From the age of five I have played the game of soccer. Up until a few years ago I never really analyzed what make a soccer team successful. Is a successful soccer team defined by the amount of goals scored? Or the most accurate passing percentage? This definition comes with not only increased self-actualization, but also awareness of team leadership actions. The Hill Model for Team Leadership does a great job in clarifying task, relational, and environmental actions needed for optimal team effectiveness.
(Northhouse, 2016, p.367 figure 14.1)
I play the position of a defensive mid-field. This position not only creates a connection between the defensive players and the offensive, but also contributes as a leader in many ways. Lets start with establishing structure with-in a team. This is located under internal team functions as a task. My task is to share everything I see and hear with my teammates. “Effective team performance begins with how the leader sees the situation” (Northhouse, 2016, p.366). A great example is when I see a player of the opposite team open for a pass; I create a structure with my teammates to defend their new attacking position. They count on me to communicate the most efficient way to defend and attack based on what I see and hear on the field.
My relationships with teammates vary based on teams that I choose to join. One thing that remains the same is the need to manage conflict. Having a different relationship with each teammate is very important. Having an understanding of who a person is and what they need is a strong influence on accomplishing the team’s goal. A great example of satisfying a need to avoid conflict is giving the “all star” the ball more. This specific teammate who I named “all star” always wants the ball when the time is coming to an end. “A good team leader needs to be behaviorally flexible and have a wide repertoire of actions or skills to meet the team’s diverse needs” (Northhouse, 2016, p.366). As a leader, I remain flexible and ready for anything.
The external leadership actions are just as important as the internal actions. Delivering assessments of what is happening on the field is my job as a team leader. I am constantly communications possible plays, scenarios, positive reinforcement, and empathetic responses as well. “Leadership behavior is seen as team-based problem solving, in which the leader attempts to achieve team goals by analyzing the internal and external situation and then selecting an implementing the appropriate behaviors to ensure team effectiveness” (Northhouse, 2016. P.366). Because my assessments of current on field action are critical in team success, voicing them to my teammates is one step closer to obtaining our team goal.
With team effectiveness being the ultimate team goal, using the Hill Model for Team Leadership helps create clarity in which to analyze used leadership actions. “Assessing how well the team compares to these established indicators of team success provides a valuable source of information to guide the leader to take appropriate actions to improve team success” (Northhouse, 2016, p.368).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXfCTyJDDDk
Resources
Football, N. (2014, October 02). Nike Academy: Communication and Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXfCTyJDDDk
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. (7thed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc
I really like your use of the Hill Model for implementation for a soccer team! You have a great analysis of the internal and external actions that are needed for effective team on the field, all of which funnels into your team’s performance. Looking at our Lesson 9 notes, your soccer team is exactly that, a team where each of the players are responsible for their own position on the field, when placed together they are achieving the same goal, literally (PSU, Lesson 9, 2018). You don’t want your forwards playing goalie, that’s for sure! When we examine the outcomes of your team leadership, we see that there is one elevated goal, literally to score a goal and protect your goal from being scored upon, which is clear as our lesson emphasizes (PSU, Lesson 9, 2018). Given that you are the team leader, you are in charge of setting up your results-driven structure, which would be who is playing which position, to solve problems such as the other team has a really lousy defense and you want to let some of your less experienced players learn from them, so you put them on the field. You are identifying a problem of needing your less experienced guys on the field to learn, and see an opportunity for them to learn, so you put them in. The opposite is true, with results-driven structure, if you have a very advance team, it might be the time to put your best players in their strongest positions, because you need to accomplish your goals of either teaching and winning (PSU, Lesson 9, 2018). You mentioned that “constantly communications possible plays, scenarios, positive reinforcement, and empathetic responses as well” which is a great way to show a collaborative climate, where your team develops trust within the team so everyone can rely on each other (PSU, Lesson 9, 2018). It seems like you take a very healthy approach to being the leader of your soccer team, and are able to adapt to the individual needs of your players as well as the team as a whole!
Resources:
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2018). PSYCH 485 Lesson 9: Team Leadership
Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1942231/modules/items/25010863
This was a good example to use considering the topic of team leadership, especially as the most relatable childhood and adolescent team experiences are often through sport activities. I liked the question you are posing here in your first paragraph. In your words you are implying a question as to the meaning of a “successful team”, which in this case would be a successful soccer team. It may even be a rhetorical question, but I would like to attempt an answer of my own from my current understanding of team leadership.
For starters, from the readings we understand the definitional basis for what a successful team would include. Successful teams are built on a shared goal or goals, the individual members themselves, and the working together of said members (Northouse, 2016, p. 363). Moving further ahead however we are also presented with the importance of individual member development. Development was described by Nadler (1998) as involving a team member improving upon the self while simultaneously, and ideally without conflict, actively improving the status of the team. I skipped ahead to make this point clear as it is important to what your post activated in my thoughts. You are most likely referring to your early grade-school years playing soccer as a part of a team. Development is important for the generic team process, but development is especially relevant and crucial when pertaining to children and adolescents. For example, the focus for a high school soccer coach should not be solely on creating a winning team, but also on developing the young students into better people through the experience. Development in this scenario then refers to the success of the team through experience, as well as the individual successes of the players. I recall my high school policy makers setting minimum grade requirements for students on athletic teams and so it is evident the individual success of students was a factor to consider.
As for your next focus on the team leader focusing on the situation, I can see why your thought process led you to this connection in your personal experiences. I have made the point before in the past that any and all team members can occasionally serve as a sort of leader given the right circumstances. This is also a point I believe Northouse (2016) to have made as well if I am understanding his writing appropriately. Personally, I would have chosen the team coach as the exemplary team leader as the coach description often coincides with the descriptions Northouse (2016) gives of a team leader. Also, the Hill Model for Team Leadership as described by Northouse (2016, p. 366) describes elements a team coach likely displays more often than a single player within the team. There would have been a difference had you been an official team leader, though I do not know the exact structure of a soccer team, e.g. if there even is an official leader. Also, applying another topic to this discussion, power is a vital element in the leader-follower relationship. The coach is the most likely person on the team to hold the most power, whether it comes down to power types like positional or expert (Northouse, 2016). Lastly, the team coach is in a perfect position to perform one of the key duties of a team leader, which is to monitor the team’s performance and adapt to the situational factors affecting the team. This is a difficult, though not impossible, function for an active team member to perform while also focusing on their directly relevant tasks at hand.
References
Nadler, D. A. (1998). Executive team effectiveness: Teamwork at the top. In D. A. Nadler & J. L.
Spencer (Eds.), Executive teams (pp. 21-39). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Team leadership can take on many forms, thus it is not only used in business. Northouse (2016) states that “a team is a type of organizational group that is composed of members who are interdependent, who share common goals, and who must coordinate their activities to accomplish these goals” (p. 363). When thinking about team leadership, many scenarios come to mind. However, I enjoy how you connected team leadership to sports, as I am an avid sports fan.
While I agree with your analysis using the Hill Model for Team Leadership, I don’t think you are giving yourself enough credit. Yes, you must create structure and manage conflict, but your role as leader on the field is so much more. I would argue that you display multiple aspects of both the internal task leadership actions, and the internal relational leadership actions. In addition to structure, which is an internal task leadership action, I believe you would also display goal focusing, training, and maintaining standards of excellence. Goal focusing is concerned with clarifying goals and gaining agreement to reach these goals (Northouse, 2016). As the voice of the mid-field, you must keep the team focused on the main objective. Keeping your teammates engaged keeps them focused on the team’s goals. The next action, training team members, is all about educating and developing others (Northouse, 2016). This leadership action is one that you do and probably don’t realize. I am willing to bet that at some point in time you went out of your way to help coach and mentor a younger player, one who may have eventually replaced you. A third leadership action, maintaining standards of excellence, is concerned with assessing performance and confronting any performance that is not seen as adequate (Northouse, 2016). For a team leader these actions are a requirement, and I bet you do this during every game and practice that you have. Again, this skill can involve coaching and teaching, it does not have to be a direct attack on someone’s performance.
Internal relational leadership actions are concerned with the actions a leader takes to improve the team’s relationships (Northouse, 2016). You mention conflict management, but I bet you also coach teammates in interpersonal skills and build commitment. As previously discussed, there are many situations that would require you to coach your teammates. However, coaching them on interpersonal skills could be different. It would include going through an exercise that helps people understand one another when they had a disagreement, or when someone didn’t want to listen to a teammate. I bet you do this, and don’t even realize it. The next internal relational action, building commitment, is focused on being optimistic, envisioning, and recognizing (Northouse, 2016). As the leader you would see when the team is struggling, or in the midst of a difficult game. In these situations, you could lift up the team through optimism, or providing hope, by reminding them of a time when they faced similar odds and were victorious.
Team leadership is very important in business and in sport. It involves taking action to help individuals and relationships. It appears as if your soccer team is successful because of the leadership traits that you are already displaying. I would be willing to bet, however, that if asked your team would say that you were so much more then the examples you gave. Regardless, keep being a team leader, but more importantly, keep having fun.
Reference:
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice. Seventh Edition. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.