In the arena of American football, there is one recognized leader: the head coach. The relationship between these leaders and their teams is important for a successful season. By definition alone, the Leader-Member Exchange is a focus on the dyadic relationship between the leader and their followers (Northouse, 2016). This is only one of the leadership theories that are applicable to the arena of professional sports. Under the Path-Goal theory, sports teams are ruled by the need for achievement-oriented leadership. This is defined as a leader who sets a high standard of excellence for followers and seeks continuous improvement (Northouse, 2016).

These two theories, in this scenario, go very much hand-in-hand. Achievement-oriented leaders expect a lot from their followers, but if they don’t have a good relationship with their followers, their words and directions will fall on semi-deaf ears. The leaders could also have an excellent relationship with their followers, but if they don’t have a high enough standard or don’t give the right direction to the team, they won’t achieve much.

In the NFL, results are the benchmark of success. More often than not, when the team doesn’t perform, the coach (and sometimes the General Manager) is fired. Last year alone, four coaches were fired from the NFL: Jim Harbaugh from the 49ers, Mike Smith from the Falcons, Marc Trestman with GM Phil Emery from the Bears, and Rex Ryan with GM John Idzik from the NY Jets (Burke and Farrar, 2014). Three of those teams had losing records; the 49ers and Harbaugh parted company on mutual agreement after an 8-8 season. At the end of every season, at least one coach or manager is unemployed due to the team’s performance.

My Pittsburgh Steelers have only had three head coaches since 1969. Chuck Noll’s four Super Bowl wins over six seasons granted him leave during the late 1980s when the team, to tell it from a fan’s perspective, sucked. He even won Coach of the Year in 1989 because he took a low talent team who spectacularly lost their first two games to the second round of the playoffs. His successor in 1991, Bill Cowher, started off strong and kept the team going to the playoffs, including a Super Bowl win, almost every year. After Bill’s retirement, Mike Tomlin has been guiding the team to post-season appearances almost every year since, including a Super Bowl win making him the youngest man to head coach and win one in NFL history (www.steelers.com). This consistency in leadership has led to the Steelers being held as role models for other teams to follow.

The Steelers coaches and management have a very good relationship with their players and have had a record for supporting the players off the field. I am not talking about those in the news lately with criminal issues. I am speaking of keeping Aaron Smith on the roster when he was out for the season in order to maintain his health insurance so his son who had leukemia could maintain his treatments. I am speaking of making sure there was a spot open for Rocky Bleier, first drafted by the Steelers in 1968 and then drafted by the US Army in 1969, who came back with a potentially football-career ending foot injury from a shrapnel grenade to play in four Super Bowl wins (maryrose, 2009). Both of these stories and others you don’t hear about are because the Steelers leadership is just like that with their players.

Relationship notwithstanding, the goals of any sports team is to win. With a league topping six Super Bowl wins, the Steelers have proven that not only are they a team with a good leader/follower relationship, but they have high standards of excellence and demand only the best from their players. That has led to a respect of and near reverence to the franchise by players like Rod Woodson and Kordell Stewart, who left the team to go elsewhere but came back to retire a Steeler. This showing of leadership is also reflexive to the NFL as the name Rooney is well respected throughout the league. The sportsmanship award for the NFL is named after founder Art Rooney, Sr. Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the award unveiling, “Art Rooney is an iconic figure in NFL history. It is appropriate that we honor his legacy in this way and recognize NFL players for one of the important values that he represented so well.” (Bouchette, 2015)

Since 1933, the Rooneys have owned and managed the team with its ups and downs, and to this day remains a steadfast example that the LMX theory combined with achievement-oriented leadership produces not only one of the best known and best loved teams worldwide, but a winning one to be studied and imitated throughout the sport.

 

References:

Northouse, P. (2016) Leadership: Theory and Practice. Washington DC: Sage Publications. pp. 159, 180.

Burke, C. and Farrar, D. (29 Dec 2014). NFL Black Monday Tracker 2014. Sports Illustrated online. Retrieved 24 Oct 2015 from http://www.si.com/nfl/2014/12/29/nfl-black-monday-coaches-fired-tracker?page=3&devicetype=default

Steelers official Website (n.d.) Mike Tomlin Biography. Retrieved 24 Oct 2015 from http://www.steelers.com/team/coaches/mike-tomlin/4bf07eef-17d9-4b67-b634-c20700be0670

maryrose (19 Aug 2009). 40 Years Ago Today in Steelers History: Rocky Bleier Fights Back. Behind the Steel Curtain. Retrieved 24 Oct 2015 from http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2009/8/19/990365/40-years-ago-today-in-steelers

Bouchette, E. (22 Jan 2015) NFL sportsmanship award named in honor of Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 24 Oct 2015 from http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2015/01/22/NFL-sportsmanship-award-Pittsburgh-Steelers-founder-Art-Rooney-Sr/stories/201501220271