Since the young age of sixteen, I have been a passionate distance runner. Over the past seven years, I have competed in numerous running related events, including eleven marathons as well as countless half marathons and both trail and road races. However, I have been fortunate enough to not only experience my sport from a competitive perspective but also last year I was able to explore a marathon from a different point of view when I volunteered as a pacer for a local 26.2-mile race. Ever since I crossed the finish line of the Providence Marathon when I was a teenager, I have yearned to give back to the sport that has provided me with so much. Marathoning has made me physically healthier and mentally stronger. Furthermore, marathoning has helped me develop an unwavering work ethic, self-confidence and determination. I wanted to assist other people in completing the arduous distance, in hopes that they would reap the benefits of attaining the challenging feat. Therefore, I excitedly accepted the opportunity to serve as a pacer for a small, New Jersey, summer marathon. For individuals unfamiliar with running, pacers are volunteers who agree to run a race at a specific, pre-determined pace as a means to help people complete the race at a certain time. Pacers obviously must be competent runners. Yet, I quickly realized that the role of a pacer is much more complex that it appears. A pacer must serve as a leader by guiding a pack of runners to achieve a goal race time. Therefore, after completing my first pacer experience, I now am aware that a good pacer must not only be a runner but also a good pacer must be a psychologist.
The situational approach has been utilized in organizational leadership training and development for years. Northouse (2016) suggests that the situational approach focuses on leadership in different situations because different situations demand different forms of leadership and effective leaders must adapt their styles to the specific situational demands. Furthermore Northouse (2016) discusses that the situational approach is made up of two components: a directive dimension and a supportive dimension and the leader must evaluate the followers in order to determine what dimension the particular situation requires.
After the race began, I noticed that many of the runners following my lead were asking me for various forms of advice. “When should I eat…drink… stop to use the bathroom…?” It became clear to me that I had to keep the runners on pace while I led them through bathroom breaks and food and water intakes. Additionally, I had to keep my followers motivated. I felt like a tour guide on a major time crunch! Although I had yet to learn about the situational approach in my psychology classes, I am now aware that I unintentionally employed numerous elements of this psychological approach. For example, Northouse (2016) mentions the divergent leadership styles that are part of the situational approach. Northouse (2016) implies that the approach includes both supportive and directive behaviors, more specifically these behaviors can be divided into four, distinct categories: directing style, coaching approach, supporting approach and delegating approach. Initially, I did not want to exert too much power over my followers. Consequently, I adopted a supporting approach leadership style in which I did not focus exclusively on the runners time goals but rather I praised the runners for their efforts, listened to the runners concerns and asked for the runners inputs on the race so far. This approach worked for about the first ten miles of the race since the runners were fresh and excited by their rested legs and the energetic race atmosphere. However, as the race progressed, I realized my supportive approach was failing. My followers needed a strong, dominant, powerful leader. The runners sought a person willing to push them through their internal mental and physical struggles and urge them to keep moving towards the finish line. Therefore, towards the middle of the race, I altered my leadership, developing a coaching approach where I was both high-directive and high-supportive. I communicated with my followers and asked them how they felt but also I pressed them onward despite their fatigue. As the miles ticked by, I noticed my leadership style naturally changed again as I embraced a more directing style. At the final miles of the race, when my followers were exhausted and depleted, I knew my sole focus had to be on ensuring that my followers attained their goals of completing the marathon in a certain time. Northouse (2016) describes the directing style to be high-directive and low-supportive in which goal achievement is the main focus. As the pacer, I felt responsible for my followers and I did not want to let my followers down. Therefore, I gave firm instructions, such as “no more bathroom breaks, no drinking or eating…just run to the finish line!” I may have sounded cruel and insensitive at the moment but I was confident that my harsh communication would be greatly appreciated when the marathon was over.
Northouse (2016) suggests that developmental levels must also be considered when discussing the situational approach. Northouse (2016) describes developmental levels as the degree to which the followers have both the competence and the commitment needed to achieve a given goal. The followers can be classified into four categories, which Northouse (2016) calls D1, D2, D3 and D4. I would certainly consider all of my followers during the marathon to be either in the D3 or the D4 categories. Northouse (2016) suggests that the D3 category represents followers that have moderate to high competence but variable commitment and the D4 category represents followers that are the highest in development, with both high competence and high commitment. While a few of my runners were struggling to maintain a high level of commitment when they began to tire during the race, most of my followers were experienced runners completely determined to achieve their marathon goals.
Although I may have attended a running event, I learned a tremendous amount about psychology when I volunteered as a marathon pacer last summer. I learned how to motivate in both a supportive and a directive manner. Furthermore, I learned that leadership very much involves both the leader and the followers and good leaders must consider the elements of the situational approach when deciding the leadership styles they should employ in a given environment.
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 7th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Amy Campos says
It is commendable that you have taken marathon as your sport by competing on several occasions and being a pacer in one race. I understand that being a marathoner calls for exclusive mental energy and determination. It becomes more demanding when a marathoner undertakes such a major role as a pacer. This was indeed a major test for your leadership skills. As a leader in the marathon, psychological power is paramount. A leader would be faced with different situations where they are supposed to give directions and clarifications to followers (Northouse, 2016). Therefore, as one undertakes a leadership role such as being a pacer, they must be fully committed to offering the best in their undertakings.
I think the situational approach to leadership would be the most applicable to your case. The leadership approach entails choosing the relevant style for the right people (Northouse, 2016). You recognized that situational leadership is made of the directive and supportive dimensions. Furthermore, it is upon the leader to identify the dimension to use depending on the kind of team they lead. Each dimension is unique depending on the value that the leader intends to attain. There has to be an excellent approach to understand what the team requires and offer it to attain the desired results. Directive dimension may be mainly a form of guidance that may apply to people without an idea of what they intend to attain. On the other hand, the supportive dimension could be for a team with clear knowledge of what they intend to achieve and they only require the psychological or physical assistance of another person who is experienced in the activity (Northouse, 2016).
In your case, you mainly acted in a supportive dimension where you emotionally encouraged other marathoners to complete the race within a specific time. You are a fundamental pillar to the marathoners as you set the pace so that they may complete the marathon within the target time. In this case, you are undertaking a supportive leadership role. You give the team moral support to keep their mind and eyes on the goal of completing the race within the target time. However, concerning the supportive dimension, situational leadership depends on the maturity and competence of the followers (Northouse, 2016). In the race, you mainly worked as a partner to the marathoners. You partnered with them physically and psychologically to make them believe that it was possible.
Moreover, motivation is a crucial element in situational leadership. The motivational approach enables the team to build cohesiveness and set high-performance standards. A motivational leader helps the followers to handle stressful situations by providing reliable strategies (Northouse, 2016). In this case, the marathoners need to be encouraged that they can complete the race within the target time. Motivation would be paramount at the start to keep the participants encouraged. It would be an outstanding approach since it keeps the individuals determined (Northouse, 2016). It builds their confidence to continue. However, I would agree that motivation alone cannot help the individual attain the target time. They may be in high spirit to reach the goal, but may not realize the best time because they do not get the extra force that would push them to do better.
As such, your idea to change from a supportive approach to a coach approach was fundamental for the marathoners to complete the race within the time that they desired. Coaching calls for the application of directive and supportive dimensions at a higher rate. A coach supports and offers directions which have to the team. A coach does not have to be extremely lenient to the team. Despite the feeling that one should give up and quit the race because of fatigue, a leader pushes the team to press on. It was an excellent approach to your case. Since a coach is experienced, they lead from a point of knowledge (Rowe & Guerrero, 2012). Therefore, it was outstanding to ensure that the instructions that had been set were followed strictly.
However, I would add that use of the coaching approach would have brought equally interesting results had the participants embraced principled leadership. It is a kind of leadership that calls for the followers to align with the leader’s behavior (Rowe & Guerrero, 2012). Since you were in the race to guide the marathoners on how to attain the best time, they had to follow your principles. Principled leaders are guided by certain values that they wish to instill in their followers (Rowe & Guerrero, 2012). In this case, you understood the best thing to be done to attain the set time and it is upon the marathoners to follow without questioning you. As such, you had to be strict to ensure the marathoners observed the conditions that you provided. Your principles were the guiding steps that the followers needed to observe. Therefore, you had to be strict to ensure each of them was followed closely.
Moreover, an outstanding team is driven by commitment and competence. A coach leader should maximize the two elements if they want to gain massive success in their role. The commitment would mean that the members are willing to do everything that they are directed to do by their leader to realize success (Rowe & Guerrero, 2012). The members understand that it is upon them to attain the goal by making a personal effort. Commitment comes when one is aware of what the team requires and are ready to explore the existing opportunities. Equally, competence would encourage commitment because individuals are confident that they have the right skills to undertake specific responsibilities (Rowe & Guerrero, 2012). The team that you were leading is competent because they have run marathons. They understand the basic requirements of a marathoner and they are out to fulfill the standards that would guarantee them greater success. Their commitment would be the most fundamental element towards attaining the best time of completing a marathon.
Further, as Gennett’s Team Effectiveness Leadership Model suggests, leaders should identify what their team needs to do to attain greater success. The model could have been a suitable approach in your adoption of the supportive model. According to the model, the leader should mainly identify what the team needs and take care of it. In your case, you were aware that the team needed to be consistent and work harder to realize the intended success (Northouse, 2016). The approach would mean that as a leader you had the mandate to push everyone to attain the goal. You were aware that at some point fatigue will hit the marathoners, but they have to be resilient and overcome the challenge.
Also, the model values process as a critical element. A process defines how the team undertakes its activities in terms of communication, coordination, and conflict. It would be appropriate to realize that success in the marathon is a process where several factors are in play (Northouse, 2016). Communication is vital because the marathoners would express their concerns and speak of the challenges that they experience. At this point, the leader must have mastered the appropriate communication skills. The leader would have to come up with the right communication strategies to address the concerns of the followers. I congratulate you since you understood the value of communication in the team.
Likewise, coordination is an extremely significant step towards the realization of success for a team. The model proposes that the leader should coordinate the team to attain the desired success. As a leader, coordination starts with understanding the needs of the team. It begins with acknowledging that a series of steps have to be undertaken with each member playing their role appropriately (Rowe & Guerrero, 2012). The idea is to have the team in the same course pursuing the same goal. In your team, you were seeking to lead in attaining the desired value. You intended to be the best in your undertakings and realize the most desirable success. At some point, you had to ensure none of the team members stopped for a drink or any activity that would deter them from attaining the target time.
In conclusion, your leadership approach is admirable and is accurately presented in a highly informative blog. It becomes most appealing when a leader is required to head in an area where they are gifted. It is the best illustration of situational leadership. You were called to lead a marathon team. You have spent a lot of time training as a marathoner and in the mastery of the factors that matter to the activity. Your experience in seeking to attain a certain time is advantageous to you and the team. You understand the best approach and the elements that would make you successful in your undertakings. The choice of a leadership approach is paramount for such a case. Starting as a supportive leader would create confidence in the minds of the marathoners guaranteeing them a reliable strategy to attain the target time. However, as the race advanced, coach tactics would be more significant because they instilled confidence in the marathoners while it pushed them to realize greater potential. However, Gennett’s Team Effectiveness Leadership Model would be an equally significant approach to attaining the relevant success. The idea is to maximize on the competence of the marathoners to build commitment in the competition so that it would be easier to attain success in the form of the target time.
References
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 7th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Rowe, W. G., & Guerrero, L. (Eds.). (2012). Cases in leadership. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
tja5455 says
Hello,
Are you from Rhode Island? You mentioned the Providence Marathon and that made me really excited because I’ve lived in Rhode Island my whole life! Anyways, I have really enjoyed reading about your experience as a marathon pacer. Your experience and your story here accurately describe one of the strengths of the situational approach. Specifically, the situational approach tells us what you should and should not do in various contexts (Northouse, 2016). You made it very clear how you changed your leadership styles depending on how deep you were into the marathon. I agree that your followers were most likely located in the D3 and D4 developmental levels, showing either moderate to high competence and variable commitment or high competence and high commitment (Northouse, 2016). Your followers most likely appreciated your initial supportive leadership approach. This approach most likely helped them feel more comfortable and confident. You made it clear that you were there to help them succeed. I think it’s very impressive how you realized you needed to eventually change your leadership style to the coaching approach.
The coaching approach is a nice combination of focusing on both achieving goals and meeting followers’ socio emotional needs (Northouse, 2016). The fact that you were able to make this transition into the coaching approach is highly impressive. I’ve used the situational approach as a leader before but I’ve never used it while running 26.2 miles. You had the physical endurance and strength, along with the mental awareness to evaluate your followers’ competence and commitment at different stages of the race. You expertly changed the degree in which you were supportive and directive, which highlights your mastery of the situational approach (Northouse, 2016). I’m wondering how your followers reacted when you were more stern about the bathroom and water breaks. I bet it was hard at first to be more stern but I’m sure it gave them an adrenaline boost and a deep feeling of motivation to finish the race. One of my soccer coaches used the situational approach with me during a game one time. During the first half, he was supportive, as he encouraged me to keep up the good passing and defense. However, he could also see that I was hesitating to shoot the ball. At half time, he got up in my face and said, “you need to F** shoot the ball man! You have such a nice shot, just let it rip!” This ignited a spark within me and during the second half, I scored a beautiful goal to help my team win the game. This coach and yourself both show how the situational approach can be so effective, by being aware of followers’ development levels and adjusting the style of leadership accordingly.
In addition to the positive effects of the situational approach, there are also criticisms. One of the criticisms states how the approach does not fully address the issue of one-to-one versus group leadership in various settings (Northouse, 2016). In your experience during the marathon, I’m sure when you were pressed for time and getting more tired towards the end, you probably weren’t able to focus on each individual for too long. You probably had to assess the general commitment levels amongst all the members during different points of the race. For example, at mile twenty, you most likely realized most of your followers were becoming more fatigued. As a result, you switched to the coaching approach, to be more directive and supportive, in order to instill increased motivation and energy into their minds and bodies. Regardless of this weakness of the situational approach, I think you showed how amazing of a leader you are and I’m sure your followers were grateful for you in that situation. Great job utilizing the situational approach as a leader. Well done!
References
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 7th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage
Publications.