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?

There is a theory that leaders are born and not made this is called the ‘great man’ theory (Carlyle 1841) he made this conclusion after evaluating several factors which make a good leader: -

• Height – Tall players such as Martin Johnson         
• Weight -
• Physical attractiveness – Good looking people like David Beckham as England Captain
• Self – confidence -
• Intelligence – Sven Goran Eriksson

All of these characteristics are genetic and cannot be severely altered therefore backing up his theory.

How leaders are found

There are two ways in which leaders are appointed

1. Prescribed leader – This is usually in a more formal situation and are appointed by a higher authority e.g. Sven Goran Eriksson by the English F.A
2. Emergent Leader – Someone who progresses through a group because of their good traits e.g. Tim Henman although he isn’t an official leader.

Types of Leader

There are several categories that leaders can be divided into: -

Task Centred Leader

They set goals and tasks to be achieved by them or their team

Relationship Centred Leader

These concentrate on personal relationships with Team and higher authorities in order to improve morale

Situational Favourableness If things are going well for the coach, the racket player or the team or if they are going bad the leader must be more task centred.

If the situation is moderately favourable then a person-centred approach is probably the best approach. Each type can be effective depending on the situation

Chelladurai’s Five Types of Leader Behaviour

Training and Instruction –

• Behaviour aimed at improving performance
• Strong on technical and tactical aspects

Democratic approach –

• Allows decisions to be made by the whole group

Autocratic approach –

• Personal authority
• Least preferred if the coach doesn’t show he is aware of what the athletes wants and needs

Social Support –

• Concern shown for well being of others
• Preferred by youngsters

Rewards –

• Leader uses rewards as a way of focusing the team

Leadership style

                              Laissez Faire           Democratic                 Autocratic

Laissez Faire leadership style is when the leader makes no decisions, and the group determines the decisions and acts as a consultant to the group.

Autocratic leadership is where the leader makes all the decisions without consulting anyone else e.g. Brian Clough

Democratic leadership is where the leader puts his decisions across for the group to look at before it is made final

The way a leader behaves is dependant on a number of factors:

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

All of the above make the task of leading very difficult. A leader must satisfy a range of different people, often with conflicting requirements.

The team may expect the leader to do one thing while the manager wants to do another. A successful leader may not always be popular, but will require the support of those around them.

Fiedlers Contingency Model

Chelladurai’s Multidimensional Model of Leadership

There is also another theory affecting leadership “the more the leaders actual behaviour matches the expectations and preferences of the members of the group and specific demands of the situation, the greater the groups satisfaction, enjoyment and performance”

Bibliography

Advanced PE for Edexcel (Frank Galligan)

Physical Education and the study of sport (Bob Davis Jan and Dennis Roscoe)

Physical Education (Don Webster)

Advanced PE and Sport (John Honeybourne, Michael Hill, Helen Moors)

Physical Education and sports studies (Dennis and Jan Roscoe, John Honeybourne, Bob Davis, Frank Galligan)

Sport and PE (Kevin Wesson, Nesta Wiggons, Graham Thompson, Sue Hartigan)