Leadership Effectiveness and Decision Making in Coaches

1. Leadership Effectiveness and Decision Making in Coaches Mimi Murray, Betty Mann & Jennifer K. Mead Chapter 6 “Having great leadership is a big key to success. Our team will go as far as our leaders are willing to take us.” Mike Candrea University of Arizona and US Olympic softball coach

2. What Is Leadership? • Art and science of influencing others through credibility, capability, and commitment • Behavioral process of influencing the activities of an organized group toward specific goals and achievement of these goals • The process whereby an individual influences others to do what he or she wants them to do

3. Theories of Leadership • Trait • Behavioral • Situational • Relational • Transformational • Leader member exchange • Cognitive approaches

4. Trait Approach • Leadership qualities are situationally specific • Traits as dispositions • Changing from situation to situation • Authoritarianism • Inflexible, domineering, emotionally inhibited, someone who needs to be in control • Might fail to adapt to new situations even when existing methods fail to lead to achievement

5. Attributes of Effective Leaders • Physical vitality and stamina • Intelligence and action-oriented • Eagerness to accept responsibility • Task competence • Understanding of followers and their needs • Skill in dealing with people • Need for achievement

6. Attributes of Effective Leaders (cont.) • Capacity to motivate people • Courage and resolution • Trustworthiness • Decisiveness • Self-confidence • Assertiveness • Adaptability

7. Behavioral Theories • Consideration behaviors • Mutual trust, respect for attention to the feelings and ideas of others • Effective communication and rapport • Initiating structure behaviors • Define and structure individual roles toward goal attainment • Active in directing group activities, communicating, scheduling, and experimenting with new ideas

8. Situational Theories • Situational Factors: • Characteristics of followers • Organizational situation • Demands of the situation • Contingency Model • Leadership behavior, task structure and leader’s position relative to authority and power interact to affect group performance and satisfaction

9. Situational Theories (cont.) • Life-cycle • Leaders should adjust their style in accordance to the life-cycle needs of the followers • Factors: initiating behavior, consideration behavior, maturity level of followers • Path-goal theory • Leader viewed as a facilitator who helps others achieve their goals

10. Relational Models of Leadership • Leader-Member Exchange • Members of a group take on specific roles or behaviors • Examining the effect that the quality of the relationship between leader and an individual follower may have on individual performance satisfaction • Limitation: model primarily focuses on one-to-one relationships and fails to consider group exchanges in a team context

11. Transformational Leadership • Effectively incorporates the follower as an essential way for understanding effective leadership • Transformation of individuals from current selves into their possible selves • Transformation occurs when: “leaders broaden and elevate the interests of their followers when they generate awareness and acceptance among their followers of the purposes and mission of the group, and when they move their followers to transcend their own self-interest for the good of the group”

12. Cognitive Framework for Understanding Leader Behavior Six constants of leadership: 1. The story 2. The audience 3. The orginization 4. The embodiment 5. Direct and indirect leadership 6. The issue of expertise

13. Cognitive Framework (cont.) 5 Components of Emotional Intelligence: • Self-Awareness • Self-Regulation • Motivation • Empathy • Social Skill

14. Authentic Leadership • Increased understanding of the authentic “self” • Characterized by “transparency, openness, trust, guidance toward worthy objectives, emphasis on follower development”

15. Multidimensional Models of Leadership in Sport • Identifies and describes the behavior of leaders in specific sport situations • Antecedent factors: situations, leader, and team member • Leadership behavior is examined from three perspectives: actual behavior exhibited by leader, type of behavior preferred by athletes, type of leadership behavior appropriate for given situation

16. Multidimensional Models of Leadership in Sport (cont.) • Consequences of behavior are measured by overall satisfaction of athletes or objective group performance outcomes • Leadership Sport Scale • Coaching Model • Training and instruction, democratic behavior, autocratic behavior, social support, positive feedback

17. Multidimensional Models of Leadership in Sport (cont.) • Suggestions for building a successful sport program • Investing in personal development may lead to better long-term results • Athlete empowerment may lead to better coach-athlete relationship • Broad range of characteristics is ideal for coaches in order for them to reach athlete’s preferred behavior • Possess strong organizational skills • Create a vision that includes goals and directions for program

18. Decision Making • The process of selecting an alternative from among many choices to achieve a desired end • Interactive process which is both cognitive and social in nature

19. Decision Making Styles • Autocratic • Absolute control and final decision with little to no input from the group • Democratic • Relinquishes control to become a part of the group; allows input and involvement of group when making decisions that affect the group • Laissez-faire (Permissive) • No decision making style at all

20. Decision-Making Processes • Cognitive Process • Using your knowledge and information gained from the human net of experience and surrounding information • Social Process • Who makes the decision and how the ultimate decision is made

21. Situational Appropriateness of Style of Decision-Making Seven problem attributes • Time pressure • Decision quality required • Information location • Problem complexity • Group acceptance • Coach’s power • Group integration

22. Evaluating Leadership • Athlete Satisfaction Scale ~ Rating coaches • Skill instruction and positive feedback is most important • More enjoyment when leader demonstrates personal interest in them and when the participants are able to demonstrate efficacy of social support • Committed to exemplifying as well as enforcing the rules • Ability to control emotions

23. Leading Ethically • Leaders in sport have moral responsibility and obligation to facilitate the utmost of ethical standards • Ethical leadership: Insists that all in sport follow the letter and spirit of the rules and cease and desist from valuing the cheater, the “get away with whatever you can” ethic

24. Developing Leadership Within a Team • Identify potential leaders and provide opportunities for leadership • Use these athlete leaders (also leaders such as athletic trainers, managers, and assistant coaches) wisely by delegating authority and responsibility to them • Deal with all athletes and assistant leaders as individuals • Keep communication open and direct rather than having team leaders serve as a “buffer” between the coach and other athletes

25. Developing Morale • Positive morale can create a strong emotional bond to and within the team • When morale is low, player departure or disgruntlement increases • Influences motivation • Based on truth and trust • Highly contagious • Enables tolerance of setbacks

26. Assessing Team Morale • Look and listen informally to: • Humor • The grapevine • Griping and complaints • Coach/administrator responsiveness • Coaches can boost morale by making the environment an emotionally secure one in which a sense of caring and appreciation are communicated

27. Trust Fairness Generosity Respect Consideration Gratefulness Dignity Integrity Caring candor 10 Qualities for Effective Leadership 10. Responsiveness

28. Leading Effectively • Master and apply current knowledge of sport physiology, psychology, and biomechanics • Develop interpersonal skills including the communication skills of speaking, writing, observing, understanding defense mechanisms, motivating, and (most importantly) listening

29. Leading Effectively (cont.) • Eliminate prejudiced language • Eliminate attitude that involves humiliation of losers and glorification of winners • Encourage the athlete to view an opponent as a challenge, not an enemy

30. Leading Effectively (cont.) • Understand the effects of social reinforcement on individual performance • Control one’s own arousal level • Help athletes set their own goals • Live in the present

31. Leading Effectively (cont.) • Provide opportunities for success through well-planned practices, good game conditions, sensible scheduling, and a pleasant atmosphere • Coach must be a teacher, leader, and an administrator • Be rational and humanistic