How to Be a Good Team Leader: Building a Winning Team Culture
It’s half time and you're two goals down. The changing room has gone quiet, and you can feel the energy draining out of the group. Somebody needs to say something, and everyone is waiting for the captain to say it.
Most athletes know that silence. That uncomfortable feeling of dread, followed by scanning eyes looking for someone to rally the team together and turn the sinking ship around. You need a leader to take control. Have you ever thought about that person being you?
If you've ever wondered how to be a good team captain, or quietly wished your team had a better culture, you’re in luck. You have more influence than you think. You don't need the armband. You just need to understand how teams really work and where you fit in. Let's start with what culture actually is.
What Team Culture Actually Is
Team culture is “the way we do things round here.” It’s the standards, habits and unwritten rules your team actually lives by. For instance, how early people turn up to games, the response when happens when someone drops a ball, or whether anyone speaks up when things go wrong. All great examples that say something about your team culture.
Group dynamics plays a major role in this. It’s how the people in a team affect each other's thinking, feelings and behaviour. Another factor to consider is cohesion, which is how much a team sticks together, both on the task, e.g., shared goals and standards, and socially – the level the group gets on with each other.
Think of culture like the pitch you play on. Every player walking across it is shaping it. You're either adding to your team's culture or wearing it down.
Why Culture Matters
Does culture affect the result? Absolutely. Research pooling dozens of studies shows that teams who stick together perform better, and it there is a relationship between togetherness and winning. Those who pull together help you win, and winning helps you pull together.
So, what’s going on underneath? When the people leading a team, with or without a title, make everyone feel part of the same “us”, players feel psychologically safe. In plain terms, you know you can make a mistake, ask a question or try something new without being mocked or punished. That safety changes how a team plays. People are more likely to speak up, work for each other, and bounce back when things go wrong (that’s resilience),
It also protects you as a person too. Athletes in psychologically safe teams report less burnout and better wellbeing. Culture isn't just a soft extra; it's a big part of why people either fall in love with their sport or quietly drift away from it.
The Captain Myth
In one study, thousands of players and coaches were asked who the best leaders in their team were. But interestingly, only around one in a hundred said their captain was best across the board. One percent. In nearly half of the teams, the captain wasn't the best leader in any role.
That isn't to say that captains don’t have a role in successful teams, they definitely do. But it gives us insight into how teams work. Leadership in sport is shared responsibility that we can all contribute to, it doesn’t just fall to the main “leader.” With this in mind, what can you be to contribute as a leader to your team?
Task leader: helps with tactics and decisions when it gets chaotic.
Motivational leader: lift the energy and belief of people when their heads drop.
Social leader: looks after the atmosphere, bring everyone together and try and keep the vibes feeling good and positive.
External leader: Help be the connecting link between the team and others outside of it that contribute to the club’s success, e.g., coaches, club or parents.
Don’t worry if you’re not brilliant at all four, we can play different roles and our teammates can fill in the gaps – work to your strengths.
So, the real question isn't whether you're the captain. It's which of those four roles your team already needs from you.
How to Be a Good Team Captain (With or Without the Title)
Here's where I'd start.
Find your role. Which of the four roles comes the most naturally to you? Lead from your strengths, not from a pre-conceived idea of what a captain traditionally is.
Set the standard with your behaviour. Culture is something that you have show, not just simply tell. Be the shining example that you want to set out for your team: be the first into the warm-up, give full effort in the last drill, and remain calm when the referee gets one wrong. Teammates will likely copy what they see, not what they're told.
Talk in “we”. The strongest teams are built by leaders who make people feel part of something bigger than themselves. Celebrate team wins before personal ones. Notice the contribution nobody else noticed. It’s look at what we did, not I.
Make mistakes safe. Were all human, and that means we’re going to make mistakes. Providing a safe space for people to recover from that is important. How you react to a teammate's error decides whether they take the next risk. Moaning and groaning is likely to lead to avoidance behaviours of all the good things that they do as well as the bad. Encourage them to keep going – they’ll pick their heads up and go again.
What the All Blacks Can Teach You
If you want proof that culture is built by players and not just coaches, look at the All Blacks.
Between 2004 and 2011, the coaches rebuilt how New Zealand's most famous team worked. They set up a dual-management model. This meant that a leadership group of senior players shared responsibility for running the team instead of it all falling on the coaches. Their role was to drive standards from inside the squad rather than from the sideline.
Across those years the team won around 85% of its matches, and the 2011 World Cup. Talent obviously played its part, but so did a performance culture where leading the team was everyone's job.
Your Team, Your Share
Culture isn't just the captain's job. It's everyone's, and you don't need to be an All Black to take your share. Leadership is a skill you train rather than a title you're handed, and every session, every reaction and every word to a teammate is building the culture you'll play in next week.
So, what's one thing you'll do in your next session to shape the team around you?
If you'd like help working out your leadership strengths and how to use them, that's what The Empowered Programme is for: my 6-session 1-1 mindset coaching programme. We start with a performance profile to understand you and your team, then build a personalised plan that gives you back control of what you think, feel and do, on the pitch and in the changing room. Arrange a discovery call or book your first session, and let's build the athlete, and the teammate, you know you can be.
"Everyone's a leader, everyone's in charge of a different facet of the game."
Siya Kolisi
Comments