Why My Soccer Coach Was the Best Leader I've Ever Had by Samantha by Samantha

Why My Soccer Coach Was the Best Leader I've Ever Had by Samantha by Samantha - May 2024 Scholarship Essay

Leadership is one of the most often the admired and sought after qualities. It is something that not everyone has, and those who do obtain the scarce quality of leadership usually inspire and motivate others to achieve a goal. Leaders are not just idolized by others, but they are mentors and role models to those around them, whether it be their employees, students, athletes, peers, etc. To me, leadership represents someone who is confident, humble, and willing to learn and improve.

Confidence is key when searching for a mentor or supervisor. Employers look for someone that can deliver a speech that describes the company's greatness to investors without an ounce of doubt about the success of their company. Athletes want a coach that can give pep talks without doubting their talents. In both these contrasting yet similar scenarios, the employer and the athletes are looking for an individual who believes in themselves and their affiliation, whether it be their company or team. A true leader is not just confident in themselves, but their groups’ individual abilities. This quality not just gives faith to those around, but also causes the group to work towards a common goal. Confidence can act as the glue to unify a group together. Going back to the previous example with the employer and athletes, if it is apparent that their supervisor or coach is not confident, this feeling will trickle down to the employees and to the athletes and cause the group to become disconnected. This will lead to failure or not accomplishing the goal as well as hoped. This demonstrates how confidence can ensure action, as it allows others to listen and become motivated and successful.

Furthermore, leaders are humble. While confidence is a vital part of being a leader, arrogance is the number one thing that stops people from listening and considering someone a leader. Most people who are leaders are very successful in their fields. As a leader it is important to share those stories of personal success, as it can spark inspiration in others, but when these tales are overshared, it can lead to others believing their leader is arrogant, and cause the respect level to drop. Being humble also means that compliments are given when earned, and constructive criticism is given in a way that gets the leader's point across without being rude or putting down the person they are talking to. Humbleness ensures that those around feel that they are respected, valued, and most importantly, listened to.

Finally, a leader is a lifelong learner. This means that they are constantly inclined to gain knowledge in their field either on their own or from others. When someone is willing to be stationary in their current state of knowledge or physicality, it shows that they are comfortable and this is a dangerous weakness to have. This illustrates they are not willing to change, which stems from fear, arrogance, or a combination of the two. If someone is a true lifelong learner, they are humble and crave learning more from their peers, including those beneath them. A leader’s respect level from others will soar when a leader honestly replies “I don’t know” and wants to learn how to do something or what they did wrong. An individual who acts as a know-it-all even in circumstances where they obviously know nothing will be immediately disrespected and their opinions will be instantly disregarded. Humbleness allows others to enjoy collaborating with their leaders and hearing what they have to say.

To summarize, leadership, in my opinion, is composed of three qualities: confidence, humbleness, and willingness to learn and improve. If someone has this combination, they will be the most well-respected person in the room, and have a united group of people that enjoys working alongside their leader. The person who obtains every one of these traits is Coach Mark, my old soccer coach. While some may wonder how a rec-level soccer coach can be such a fantastic leader in my book, he was one of the best coaches I’ve ever had in my ten years of playing sports. He always believed in me and my teammates, was the literal definition of humble, and was always reading and learning new strategies for our games. Coach Mark always gave solid feedback, both positive and negative. Compliments were cherished when earned and constructive criticism was given in a way that I knew what I had to work on, but never diminished my spirits. Coach Mark embodies leadership and is the first person that comes to mind when I think of a good coach and go to describe the term “leader”.