# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Coaching With an Appropriate Leadership Style

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By: Wade Gilbert

Originally Published in: Coaching Better Every Season

Leadership is generally defined as a process of influence. A coach's leadership style, then, comprises the behavioral processes that a coach uses to influence his or her athletes. Two recommended leadership styles for effective sport coaching are transformational leadership and servant leadership.

Transformational leaders inspire others to become self-directed and motivated while de-emphasizing personal interests and goals in the pursuit of collective team needs and goals. Features of a transformational leadership style include ethical behavior, shared leadership, leading by example, and using frequent praise and encouragement. Giving frequent encouragement and helping athletes pull the lessons from performance failures creates an environment where athletes feel safe enough to risk failure."

The transformational leadership style features four types of leadership behaviors, referred to as the four I's: idealized influence (modeling humility, modesty, and core values), inspirational motivation (serving as an eternal optimist, showing enthusiasm for shared goals), intellectual stimulation (inspiring creativity and risk taking), and individualized consideration (showing compassion and empathy for the unique needs of others).

Transformational leadership is often contrasted with transactional leadership. Transactional leadership features an emphasis on leading through coercion and rewards. One way to think about the difference between transformational and transactional leadership styles is to consider transformational leadership as a style that emphasizes doing the right thing whereas transactional leadership is a style that emphasizes doing things the right way.

Research with effective sport coaches shows support for adopting a transformational leadership style. Coaches who are transformational leaders are effective at clearly articulating and sharing an envisioned future for the team (inspirational motivation) while also providing multiple opportunities for shared leadership and athlete input on decision making (intellectual stimulation).

Transformational leadership is considered a form of "we leadership." Jon Martin, who has never had a losing season in 38 years as a college soccer and lacrosse coach, is a prime example of a "we leadership" coach. Coach Martin achieves transformational leadership by creating a sense of shared ownership: "We empower everybody. They all have a say in the decision-making process, our trainers, assistant coaches, players, everyone."

Athletes who play for coaches who adopt a transformational leadership style report greater enjoyment, collective efficacy, and cohesion. Furthermore, when athletes play on a team with transformational peer leaders (fellow athletes on their team), they score higher on measures of task and social cohesion. In other words, playing on a team with a coach and fellow athletes who model transformational leadership behaviors inspires greater self-confidence, commitment to team goals, and positive relationships with the coach and teammates.

Finally, team cohesion has been found to be strongly influenced by four transformational leadership behaviors: (1) fostering acceptance of group goals, (2) promoting teamwork, (3) adopting high-performance expectations, and (4) considering personal feelings and needs. Transformational leadership behaviors modeled by team captains and coaches that separate high-performing teams from low-performing teams are high performance expectations, inspirational motivation, and appropriate role modeling. One of the greatest professional athletes of all time, ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky, is an example of a peer leader who exemplified all the characteristics of a transformational leader. Many who worked and played alongside him consider his transformational leadership behaviors a key reason for the unprecedented success his teams experienced while he played for them.

Another recommended leadership style is servant leadership. Servant leadership, like transformational leadership, is other-centered. The servant leadership style, however, places a greater premium on integrity, morals, and empathy - virtues that supersede any concern for sport-specific goals. Legendary award-winning and national championship college basketball coach Don Meyer is perhaps the most famous example of a coach who embodied the qualities of servant leadership.

Servant leadership is sometimes considered an upside-down, or inverted, leadership style because the goal is to serve rather than lead. Characteristics, or virtues, of servant leaders are ethical and caring behavior, shared decision making, humility, altruism, and integrity - all of which directly contribute to trusting relationships. Coaches who adopt this leadership style view themselves as stewards whose primary role is to build and enable athletes by focusing on their strengths rather than their weaknesses.

Adopting elements of a servant leadership approach to coaching appears to offer many benefits. Athletes who play for servant leadership coaches report higher scores on personal and team satisfaction, team cohesion, sport enjoyment and motivation, confidence and coping skills, and respect for the coach.

Furthermore, teams coached by servant leader coaches have been shown to outperform teams coached by nonservant leader coaches. Athletes not only prefer to play for servant leader coaches but also set higher achievement targets, believe that they are improving more, are more resilient, and indeed are more successful.

American college football coach Jim Tressel, who coached teams to five national championships, is an example of someone who coached with a servant leadership style. Consistent with servant leadership principles, Coach Tressel explained to me that success in coaching starts with compassion for those you are entrusted to lead. Compassion means showing care, respect, and concern for all your athletes, regardless of their ability or role on the team.

Transformational and servant leadership styles have the same core purpose - an overriding concern for helping athletes meet their technical, physical, and emotional needs. In this sense, transformational and servant coach leadership styles might best be viewed as athlete-centered leadership styles.

For coaches who may think that this type of leadership style is a soft approach, think again. Successful coaches who adopt an athlete-centered leadership style are strong willed and sometimes autocratic, but they also regularly model trust, inclusion, and compassion. Successful coaches sometimes refer to this as a blended approach to coaching - a delicate balance between pushing athletes to their limits and showing compassion and support.

This approach is embodied by championship coaches across sports, and it applies equally well to coaching male and female athletes. Lori Dauphiny, two-time national Coach of the Year who has coached rowers for over 20 years, said, "I'm always supportive, but at the same time I have to push pretty hard. I have to be tough with them." Love and high expectations are cornerstones to her successful coaching approach!' Similarly, Jack Del Rio, longtime coach in the National Football League, started his tenure as head coach of the Oakland Raiders by instilling a culture of positive reinforcement to counterbalance the tough and demanding standards to which he held the athletes.
We're developing young men, loving them up with positive praise, not just a constant beat down. We're going to drive them and push them hard and point out mistakes, but don't just dwell on it. That goes back to more of the positive thinking and positive reinforcement and helping them (have) positive energy and seeing themselves doing it right.
Hall of Fame college volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, who has coached both the U.S. men's and women's teams to Olympic medals using an athlete-centered coaching approach, is perhaps the best example to show that this approach works regardless of athlete gender." Coaches such as Dauphiny, Del Rio, and McCutcheon are successful and revered by their athletes because they blend toughness with love and compassion to create a caring climate.

Athlete-centered leadership is a balanced approach in which coaches set clear roles and boundaries for athletes while also providing opportunities for distributed leadership and athlete input, sometimes referred to as control with benevolence." In the end, the label assigned to the leadership style is less important than the awareness that athletes prefer, and perform best, when coaches create learning environments built on trust, inclusion, and compassion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Coaching With an Appropriate Leadership Style

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Leadership is generally defined as a process of influence. A coach's leadership...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Do you believe that you can adapt your style? Harvard University professor Ron Heifetz and leadership experts David Rooke and William Torbert say that you can. So let's look in more depth at Lewin's leadership styles, their strengths and risks, and how you might become more skillful in using them.

Authoritarian, Autocratic Leadership

This approach is helpful when your team needs to follow a process "to the letter," to manage a significant risk. It's also effective when you need to be hands-on with people who miss deadlines, in departments where conflict is an issue, or in teams that rely on quick decisions being made.

But you need to be aware that relying on control and punishment to maintain standards will likely drive people away. Similarly, if you always demand that your team works at top speed, you can end up exhausting everyone.

Instead, you can show respect for team members by providing the rationale for your decisions. And they will more likely comply with your expectations if you take the trouble to explain Why the Rules Are There.

You can improve your ability to "lead from the front" by Planning for a Crisis, Thinking on Your Feet, and making good decisions under pressure. But be sure to balance these skills with an awareness of their potential negative impact on creativity, ideas gathering, motivation, and trust within the team.

Being too autocratic can also mean that you'll find it hard to stand back from the detail and take a wider, more strategic view.

Democratic, Participative Leadership

With this approach, you set goals, guide team discussions, and make the final decision. But you also acknowledge that your people can have valuable insight into a problem or process, so you actively consult them. As a result, you'll likely gain creative input and fresh ideas that you wouldn't have come up with if you were working alone.

You might wonder how to manage differing opinions in the team, once you've invited participation in this way. Your goal is to build a culture in which people can have healthy debates with one another. So:

Be aware that processes could become dangerously slow if you involve your team members in every decision. You'll need to judge carefully whether you need to adopt a more autocratic approach, even if it's only briefly.

The Delegating, "Laissez Faire" Leader

"Laissez faire" is a French phrase adopted into English that means, "Let (people) do (as they choose)." It describes a policy of leaving situations to run their own course, without interfering.

By adopting this style of leadership, you empower your team to make decisions and to organize its own processes, with little or no guidance. The danger of this approach is that situations can collapse into chaos if your people have low motivation or poor skills. It can work, however, if they are experienced, knowledgeable, confident, creative, and driven, or if deadlines are flexible and processes are simple.

Be in no doubt, though, that as the leader you will still be held accountable for the outcome! So you might want to organize team decision making processes to support your people while you take a "hands off" approach. Just be sure to delegate the right task to the right person, as a mismatch could mean that the whole team fails.

Avoid becoming too remote, even with a high-performing, highly autonomous team. Change can occur at any time in business, so your organization's requirements for your team might shift after your initial brief. If this happens, stay in touch with your people, and communicate clearly and promptly. Remember, you can offer your support without becoming a micromanager!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What's Your Leadership Style? - Learn About the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Way You Like to Lead

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Leadership styles. Strengths and weaknesses.

# data[].attributes.headline
How does this topic relate to the College Values?

# data[].attributes.subject
How does this topic relate to the College Values?

# data[].attributes.body
Our Values
Ambitious
We set high expectations and standards for students, colleagues and our communities, striving for excellence in all that we do.
Resilient
We believe that every challenge is an opportunity to learn, develop and become stronger.
Collaborative
We work together, support one another, share ideas and encourage success.
Professional
We value individual differences and create an environment where everyone has the same opportunities.
Respectful
We allow ourselves and others to grow by treating each other with thoughtfulness and an open mind.

# data[].attributes.headline
Paternalistic leadership is a managerial approach that involves a dominant authority figure who acts as a patriarch or matriarch and treats employees and partners as though they members of a large, extended family. Employees are listened to, but the leader makes the final decision

# data[].attributes.subject
Paternalistic leadership is a managerial approach that involves a dominant authority figure who acts as a patriarch or matriarch and treats employees and partners as though they members of a large, extended family. Employees are listened to, but the leader makes the final decision

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By

Paternalistic leadership is a managerial approach that involves a dominant authority figure who acts as a patriarch or matriarch and treats employees and partners as though they are members of a large, extended family. In exchange, the leader expects loyalty and trust from employees, as well as obedience.

In some cultures, the gender-neutral phrase "parental leadership" has replaced the words paternalistic or maternalistic. Regardless of what word is used to describe the parent, employees who work in such an environment are expected to understand that the authority figure knows what is best for the organization and trust that their leader will always have an employee's best interests at heart. Employees are listened to, but the leader always makes the final decision.

A successful paternalistic leader thinks about the big picture and considers how every decision will affect "the family." Paternal leaders value education and social skills and often go out of their way to provide employees with opportunities for improving business and interpersonal skills. A benefit of this managerial style, when carried out successfully, is that employees may work harder to complete tasks within a given time frame so that they can reach, and sometimes even exceed, their goals in order to please the parental leader and bring honor to the family.

A shortcoming of paternalistic leadership is the possibility that the parent figure may inadvertently upset the hierarchial structure of the family, especially during times of crisis. If a parental leader is perceived to unfairly favor some members over others, jealousy and resentment can poison the workplace environment and the patriarch or matriarch will not longer have the loyalty, trust, and obedience he or she requires to be an effective leader.

Continue Reading About paternalistic leadership

Dig Deeper on CIO strategy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is paternalistic leadership? - Definition from WhatIs.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Paternalistic leadership is a managerial approach that involves a dominant authority figure who acts as a patriarch or matriarch and treats employees and partners as though they are members of a large, extended family. In exchange, the leader expects loyalty and trust from employees, as well as obedience.

# data[].attributes.body
Autocratic
Democratic
Laissez Faire
Paternalistic

# data[].attributes.body
Situational
Transactional
Transformational