SERVANT LEADER TRAITS
from website heroicjourney.com
http://www.heroicjourney.com/pages/orgtransformation/servantleadership.htm
Servant Leadership is based on core values and actions that arise from a desire to serve others. Robert Greenleaf first coined the term as it relates to business, "The servant-leader is servant first…It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first... [D]o those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"
One of the great debates regarding participation in sports is framed around the question of whether it DEVELOPS character or simply REVEALS the underlying character of the participants. A person's character can be revealed or developed by a number of different people or experiences both within and outside of the sports community.
One of the thing that is generally agreed upon is the need for positive role models within the activity. Whether these role models are family members, friends or teachers/coaches. Are coaches, administrators, officials in youth sports providing this positive environment?
Is the overall environment provided by parents, coaches, administrators and officials
within these activities conducive to a beneficial experience for participants?
Is the competitive environment a positive one for development of both sports skills and skills that will serve participants throughout their lives?
The Citizen through Sports Alliance website listed below graded these areas and provided some interesting results.
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Concept of Service Leadership
The Citizenship through Sports Alliance - Focus on Respect
http://www.sportsmanship.org/
The Citizenship Through Sports Alliance is the largest coalition of professional and amateur athletics organizations in the United States, focused on character in sport. CTSA promotes fair play at all levels - youth leagues to professional sport - to reinforce the value of sport as a test of character. Since 1997, CTSA has been building a sports culture that encourages respect for self, respect for others, and respect for the game.
Because winning has the ability to supercede the values of good conduct, there has been an appreciable decomposition in sportsmanship; the CTSA strives to transcend modern society's obsession with winning at any cost. By elevating athletes to think beyond superficial success, and integrating the values of discipline, loyalty, teamwork, and character, the CTSA believes that a new sports culture can emerge in this new century.
2005 National Report Card
http://www.sportsmanship.org/News/1105%20Report%20Card-Fgrade.pdf
For the first time ever, CTSA convened a panel of youth sports experts from across the
country to evaluate youth sports in the United States and articulate its successes and
failures. The panel evaluated only community-based youth sports programs, focusing
on those that serve children ages 6 to 14. To do so, panel members relied on their own
experiences as youth sports leaders, authors, sociologists, sports psychologists, coaches
and parents, as well as on current research and academic literature.
The group graded the following areas of review:
Child-Centered Philosophy
Coaching
Health and Safety
Officiating
Parental Behaviors/Involvement
It is interesting to note that the areas of Parental Behavior/Involvement and providing a Child-Centered Philosophy received a D.
Coaching received a C-.
Health and Safety received a C+.
Officiating received a B-.
One thing that jumped out at me and the first thing that I thought of was the famous Bobby Knight quote regarding officials. Knight said, "the problem with you referees is you don't care who wins the game". EXACTLY RIGHT.
Notice that the grades given in each category are higher the further you get from being emotionally attached to WINNING and LOSING.
THE PANEL'S CONCLUSIONS:
A loss of child-centered focus with less emphasis on the child's experience and more emphasis on adult-centered motives such as winning.
Over-invested parents with unrealistic expectations behave in a way that fails to promote the development of their own child and others.
An increased emphasis on early sports specialization and a hyper-competitive environment increased by travel team participation at earlier and earlier ages--leading to burnout and overuse injuries.
Loss of the voice of the child who participates for reasons different from parents and coaches interests--fun, friends, fitness and skill development.
It is interesting to note as well that this ties in to many experts conclusion that as athletes advance further up the ladder--from youth leagues to high school, college and the professional ranks--the less concern there is for character development and ethical behavior exhibited by the athletes.
The areas the panel found to be unacceptable within each category were as follows:
Parental Behavior/Involvement: 1) parents behave appropriately at games and show respect for officials, coaches and participants. 2) parental behavior..reflects an understanding of their role as parents and positive supporters--not as unofficial coaches.
Child Centered Philosophy: 1) youth sports leaders, parents and coaches put the goals of children..first. 2) youth sports leaders set expectations and hold parents, coaches and themselves accountable for sportsmanship, civility and commitment to a child-centered philosophy.
Coaching: 1) coaches focus on effort, skill development, positive reinforcement and fun. (AHEAD OF WINNING)
The areas of Health and Safety and Officiating received no unacceptable areas graded, which is great news. As far as areas needing improvement--promoting healthy habits, background checks, and emphasis on health and safety of participants were listed for Health and Safety and officials were called on to provide better training in rules, techniques and safety and adequate pool of trained officials for games and tournaments.
As someone who has participated in all these areas under review at one time or another I can tell you that if the sportsmanship area was improved the pool of officials would not have the turnover it does.
But it goes back to the Bobby Knight quote, if the overarching concern on winning and losing were magically removed tomorrow, we would have a better sports environment. To some that seems like it's an unrealistic goal, but the reality is if coaches and administrators adopted a more SERVANT-LEADERSHIP approach to their jobs, the environment would in fact improve.
Officials and administrators are their to serve, not to profit from the games.
Coaches are their to serve their athletes, not to profit in some manner from them.
The two programs listed below attempt to provide this type of climate to all participants in sports from the youth to collegiate level. Both take a servant-leadership or service-learning approach. Along with my other favorite organization CharacterCounts.org are taking steps to improve the climate in youth sports today and hopefully we will see improvement in spite of some of the recent trends.
The pros are on their own. In that arena, winning and losing is important.
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Concept of Servant Leadership
Winning with Character
http://www.winningwithcharacter.org/
Winning With Character is a non-profit organization providing character, ethics, and leadership training to high school and college athletic programs.
The Servant Sport Leadership Program has been developed by the Winning With Character Foundation and the University of Idaho Center for ETHICS* to help coaches and teams develop a sense of unity built upon a foundation of character. The ground work of this program lies in effective leadership approaches modeled by coaches and key players.
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The Know Greater Heroes program has an element of the "Banality of Heroism" concept coined by Stanford professor Phillip Zimbardo. It takes a service learning approach to show kids, one at a time, that they "can" make a difference in the life of others and they can "get" more sometimes when they "give" first. Great program.
Concept of Service Learning
Know Greater Heroes - Empowering the Hero Within
http://www.knowgreaterheroes.org/content/?page=AboutKGH
Throughout time and in every culture, HEROES with character have been revered in tales, written about in literature, viewed on the big screen, and looked to as role-models. Never in the history of the world, has there been a more profound need for heroes – men and women educated in integrity and empowered to tackle society’s most pressing issues - in every community, home, school, and boardroom. Introducing KNOW GREATER HEROES.
Know Greater Heroes addresses this problem. It provides and cultivates the grounds in which heroes can grow. THE MISSION is to empower communities with an engaging program that awakens the hero within each of us, thereby assisting all to succeed brilliantly through life's challenges.
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SERVICE - Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; honor one another above yourselves - Romans 12:10
Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many - Matthew 20:28
