CH 9 – Leadership
Leaders – influence individuals toward set goals
 Decision making processes
 Motivational techniques
 Giving feedback
 Establishing interpersonal relationships
 Directing the group or team with confidence
Managers: concerned with planning, organizing, scheduling, budgeting, staffing and
recruiting.
“Too many teams are over-managed and under-led.” – Martens
 Appointed Leaders – Individuals appointed by some authority to a leadership
position (e.g., health club manager, coach, head athletic trainer)
 Emergent Leaders – Individuals who emerge from a group and take charge (e.g.,
captain of an intramural team, exercise class student leader)
No particular set of traits seems to characterize effective sport leadership.
Leaders in Non-Sport Settings – what they do falls into:
 Being considerate, i.e., friendship, mutual trust, respect and warmth between leader &
subordinates
 Initiating structure, i.e., setting up rules and regulations, channels of communication,
procedural methods, & well-defined patterns of organization to achieve goals and
objectives.
 Successful leaders score high in both areas.
Good to Great: (Collins, Jim (2001). Good to Great, New
York: Harper Business.
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Great leaders are ambitious for the company first – not themselves
Great leaders will set up their successors for even greater success
They display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated.
They are driven with an incredible need to produce results
Display a workmanlike diligence – more plow horse that show horse
Give credit when there are successes, but accept blame when there are failures
Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus – People are
NOT your most important asset – the RIGHT people are.
Three key concepts:
 When in doubt, don’t hire – keep looking.
 When you know you need to make a people change – act.
 Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.
Leaders in sport work both through interpersonal relationships and by providing
directions, goals, and structure to their teams. Methods to do this:
1)
Instruction & demonstration
 Includes positive, supportive feedback and technical corrective feedback
 Focus on the positive while giving clear information
2)
Reactive (response to a specific player behavior) and Spontaneous Behaviors
(initiated by the coach)
 2/3 of coaching behaviors with young athletes are positive and include:
positive reinforcement, general technical instruction, and general
encouragement.
 Players have greater self-esteem at end of season if coach gives
encouragement after a mistake
Behavior Guidelines for Coaches (p. 215):
Do provide reinforcement immediately after positive behaviors and reinforce
effort as much as results
Do give encouragement and corrective instruction immediately after mistakes.
Emphasize what the athlete did well, not what he did poorly.
Do not punish after athletes make a mistake. Fear of failure is reduced if you
work to reduce fear of punishment.
Don’t give corrective feedback in a hostile, demeaning, or harsh manner, as this is
likely to increase frustration and build resentment
Do maintain order by establishing clear expectations. Use positive reinforcement
to strengthen the correct behaviors rather than punishment or incorrect behaviors.
Don’t get into the position of having to constantly nag or threatened athletes to
prevent chaos.
Do use encouragement selectively so that it is meaningful. Encourage effort but
don’t demand results.
Do provide technical instruction in a clear, concise manner and demonstrate how
to perform the skill whenever possible.
Interactional Approach – leadership is interaction of personal factors and situational
constraints.
 Leaders cannot be predicted solely on personality traits
 Effective leadership fits the specific situation. Some leaders are better in certain
situations
 Leadership styles can be changed
Relationship-oriented leaders – develop interpersonal relationships, keep open lines of
communication, maintain positive social interactions, and assure that everyone is
involved and feeling good. More effective in moderately favorable situations
Task-oriented leaders – work to get the task done and meet their objectives. Their focus
is performance and productivity, rather than on creating good interpersonal relations.
More effective in very favorable or unfavorable conditions.
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Leaders can change between the two depending upon the situation.
Highly skilled players are usually already task-oriented so coaches with more
relationship-oriented style do better with them.
Less skilled players need more instruction and feedback, so task-oriented leader is
better.
Traditional sport practices which stress autocratic (controlling) behaviors may
hinder the development of athletic maturity.
Multi-dimensional model:
 Optimal performance & satisfaction are achieved when a leader’s required,
preferred, and actual behaviors are consistent.
 Required – organizational system itself dictates behaviors and people are
expected to conform.
 Preferred behaviors – group members have preferences
 Actual leader behaviors – the behavior the leader exhibits. This can also be
impacted indirectly by group preferences and what the situation dictates.
Antecedents of Leadership:
1)
Age and maturity - prefer coaches who are more autocratic and socially
supportive
– Teens and tweens prefer a coach who will allow some input in decision
making, who gave positive feedback, and gave lots of tactical and
technical instruction.
2) Gender
- Males prefer training and instructive behaviors, an autocratic coaching style – so
coaches should be more directive and provide lots of instructional feedback
- Women prefer democratic & participatory coaching style that lets them help make
decisions
3) Nationality
- Athletes from the US, Great Britain, & Canada have similar coaching style
preferences. Athletes from Japan prefer more social support.
4) Type of Sport
Athletes who play more interactive sports want a more autocratic coaching style
than do coacting sports
When a coach leads in a style that matches the groups’ preference, optimal
performance and satisfaction occur.
5) Psychological Characteristics
- Athletes with an internal locus of control showed a strong preference for training
and instruction behaviors
- Athletes with an external locus of control preferred autocratic coaching behaviors
- Women high in trait anxiety preferred more positive and social support than did
their low-trait anxious counter-parts
Consequences of Leadership:
When a coach leads in a style that matches the group members’ preferences, optimal
performance and satisfaction result.
1-Satisfaction – generous social support, rewarding of behavior, and democratic decision
making are generally associated with high satisfaction among athletes.
-Coaches hired at younger ages, with better previous win-loss percentages and with
less playing experience all elicit higher satisfaction
2-Cohesion – coaches perceived as high in training and instruction, democratic, social
support, and positive feedback behaviors and also low in autocratic (controlling) behavior
had teams that were more cohesive.
3- Performance – when actual and preferred coaching behaviors are congruent, team
performs better.
4) Intrinsic Motivation – coaches exhibiting a more autocratic (controlling) style had
athletes with lower levels of intrinsic motivation and perceived competence than did
coaches who exhibited a more democratic (autonomous) leadership style.
Four Components of Effective Leadership
Leader qualities:
Integrity
Flexibility
Confidence
Accountability
Preparedness
Resourcefulness
Self-discipline
Leadership styles:
Democratic
Autocratic
Loyalty
Candor
Patience
Combination
Situational factors:
Team vs. individual
Interactive vs. coactive
Team size – as size increases more difficult to be democratic
Time – if limited, task-oriented is better
Team’s leadership tradition
Followers qualities:
Gender
Nationality
Maturity
Ability level
These four all impact to make effective leadership.