Leadership through IM Soccer

“During intramural soccer, my goalie got injured so someone else had to play keeper (the normal process was challenged). Nobody really wants to play goalie. Instead of telling one person to do it, I talked to three candidates and spoke in a way that I was asking them if they wanted to play keeper, putting them in positions of power to make their own decisions, enabling them to act. Should none of them step up, I was prepared to model the way and play goalie myself. I tried to inspire the shared vision of doing what is best for the team, and in the end someone stepped up through his own volition and played keeper the whole game. I think the fact that he decided for himself to play rather than someone forcing him to make a positive difference psychologically and perhaps in his performance as well. In my mind was the notion of “leading from behind,” which I learned about at the Lafayette Leadership Experience on Saturday. Leading from behind means that even though you are the leader of other people, you can empower those people to make decisions and even be leaders themselves.”