Where does leadership fit on the course map?
Team structure
What is leadership?
The behavioural processes through which one person influences others towards attaining a goal
- INFLUENCING individuals and groups toward set goals
What has sport research focused on?
vast majority has focused on the coach/management and less on the athletes
Athlete leadership
An athlete occupying a formal or informal role within a team, who influences a group of team members to achieve a common goal
- sometimes influence decisions their coach is making
***not enough to be named a leader, must have some sort of influence over others
How are leaders differentiated?
- Roles (motivating? scoring?)
- Formality (C on jersey)
- Traits/attributes/behaviours
Two major roles of all leaders (Bales and Slater)
1.The task (instrumental)
- responsibility to task, work towards achieving those root level goals
2. The subordinates/social (expressive)
- responsibility towards team needs and success
Overlap between instrumental and expressive leadership
there is some overlap, doesn’t need to be one or the other
- athlete leaders who are both scoring goals and responding to their team needs (have social relationships)
What did Rees and Segal say about the roles of a leader?
The best leaders have a combination of the task and subordinates
Three main roles of leaders (Loughead)
- Task leaders
- Social leaders
- External leaders
External leaders
people good outward facing
- media, responsible for community engagement, acting on behalf of the team but not in the task or social ways
- informal leaders
Types of informal leaders (Cope et al)
- Non-verbal
- Verbal
Non-verbal informal leaders
Leads by example, hard work, dedication
Verbal informal leaders
Leads on and off field verbally
Fransen’s et al’s 4-role categorization
On field
1. Task leader
2. Motivational leader
Off field
3. Social leader
4. External leader
***any leader falls into these 4 categories
Task leader
- in charge on field
- helps team focus on goals and in tactical decision making
- gives advice during games and adjusts them
***the one calling the shots, can rely upon scoring goals
Motivational leader
- biggest motivator on field
- encourages teammates
- puts heart into players who are discouraged
- steers emotions on the field in the right direction to perform optimally as a team
***coach often relies on them for bringing inspiration
Social leader
- promotes good relations with team
- cares for a good team atmosphere (dressing room)
- assists with conflict besides the field
- good listener and trust by teammates
***drives team culture, group chats, team dinners
External leader
- link between the team and people outside
- representative of team towards club management
- communication with media or sponsors
- communicate guidelines of the club management to team
***person speaking on behalf of the teams
What has increased fulfilment of the 4-role leadership categorization shown?
- higher confidence
- identity
- final ranking
***the more people we have serving these roles, the better
Social network analysis study findings
- the more athletes within each category, the more cohesion
- only 2% of athletes found to fulfil all four **
- only 19% out of 4500 served the 2 out of 4 roles on a team
Main point with the study
***More distribution across the 4 roles, the better
Formal leader
prescribed or awarded (ie. captains)
- most research done on them
Informal leader
emerge based on interactions between teammates and the demands of the task
(ie. feedback when they speak up such as listening)
Importance of informal leaders
- 44% of athletes indicated that the team captain was not the best leader in any of the four roles
- 50% of teams indicate best leaders to be the formal ones while 50% suggest they are informal leaders
***need to be less formal leaders than informal
