Ch.

10 Summary – Leadership – Ryan Collins

With lots of great information start to finish in this chapter with many dimensions and levels to it, the most

important concept to me was Transformational Leadership. “Taking a visionary position and inspiring others to

follow that vision and supportively working with others …inspire them to achieve more than the previously believed

they could”. So much of this is directly out of my philosophy of education/coaching that I lead with and have on my

resumé. The very first line is share is absolutely having a vision of how we’ll achieve excellence and how we’ll get

there. I feel like I covered this belief quite a bit in my chapter 9 summary. I will be flexible on the details, how we’ll

get there, and learning from others’ experiences and opinions, but be unwavering in the vision. The next part was

working supportively with others. I use the term active partnership often to describe this athlete and coach/leader

interaction/relationship and how we’re codependent on each other to achieve success. It lets them be engaged,

active, and highly accountable in the results.

The final part about believing in and seeing something in our kids they often can’t see in themselves is just

amazing. The past few weeks we’ve had one of our best people on our team who works incredibly hard, and often

has goals that sell himself short, have an opportunity to step up and accomplish more despite him not believing he’s

ready yet. Then he gets to the moment, and delivers. Our end of season champs is in 2 weeks and I believe his goals

are well within reach, and then some more. There’s no better feeling when I almost have to hold back by excitement

and tell them “Just wait and see, because with how hard you work and are smart and engaged in what you’re doing, I

think you’re about to shock yourself with what you accomplish”. I love believing in our kids and people, even when

they don’t believe in themselves. It’s so powerful to help them think they can do more and help instill that

confidence in them. I ask our kids to but their trust and belief in me and our vision and process it’ll take to get there,

and in turn I’ll put my trust and everything into them to help them get there and be the best person they can be.

Upon reflection, I’ve had a few personal examples of others believing I can accomplish more than I thought

I could at the time and being transformational leaders. I spent my freshman year of high school on JV and one day

get told by my coach “you’re going up to varsity today” in a moment I least suspected it and thought I wasn’t ready

for, but did and survived and then started varsity for the next 3 years. I can still remember the coach’s tone and

conviction almost 10 years later as she told me: “Oh yeah, you’re more than ready”. Later on in junior year a good

friend of mine who I grew up for 8 years competing against/with and had never beaten were in the same event

against a better opponent from the other team and my friend tells me “hey, we’re going 1 st and 2nd in this event” and
Ch.10 Summary – Leadership – Ryan Collins

we did just that. I never thought I’d be the first one to touch the wall, but I was the one in 1 st, not my friend, in

dominating fashion no less with one of the biggest time drops I’ve ever had. I think this speaks to the power of

having someone else who you trust and value believe in you that you can accomplish more than you believe in that

moment as well as the power of “we” not “I” even in a sport that is generally viewed as an individual sport in

swimming .

My final personal example I wish to share actually goes back to the young man on our team at Mount I

spoke about in the second paragraph. There’s another story, with the roles reversed. I first met him about a year ago

as I guess a friend at the time. This was when I was really struggling with my teaching career and looking for

direction. We were talking about swimming and coaching one night and he suggest to me about maybe just being a

coach. He could tell how absolutely passionate I was about it and saw something in me I couldn’t see myself at the

time, or make clear sense of. Now a year later and I’m working with my first college team (which I don’t know if I

ever though that may happen) and earning a Master’s degree, because this 19-year-old kid believed in me. He was

another transformational leader I needed at the time and was so blessed to cross paths with. Not surprising at all, this

young man is one of the best leaders on our team, despite not holding a title of captain or something, but is

respected by his peers and will likely be rewarded with that honor next year.

Thanks for listening to some of my history! These moments have really shaped who I am today.