Leadership

Leadership is ‘The behavioural process of influencing individuals and groups towards set goals’ (Barrow, 1977).

Characteristics of Effective Leaders

Former England captains Martin Johnson (rugby), Bobby Moore (football), Charlotte Edwards and Paul Collingwood (both cricket) have all experienced the joy of leading the nation’s teams to success in World Championships. What attributes have allowed these leaders to achieve such high leadership success? Other than being able to motivate others towards achieving a goal, most good leaders share some important characteristics, although this list is not comprehensive, some of the most important leadership skills are given below.

Good communication skills are critical to lead successfully; the leader must be able to convey ideas to other players using verbal and non verbal communication. If they mumble, speak too quietly or use words that are too complex for the intelligence of the players then they may not be understood resulting in players’ failure to carry out instructions leading to poor results.

Listening skills are needed for effective leadership; the ability to ‘actively listen’ to the followers’ opinions when making key decisions is important to build confidence and motivation within the team. It also helps those contributing to feel valued and respected so can lead to improved cohesion.

Ability to set clear goals or have a vision for the team; the nature of leadership is to influence individuals towards goals; if Martin Johnson was not sure how he wanted the team to play, then he would not be able to encourage the team towards the same goal.

Having a good knowledge of the sport is also a necessary trait, especially if strategies and tactics are important for success.

The best leaders are often referred to as leading by example and being enthusiastic. If the leader does not put enough effort in and lacks commitment; then the players are likely to lose respect for them and could lose motivation.

Empathy and sympathy are important traits for leaders. They must be able to see and understand the point of view of others; this instils integrity and represents high values.

As well as being motivated themselves, leaders should be able to motivate others. Some players prefer a ‘rollicking’ to get them motivated whereas others would perform worse if a manager gave them the ‘hairdryer’ treatment. This means that managers often need to be adaptable when dealing with the different performers they lead.

There are a number of different leadership styles and good leaders are able to utilize different styles for different situations. Lewin et. al. (1939) identified three distinct styles of leadership: autocratic, democratic and lassiez-faire.

Autocratic – An autocratic leadership style is very similar to the ‘command style’ of teaching . It is where a leader makes all the decisions; this is called a didactic approach to leading. An example of this method is when an aerobic instructor leads a class of individuals who are a similar ability. The leader chooses all the actions the class will do then demonstrate them at the front, whilst the class replicates their movements exactly. An autocratic style is appropriate for cognitive stage learners (beginners) as they may not have enough experience to make worthwhile suggestions. For hostile groups, e.g. a challenging PE class or a newly formed group, an autocratic style may be needed to gain control. When there is a lack of time available, e.g. if a team get stuck in traffic and arrive late for a game, there will not be enough time for discussion about game strategies so the leader needs to make quick decisions.

It is suggested that males may generally prefer to be led by the autocratic style and an example of how a coach may lead them could be using a military style drill approach. In situations where safety is a priority and the skill is dangerous, such as in high diving, an autocratic approach is necessary. There may only be one or two ways to learn the skill, so participants must follow the instructions ‘to the letter’ so they do not get injured when they attempt the skill. In a trampoline or gymnastics sessions for a large group of beginners, there is an element of risk and danger where coach must take an autocratic approach to control the group.

Democratic – this type of leadership is often seen in cup finals where the coach asks the players to volunteer for a penalty in a shootout should it occur. The players decide whether they want to take a penalty and if there are more players who want to take one, then the coach will select the overall five and the order they take the penalities in. Democratic leadership is best used when group members wish to participate in decision-making and have the necessary experience. It is good in situations when there is plenty of time to develop teamwork and work on communication within the team. Democratic leadership works best with more advanced performers and coaches who have knowledge to contribute. For example when selecting the squad for an international cricket match the manager has a meeting with the other coaches and captain to discuss their preferences but ultimately the coach has the final decision. If a leader and group members are well known to each other or the group is small communication is easier. When the situation demands high levels of information processing, decision making and lower levels of arousal require the democratic style. For example in trampolining the routine can vary in difficulty and score more or level points on the tariff (difficulty score), the coach may discuss what position the performer is in and what routine they will perform.

Laissez-faire – this leadership style requires high levels of trust between the leader and performers; it is best used with highly motivated and experienced performers who are capable of being left alone to complete a task. For example, a volleyball coach may set a problem solving task to their team and allow them to get on with it or this may be used to facilitate team work and communication skills.

Theories of how Leadership Skills Develop

There are a number of characteristics that most good leaders seem to share. Equally there are a number of theories that have been proposed to explain how leaders develop. This is another example of a ‘nature-nurture’ debate within (sports) psychology. The ‘Great Man’ approach is a ‘trait’ theory that argues for nature; leaders are born with an innate set of characteristics that enable them to become effective leaders. The social learning approach is a view that leadership is learned through observation and modelling and the interactionist approach combines the trait and social learning theories. These theories are the same as those seen in the Personality Theories page.

How Leaders are Chosen

Leaders are usually appointed by someone in authority, such as a chairperson of the board picking a manager or coach, or the coach picking his captain. Leaders selected through this process are known as prescribed leaders. Prescribed leaders are selected by someone outside the group being led; they are imposed onto the group. For example, in a Further Education college the coaches are selected by the head of the sports department. Another example is the England cricket coach who is chosen by the selection committee of the English Cricket Board. Sometimes the selectors ask the players for their opinions about who they would like to get the job but the board have overall responsibility for choosing the leader.

Another way a leader may gain control is when they emerge from within the group. These emergent leaders achieve their status through the support of their group and will possess the necessary skills and knowledge that the group need and value. These leaders are highly respected by their team and hold a position of authority. Examples of emergent leaders can be regularly seen in most team sports, particularly at amateur level where captains are elected from within the team of players.

Fielder’s Contingency Model

Fielder developed a model to try to explain how two different leadership styles are suited to the favourableness of the situation. He proposed that there were two major styles of leadership:

• Task-orientated leadership when decisions are made with only the result or outcome in mind. For example, substituting a player because he/she is not playing well so the team will win and not regarding his/her self-esteem or confidence. If you substituted the player in the task above then you would have taken a task-orientated approach.
• Person-orientated leadership involves thinking about the happiness and satisfaction of the individuals above success. For example, during a training session, choosing a game that the player’s enjoy, even though you would prefer to implement a more focused drill/practice that would develop the team’s techniques and tactical knowledge more would be a person-orientated approach. If in the task above you kept the player on, hoping he would improve throughout the game would be a person-orientated decision.

Fielder stated that a person-orientated leadership style is suited to situations where the favourableness of the situation is moderate. Task-orientated leadership is more effective when the situation is highly favourable or highly unfavourable. An example of a highly unfavourable situation may be when a school team has got stuck in traffic and arrive late to a tournament. A lack of time to organise the team and warm-up requires a didactic and task-orientated approach to sort out the team quickly.

In a moderately favourable situation the team may have arrived to the tournament early but may be missing a few key players. The coach has some time to make decisions and can use a person-orientated approach, consulting players about playing in their less preferred positions but still trying to keep the individuals happy.

In a highly favourable situation the team has arrived early and with a full squad of fit players. The coach would take a task-orientated approach focussing on the tactics and strategies already decided.

Fielder’s work was based on leadership styles in business settings. Like many theories from ‘pure’ psychology, when applied to sport they seem transferable. For example there are many sporting examples of a task-orientated leader taking over an unruly squad of players and turning them into a successful team. When Fabio Capello took over at Real Madrid in 2006 the team hadn’t won a major trophy for three years and had a squad of players who didn’t play as a team. Capello is renowned for his strict coaching style and this worked in turning the team round, winning the title in his first season. However, research into this area has also been equivocal, few studies have found supporting evidence for it and it may be too simplistic.

Chelladurai’s Multidimensional Model of Leadership

In comparison to Fielder’s model, Chelladurai’s model seems to more appropriate in showing how leaders are successful or unsuccessful in different situations.

The model shows how a leadership style will affect performance of the team, and satisfaction of the performers. There are antecedents that affect whether the leader’s behaviour is correct depending on:

Antecedents

Situational characteristics explain the scenario the group and leader may be in. This includes; the type of activity, level of competition, risk of activity, importance of game/match, opposition characteristics and competition characteristics. For example in a basketball match, a situation that may occur at the end of the game is that the team are losing and have only a few seconds remaining to score to take the game into over-time.

Leader characteristics refer directly to the leader’s level of experience, personality traits, their usual choice of leadership style and the goals or targets of the leader.

Team member characteristics explain the make up of the group being led. Age, gender, stage of learning, level of experience, ability, and motivation are all factors the leader must take into consideration before approaching the activity. For example if you were a ski instructor you would probably take a much more autocratic approach when taking the first session of they week for a group of year 7 students, whereas if you were taking a group of adults who had all had many years of experience you may take a more democratic approach, asking them what they would like to do during the week.

Leader Behaviour

Required behaviour refers to the leadership style that would be best suited to the situation. For example, during a rock climbing session a leader must ensure all health and safety procedures are followed to prevent injury, therefore an autocratic style of leadership is necessary.

Preferred behaviour is used to explain how the individuals within the group usually like to be led. Personality variables, age, gender and experience of the group can determine this. Younger performers and female performers generally prefer person-orientated or democratic styles. Older performers and male performers generally prefer autocratic and task-orientated styles. Larger groups generally prefer an autocratic style whilst smaller groups generally prefer a democratic approach.

Actual behaviour is simply the behaviour or leadership style that the leader carries out.

Consequences

Performance refers to how well the performers operate. Satisfaction refers to how happy and fulfilled the performers are as a consequence of the leaders actions.

Chelladurai suggested that if actual behaviour was congruent with the required and preferred behaviour then the performance and satisfaction of the group would be high. If the leader’s behaviour was not congruent, then performance or satisfaction would be compromised. It may be possible to have effective performances but low satisfaction if a leader chooses a leadership style that suits the situation (required behaviour) but not the members’ preferred behaviour (e.g. a task-orientated approach, picking players’ positions that the coach deems best to win, when the members prefer a more person-orientated approach, having some say in where they play). However, in the long term if member satisfaction is low, then performance may suffer. This can be seen when players request a transfer because they are not happy playing in certain positions, despite being part of a championship winning team. Performances will suffer if the leader adopts a style that suits members’ preferred behaviour but not the situation.

To summarise, it is important that the leader balances the groups preferred behaviour, the expected behaviour and the actual behaviour as closely as possible. A good leader will use a variety of styles and be able to adapt them to suit different situations. A good leader will gain the respect and confidence of team members who will be more likely to carry out their instructions, even if they don’t always agree with them.