The benefits of playing football are vast. These include health benefits, understanding values, and character development. Additionally, working as a team within an organization like a football program is unavoidable. This forces children to learn about leadership early in life. Many football coaches incorporate servant leadership skills into their football programs.

This article will discuss the following topics to show how playing football can help children learn servant leadership skills:

What is Servant Leadership?

Teamwork Skills Necessary for Servant Leadership in Organizations

Football and Servant Leadership Can Change Lives

Servant Leadership On and Off the Field

How does Football Instill the Basis for Teaching Servant Leadership?

Amount of People and Time Commitment Enhances Relationships and Social Cooperation

Football Strategy Requires Effective Communication Among Groups and Individuals

Structure of a Football Team Promotes Servant Leadership

A Negative View of Football Players and Teams

What is Servant Leadership?

Servant leadership is a relatively new style of leadership that describes leaders who put their team and organization first. Servant leaders have values of trust, empowerment, and appreciation of others that guide their actions in a group.¹ These values contrast those of traditional leaders who may be self-centered, use rank and power for control, and consume much of the credit.

Servant leadership organizations emphasize that leaders are not just the people that are organization heads. Instead, everyone is a leader within the organization. Everyone has a role to make the organization successful, and each person is trusted with that job, empowered to advance that job, and appreciated for giving effort towards that job.

Because people have different personalities and skills, they may be placed in or choose specific roles that allow them to be successful at their jobs. Some are best suited for managing a group to complete a task, whereas others are better at the technical details of getting the task done correctly. Some people are great with lightening the mood and keeping the work environment fun, whereas others just want everyone to feel comfortable and appreciated.

It is often the managers’ and coaches’ jobs to determine the best roles for their players based on personality and skill sets. However, all individuals—coaches, players, and staff—must develop or possess basic teamwork skills for optimal functioning of a servant leadership football program.

Teamwork Skills Necessary for Servant Leadership in Organizations

Essential teamwork skills for individuals within organizations are the following: relationship building, effective communication, and social cooperation.

Relationship building is important to help team members understand each other better. This takes time and effort for everyone to build relationships and trust with others.

Closer relationships enhance effective communication among people with different personalities. Some people respond better to group discussions, whereas others are better one-on-one. While one person may handle constructive criticism well, another individual may benefit more from praise and building confidence levels. Similarly, some are better at responding to negative events than others.

Relationship building and effective communication are prerequisites for social cooperation. The closer a relationship and the more effective communication between individuals results in more comfortability. Members of the team feel comfortable about expressing their thoughts, feelings, and ideas with others. In return, the others listen, converse, and respond to ensure the best course of action for the group.

When these skills are acquired, an organization can utilize servant leadership to carry out its purpose. A football team or program is arguably the best way for children to build these teamwork skills and learn about servant leadership.

Football and Servant Leadership Can Change Lives

In his book, Won With Purpose,² Andrew Limouris describes how football helped him positively impact the lives of others, via servant leadership, both on and off the field. Andrew is the founder, president, and CEO of Medix, which is an international staffing organization that specializes in recruiting people in the healthcare, science, and IT industries. Medix is one of the fastest-growing staffing agencies in America and has been awarded in many ways.

Andrew is a second-generation immigrant as his parents moved from Greece to Wisconsin before he was born. English was not spoken at home, so he had lots of trouble in elementary school. When he did not understand things, he became embarrassed and frustrated. Because he excelled at sports, he gravitated towards team sports as it was not only an area where he had success but could also make friends.

Andrew credits his early experiences in football for teaching him about teamwork, winning, and purpose. From an early age, he was learning from the sidelines as he watched his brother play high school football. Then, his own high school football experience, including some tough love from his coach, opened his eyes to teamwork.

Despite not doing well in school, football helped him be accepted and attend Ripon College to play Division III football. This was a huge moment in his life because he was finally diagnosed with dyslexia. This diagnosis helped him identify and overcome his challenges with reading.

Football not only gave Andrew an early purpose in life and taught him about teamwork, but it also allowed him to attend a good college and continue to challenge himself academically.

Servant Leadership On and Off the Field

In his book,² Andrew Limouris details how servant leadership was vital to the success of both his large staffing company and his son’s middle school football team. In the early years of the company, he decided to bring in an executive coach, an outsider, to help revamp their systems and practices. This coach built relationships with the staff to understand the purpose of the company, and then was trusted to make adjustments.

The company’s purpose was to impact the lives of others each day, and living by this purpose gave control to each member in the organization. They were empowered to work freely and make suggestions for improvement. This created a fun, successful, and fulfilling work environment.

Similarly, when he took over his son’s football team, he also needed to bring on great coaches with whom trust could be established. These new coaches were empowered to use their knowledge and skills to help the kids.

However, a large reason for the team’s success was not the coaches and top-tier players but the team’s purpose. They had dedicated their season to a 6-year-old girl in the community who just lost her battle with cancer. Besides commemorating a large rock in her name and speaking at the ceremony, the team played every snap at practice and games for this girl and her family. The integration into the community and mutual support was the drive for the team, and this was recognized many times in challenging points throughout the year.

Servant leadership was embodied by both organizations to have a positive impact on others. In both scenarios, there was trust, empowerment, and appreciation among the individuals on the teams. This example is just one of countless anecdotes on how football changes the lives of individuals through servant leadership.

How does Football Instill the Basis for Teaching Servant Leadership?

A football program is a large organization that has many moving parts all seeking one purpose.

1. Compared with other childhood sports and activities, football involves a higher number of individuals and more time spent together.
2. The strategy behind football demands teamwork and trust among all members of the program.
3. Moreover, the structure of the team, especially in high school, creates many opportunities for individuals to practice servant leadership.

Amount of People and Time Commitment Enhances Relationships and Social Cooperation

A football program has more individuals than other organizations a child may be involved with. The high numbers create more opportunities for children to build relationships with others. These relationships may be with peers, coaches, or other staff members.

Additionally, a football team spends a lot of time together. The time commitment may span the whole year, which includes weightlifting sessions, off-season captains’ practices, and in-season work. During the season, the players, coaches, and staff may spend 3-6 hours together, 5-6 days per week depending on the time of the season.

The number of individuals and amount of time spent together helps to strengthen bonds between people and among the entire group. The stronger the relationships are, the more trust there is for one another. Ultimately, this leads to better communication.

The more people involved, and the more time spent together, the more interactions occur. These interactions may be positive or negative. They may involve two people, two groups, or the entire team. All are good ways to practice social cooperation necessary for servant leadership.

Football Strategy Requires Effective Communication Among Groups and Individuals

Football strategy is more extensive than most sports because there are many different formations and plays to learn. A player needs to know the team’s own formations and plays on offense, defense, and special teams; and then, the player must also recognize the other teams’ formations and plays. This takes a lot of mental preparation and discipline.

Initially, the coaches’ jobs are to create a base playbook that must be taught to the players. This requires effective communication from coach to player and player to coach to ensure understanding. Furthermore, coaches must learn about the opposing team and share that knowledge with the players. There needs to be effective communication among players and coaches during the week of practice, in the film room and on the field, to properly prepare for the game.

Then, during the game, fast and effective communication is required to relay play calls, alerts, adjustments, and maintain a symbiotic relationship. If there is a broken link in the chain of communication, it could lead to a major mistake that can cost the team the game. Everyone must be on the same page for the success of the team.

Structure of a Football Team Promotes Servant Leadership

A high school football team is structured similar to a large business with many moving parts along with internal and external relations.

Internal Relations

Internally, there is a head coach with multiple assistant coaches. Among the coaches, one coordinator oversees the offense while another, the defense, and another, the special teams. Then, each coach also has position groups within the offense, defense, or special teams. The position group coaches oversee the players in that position group, and each coach is trusted to lead that group. They are empowered to make decisions for that group.

Among each position group, the coach trusts and empowers the players to make necessary decisions and adjustments during games based on what was taught during the week or season. Each player also has a role in the group that they are trusted to complete with great effort and attitude.

This may be playing on the field or cheering on the sidelines in a game. This may be setting an example for others, teaching underclassmen, or giving a competitive look in practice.

At the same time, some coaches and players are best for keeping everyone on task, whereas others ensure that everyone is having fun and is appreciated. Some players respond well to one-on-one coaching from either a coach or a teammate, whereas others respond well to group instructions or simply learning by watching.

Medical staff like athletic trainers and doctors and support staff like team managers also have vital roles in the program. When a culture is created that embodies servant leadership, the team runs itself. Each person is selfless, giving physical and mental effort to help the team. Internally, everyone understands their roles within the organization and is motivated to contribute toward the common goal.

External Relations

Just as the internal structure creates opportunities for servant leadership, the external relations are even more important. External relations for football are any group or individual outside of the team. At the high school level, this includes family, friends, classmates, school administration and teachers, fans from the community, and society in general.

A football team creates good humans who can contribute to society both in the present and future. Coaches and players use the teamwork skills they learn from football to be servant leaders in their home with parents and siblings, in the classroom with teachers and classmates, in school with administration and staff, and in the community for people in need.

A Negative View of Football Players and Teams

Sometimes the culture within a football program is broken. This promotes bad behavior like bullying, disrespecting others, drinking alcohol, and partaking in drugs. It leads to the typical football player stereotype as a ‘dumb, selfish jock’ who misbehaves and does not try in school. Although this is becoming less common with more knowledge of leadership and coaching, it can still occur. It is important for administrators and coaches to recognize this cancerous culture and make the necessary changes.

Football players often have targets on their backs, for better or worse. The popularity of the sport can give them more popularity in other contexts. If others look up to them, players may have inherent power amongst peers to influence their thoughts and actions. If some are jealous of their popularity, they may exploit players when there is a mistake.

For this reason, creating a team culture around servant leadership that inherently improves individual and teamwork development is vital for players. They must have integrity in the community, lead by example, and serve those in need.

At Muskego High School, we have players open doors for the other students every gameday morning. We have players organize groups to support other sports teams during the year. Our players are not perfect by any means, and some will misbehave in school and at home, but we have many that set good examples for other students in the classrooms, hallways, and cafeteria.

Many players work in the community in the summer or year-round and some even help coach youth sports. The positive culture we create on the football field translates into daily life. The players find leadership roles in every setting they enter.

Summary

Servant leadership emphasizes that everyone is a leader in the organization. Everyone has a role that contributes to the organization’s purpose. Teamwork skills like relationship building, effective communication, and social cooperation are necessary for embodying servant leadership.

Football programs help teach servant leadership to children in many ways. The number of people and time commitment enhances relationship building and social cooperation. Football strategy requires effective communication among groups and individuals. The structure of a football program promotes these teamwork skills to emphasize servant leadership.

There are many examples of football programs that embody servant leadership to develop young adults. Servant leadership not only improves the football team, but it also enhances the community.

References

1. Russell RF. The role of values in servant leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 2001;22:2, 76-84.
2. Limouris A. Won With Purpose: Positively Impacting Lives On And Off The Field. Charleston: Advantage Media Group, Inc; 2017. Print.