Leadership at Any Level is Fun to See

Every Saturday morning, at different times, the Hallett family minivan is loaded up and headed about 3 miles down the road to watch an eight-year-old play soccer. While I love my son dearly, I really know nothing about soccer. I certainly played it for the first few years of elementary school, but quickly moved to more Americanized sports. I don’t watch it on television. And yet, I am fascinated by what’s going on on my son’s team.

It’s a YMCA organized league---practice an hour a week with an hour game on the weekend. It’s not a club sport where it’s overly done as one might see in many kids’ lives. But the progression from last fall and then again into the spring of the kids and their basic understanding of the game is remarkable. They play so much less “bunch ball.” They understand the positioning of corner kicks and goal kicks. They pass to each other. And while there are still eight-year-old mistakes all over the place, the progression is significant.

Why am I enamored by this? Because leadership at any level is fun to watch. My son’s coach, the father of one of his classmates, has done a phenomenal job of teaching and encouraging the kids on how to play the game correctly. I imagine that there were moments that weren’t all that successful. But he’s constantly in communication, reinforcing positive outcomes, patting them on the head/back, and celebrating with them when they succeed. Having coached my son’s basketball team of many of the same kids, I can’t tell you how much I respect what he’s doing.

But it’s also a great reminder that leadership is about these exact same qualities my son’s coach demonstrates each practice and game. Motivating, reinforcing positive behaviors, listening, teaching, and other things that we all know too well but don’t execute as consistently as we should. This includes me. And with the spring season now over, I’m going to miss those Saturday mornings watching a great person lead a bunch of eight-year-olds out onto the pitch.