Claudia Capone
FYSM – Writing Prompt 1 Revised
09/27/19
Leadership is defined as a person who leads a group. When I describe a leader, I think of someone who is organized, openminded, fair, and has power over others but does not abuse it. This power is not a control over others but an influence where they are looked at for certain things like how to act or how to deal with a situation. A good leader doesn’t have a following that is run by fear, their following is a group of people who share the same belief or support the same cause or purpose. A leader stands and represents the group and simplifies the group itself or what the group stands for. They take charge when needed and think in the best interest of the group. There are everyday leaders in every part of life.
I believe that a leader is born with leadership skills. There are some people with the personality that just fits with being a leader. Even when kids are young and don’t know any better, there are some that take initiative and that are more of outgoing which I believe pushes them to develop more leadership skills as they grow. They also have a more dominant personality. It could also be the fact that a person is bigger physically or just that they present themselves as more dominant which would lead them to have the dominant trait. All these things are attributed since birth and will grow along with the child as they develop. It could also be attributed to their talents. For instant, the more skilled or better players on a sports team are going to take others under their wing to help them improve for the better of the team or the smartest kids in the classroom will help the other kids understand a topic and do their best to help them answer any questions. These are talents or advantages that they were born with and it grew with them.
A leader in my life that I look up to tremendously is my high school hockey coach. She is the best at her job and committed one hundred percent of her time to watching film, getting stats, and meeting with future and current players to better the team. She is a great leader because when she recruits players, she “is the leader who often initiates the relationship, creates the communication linkages, and carries the burden for maintaining the relationship” (p6). She knew what was best for the team and who would fit in with the team. She always left a possible recruit with some current players to see if the personality of the recruit will fit with the team and will go with the team dynamic. She strived for the same things we did which was to obviously win but also to become the best version of ourselves on the ice, in the weight room, in the classroom, and in every other form of life. She shared our goals with us and helped us achieve them. She also worked toward the goals with us by doing the drills on the ice and specifying certain drills for certain positions. She helped us face our problems, and she got us through them and while also guiding us to resolve them. We knew that she has power over us, but she didn’t use it against us to punish us in any way. If we were to skate, it was because she had explained to us that we needed to work on speed, change of direction or stopping and starting. Even though she had the power over us she didn’t abuse it. She had both position power because it was her job and it was a personal power because we all had the same thing in common and strived for the same goal. She also didn’t see herself as above the team because she was the coach, she saw herself alongside the team always asking what she could be doing to better as a coach and as a mentor.
My hockey coach inspires me because she did so much for everyone but herself. She would stay up until three in the morning planning practices and watching other teams’ film to give us the best opportunity to be better. She had worked so hard in her hockey career showing us that we can go to any school we wanted and always pushed us to give the best teams in the league our best games.
My coach is always reaching out to me to make sure that everything is what I want and checking up on how everything is. She made my life in high school the best it could be, and I don’t think I could’ve made it without her. She was realistic and true when I needed her to be and never stopped pushing me. She has always expected the best out of everything I do. I give her so much credit for the success that my team and I had, and I strive to be as determined and dedicated as her. She led our team to break records like the first every first ever girls hockey team to have a undefeated season and have first seed going into playoffs and do things that the school has never seen a girl’s hockey team do like having some of our girls score 100 points in their career. I, being the only upperclassman defense, looked up to her leadership when I had to direct my defense on what was needed to be done to keep us in the lead or to prevent a goal. She helped me become the best leader for my defense which made me a better player. She strived for the team to be better and worked next to us to do it and I could’ve have asked for a better leader and coach.