In my occupation, playing ice hockey, almost every year we choose a new captain for the team. This is due to the fact that some players leave the team, some new players join the team, and the coaching staff might also be new. Sometimes the team is allowed to choose who the captain is, and sometimes the players get to choose who is going to be the captain of the team. It is very important that the right captain is chosen for the team in order for it to function well and be successful. I find that the success of the team depends on how successful the new captain is at creating a well functioning team. Throughout a season all teams go through various stages of the season. First, the team gathers together and gets to know each other, then the team enters either the stage of success or the stage of failure. Depending on the stage, there are clear differences in the type of leadership that the team receives. The captain has a lasting impact on the relationships in the team depending on the success of the transformational leadership strategies. Below, I will discuss how the newly chosen captain develops from transformational leadership to transactional leadership and then laissez-faire leadership throughout the stages of the season.
Immediately after the captain has been chosen, the captain needs to decide how he is going to approach this role and how he is going to approach the team. The latest captain that I had used strategies similar to the transformational leadership approach at the beginning of his captaincy. Transformational leadership is about the change and transformation that followers should experience through “emotions, values, ethics, standard, and long-term goals”. (Northouse, 2021). The captain is not aware of the competencies of the team at this point and is not able to determine whether the team is going to be successful or not. Through this, the captain might over exaggerate his role and through this the team is motivated to accomplish more than what they usually might have intended to. First of all, the captain makes it clear that the goal of the team is to win the championship. This might be a very difficult goal to reach and many players believe it might even be impossible but this goal acts as a long-term goal for the season and setting such a difficult goal motivates players to go beyond their skillset and beyond their expectations. Trying to reach a goal beyond players expectations requires them to perform beyond their skillset which is an effect of the transformational leadership approach. Then, as “transformational leadership can be used to describe a wide range of leadership, from very specific attempts to influence followers on a one-to-one level, to very broad attempts..”, the captain not only focuses on the group as a whole setting long-term goals but also spends large amounts of time building relationships with each player (Northouse, 2021). Often, the captain also tries to build relationships between the players as well. I have found that the more effective the captain is at this, the more successful performs at the start of the season. Although I also believe that the performance from the team has a drastic effect on the relationships of the players. Once the captain notices that the team is not performing well and the teams relationships and his relationships to individual players are decreasing then often the transactional leadership can be used to describe the captain’s actions.
The political sociologist James MacGregor Burns distinguished between the transformational approach and the transactional approach (Northouse, 2021). The transactional leadership approach is not based on the intimacy of the relationship between the captain and the players but rather on the exchanges of the captain and the players (Northouse, 2021). I often had the experience that I was motivated to perform when I felt as if I was needed and if my performance contributes to the team’s success. But, this was only the case when I felt that people with authority acknowledged my performance including the captain. My last captain introduced two awards after each game. One award was for the most valuable player of the game and one was for the player that had a great action or showed overall team spirit. These two awards sparked me to perform to the best of my abilities because once I received this reward the captain held a short speech and justified the reasoning why I deserved one of the two awards. He was recognizing my accomplishments, which is a big component of the transactional leadership approach (Northouse, 2021). Sometimes this approach is not used by the team’s captain because the team is performing extremely well and the captain feels that he has done his job successfully. This is often when laissez-faire leadership can become evident.
Laissez-faire leadership describes the non leadership factor which represents behaviors that are non transactional (Northouse, 2021). There is basically no strategy used by the captain to improve leadership and the team’s chemistry. The captain’s actions in this approach show that he, “abdicates responsibility, delays decisions, gives no feedback, and makes little effort…” (Northouse, 2021). I found that this approach is only successful when the players in the team are very experienced and have played professional ice hockey for many years. They know what is expected of them, they know how they need to perform, and they know what they need to do in order to perform that way. I find that often only the set goals are reached using this approach which is different from the transformational approach. I find that younger and inexperienced players that seek guidance are being negatively affected by laissez-faire leadership and I sometimes find that this is a lazy way for a captain to approach his role.
Transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and laissez-faire leadership all complement each other well when it comes to describing the leadership approach a sports team captain might use. Through my experience, the transformational leadership approach is the only approach that left a lasting impact on me during my career and has led me to develop as it tends to motivate players to perform beyond their expectations and reach goals beyond the goals that were originally set.
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice. SAGE.
Lexi Grandinetti says
Hi Magnus!
I think that the topic of your post is very interesting. I have always been curious about sports psychology, and I think it is very interesting to relate it back to the concepts we discuss in this course.
When you were talking about transformational leadership in the second paragraph, you said that “The captain is not aware of the competencies of the team at this point and is not able to determine whether the team is going to be successful or not.” Now, correct me if I am wrong, but is the team captain not often somebody that has been on the team longer and has proven that they are capable of being the team captain, and therefore would have a feel for the team’s potential success? I enjoyed your explanation of how transformational leadership is used early on in the captain’s career nevertheless.
Transactional leadership is also very interesting in this setting. I think it is really great that some captains will give awards out after each game as a way to not only positively reinforce behavior, but to motivate each individual player to perform at their best. When taking a deeper look into transactional leadership, I am curious if Task Interdependence also plays a role in this specific situation. Task Interdependence is described as when the tasks of the followers require working together with the leader (PSU WC, L10 p3). I would assume this would have a strong correlation with your hockey team, as the captain is playing alongside their followers.
I could understand how laissez-faire leadership should not fare well for younger and more inexperienced players, nobody likes to feel as though they are flying blind. However, I could understand that some more experienced players could prefer this type of leadership as they no longer want to be told what to do, as they already know what is expected of them.
Overall, I really enjoyed this blog post and getting to think about our course content outside of the workplace, but still in a team environment.
References
PSU World Campus (2023). PSYCH 485 Lesson 10: Transformational Leadership. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2258466/modules/items/38306080
Sydney Bannister says
Great blog post, Magnus! I wonder if there is a risk that these players may become complacent or lose motivation without a clear direction or feedback from their captain. How can a captain using the laissez-faire approach ensure that their team members continue to perform at a high level and remain motivated to achieve their goals?
Additionally, I think it’s important to note that leadership approaches may not always be effective in every situation. The success of a leadership approach depends on various factors such as the team members’ personalities, the team’s culture, and the specific goals of the team. According to Northouse, when in contrast to transactional leadership, transformational leadership is the process whereby a person engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower (Northouse, 2023. p. 186-220).
Therefore, it’s crucial for captains to be adaptable and use different leadership approaches based on the situation and the needs of their team. Transformational leaders show followers the importance of idealized goals and get followers to go beyond their own self-interest for the sake of the organization (PSU, 2023). In your opinion, what would you say are some of the key qualities that a captain should possess to effectively lead a sports team, regardless of the leadership approach they use?
References
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2023). PSYCH 485 Lesson 9: Transformational Leadership. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2258466/modules/items/38306081
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice (Ninth Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc.