The Team Captain's Leadership Manual

by Jeff Janssen

Designed for both athletes and coaches of all sports, this one of a kind Team Captain s Manual details a proven 10 week leadership development program to build effective team leaders. Create team captains
- set the tone for your team
- hold their teammates accountable to a higher standard
- constructively confront their less disciplined teammates
- know how to refocus their teammates when they are down or distracted
- take care of a lot of team problems so you don t have to

Genres: Leadership, Sports

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

Reviews

[Kelly K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Team Captains Leadership Manual
“If you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead others”
Jeff Jansen does an adequate job describing leader characteristics that will make them successful not only on a team but also in life. The book would best suit group discussions and would be most beneficial working through with a coach and their respectable captains/leaders. The first half of the book gives leaders practical definitions and questions to work through at the end of each chapter. The questions require you to reflect on your leadership ability and challenge you to think through your strengths and ways you can improve in areas that may feel intimidating. He has a couple of reflective quick surveys to take in the book which guide you to your natural strengths that you probably already have if you are looking to be a leader. He also developed a “Commitment Continuum “ that walks through your own commitment level to the team and how that will effect the team.

“A leader can’t make excuses. There has to be quality in everything you do. Off the court, on the court, and in the classroom.“ - Michael Jordan
The second half describes different leadership styles and I believe how to best blend those together to best benefit you and your team. Again each chapter has questions to think through and implement. I thought the second half was more of the meat of the book. I found the author conveyed important points all through the book and it will definitely feel like a book you can refer to during a season and as a refresher. I felt the book could have included more examples of how other teams have handled leadership so I found that part a bit lacking in my opinion. I think the author may have wanted this book to be more of a framework and build your own team leaders without dictating what that should look like for your team. The book feels a bit heavy to read in one sitting because of the questions included. I think for a young adult it’s best for weekly discussions to process and implement. Each chapter is labeled as “one week “ for a total of 10 weeks. That might be doable for some sports , but Spring sports have such a short season you will have to double up on chapters preseason or start this or as a summer book club challenge. Great information for coaches and leaders that would definitely refer to more than once. The author has also written a series of leadership books which you can find on his website and he has a leadership academy and other resources listed. 153 pages. Estimate 4 hours of reading.

[Motoko Maegawa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Head of Athletics at my school shared this book with me as we seek to build a more deliberate partnership between our two departments. As long as productive training with coaches is enacted ahead of then employing the workbook with the athletics captains, I can see how this could be a useful tool.

[Caroline]

I’ve never really understood all of the qualities that encompass a great leader. After reading this and completing the exercises, I feel like I can articulate leadership more clearly, more definitely. So yeah. Very helpful.

Not sure how to rate it though until I test it out. To be continued.

[Emily B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second time I’ve read this…once as an athlete and once as a coach. Great book for developing leaders and helping them understand what their role is. Looking forward to using some of these concepts with our whole team and expanding with Jeff’s follow-up guide.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic read for coaches and athletes. Jansenn sets up an interactive manual for cultivating leadership skills among athletes. This could easily be adapted to fit every day Life.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relatively good info, want to go through with my captains. Most of it could be distilled to a couple bullet points, and I thought the stories were good and more would be better.

[Kaley Lyons · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was insightful but like many self betterment books was repetitive. I disagreed with some parts in this book such as the enforcer chapter. It was very hard core about confronting teammates and I didn’t find that to be very realistic. Yes you need to set an example and ensure teammates follow the standards that are set, but this took it to a different level. Otherwise a good read.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish I had this knowledge when I was a college athlete...

[Douglas Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

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