What Every Team Captain Should Know to Drive Positive Team Culture

Picking team captain(s) is a daunting and challenging task for athletic teams, especially given how their role can impact team culture over time.

Sometimes selections are made strictly by coaches, sometimes it’s done by players voting, and sometimes it’s a combination of both.

Regardless of the selection method, TrueSport Expert Roberta Kraus, PhD, the President of the Center for Sports Psychology – Colorado Springs, Colorado, states that the most senior athletes with good stats are often selected. Then that athlete or athletes are told by coaches, “Congratulations, you are our captains this year – now go do a good job being the team’s leaders.”

The challenge in that last statement is that coaches and athletes make an assumption that just by being elected to the role of captain, athletes understand and know how to execute a leadership role. In reality, most athletes need some coaching on how to be an effective captain.

Below is Kraus’ road map of action steps that coaching staff and captains can implement so athletes involved in a leadership role are set up for success and supporting an effective team culture.

Criteria for Captainship Selection

There are some basic descriptors of what makes for an effective captain that can serve as a guideline in whatever selection process the coaches and/or team uses.

A desire to succeed beyond current skill and ability
A willingness to listen to understand vs. listen to be understood
An ongoing desire to develop the ability to deal with and appreciate conflict and different points of view
A type of personality or pattern of behaviors that others on the team want to follow, mirror, and/or emulate

Discussion Questions for a Newly Selected Captain

Coaches and captains should meet upon selection and discuss questions like these to establish shared understanding around the captain’s role and team culture.

• What appeals to you about being a leader on this team?
• What do you personally have to offer as a captain that can impact the type of team culture we all strive for? For example, an effective communicator, nurturer, cheerleader, task master, problem solver, motivator, risk taker, team builder, etc.
• What concerns you or worries you about being a leader on this team?
• What do you need from your coaching staff to be at your best in this captain role?
• What else do you need to know before you can be clear about your leadership role and the impact it will have on our team culture?