What Happens When You Leave?

Imagine you stepped away from your role tomorrow. Not because anything had gone wrong, but because another role came along or your circumstances changed.

What would happen next?

Would the programme continue with clear direction, or would everything depend on someone trying to work out what you were trying to do first. Would the athletes understand what they were doing and why? Would the other coaches know how decisions where made? Or would the whole system fall apart after you left?

We want to believe our knowledge, experience, and presence make a difference. And they should. But there is a difference between being valuable and making the entire programme dependent on you.

Early in your career, success can feel very personal. You write the programme, deliver the session, make the adjustments etc. As your responsibility grows, the role starts to change. Your impact is no longer measured only by the quality of the sessions you coach. That might mean explaining the reasons behind your decisions instead of simply giving instructions. It could mean creating systems that another coach can understand, giving younger staff responsibility, or involving athletes in the process rather than keeping every answer to yourself.

This does not make your role less important.

Of course, no transition is ever perfectly smooth. A new coach will bring different ideas, relationships, and ways of working. That is part of it all. But there is a big difference between a programme evolving after you leave and a programme falling apart because you left.

Perhaps one of the strongest signs of leadership is creating something that does not need to collapse when you move on.

Food for thought

Michael