My Personal Philosophy Of Leadership

Part I: Introduction (Leading Self)

Leadership is the ability to influence an individual or group of individuals to maximize their potential and to work together to complete a common goal. While there are several different types of leaders and manners in which individuals try to lead, the most effective leaders typically all have very similar characteristic traits. Leaders need to be goal oriented. The best leaders always set goals for themselves. These goals can range from small, easily achievable things, like getting to work on time every day of the week, to larger, more difficult goals, like winning an NCAA National Championship. All effective leaders should be goal driven. In order to achieve these goals, leaders need to have discipline

One of my key influences growing up was one of my youth soccer coaches, Coach Craig. Coach Craig was a member of the United States Coast Guard at the time he coached my team. Being in the armed forces, Coach Craig had acquired several leadership pillars and tried to instill these in my team. Of the many core characteristics that he portrayed and taught, discipline was at the top of the list. To have discipline means that one acts in an orderly manner and has self-control over oneself. It means that one does not always take the easy way out, but rather strives for the harder, more challenging path. To be self-disciplined oftentimes means that one must be determined and resilient, while also having a high work ethic to achieve success. Coach Craig taught us what it meant to be part of a team and created a sense of brotherhood among us boys. If there is one pillar Coach Craig instilled in our team that resonated with me the most, it is to have

For the past two years I have coached the local high school junior varsity soccer team in the county that I grew up in, Gloucester County. Like any season, this season was full of up and downs and tasked me with various challenges. One of the challenges I was dealt towards the beginning of the season was how many kids I wanted to keep on the team this year. Having kept 21 kids on my roster last year, my end goal was to be at 21 kids by the end of tryouts. At the end of tryouts, I arrived at the number 24. The dilemma I was in now was what I should do with the final three kids on my roster. While these three kids were not the most talented kids out of the group, they constantly showed great character and several of the pillars of leadership I described earlier. The three kids always showed up to optional preseason conditioning practices, always had a positive attitude, showed a great work ethic in all our activities, and were always willing to help clean up after practice. I determined that I would make these three kids “practice players”, meaning that while they would not travel to the games with the squad, they would be at all practices to continue to learn and develop. Allowing these kids to stay on the team not only allowed these boys to further develop their technical and tactical soccer abilities, but it also allowed them to foster their leadership abilities and created a