Before I graduated high school, I spent a majority of my free time in extracurricular activities like clubs and sports. My favorite thing to do was soccer, I played for 14 years. While the teammates usually stayed the same, the coaches changed with each age division. I have had a lot of wonderful coaches who became friends and great role models for not only myself but for everyone they taught.
With the good comes the bad and I have definitely experienced poor leadership and coaching techniques throughout my years. One particular experience that will always stick with me and encourage me to do better was a substitute soccer coach. This man’s style was aggressive and totalitarian. For the two weeks he coached our team he focused on scare tactics to gain respect. He spent a great deal of time yelling and punishing, even when we did not do anything wrong. The overall morale and motivation for the team was at an all time low. No one looked forward to coming to practice and we were all on edge in case we made any mistakes. Lets just say, we were all ecstatic when our coach came back from vacation.
A great coach, just like any great leader, not only inspires but puts forth a great deal of time and effort to achieve any goal. They strive to have a cohesive team. This is very similar to a concept that is discussed within Northouse’s book. the path-goal theory is “designed to explain how leaders can help followers along the path to their goals by selecting specific behaviors that are best suited for their followers needs” (Northouse, 2016). There are many key differences between a leader and a boss. A boss dictates while a leader looks through scenarios and tries to determine the most successful solution.
Leadership is defined as ” a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a goal” (Northouse, 2016). The article I found, Ethical Leadership in Sports: What’s Your ENDgame, discusses the right and wrong ways of conducting leadership. Maintaining authority is important however there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. In order to have a strong team you must keep communication lines open, adapt to all situations and focus on the bigger picture, keeping all values and principles in mind (Grange, 2014).
Without proper leadership, my soccer teams may have been less successful than we were. I was lucky enough to have coaches who not only cared about the sport, but the teammates. I will always remember my substitute coach and use the information learned in this course to make sure my leadership skills surpass his.
Grange, P. (2014). Ethical leadership in sport: What’s your ENDgame? (First ed.). New York, New York (222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017): Business Expert Press.
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. ISBN 9781483317533
Brian C Van Aken says
Emilee,
Reading your blog brought back great memories, as well as a very empathetic reaction. Having spent most of my adolescent life on some kind of ball field or court, I was all too aware of your experiences having a good coach, and bad coaches. I think it’s fitting to use the Path-Goal theory for your comparison, because as it’s very fitting for a coach’s role as a leader.
The lesson commentary defines the path-goal theory as when a leader helps define a path or direction to help their subordinates achieve a goal that was commonly discusses (PSWC, 2017). The commentary also speaks to the need for an effective leader to provide emotional support as needed along the way to the path or goal that’s agreed upon (PSWC, 2017). The way you spoke about your substitute coach shows the exact opposite of those two paradigms, thus reinforcing that he really was a poor coach and leader and it’s scientifically proven!
Four key behaviors were discussed in the path-goal leadership theory, and those are directive leadership, supportive leadership, participatory leadership and achievement-oriented leadership (PSWC, 2017). Of those behaviors, the only one that your substitute seemed to possess is directive behaviors in how he managed, though that is an assumption based on his use of scare tactics. But the lesson does go on to speak about how path-goal theory is not a trait theory, but was just demonstrating how most path-goal theory oriented leaders will display at least one of these four behaviors, and that different situations will call for different behaviors much like the SL2 model (PSWC, 2017).
Personally, I’ve found the coaches who had the most impact on me were very strong with participatory leadership, and achievement-oriented leadership. Participatory leadership involves their subordinates in decision making (PSWC, 2017) and both my High School football coach and track coach, were both very inclusive when it came to making team and “game time” decisions. As such we always felt empowered and almost obligated to execute because we had helped call the play, or set the relay team’s order up for that race. Achievement-oriented leadership on the other hand is one where the leader sets high levels of expectations on performance from their teams and show confidence in those team members to execute at those same high-levels (PSWC, 2017). Those same two track and football coaches embodied those achievement-oriented behaviors as well, so when we were involved in making tough decisions about the course of our strategy to win, and then expected and encouraged to do so, it’s no coincidence that we over-achieved our goals and were as successful as we were.
I would have liked to have heard about some of the great things your coach did that you did enjoy so much!
References
Penn State World Campus. (2017). Lesson 6: Contingency and Path-Goal Theory. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/sp17/21711–17327/content/06_lesson/printlesson.html (Links to an external site.)
Monica Rodriguez Keller says
Emilee,
Thanks for sharing your leadership experiences in sports. Because of financial circumstances and my lack of athletic abilities, I did not join extracurricular activities until I was in high school where dancing, acting, and singing on stage became my forte. Contrary to my abilities, my younger sister Veronica excelled in every sport she played—basketball, volleyball, water polo—she was unstoppable! I attended many of Veronica’s sporting events and I lived vicariously through her. Veronica built strong relationships with teammates and spoke highly of her coaches, except for one coach: her basketball coach, Coach Chavez.
After reading your post I realized that the lesson on power and influence also apply to your sports experience and Veronica’s. Similar to your substitute coach’s style, Coach Chavez used an aggressive approach, but he also used his authority and power to influence his team. As mentioned in the power and influence chapter, power is the potential to influence others and the function of a leader, followers and situations (Hughes et al, p. 107, 1993). An example of how Coach Chavez influenced his team and used power as a leader function, was by selecting players who were also good students and disciplining “bad” students by asking them run– or requiring to perform other physical exercises– in addition to trying out for the sport. Coach Chavez’s influence tactics were meant to change or praise students’ and players’ behaviors, which worked on some players, but definitely not on all of them. For instance, Veronica mentioned that when a “good” student was having a bad shooting day he would pull them aside, rub their back or hug them, and provide words of encouragement. If a “bad” student was having a bad shooting day, he would yell, use profanity and sometimes make derogatory remarks. I think both Coach Chavez and your substitute coach incorporated influence tactics as an attempt to gain respect and be feared by their players, but also to change players’ attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviors (Hughes et al., p. 108, 1993).
Along with influence tactics, the source of a leader’s power can also influence others. Hughes indicates that there are five sources of power—expert, referent, legitimate, reward and coercive (Hughes, et al, p. 114, 1993). Your substitute coach utilized coercive power, which influenced your team by disciplining, yelling and using a totalitarian coaching style with them. Although coercive power is meant to influence others by applying negative consequences or removing positive rewards such as praise and recognition, it emphasizes the ability to control others by instilling fear in them (Hughes, p. 119, 1993). Coach Chavez also utilized coercive power with his “bad” players by punishing them with physical exercises, but he also used the four other sources of power when it was convenient. For instance, Coach Chavez used his power of knowledge (expert power) (Hughes, p. 113, 1993) to demonstrate that when his players performed as he directed them, their basketball skills improved. Also, using referent power, the ability to influence others based on the relationship between the leader and follower (Hughes et al, p. 114, 1993), players who thought highly of Coach Chavez considered him their role model, while those who thought he was hypocritical and had “favorite” players did not interact with him unless it was necessary.
As you stated in your post, I agree that a great leader inspires people but I also think a great leader acknowledges when he/she needs to apply different influence tactics or different form of power such as reward power or legitimate power (based on the situation), in order to achieve the common tasks or goals of his/her followers (i.e. winning a game, improving their skills, etc).
With as much as we have learned in this course thus far, I think all coaches should be required to complete a leadership training in order to learn the valuable information we have as students. What are your thoughts?
Best,
Monica
Reference:
Hughes, Richard, et al. Power and Influence. Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience. Homewood, IL. Irwin. 1993. Pp. 107-131.
mmv5127 says
Emilee,
I would say that it is unfortunate to have come across someone like that; who changed dramatically the way the team was coached and instructed on the game of soccer. I am sure for most of your teammates they had a “What the?” expression on their faces for most of the time he was coaching until your previous coach came back to take over. I would bet though, this was probably one of the best things you could have seen as a young adult about leadership. It takes a different type of person that can adapt to all different attitudes, personalities, and norms and still be successful and you got to see one who was not able to make those adjustments.
I would bet that from then on you were well aware of who was teaching you, what they were saying, and how they were saying it. A leader must always influence their subordinates to do what is right, even when no one is looking. This applies to how to act on the soccer field and off. I am sure the coach you prefer is someone who actually CARES about what he is doing and looks at it as something very close to his heart and what his passion is. If it wasn’t a passion, he probably wouldn’t have stuck out to you as the great coach that it sounds like he is.
In general, I would assume everyone at some point will run across leaders who made poor decisions, have poor personalities, or leader from the chair; these people won’t be in the position long but they offer great insight into what you should not be doing. Most people when put under poor leadership simply ignore person and only respond when something directly applies to them. I would to the opposite, listen intently to what they have to say and when/if it goes negative sit back and analyze why it went wrong. Then you can take that “to the bank” as experience for you on what not to do when you are afforded the opportunity to lead.
Thanks!
Matt