The Power of a Root and Its Importance to Leadership

The Power of a Root and Its Importance to Leadership

"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." --Phil Jackson.

Today I decided to help my girlfriend Emmalee garden out the weeds in the back yard. Although I was hesitant at first, I am so glad that I decided to garden with her. I found out how much she loves to garden and found out how therapeutic and enjoyable gardening can be. I am grateful that we had this wonderful experience together. 

It was during today's experience that I found out the strength of a root. When I was pulling out the roots in the garden I realized that the structure of a root starts off small, but as it grows it goes out several ways. A root goes in several directions, typically to the left, right, and downwards. As the root gets larger it only gets stronger. It was amazing to me the strength of a root and how much dirt and earth that it takes out of the ground. It was seeing this that made me think about how important our leadership is as coaches. 

Now you may be thinking what in the world does a root have to do with leadership? Hear me out. When you begin building a program you are planted where you are at. As you gain years of experience you (the root) grow and have influence throughout the area that you are coaching. As you continue growing and learning, it is up to you to decide how you use that knowledge. Do you use it to help others or do you keep it for personal gain? It is this decision that will determine the strength of your roots. 

When you are building a program you must have principles. The reason why you have principles is that you need to have a vision of where you want to take your program. These principles will allow those around you to understand where you want the program to go. 

It is during this time that you have a decision to make. You can either be a selfless leader or a selfish leader. The selfless leader is a transformational leader. This leader is a positive source of encouragement where his/her's goal is to grow those around them to strengthen the team. The selfless leader constantly thinks of others over themself. On the other hand, there is a selfish leader. The selfish leader puts up barriers and is only concerned about his/her own growth. This leader constantly thinks about themself and is not concerned about others. This leader may appear to care, but in reality, only cares about themself. This leader is a transactional leader. This means that this kind of leader only cares about what those around him/her can do to help the leader. 

It is the decision to either be a transformational or transactional leader that will decide how strong the team will be. If you are a transformational leader, the team will be strong and only continue to improve. If you are a transactional leader, your team will die out due to selfishness. A team is only as strong as its leader, and the team will model the actions of its leader. Therefore if you are a transformational coach you will see your team only grow when times get tough.

A root is a strong thing. When massive storms come through, the root stays strong. Therefore as a leader, you have a decision to make. Do you want to have a strong team (root), or have a team that only wilts when the going gets tough? Your legacy is known by those you influence. Therefore when you are building a program you must be selfless and invest in the growth of those around you. If you do this then your roots will only continue to grow and get stronger no matter the conditions.