the Locker Room Leaders are on the same page
and support and defend each other. Following a tough practice or frustrating loss, the locker

room is often filled with upset individuals, disgruntled subs, critical comments, and seeds of
dissension. It is during these times especially when your Locker Room Leaders need to step up,
be vocal, and keep the team positive and productive. They need to constructively confront the
snipers and gripers on the team so that they dont infect the fence-sitters. Left unchecked, these
pessimistic attitudes and negative comments corrode your teams culture and chemistry.
Destructive Locker Room Leaders are better described as Ring Leaders. They are not
bought in to the vision, values, and standards of the positive team leaders and coaching staff
and often have their own stubborn way of doing things. They stir up problems, cause instead of
quell drama, and instigate issues in hopes of bringing everyone to their side. They often disdain
and undermine the coaches and sometimes mutinously attempt to orchestrate an ouster of the
staff.
Usually your productive Locker Room Leaders are the more senior and veteran athletes on your
team who are extra invested in your programs success because they see that their time left to
accomplish something special is fleeting. Their advanced age often provides them with a
greater level of maturity as well, so they have less tolerance for the shenanigans that could
distract, disrupt, and destroy your team. There is often some overlap with the Performance
Leadership role as well.
Who are the Locker Room Leaders on your team? Are they positive leaders or negative
Ring Leaders for your team? How well are they fulfilling their role on a 1-10 scale?

3. SOCIAL LEADERS (CHEMISTRY CAPTAINS)

Your Social Leaders lead the charge on building and maintaining your teams
chemistry, hence the term Chemistry Captains. They focus on the relationships of your team
and how well people bond together. They look to connect with teammates on a regular basis
and often plan various social events to get everyone to get to know each other at a deeper level,
especially outside of your sport.
Effective Social Leaders intentionally build strong relationships with the various
subgroups on your team. Subgroups occur naturally within a team based on positions, year in
school, hometowns, race, etc. Good Social Leaders are able to move in and out of each of the
subgroups on your team. In this way they are the glue that bonds the various subgroups
together, rather than allowing them to be exclusive and destructive cliques.

Destructive Social Leaders often create and promote contentious cliques, where certain
segments of your team covertly battle each other, sometimes more intensely than they do your
opponents. Further, destructive Social Leaders make your teams social life THE priority. While
people might get along and have a good time at the parties they plan and host, your teams
success and reputation typically nose dive.
Who are the Social Leaders on your team? How well are they fulfilling their role on a 1-10
scale?

4. ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERS (CAMPUS CAPTAINS)

Organizational Leaders get involved in the various clubs and organizations on
campus. They represent your team or athletic department on the Student-Athlete Advisory
Council, student council, and a variety of other campus related organizations. Acting as your
Campus Captains, these leaders keep your team involved and engaged with what is happening
on campus and in the community. They often plan various campus programs and community
service events.
Poor Organizational Leaders miss meetings and/or represent your team in an embarrassing
way in your athletic department. Their apathy and irresponsibility can quickly give your program
a poor reputation among athletic administrators and community leaders.
5. RESERVE LEADERS (SUB CAPTAINS)
Finally, an often-overlooked yet important kind of leader are your Reserve Leaders. Your
Reserve Leaders lead the second and third string athletes on your team. Because they dont
play much or receive much outside attention, your reserves can be a very volatile segment of
your team. Keep this in mind - too many disgruntled subs can torpedo your team.
Baseball manager Casey Stengel once said, The secret of successful managing is to keep the
five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven't made up their minds. Your
Reserve Leaders assist in the process of managing expectations and the frustration that can
arise with limited playing time for your substitutes.
Numbers-wise, your reserves make up a significant portion of your team, comprising sometimes
one third to one half of your total roster. So you need to find a respected leader of your reserves

who can help them understand their important yet limited role and quell any dissension that
might rise up during the course of the season.
Great Reserve Leaders create a sense of pride in their groups unique role. As an
example, the Carolina mens basketball reserves have even named themselves Blue Steel and
have created a cult-like following for their unique contributions to the team. Encourage your
Reserve Leaders to develop a sense of positive pride and perspective with their fellow
substitutes on your team.

SUMMARY
After reading through this article, invest the time to chat with your coaching staff about
each of the 5 kinds of leaders and how they impact your team. Slot your current leaders
into each of the 5 kinds and rate them on a 1-10 scale. If you are like most teams, you will likely
have some strengths but some deficiencies and voids as well. Make a conscious effort to
develop the leadership areas where your team is weak and be sure to praise the effective
leaders who are doing a solid job for you.
Then follow up with the various leaders on your team and express your appreciation for
the important leadership roles they play. Discuss with them the roles and responsibilities of
each kind of leader. Collectively decide which of your leaders will be the primary person(s)
responsible for each role. Be sure they understand what is needed and are committed to
stepping up and fulfilling these important roles for your team. A lot of the leadership roles will fall
to your team captains, but you should be able to allocate some of the Social, Organizational,
and Reserve roles to other leaders on your team.

4 leadership lessons we can learn from sports

I recently watched a high school state track and field championship. At the beginning of the
evening, the excitement among the athletes was palpable. Each athlete and team had such
determination and grit but, of course, not all of them were going to win their races or the
meet.

At the end of the evening, I watched as one coach brought his female and male athletes
together. Some had won their events, others had placed, and others did not. The young women
and men did not win their overall championships, though they came in second and third,
respectively.
It was clear they had wanted to do better. The coach rallied his team in the middle of the track,
with their arms linked around one another, and talked about their journey through the season.
He celebrated their accomplishments as individuals and as a team. After tears, hugs and
laughter, the team walked away from this impressive display of coaching excited to train over
the summer and head into the next season.
Just as teams and athletes lose and move on, we can learn valuable lessons from how coaches
and athletes manage what some might consider failure. Not all teams can be the champions of
their sport there can only be one. Coaches routinely work with athletes to help them manage
failure and rebound to be even better.
Here are some of the best tips I have gleaned from sports that can help employees (athletes)
and managers (coaches) better manage setbacks and failures.
1. Clearly define success.
Dictionaries define failure as a lack of success, but its true definition is personal and
subjective. Amanda Scarborough, ESPN softball analyst and coach, stresses that coaches and
managers must clearly define what constitutes success, mediocrity and failure. Lack of clarity
from the coach about the ultimate goal sends conflicting messages and creates confusion and
insecurity. Good coaches tell and show their players what they expect. Amanda also points out
that winning the game may not be the only definition of success.
Similarly, business managers must clearly define success, failure and mediocrity and outline
specific outcomes and directions. Just as coaches review winning plays and techniques, strong
managers provide examples of successful projects and outcomes, and coach their employees
to the desired outcomes. John Wooden, the famous basketball coach, once said that the
journey (the practice) is better than the end (the game). Woodens philosophy was never to
stress winning; he believed the outcomes would simply be a result of the teams collective
preparation.
2. Fail fast and move on. In his book Players First, University of Kentucky basketball
coach John Calipari stresses the need for players to fail fast so they can learn from their
mistakes, make corrections and move on. He explains that bouncing back faster leads to
success faster. This advice also holds true in the business world. Gail Kelly, the CEO of

Australias secondlargest bank, explains, How are you going to learn and how are you going to
innovate unless you fail? You need to fail fast, quickly, and then get up and off you go again.
Adapting to a rapidlychanging world requires the ability to fail fast, make the necessary
adjustments and move forward with confidence.
Managers can play a valuable role by helping their employees learn how to bounce back.Even
successful companies embrace failures and figure out how to move past them proactively. The
history of business has consistently shown the utility of failure a as springboard to
success. Grey Advertising actively promotes the idea that one must try and often fail in order to
succeed. On its company culture page, Grey highlights the quarterly Heroic Awards, noting
that innovation occurs by embracing the importance of trying, failing, dusting yourself off, and
trying again. The award serves as a strong symbol for employees to know that it is okay to be
imperfect and to keep working toward success.
Similarly, in an October 2013 Forbes article, Halah Touryalai profiled the odyssey of the
Dominos pizza chain, which in 2009 put its CEO in a commercial to distinctively acknowledge
that Dominos pizza did not taste good. Patrick Doyle publicly apologized for Dominos failure to
deliver a quality product and promised to improve the recipe. This risky and honest move paid
off. Dominos 2013 revenue was $1.8 billion, it is growing faster than its competitors and
opening more locations.
3. Recognize when to rally. Don Shula is the all-time winningest coach in the NFL.
Spending 31 years as a pro football coach, he holds the record for most career wins and is the
only coach to have had teams in six Super Bowls. Shula had a 24 hour rule, a policy of looking
forward instead of retreating from the loss. He allowed himself, his coaching staff and his
players only 24 hours to celebrate a victory or wallow over a defeat. During those 24 hours,
Shula encouraged them to feel their emotions of success or failure as deeply as they could. The
next day, it was time to put their focus and energy into preparing for their next challenge.
Like the best coaches, managers should routinely stress to employees that everyone makes
mistakes, and the sooner they accept this fact, the easier it will be to recover. As Margie Warrell
noted in a recent article: If youve made a mistake whether taking the wrong job, or not
delivering the right result, or simply not managing yourself or others as well as youd have liked
the most important thing is never to let it define you.
4. Taking yourself out of the game altogether can be costly. Coaches stress that
players need to have the courage to take the big shot, to reach for the prize instead of giving in
to failure. Research shows that task-focused thinking after failure leads to improved
performance. Self-talk that focuses on correcting errors and attaining goals will motivate you to
keep trying and move on from a setback. The fear of failure can prevent employees from trying

new things and achieving their personal best, so managers can help make it safe for employees
to fail by emphasizing that failure does not define them, and by alleviating their selfdoubt by
encouraging them to try again. As Michael Jordan said, I can accept failure. Everyone fails at
something. But, I cant accept not trying.
Managers must recognize that in business, as in sports, failure is possible and frequent. What
happens afterward is what is important. I offer you these words to live by from coach Tom
Krause, the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul: There are no failures just experiences
and your reactions to them.

The Coach Behind The Longest Winning Streak In Sports History Shows How To Build A
Champion Business Team
Here are three valuable team-building lessons based on the longest winning streak in sports
history.
1) Wins are the result of a bigger mission.
A great coach knows how to execute game winning plays, but inspiration is often about the
intangibles beyond Xs and Os. De La Salle doesnt win because of anything Bob Ladouceur
does. They win because of who he is, says Hayes.
Coach Lad stands for something bigger than winning games; he stands for commitment,
accountability, and pushing the bounds of human achievement. As a coach you can know who
to block and what play to call, but it has no meaning unless the kids know who you are, says
Ladouceur. Our kids arent fighting for wins. Theyre fighting for a belief in what we stand for.
Neil Hayes told me about the moment he realized that Coach Lads story had to be told. It
happened during halftime of a game when his team played poorly. The coach walked into the
locker room and his team looked at their coach, begging for wisdom, his guidance. Lad didnt
give them a traditional pep talk. Instead he said, Why do I always have to be the problem
solver? Group problem-solving is a skill you will use your whole life. Figure it out. And with that
the most successful high school football coach in history walked out, leaving the players to
come up with their own solution. This example is very consistent with Coach Lads bigger
mission to use football as a tool to teach life lessons.
The game by itself doesnt stand tall, Lad told author Neil Hayes. The violence isnt what
attracts me to it. Its getting kids to play together and to get along with each other. The game
should be a teaching tool. It doesnt stand tall on its own.

Former Spartan player Scott Hugo was the teams co-captain in the 2004 season. Hugo studied
at Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship and is attending Harvard law school. Coach Lad
always viewed the sport of football as a training ground for life, Hugo told me. Victories were
the byproduct of the programs emphasis on the development of young men. Coach Lads
secret, in my opinion, is that he built a coaching staff and a program that instills values like
commitment, character, love, respect, and discipline into its players.
2) Your actions had better back your words.
Neil Hayes or players like Hugo would have labeled the coach as insincere had they not seen
him back his words with small actions every day. Coach Lad is a successful leader because
he cares about the players and seeks to bring out the best in us. That is why he earns such
lifelong loyalty and admiration, says Hugo.
When Hayes first appeared on campus to write about the program, he noticed that very few
trophies or visible reminders of the streak adorned the campus. Hayes had a brief meeting with
Lad and his assistant, Terry Eidson, as the two were cleaning up the coachs office at the end of
a season. Hayes was shocked at the mementos they threw in a dumpster. I remember seeing a
deflated coach of the year football. They laughed, and tossed it in the dumpster without a
moments hesitation. It struck me because those things werent important. The things that
motivate a lot of other people in sports didnt motivate them.
During one team meeting Hayes heard Coach Lad tell the players, Im focused one hundred
percent on you guys as a team. I want you to become what youre capable of becoming. It has
nothing to do with wins. Every word, every action supported Coach Lads bigger mission to
develop the players discipline, character, and dedication to the teams success.
3) Hold each other accountable for the goals you set. Coach Lad used a stunningly
effective motivational technique he called commitment cards.
Each week Coach Lad gave every player a white index card to write down a practice goal, a
game goal, and a conditioning goal. The players would stand up at the weekly meeting,
announce the goal and, most important, to whom they were pledging their commitment. It was
the other players job to stand up the next week and tell the team if the player had accomplished
his goals. It was so powerful, it was spine-tingling, remembers Hayes.
Former Spartan Cam Colvin had lost both of his parents by his junior season. He went on to
play for The University of Oregon and the 49ers before being sidelined with injuries. Today hes
a successful real estate developer who recalls the impact of commitment cards. It was an
amazing bonding opportunity. For example, Id commit to you that I would catch 100 balls after

practice, 5 game-day catches, 2 touchdowns, and no missed blocks. It was our way of setting
goals for the week and to getting them done. It made us closer. We policed ourselves.
According to Scott Hugo, who still speaks in the present tense, The team always comes first,
and part of being a Spartan is proving to your teammates and your coaches that you can be
depended on. Thats why we fight so hard for one another, why we commit everything we have
to our preparation, so we can be counted on.
Movie producer David Zelon was not attracted to the movie rights because of the winning streak
alone. He only committed once he learned what had happened after the streak ended. Coach
Lad had suffered a heart attack and one of their star playersTerrance Kellywas shot and
killed near his Richmond home. The streak ended in the first game of the season. The story of
how the players fought their way back as a team gave Zelon the dramatic narrative he was
seeking, and the deeper message he intended to share.
There was clearly something very special and miraculous going on with this guy Bob
Ladouceur, says Zelon. It wasnt so much his wins, which were remarkable of course, that got
to me. It was the ability he had to get these kids to commit to each other so strongly, even when
things looked like they were going south, that was so powerful.
A team of people will not hold themselves accountable, sacrifice, and fight for just any company
or program, but they will fight for leaders who stand for more than winning.When each of the
players on your business team commit to fight as onenot for themselves, but for each other
magical things happen. The wins will take care of themselves.