What factors contribute to make a good leader and how might your style of leadership vary to be successful when involved in individual, racket and team activities?

 

However, these types of leaders will need certain qualities and characteristics to become a successful one. A lot of debate has been focused on whether these qualities and characteristics of a leader are environmental (those influenced by their experiences, or growing surroundings) or genetically ones. Yet now, it has been proven that it is ‘social learning’ which will influence a person’s development as a leader. Some of the main characteristics that are needed for a successful coach/ leader are a sport-specific skills/knowledge, interpersonal skills,  peer respect, good communication skills, empathy, consistency and fairness. A leader also needs high levels of motivation and also to provide a self- realisation tactic to help their students or athletes, not only for a team sport, but also for coaching an individual or a racket activity. To spot these skills on a leader can sometimes be impossible, and so questionnaire based approaches, researched by the Coach Behaviour Description Questionnaire (CBDQ) and the Leadership Scale for Support (LSS.)

 

As mentioned earlier, a leader does not have to be just a coach or a manager. A leader can take roles on such as a captain. Captains are important in all sports, whether it be a football captain in a final, a netball captain in a friendly or simply a gymnast or dancer being her own captain. All captains of sports should gain maximum productivity in a group. Fiedler (1967) investigated two categories:

• task- orientated 
• person- orientated

 

Task- orientated leaders are wise on the sports specific/skill knowledge and activity bases of the main characteristics of their sport. Because of their sound knowledge of the sport, they lead their team or individual to success. They understand the task as a whole, knowing the different aspects of it because of their skill, knowledge or experience. Person- orientated leaders have extremely good inter- personal skills. They do not know or understand the sport they are leading to as much depth as task- orientated leaders, but instead are motivators that concentrate on individuals and their aims, rather than the team as a whole.

 

The approach adopted by a leader varies with both the individual and situation. Three specific styles of leadership have been identified:

1. autocratic 
2. democratic 
3. laissez- faire     (- Advanced PE for Edexcel.)

 

Autocratic leaders are those who have power over their team or individual. They coach in command style A (where they are in total control, and there is no freedom for the group.) Autocratic leaders would suit individuals or racket activities. This style of leadership would bring success to individuals or racket activities because focus would be solely on them, and aiming to bring them more success or to get a task completed. An example of this could be a runner or a dancer preparing for a race or exam, where their coach or teacher is in total control, but where they are confident enough and understand their task and sport. Whereas autocratic leaders are task- orientated leaders, democratic leaders are person- orientated leaders who take advice from their group, and will therefore listen and act on their opinion. This style of leadership would best suit team activities where all the players would get a say in the decision. For example, in a football match, if it ever came to penalties, who out of the eleven players would each take one. Laissez- faire is a style of leadership where the group are encouraged to do what they want. However, because of the freedom given, this style of leadership is only successful if the group are motivated and very experienced players, so that they can, by themselves, still succeed.

 

Identifying leadership characteristics have lead to a number of methods being formed to try and identify them, and to measure the influence of the leader. Again, these methods are thought to be based on trait theories (genetically passed on) or social learning perspective. These include:

• path- goal theory 
• normative theory 
• situational leadership theory

 

 

Nonetheless there are others which bond the notions. One of these thoughts is Chelladurai’s multi- dimensional model of leadership. The model below shows the relationship between the leaders personality, the group and the situation. It suggests that:

1. The satisfaction of the team with the approach of the leader is influenced by many factors.
2. The way a leader behaves is dependent on a number of factors:

 

• How the leader wants to behave 
• How the team want a leader to behave 
• The situation 
• The personality of the leader 
• How the leader is expected to behave

 

(- Advanced PE for Edexcel)

 

                                                                                                                       

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Chelladurai’s multi- dimensional model of leadership

 

 

Based on Fielders theory of task/person orientation and Chelladurai’s model of leadership, it is made clear that a leader is a key element in developing a team to success and achieving goals. A leader has to be able to suit their individual or team. But also to relate to their needs and aims, satisfying a range of different people and leading them to success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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