Becoming an effective leader
Some are natural born leaders, but, it takes time to build an effective leader.
An effective leader must be able to comunicate with ease first and foremost, and if one wants to share or sell their vision and have individuals buy into it, they have to be convincing, genuwine. You also have to be able to handle and minimize “resistance to change” and that takes skills.
•Jim Collins – From good to great and the social sectors (2006)
•Leading change ljohn P Kotter, 1996
It takes phases to build a leader, and if one of the following steps is skipped, you could be having trouble being an effective leader:
George, B. (2007) True North, Jossey-Bass.
My reflection on leadership since i have joined this program has led me to this important thought: ” a leader must big confident enough to surround himself with people who are better than him” i have been on many coaching staffs over the past 20 years and i have seen leaders getting rid of staff members just because they were better than them in certain areas. This should be true in many domains but specially “sport martial art federations”. The martial arts world is very hierarchical and a master in his “dojo” is never challenged and he is the supreme ruler, so the problem is when the same “people” want to run a sport federation they tend to do the same thing and forget that they are not in their dojos. They have a hard time changing leadership styles and that creates all kinds of frictions are personality conflicts! leadership is all about communication and bringing people to share your vision. By feeling implicated and empowered athletes and staff will be inspired by your message.
Public speaking is the number one Phobia in North America? The second greatest fear is death! it is among the findings of the Chapman University Survey on American Fears (2016) In highSchool that was a big issue for me, I used to even go to the point of having panic attacks while trying to speak in front of the entire class.I never thought i would be the leader that i’m today. i certainly never thought i would be able to coach or train national team athletes either.I overcame this fear by teaching karate, to kids. These kids made me step outside of my comfort zone without knowing it and made me feel like a super hero, I used to have the nick name: “Black Dragon” ! In 2002, I worked for a company that used to specialize in kids animation “Caméléon Animation”, if i wanted to keep my job i had to overcome my fears.
In a span of 8 years I taught karate in over 20 schools, in the same period I was also teaching adults in dojos, and than i started training athletes and discovered my true calling. I owe a lot to these kids, because they were natural, they made me forget my FEARS (specially the fear of being judged) and focus on fun and karate.
After all these years of coaching, going through the advanced coaching diploma and having the opportunity to reflect on my coaching through the high performance coaching and technical leadership program through the NCCP core competencies, i’m now in a position today to mentor younger coaches, so i want to imagine mentoring a younger version of myself and this is the advice and basic principles i would give him about being an effective leader:
• Be genuine
•Do not be afraid to take risks
• Develop a solid coaching philosophy
• Find a mentor
• Never compromise on your core values
• Know your topic before speaking publicly. The more you understand and care about your subject and the more you care about the topic, the less likely you’ll make a mistake or get off track and have a panic attack
• Find a non judgmental audience to practice:
This will put you at ease, and help build your confidence
• Get organized. Ahead of time, carefully plan out the information you want to present, know you cues by heart, Preparation is key
• Film yourself, and analyze the video, do it over andover until you are at ease and learn from your coaching mistakes
• Visualize your success. Imagine that your speach or message will go well. Positive thoughts will help decrease some of your anxiety about your social performance and relieve that unnecessary stress.
• Focus on your message and your passion, not on your audience.
• Don’t be afraid of a moment of silence. If you lose track of what you’re saying or you begin to feel nervous and your mind goes blank, it can seem like you’ve stopped talking for an eternity. Use humour…(in good taste)
• Doing things seriously without taking yourself so seriously.
•Inspire and empower people around you
• Learn to say “NO” sometimes (take care of your self)
In conclusion after reflecting the concept of leadership, i think that leadership is driven by energy and a leader has to manage 4 types of energies in order to be efficient
Ø1- Spirituel: vision, mission, core values and ethics
Ø2- Mental: Direction of attention, perspicacity and attitude
Ø3- Émotionnel: Communication, Optimism and courage while facing adversity/problems, Favouring positive emotions
Ø4- Physique «Walk the talk» and lead by exemple, Coherence between saying it and doing it
Thank you for reading me, please do not hesitate to comment or give your opinions on the subject
Gabriel