Coaching Leadership Styles Have On Team Culture - 2388 Words

Oftentimes in sports, coach’s contributions get overlooked while players garner most of the attention. When teams find success, it’s the players who receive the majority of the credit, while the coaches are often left in the background. Oppositely, when teams experience failure it’s the coaches who receive most of the criticism, not the players. In reality, organizations and teams are made up of multiple components, each having an effect on one another. Depending on the level of the sport, player to coach relationships can have an insurmountable effect on a team’s performance, culture, and cohesion. In building these relationships, coaches bring their own unique set of leadership skills and styles, and hope to have a positive influence†¦show more content†¦In the book, â€Å"Mastering Leadership,† leadership promises four universal elements, which include setting the right direction to create meaningful work, â€Å"engaging all followers a nd holding them accountable for performance,† ensuring that â€Å"processes and systems facilitate focus and execution,† and â€Å"maintaining relationships of trust to achieve and sustain desired results.† Within the scope of leadership are three developmental areas: leadership process, leadership competencies, and leadership consciousness (Anderson 2015 p.4). John Wooden, one of the most successful men’s basketball D-1 coaches of all time states, â€Å"A leader’s most powerful ally is his or her own example† (Haefner). The most powerful leader concentrates on being the best role model for his or her audience. Characteristics of an effective leader include, good communicator, passionate, creative, confidence, and driven by a goal. Leaders must convince groups of individual minded people to all believe in his/her method to complete a common goal (McNamara). In a study done by Chen, athletes who were lead with an autocratic or democratic leadership style and higher frequency of instruction, positive feedback, or social support behavior, produced higher overall cohesiveness. Chen’s team also found coaching leaders that demonstrated these characteristics, made athletes more motivated (Chen 2008). Anderson proposes there are six leadership practices that help a leader become effective in a team