Process of Becoming a Leader
11/18/2016 12:00:00 AM | Water Polo
Nov. 18, 2016
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Captains for the University of Michigan water polo team are established over a period of time, earned not given.
Teams choose captains in different ways. Some have the student-athletes vote, some the coaches name them when school starts, but Michigan water polo Dr. Marcelo Leonardi waits for a few months to let the captains emerge naturally.
"If you anoint a captain, it is all of a sudden just a label," said Leonardi. "We don't want labels here. We want people who day in and day out fill the role of a captain and a leader without the title. Once we select captains, everyone knows who they are already. Day in and day out they filled the roles and did the tasks needed from your captains."
Leonardi feels the development process really starts at the end of a student-athlete's junior season. By dedicating themselves at the end of the season, over the summer and through the fall, they emerge as leaders. He feels that something is triggered inside seniors because of the sense of culmination.
-- Dr. Marcelo Leonardi on anointing captains
"Marcelo allows us time to figure out how to be a leader," said senior captain Heidi Moreland. "The second your season is over you don't have your captains. You have to automatically step up, but he doesn't put the pressure on you."
By not announcing captains at the start of the season it gives everyone an opportunity to be a leader in their own way. By the time Leonardi names the captains it comes as no surprise to the team as leaders rise to the surface.
"Marcelo likes for leadership to develop and to monitor what happens in certain situations," said senior captain Danielle Johnson. "Nobody went in to the season fighting to be captain. It was who showed leadership and who emerged."
Once the 2016 season ended, the soon-to-be senior class decided to talk about the upcoming season. Nobody talked about being captain, but they all agreed they needed to be on the same page.
"My class has been rock solid," said senior captain Allison Skaggs. "All six of us have the same thought process in the ways we lead. Experience from what worked well last year definitely plays into that. All six seniors are capable of leadership. The biggest thing we wanted to make sure of is that we had the same mindset with training, academics and socially."
The senior class has a group text to communicate what is going on with the team. It helps them address anything that comes up and deliver a consistent message to the underclassmen.
The 2015-16 captains -- Kelly Martin, Emily Sejna and Ali Thomason -- all complemented each other with different leadership styles. Those three led Michigan to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. This year Johnson, Moreland and Skaggs are similar in that they have different leadership traits that complement each other well.
"They all have different leadership strengths," said Leonardi. "There is never one individual who is the captain of the ship. It takes different characteristics and strengths. Our three captains, as different as they are, all believe in the program and the six pillars. They use their skillset and strengths to lead."
Now in their third year playing for Leonardi, the seniors know the expectations both in and out of the pool. As leaders they are now extensions of him.
"Through experience we now know when we do something wrong or when someone else is doing something wrong," said Moreland. "We can correct mistakes before Marcelo needs to step in any say anything."
It is those types of leadership characteristics that emerge throughout months of training.
Communications Contact: Ben Blevins
