THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP NETWORK

A blog by JJ Liggins

I applied for a job at the NLN around eight months ago to be part of a team that would work with people with care experience. After two interviews I got the job and became part of the National Leadership Network Steering Group where we use zoom calls to have our meetings to discuss various topics. The Steering Group makes all the main decisions for the NLN. I also love sports, and I think many leadership qualities within sports are also used in our steering group meetings. 

Although a zoom meeting is not a sporting activity the NLN shares a lot of leadership qualities with good leaders in sport. The NLN encourages everyone involved to be leaders and contribute to group decisions and grasp leadership qualities. For example, like in sports if there is an obstacle in a game the leaders in the team always stay positive to try and overcome the problem. This is important as staying positive as a unit allows the group/team morale to stay high, encouraging people involved to try their best. I have found that working with the NLN whenever there is a task it always gets done but everybody plays their part to get it finished on time, just like in sport when teams work together to win a game.

Another quality found in the NLN, and sports leadership is leaders should be good listeners. Everyone should take into consideration people’s ideas, like in sport if there is a team game plan and all players contribute to the discussion. Or like in a zoom meeting, if there is a task at hand everybody listens to people’s ideas and gives their opinion. That brings me onto the next quality all good leaders have in the NLN and sports. All good leaders should give constructive feedback to try and help their team to become better. This may mean someone in the NLN has a good idea, but it needs a bit of tweaking to make it brilliant. The same in sports, in football for example if a player makes the wrong pass their teammate would give them constructive feedback and tell them to lift their head and look at the other options of who they could pass the ball to. 

The final leadership quality within the NLN and sports is admitting mistakes. This is an important one as we all want to be right in everything we do, but it takes a strong leader to admit defeat. This could be on a zoom meeting when someone else has a better idea than yours but to get the best outcome for the group you just go along with it and in football this could be admitting to not tracking your opponent and they get a free header to score and win the game. 

Overall, the NLN and leaders within sports are different but share such similar qualities needed to work together and thrive as a collective and as an individual to get the best possible outcome for each circumstance.  

June 2023