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HOW ENDURANCE SPORTS INSPIRE A STRONG SENSE OF LEADERSHIP
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Introduction
Leadership is referred to as the art of motivating a group of people towards achieving a
common goal. Leadership is a critical aspect in every setting as the leaders have an obligation of
helping themselves and also others in doing the right things, setting direction to their
subordinates, building an inspiring vision, and motivating their subordinates towards achieving a
common goal. Being a great leader requires one to possess several qualities and employing the
management style. Different environments usually demand different leadership styles, which are
essential for the leaders to combine the different characteristics of the various leadership styles
for effective management. Some of the various types of leadership include; Autocratic
leadership, where the leaders generally have all the power, authority, and responsibility in an
organization. Another type of leadership is charismatic leadership, where the leaders have the
role in transforming the attitudes and the beliefs of his or her subordinates.
Additionally, charismatic leaders have the power to influence and inspiring people and
the goal of the organization. Another type of leadership is transformational leadership, where
they have a role in inspiring others which demands a high level of productivity and ensuring that
the subordinates are also involved. Another type of leadership is supportive leadership.
Supportive leaders have a role in delegating and assigning tasks to the subordinates and
providing them with the necessary skills in completing various tasks. Besides, engaging in
endurance sports plays a significant role in inspiring a strong sense of leadership. Endurance
sports can be referred to as a sporting activity that poses one to the repeated contractions of the
large skeletal muscle groups. Some of the various endurance sporting activities include cycling,
cross-country skiing, long-distance running, and they require one to sustain the intensity that
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comes with it. This paper discusses how endurance sports play a role in inspiring a strong sense
of leadership. This paper also discusses on self-leadership and why it matters.
Endurance sports and how they inspire a strong sense of leadership
Leadership is essential in the running of daily activities in various settings and
originations. There are various benefits of leadership which include; leadership leads to an
increase in productivity. By the leaders, delegating the tasks to the subordinates efficiently plays
a significant role in increasing the productivity of an organization. When the subordinates are
effectively delegated on the tasks they are supposed to attend to, it helps them work effectively to
meet the organization's goals. Another advantage of leadership is that it helps increase the morale
of the subordinates. By the subordinates trusting their managers helps increase their morale
where they work harder and become loyal to the organization (Turner, 2019). Leadership also
plays a role in enabling the organization to develop a deeper and more trusting relationship with
its clients. The leaders ensuring that the clients ate attended to and provided with quality
products builds a sense of trust in the clients and makes them loyal to the organization.
Leadership also plays a significant role in encouraging the employees and the subordinates and
the team members to be loyal even when the organization is facing challenging times; every
organization faces challenges and by the leaders encouraging the team members and motivating
them makes them loyal even when the organization is experiencing the challenges and working
towards alleviate such challenges. Leadership also plays a significant role in encouraging
collaboration amongst the management and the team members. Collaboration is usually referred
to as the process where the organization, team members, and the management work together to
complete a task and towards a common goal. Thus leaders influence the team members to
collaborate, which plays a significant role in the organization's success. Leadership is also
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essential as it nurtures a corporate culture of an organization ad also engenders loyalty and by the
clients and also retention by the team members.
Having in mind the benefits of leadership, engaging in endurance sports greatly benefits
inspiring a strong sense of leadership. Endurance sports play a great role in increasing one's
endurance. Endurance is critical in leadership as it makes one gain the courage to handle
leadership challenges since endurance sports take one's time, energy, and commitment, which is
essential when leading people. Besides, various health benefits come with endurance sports,
which shape one to leading the team members. Being physically fit plays a great role in
increasing one's mental stamina and endurance, which are the attributes that an effective leader
should possess. Some of the health benefits of endurance sports and play a part in leadership
include; increased mental strength (Baggish et al., 2017). Engaging in endurance sports plays a
great role in improving one's mental strength as it helps in managing the thoughts of a leader,
regulating one's emotions, and productively. This helps enable a leader to focus on his or her
effort and energy on the leadership matters that matter most in the organization. Another health
benefit that comes with engaging in endurance sports is improved sleep. Sleep is important for
leaders as it helps the body stress response to switch off and rest, which helps them be more
relative, more productive and makes one lead the subordinates accordingly. Another health
benefit of endurance sports is that it expands one's social circles. Another benefit that comes
with engaging in endurance sports is that it expands the social circles. This is where the leaders
can engage in endurance sports with their subordinates which created a support network. This
plays a great a huge role in mental well-being and managing mental health issues. On the same,
engaging in endurance sports helps the leaders to manage and cope with their mental health
issues such as stress, anxiety, and depression. Engaging endurance sporting as a leader also helps
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in building better body positivity. Body positivity allows a leader to function and lead their
subordinates at their level best since one feels emotional and mentally stable. Leaders have a
responsibility to shape our nations, communities, and organizations; thus, it requires good
leaderships to help in guiding and making the essential decisions to keep the world moving.
Engaging in endurance sports also helps shape the various characters and qualities required in
this leadership. Some of the various characteristics and qualities of a good leader include;
integrity. This is where a leader can treat the subordinates in the right way and knowing what is
best for an organization. When the leaders practice endurance sports, they can be mentally stable,
making them realize that their actions, words, decisions, and methodologies play a part in
creating the organization's true values and culture. Another quality of good leadership is
effective communication. Good leadership and good communication are usually interconnected.
When a leader has good communication skills and good interpersonal skills, one can
communicate in various ways, from transmitting information to coaching people. This also
entails a leader being able to listen to subordinates' ideas despite their differences in roles and
social identities. Effective communication encourages success since consistent and open
communication across an organization ensures that all the tea members, from the senior
management to the entry-level staff, have a clear understanding of the organization's goals and
culture. Self-awareness is another quality of good leadership that is brought about by endurance
sports. Self-awareness is referred to as the different aspects of self-including one's traits,
behaviors, and feelings. Self-awareness is essential in leadership as it enables the leaders to
recognize and appreciate their strengths and recognize their vulnerabilities and how to manage
them. Another quality of leadership is the ability to delegate. Delegating is usually the
responsibility given to one who is authorized to represent other people and delegate certain tasks.
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Delegation is usually one of the core responsibilities of leaders as it facilitates teamwork, leads to
better decision-making which requires trust from the subordinates. Another quality of leadership
is courage. Courage is usually the sense of one acting in a way that responds to risks and
challenges appropriately and acting against those who threaten them intending to accomplish the
good things of the organization. Leadership needs one to be bold in making various decisions
and leading people wherewith endurance sorting one can build up courageousness of dealing
with various situations. Another quality of leadership is gratitude and being able to positively
influence subordinates. A leader is supposed to be thankful and appreciate the good tasks
accomplished by the subordinates. This acts as a way to influence the subordinates to work to
their level best to accomplish the organization's common goals and raises their self-esteem while
performing their various roles in an organization. Furthermore, engaging in endurance sports
creates a sense of endurance as a leader where one can withstand the hardship and challenges
that come with leadership and also the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful occasion in an
organization. Being an ultra-runner or a participant in other endurance sports activities has much
to do with leadership. Some of the various ways in which engaging in endurance sports inspires
a strong sense of leadership include creating a sense of energy as a leader. Participating in
endurance sports requires a tremendous amount of energy; thus, it prepares one to deal with daily
life, busy agendas in the organizations. This also helps one as a leader to push further the limits
of their bodies and mentally above these initial believes. Leadership is about energy, and without
the energy, nothing moves. Nothing changes, but we realize that participating in endurance
sporting activities prepares one with the energy to transform and enhance all the leadership roles
in an organization (Tobin, 2019). Engaging in endurance sporting activities makes one resilient.
Being resilient is the ability one withstanding adversity and bouncing back from difficult
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situations. Endurance sporting prepares one with the strength to process and overcome the
hardships that come with leadership. Endurance sports come with extreme lows, which makes
one develop a relationship with failure. One faces frequent hurdles, injuries, mental strains, and
harsh weather conditions, where one needs to be resilient to overcome them (Allen-Collinson,
Crust, & Swann, 2018). This can be translated to the workplaces by leaders where resilient
leaders can sustain their energy even under pressure, making them cope with the disruptive
changes and also adapting to the changes fast. However, this resiliency can be built by a leader
after they have experienced few setbacks along with their leadership. Another benefit that comes
with participating in endurance sports is the managing of scarce resources. In endurance sports,
one quickly learns the hard way of managing scarce sporting resources over an alone period of
time. Effective management of the leaders' resources helps organizations consistently deliver
projects and services on time (Bjørndal, & Ronglan, 2021). This also acts to encourage the
subordinates to make good use of the available scarce resources towards delivering the services
needed. Endurance sports also is a matter of training with time to get a clear understanding of
conducting the various sporting activities with ease which can be transmitted to one as a leader.
Training is referred to as teaching or developing in oneself or others the necessary skis and
knowledge needed and that are related to the specific useful competencies. Training is usually
important in leadership as it helps teach the subordinates the effective ways to increase their
skills levels and give feedback and motivation (Alcorn, 2020). Additionally, training also helps
the leaders to develop their leadership style that their team members will follow and respond to.
Engaging in endurance sports is also known to create a sense of self-efficacy in one as the leader.
Self-efficacy is referred to as the belief that an individual has to execute the behaviors necessary
to produce the specific performance attainments. On the same, self-efficacy also acts as a
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confidence reflection on one's ability to exert control over his or her motivation, patience,
behavior, and social environment (Eich, 2017). Since endurance sports are usually characterized
by continuous dynamic, and it involves the exercise of the whole body creates a sense of self-
efficacy to one. In leadership, self-efficacy is essential as it helps in one’s leadership
performance and the group's performance that one is leading. Additionally, self-efficacy helps
one as a leader to have the ability to cope with the various leadership challenges whenever they
arise and encountering feedback on the various challenges being experienced in an organization.
Furthermore, engaging in endurance sports makes one a leader to build up the self-leadership
habits that are crucial while leading the team members. Some of the various habits gained by a
leader due to the practice of endurance sports include; being proactive by taking responsibility
for one's behavior, having a clear vision as a leader and taking the responsibility to accomplish
all the goals, and being able to focus on the significant and urgent activities in the organizations
and coming up with the synergetic solutions to the problems that may be facing the organization
and ensuring that the problems are alleviated. Endurance sports is also known to create a pursuit
of success for leaders when one is engaging in endurance sports, and there are various goals and
objectives that one plans on accomplishing. This is also incorporated in leadership, where the
leader who participates in the endurance sports set goals they need to accomplish in a certain
time frame. The setting of goals by leaders makes them get focused on what truly matters to an
organization, having a bigger picture, vision and one can know what they should prioritize.
Additionally, setting goals also play a great role in creating a sense of long-term and short-term
motivation, focusing on their knowledge. One can also organize their time and the available
resources to accomplish the set goals.
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Leadership is usually cultivated arty that usually begins with self-leadership, which
usually develops a sense of who one is, what one can do, where one is going, and one’s
communication, emotions, and behaviors. Moreover, self-leadership is usually a path towards
effectively leading others in a collaborative, decentralized workplace environment, training
people in gaining some of the self-leadership traits, taking the initiative in their various roles, and
solving the various challenges that they may experience in the organizations (Stewart,
Courtright, & Manz, 2019). There are various guidelines for leading a group of people as
leaders, including leading by example. In everyday life, as a leader, one should set an example
for those around you, which as a mire to motivate and inspire them to make the right decision
and effectively perform their roles. Another guideline is honoring others (Sidwell, 2018). Being a
leader requires one to be humble and give away the credit. This also involves showing the
subordinates that you recognize them, appreciate them by standing with them in all situations,
either positive or negative. Leadership also should involve embracing new ideas and
opportunities for those you lead. When leading the team members, one should not be shy about
anything new, whether it is an opportunity, an idea, or an experience. Still, one should turn every
day of their leadership of turning all the programs, projects, and processes of the organization
into possibilities (Ashridge Business School. 2009). As a leader, one should also enact change to
an organization whenever it is needed. Change is vital to the success of an organization as it
helps the members of an organization to understand the changes and commit themselves to the
changes towards a common goal of the organization. As a leader, one should normalize
motivating the group members that you lead. Motivation n refers to the process that initiates,
guides, and maintains the goal-oriented behaviors in an organization. Motivation can involve
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offering the employees bonuses, which creates a sense of job satisfaction and the urge to achieve
the organizational goals.
Conclusion
Conclusively, leadership being a process of influencing others, serving, motivating, and
empowering others is essential in every organizational setting. Additionally, leadership is vital in
the management function as it helps in maximizing efficiency and leading others towards
achieving the set common organizational goals. Some various guidelines and benefits come with
effective leadership as this helps in the effective regular running of an organization setting and in
achieving their goal. Besides, endurance sports are known to inspire a great sense of leadership.
Endurance sports build up a sense of endurance in leaders, making them gain the ability to
withstand the leadership hardships or challenges. We know that engaging in endurance sports
comes with sustaining a prolonged stressful effort in sporting activities. There are various ways
to engage in the endurance sport, inspiring a strong sense of leadership and pursuit of success in
the leadership process, such as creating mental stability in running all the leadership roles.
Finally, leaders should engage in endurance sports as they create a sense of endurance in the
leadership role and gain creativity in the better ways of leading people.
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