Leadership Lessons from Coaching Youth Soccer

6 Leadership Lessons Learned from Coaching Soccer

Over the course of my career, I have had the privilege to witness both great leadership and poor leadership. I started to wonder, what makes a great leader? I believe that leadership is learned by seeing examples of it in our daily lives. We become better by emulating the actions and behaviors of those we admire. We all know it when we see great leadership.?

I coached youth soccer for over eighteen years, and to this day I am still trying to understand did my leadership skills affect my coaching skills, or did my coaching skills affect my leadership skills. Soccer provided a great platform to learn from others how to motivate, mentor and guide a team to success.?

My daughters first coach Felipe was a dream. He focused on teaching the game and encouraged the players to try something new even if it led to failure. To him failure was temporary. He believed the game was the teacher and felt it was his responsibility to help players become the very best that they could. He also believed that if he did his job well, he could trust the players to make the right decisions during the game. It was the first and only team, she was on that went undefeated.?

I started coaching after our dream coach moved out the area. I did not want to be that crazy coach running up and down the sidelines yelling instructions. I took what I learned from Felipe and other coaches.??I worked hard to build a team of players that were committed to growth and success. In 5 years, went from a ranking of 259th to 23rd?in the state of California.?

Leadership and coaching youth soccer have many things in common. Here are the top 6 leadership lessons I learned from coaching:?

1.?????Vision and Goals?–?Leaders share the vision and develop the overall team goals.?In order to ensure the team goals are aligned to its members, it is important to have a clear understanding of individual goals and help them develop a plan to achieve them.

2.?????Building a Team?– Mindset matters. You need a team with a growth mindset to continue to grow and improve.?

3.?????Everybody Matters?– It’s important to note that everyone brings a unique set of skills to the team. Leadership needs to be in tune with those strengths and capitalize on them for the betterment of the team.?

4.?????Listening skills?– To be an effective leader you must listen carefully to what your team is telling you both verbally and non-verbally. Leadership must create a safe environment where everyone feels that they are heard and listened to.?

5.?????Trust?– You must learn to trust your team to think for themselves and to make the necessary adjustments.?

6.?????Built for Success?– When a team has the right system in place, players and leaders become interchangeable. You can lose anyone and fill that role with quite possibly an even better player.?

Soccer provided a vehicle for me to improve myself in so many ways. I became a better person, father, coach and leader. We all can be great leaders, whether it is in your personal or professional lives. Think about the people you have met you in your life or career. What were the takeaways that will make you a better leader? I’d like to challenge you to order the list from most important to least important and who do you view as a great leader and why? Thank you to all who have mentored me and given examples of great leadership.?

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