Victory at 2007 World Kickboxing Association National Tournament Semi-finals
As a dad, your default role in life is to lead as a role model. This is life's highest honor and also it's heaviest burden: to have your actions and example directly influence the future of another. Your family is your Champion All-star Team, and you owe it to them to become the exemplary team leader that they deserve.
Teams Work Together
As a team leader, it is important for you to know the roles that your team members play in order for you to rack up wins. These wins can be as small as working with your wife to teach your baby daughter half of the alphabet, or as grand as raising a valedictorian college graduate who ends up curing cancer.
Think about what it means to be a team. It's not enough that you are good at what you do or even that your teammates are the best at what they do if you can't work together with a clearly defined goal and clearly defined roles.
You always do your best, but trying to take on more roles and responsibilities than you are willing and capable of results in frustration, lack of focus, and ultimately failure. Alternatively, It is unrealistic to expect any one person to take on more roles and responsibilities than they are able to successfully manage. If your plan causes some team members to be overwhelmed, then either your goals or your plan need to be revisited.
Sometimes You Start off Bumpy
When I first started competing in amateur kickboxing in 2002, the "Fight Team" consisted of myself, one coach and one other fighter. Our coach was formerly with the Nepalese national kickboxing team, and he knew how to produce great fighters. Our conditioning program was solid and we were fight-ready for every event.
However, there was one critical flaw that cost us several wins. We weren't prepared or organized when it came time to step into the ring. As a fighter, the only thing you should have to worry about is going in there for 3 rounds and giving it your best.
You shouldn't have to worry about whether your teammate has your extra mouthpiece, whether your coach is clearly communicating what you should be doing, or whether your corner man knows what to do to help you recover between rounds. It would turn out just like you would expect. Painful and embarrassing.
During those first few fights, I can honestly say that we were not as focused as we should have been, and it completely threw our game plan off. We lost too many fights because of poor communication, preparation and organization. We had a great fight coach, but we had no leadership.
Successful Teams Grow and Evolve
After our coach moved on and I moved up as the head coach, I made one very important change that dramatically increased our team wins, encouraged more athletes from our gym to try out for the team and gained our school some respect in the amateur kickboxing circuit.
We were fortunate enough to have a group of strong, talented and hard-working athletes and a training program that proved itself to be successful over and over. What we needed was a game day strategy.
In light of this, I implemented a mandatory pre-fight meeting the night before all events in order to organize equipment, fight strategies, schedules, and assign corner man duties.
Each fighter was responsible for bringing his own tape, wraps, gloves, shorts, pre- and post-fight meals, water bottles, mouthpieces, medical forms, event paperwork, fight passport, warm up gear, etc.
Each fighter would also pick a teammate who would be his or her Ice Man. The Ice Man was responsible for making sure ice and water were ready between rounds.
A coach would be assigned as Safety Man (or Cut Man). He was responsible for knowing who each fighter was fighting, the fight rules for each event, cut and concussion protocols, hand wrapping and taping techniques, equipment inspection, warm up procedures for each fighter and, heaven forbid, criteria for stopping the fight.
As the head coach, I was usually the Strategy Man. As the only corner man who entered the ring between rounds, the Strategy Man gave the fighters (no more than 3) actionable directions between rounds.
We had a rule that no one else on the team shouted instructions during the fight except for the Strategy Man. We trained the fighters to tune out all other distractions so they could hone in on nothing but the coach's voice and the bells that signaled the start and end of the rounds.
All this was determined, confirmed and double checked before we even left the gym. When fight time came around, the only uncertainty was whether or not our fighter was better than the other fighter.
Successful Leaders Apply Universal Lessons
Although it may not seem applicable, the same principles apply in the office as in the ring. How many times have you come across a situation where someone told you," I didn't know I was supposed to do that" or "That was not my job?" You don’t always have a say in who is assigned to your team, but you need to get to know them and get their support quickly if you want any hope of getting them to support you.
To be an effective leader, you must determine a clear objective (The Vision) and break it down into smaller tasks (The Mission) that will bring the team to the ultimate completion of that objective within the existing constraints (time, money, energy, resources, etc.).
To this end, you need to assign the right team members to the right tasks which comprise the grand plan. When this plan is implemented, each individual needs to know when to execute, who they can rely on, who they need to support, and what is their criteria for successful completion of their assigned tasks.
Behind the scenes, you are watching and evaluating, always ready to course-correct should the need arise.
Ownership Over Perfection
As a dad, a spouse, a professional and a member of society, you will come across situations that require leadership. It's OK not to know all the answers right away. It's OK to fall short and make mistakes every now and then.
What's not OK is not to learn from those mistakes and to not act on knowledge and experience, and still expect to come out on top. It's not easy. It's not supposed to be easy. However, when things go right, they make it all worth the hard work and preparation; and you move forward not as individual, but as a cohesive team.
Ready to Lead? Contact coach_rup@roninmonsterfactory.com