The Servant by James Hunter Essay

How to be a Successful Coach
The book The Servant written by James Hunter tells a story of a young business manager John Daily who had great success in his career, but one day his successful life got out of control. John’s job, his relations with his wife and children, and employees – everything was at stake for him. He had to find the way out of the situation in order to return his leadership roles of a boss, a husband and a father for his family and a coach. To achieve this goal he goes to “a retreat” at the Benedictine monastery which is located rather far from his house. He wants to find answers to the questions which are connected with his future life and career. John is very surprised when he meets a monk Simeon who conducts a seminar at the monastery and learns that the monk is a former executive and successful businessmen Leonard Hoffman. The monk Simeon teaches John to be an effective leader. He explains him many interesting things concerning the foundation of servant leadership and the essence of life. John realizes that leadership is not “power” but it is “authority” of an individual which is based on love, true relationships, service and human sacrifice.
The book The Servant can help to become a successful coach because it represents the major principles of leadership and teaches to develop interpersonal skills. The author of the book tries to explain the readers that to become a true leader, one should serve.
James Hunter, the author of the book represents his leadership model which is based on the following components: will, love, service and sacrifice, authority and leadership. In order to coach Track & Field it is also very important to have appropriate personal skills and leadership traits. It is vital for the coach to have will in order to lead his people to the major goal in their activity – to the victory.
As effective leadership is based on love, it is necessary for the coach in Track & Field to love what he is doing and to show his love to other people. A good coach should teach his people to love their activity.
The other very important thing concerning leadership which can be useful for any good coach is that he must serve the organization he works at or the people he teaches, and sacrifice his time and efforts for their progress.
The following qualities of effective leader which are represented in the book can help in coaching Track & Field:
good listening skills;
patience;
selflessness;
love and kindness;
honesty;
forgiveness;
positive attitude;
humility;
commitment;
respectfulness.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it is necessary to say that the book The Servant by James Hunter is really an effective guide for any coach who wants to gain success in his sphere of activity and to lead his people to the victory. A good coach should serve the people he coaches, listen to their needs and ideas, give them his praise and recognition when it is necessary, show them his love and kindness, be always honest and patient. Such servant leadership of the coach will guarantee success in any sphere of activity including Track & Field.