Leadership for the athlete in you

When most people think of leadership, they think of leadership from the top-down. For example, the president speaking to the nation, the head coach talking to the team or a military general yelling orders at his subordinates. But this stereotype is not the case in today’s world. In any team there are many different leaders on many different levels. What happens is leaders are leading other leaders and those leaders are leading other leaders and so on down to the last person. Everyone on a team or organization has a leadership role, even at the lowest level.

The perfect example of this is on D-Day, 1944 when US and British troops were ordered to do a nighttime parachute assault the night before the famous attack on the beaches of Normandy. This assault was supposed to drop soldiers behind the enemy’s troops to take out roads and bridges so they could not receive reinforcement during the battle. But many of the planes wound up off target because of enemy fire and got blown off course. In turn, thousands of paratroopers were scattered miles from their drop zones in an unfamiliar country.

Luckily, the leaders of the airborne forces trained their subordinate leaders extremely well. The small unit leaders were scattered around the dark, unfamiliar country but they knew they were part of a bigger operation and its success was now on their shoulders to lead. They had been trained to act instead of waiting to take orders and they knew if the operation was to succeed they needed to finish their mission. So unit leaders gathered up soldiers, many of them who they had never seen and began on their mission to secure the roads and bridges. Their initiative proved to be successful, cutting off support to the enemy and ultimately winning the battle on the beaches of Normandy.

D-Day, 1944 was a success because of leadership at every level. As was true in Normandy on this day, everyone can be a leader and a follower or subordinate. Take pride in your leadership role within your team and you will succeed in your mission.

Storm the Beach!

by Joe Villapiano