Privileged to SERVE
Daniel, shares in this feature about servant leadership. Being able to serve God and serve others isn’t an inconvenience or a chore, it’s a privilege. By exercising your strength to serve you build physical and spiritual capacity and help others achieve gains.
By Daniel Flahie, MSEd, CSCS. Assistant Professor of Exercise Science & Health, Mount Marty College
When the word “leader” is mentioned, flashes of glory, success, and winning are often what come to mind. Perhaps you envision Tom Brady or Lebron James hoisting a giant trophy and being carried by teammates. True heros, right? While both of these men are great leaders, it’s not the winning that makes them great. Exceptional athletic success isn’t a necessary pre-requisite for excellence in leadership.
Some of the best leaders I have witnessed, both as a player and as a coach, are also some of the least talented members of the team. The statistics that really matter will never be found in the box score or on the record wall. They are the little day-to-day things that go unnoticed. However, when you reflect on them, they are so big you wonder how you could have missed them in the first place.
In order to be a true leader, you must first serve those you wish to lead. In other words, you’ve got to put in your dues. The oft-quoted cliché attributed to the great Teddy Roosevelt, “no one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care” is truer than anyone would care to realize. A hopeful leader cannot start barking orders without any sweat shed on behalf of the team. A leader must have skin in the game if she or he is to be trusted, respected, and listened to by the team. A leader must be invested in everyone else.
LEAD BY SERVING
One of the best sprinters on our team, at Mount Marty College never yells, orders people around, or dictates what others should do. In fact he rarely says a word. Instead you’ll see him leading by serving. He always carries a box or cooler full of food to and from track meets. He spends time at the end of lifting sessions to put away equipment he didn’t even use. During one early morning autumn lifting session he took time after everyone had left to fix a light in the weight room. That may not seem important in the grand scheme of things but it is. He is a servant to his team and that is why he is a leader.
If he wasn’t a genuinely good person, the success he has experienced on the conference and national level would mean very little to me. I would much rather coach a team full of high character individuals who don’t always place in a race, rather than have a team with questionable ethics win a championship. Don’t get me wrong, I am as fiery a competitor as you will ever find, but success without morals never matters.
During an indoor meet this year, one of our very talented freshman runners accidently clipped another runner with his spike during a tightly congested turn. He immediately came over to the head coach and me after the race and apologized for doing so, even though it was a complete accident. That is the kind of athlete I love to coach; someone who is a hard worker, incredibly passionate and has a strong moral compass.
I believe leaders are both born and created. There is no better place than collegiate athletics to help shape a world full of virtuous servant leaders. These athletes have a positive impact with their teammates. More importantly, during and after their playing careers, they impact their families, friends and communities.
LEADERSHIP IN ATHLETICS
The concept of creating and developing strong leadership skills from athletics is nothing new. However, what I aim to talk about is usually not the first concept that comes to mind when talking about leadership in athletics. Leadership is not created when the game is on the line in the fourth quarter, or the bottom of the ninth inning, it is merely put on display during these crucial and exciting times. Leadership, instead, is developed, nurtured, and honed in the countless hours leading up to these climatic moments. There is no magic button to press to suddenly gain the leadership skills necessary to guide your team through victory or rally them from a devastating defeat.
“How you do anything is how you do everything”
–T. Harv Eker
This quote has stuck to me ever since I came across it a few years ago, and once I finally started living my life with this mantra in mind everything became easier. Those tasks I used to dread became just as enjoyable as what I am most passionate about, which is writing, playing baseball, and helping others. If you approach everything in life with one hundred percent effort and focus in the present moment, dread of the task begins to melt away. Reflect on what you love doing the most, what makes time seem to disappear, then apply that same level of effort to everything in your life; especially the tasks you don’t enjoy.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
Perhaps you’ve heard a coach say, “You play like you practice”. Unfortunately when I was in sports I quickly dismissed that advice, but since finishing college athletics I’ve learned it’s so incredibly true. Practice is not only where the physical skills needed to perform at a high level are honed, but it is where leadership skills are honed as well.
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What happens to the work ethic of a team if the team captain never hustles in practice or doesn’t listen attentively and respectfully to the coach? Like a cancer, this behavior spreads. On the flip side, if the rest of the team notices the captains showing up to practice early, always hustling and giving their full effort, that too will spread throughout the team. True leaders practice what they preach and lead by example. An athlete will spend far more time practicing than she or he ever will playing a game. How you lead in practice will determine how you lead during a game, competition or performance.
LIFTING IS HARD WORK
Another area that is incredibly vital to the success of a team is the weight-room. Of course, I am partial to this because I am a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. The weight room is where I interact the most with athletes. Eker’s quote doesn’t stop on the practice court, but for many athletes, the intensity does. I cannot begin to count how many times I have witnessed athletes simply go through the motions in the weight room with zero tenacity or heart and very little effort. This is very unfortunate, because the weight room is the perfect analogy for life and the transfer of lifting skills is limitless.
Just like the heavy weights will bog you down in the weight room, so too will the heaviness of life. At the bottom of the squat, just like at the points of rock bottom in our life we have two choices; let the weight push us to the floor, or dig deep and stand. I know exactly who will be most reliable when things get tough in competition just by watching how the athletes respond to the discomfort of the weight room. Lifting weights is never easy and sometimes not very fun, but neither is leadership. Leading is not about having special privileges and being exempt from things we don’t like to do. Leading is about actively doing the right thing, especially when it is the hard thing to do.
HOW TO BE AN INCREDIBLY STRONG LEADER
Team captains aren’t the only ones who must do everything with their fullest effort. It is the role of every player – even those who get no playing time at all. There is no rule that says the best player has to be the most inspirational leader. Many times it’s not the best player who is the best leader. We must quit assuming that the highest performing or most gifted athlete is naturally going to be the most inspirational leader. Many times a team member with less athletic skill who doesn’t score as many points, go as fast or lift as heavy turns out to be an incredibly strong leader for the team.
Last fall after a bucket was scored someone took a snapshot of a player on the bench from the Mount Marty women’s basketball team. Since she was on the sidelines you might expect the picture to show a look of disengagement, a half-hearted clap, or even a frown. However, this young lady was airborne with a look of pure joy and happiness that her teammate was having success. That is leadership. That is putting the team first. That is service over self. And that is the only way to truly be a leader. It is wonderful to witness incredible skills and athletic talent, but witnessing servant leadership in action is far more beautiful.
LEADERSHIP ON CAMPUS AND IN THE CLASSROOM
Leading doesn’t stop when you leave your physical training or sport practice, or at least it shouldn’t. Remember, how you do anything is how you do everything. The leader on the court should be the leader in the classroom too.
What does this mean? Sit in front. Ask questions. Stay off of your cell phone. Pay attention. Students tend to think teachers don’t know when you aren’t paying attention. I can promise you we do and we take note of it. Leadership in the classroom is about respect. Athletes need to approach their academics with as much fervor as they hopefully do their sport, because chances are high it is the academics that will lead to a successful career, not the athletics.
What you do in the classroom, around campus, and in the community not only reflects on you, but on your teammates, coaches, parents, and institution. If you do something illegal regardless of whether you are wearing your team’s shirt that affects everyone involved. Representing your team does not stop once the practice is done or the game is over. As long as you are a member of the team, you act as an extension of that team everywhere you go. Before doing something questionable ask yourself is it worth it? The team is not only bigger than the individual during a game, but during every hour outside of competition as well.
THE HABIT OF BUILDING EVERYONE AROUND YOU
To Lead, you must first Serve and Follow. Servant leadership is one of the mottos of Mount Marty College, and it should be a motto for anyone in a leadership position. The point of leadership is to build everyone around you up as much as possible, and as a result you will be built up as well. However, if you approach leadership with a “me first” attitude, you will quickly find yourself out of a leadership role. So, what can you do to put servant leadership into action? Borrowing from the great President, John F. Kennedy, “ask not what your team can do for you, but what you can do for your team.”
You can replace “team” with anything you are affiliated with; church, friend, mother, work, etc. It looks like this:
– Pick up the trash on the bus.
– Carry equipment during trips.
– Hold a door open for someone.
– Volunteer to do extra work in a group setting.
– Ask your teammates what they need prior to a game.
– Be early and leave late.
– When the teacher or coach is speaking, sit or stand up straight and look them in the eye. Your body language matters.
– Make your bed, wash your clothes, and brush your teeth – have consistency and personal integrity in the little things, because the little things form a large part of who you are as a person.
– Before doing anything ask yourself this question: Is what I am about do to going to make my family, teammates, and coaches proud? If the answer is yes, then do it. If the answer is no, then pray and reconsider what it is you are about to do. Doing the right thing is often not popular among your peers, but leaders don’t lead to be popular.
It is the culmination of seemingly meaningless daily habits such as the few mentioned above that result in leadership when difficult tasks or situations arise. Will Durant sums up Aristotle when he said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
What do you repeatedly do? Is it forming excellence in leadership or something else? Most people find that life happens fast. College will pass like the blink of an eye. Do you want to spend your time only focusing on what benefits you? Or do you want to spend your time helping as many people as possible? Leadership isn’t about fame and fortune or being better than those around you. It is about building up as many people as possible while embracing humility and demonstrating the character of Christ. Leaders charge first into the fray, but they are the last ones to finish.
