Clear and Confident Communication

Leadership is an interesting thing. From an outsiders point of view, usually the loudest voice is coming from the leader of the group. While sometimes that is true, it’s not always the case. From my experience as a competitor and now a coach, the loudest isn’t always the best. What gets people to follow your leadership is your ability to communicate and motivate the group.

The best leaders I have been around always showed me the way with their actions. They were good speakers, and a couple of them were louder than others, but they always had done what they were telling me to do. Knowing that helped me a lot in my younger years. When I think of communicating with the people I am leading, I remind myself to stay calm when thinking through situations. I never wanted to be too high or too low. I learned that from one of my former coaches and I advise my current athletes to do the same. When you have athletes who fully trust in what you are telling them, you can give them hard truths and they aren’t offended or taken back by it. They use it to grow.

My life has been filled with great leaders, and as I get older I continue to use the lessons I have learned in my personal life. I use the discipline of wrestling to guide my life. Whether it has to do with getting just a little sleep because I am traveling, or am learning a new skill that is taking awhile. The lessons I learned as an athlete and a coach help me live and thrive in my everyday life. This isn’t strictly because of the sport of wrestling, but because of the leaders I had and the lessons I’ve now learned as a coach.

As I continue to learn and grow in my personal leadership, I think it is important to be clear and confident in what you are communicating. We are all human, so we will make mistakes. You must be able to recognize that mistakes will happen and that when they do, you will take responsibility and learn from them. The people I lead know that I want the best for them and if they believe it and were on the same page, we can have great personal and team growth.