Leadership is complex and yet fascinating. In sports, leadership has a transformative potential because the leader has the capacity and the means to change the situation of others. Transformational leadership relies on the traditional leader-trait ideas of leadership that rely on the personal qualities of a leader as a determinant of effectiveness. A transformational leader uses his or her qualities to affect his followers in fundamental ways, improving their capacity to deliver results or excel. In sports, the role of the leader or coach is important, as he is the leader of the athletes and deals with them directly without the traditional bureaucracy found in political leadership.
According to the theory of transformative leadership, charismatic leadership is dominant and self-confident as they need those to convince others of their moral righteousness. They show certain behaviors that communicate competence and success, which is important for leaders to persuade their followers to follow them and have faith in them (Newland et al. 2015). They are also good communicators able to articulate their vision to their followers in a simple format similar to the use of slogans. A transformational leader sets himself or herself as the role model for which others, and particularly followers, can follow. Therefore, they expect followers to share the same values as themselves.
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Based on semi-structured interview questions with leaders in the sports field such as coaches, it is apparent there is a discrepancy between the real world and the concepts learned in the classroom. One of the issues that are prominent in the theory is the possession of certain qualities by transformational leaders. The assumption is that some people are inherently suited to transformational leadership roles due to those qualities arising from their personalities. However, the role of the experience and learning from others cannot be discounted. Jamie Speronis, for instance, started his career as a player under Coach Charlie Pell and Galen Hall before taking over the role of a student assistant under Gator coaching legend Steve Spurrier.
He also served as Director of Football at the University of Florida when the Gator won a national championship in 1996. A close analysis of the career of Jamie Speronis suggests that his success is partly due to the exposure to the transformative leaders who mentored him and molded him into a successful coach. He might not have had the traditional skills associated with the transformational leaders but by interacting with people who had mastered the skills, he managed to build himself into a highly successful coach. His success is therefore mostly the result of learning, trial and error, and experimenting with various strategies to see what works with his players.
In this case, the discrepancy between what is learned in class and what happens, in reality, is due to the dynamic nature of leadership. Theories sometimes assume that certain variables are given and not subject to change or the rate of change is slower than is in reality. However, in practice, leadership is dynamic and good leaders are dynamic as well, adapting to different situations. Transformative leaders are good students, observing what works and what does not work, and then seeks to incorporate proven strategies to improve performance with the players (Stenling & Tafvelin, 2014). Nothing is therefore static in leadership because things keep evolving. The main insight is the dynamic nature of leadership and transformative leaders are the most agile or all leaders because they adapt to emerging realities to ensure that their followers continue to perform despite conditions.
Jamie Speronis agrees with the view that leadership is dynamic. For instance, he credits his leadership in the real world to his time spent around coach Spurrier, his current and former player, and those coaches who come up in the ranks with him. He gained useful skills or insights from those leaders and their positive and negative influences shaped his leadership style and his success as a coach. In addition to the useful skills he gained from his mentors, he benefitted from his experience as a player and from the experiences of fellow players. Thus, as a coach, he has a deep insight into the mind of the player and can offer leadership that fits the expectation of players while pushing them to improve performance.
Another unstated benefit of working with experienced leaders is that the aspiring leader can gain from the experiences of the leader in his or her long career. Coach Spurrier is an outstanding coach with many years of experience. Over his long career, he had the opportunity to learn different things and experiment and by working with him, Jamie Speronis gained invaluable information. Transformative leaders possibly benefit from such mentoring by outstanding individuals. Therefore, despite the fact that skills and possession of certain personal traits are important, the role of experience is equally useful and decisive. All the skills required to lead effectively cannot be learned from class so mentorship by proven leaders a critical element of leadership.
The discrepancy between what is learned in class and what actually happens in practice also happens due to unwillingness to learn. Leadership theories have identified the foundation of good leadership or at least have painted a picture of good and competent leadership. However, there is often an unwillingness of the part of the aspiring leaders to learn new things and put them in practice (Price & Weiss, 2013). Based on the interviews done before writing this paper, the most effective leaders are good learners. That is what happened with Jamie Speronis who put deliberate effort to learn new things from experienced leaders. The same case applies to Sarah Lowdon.
Sarah Lowdon gets her leadership inspiration from where she was raised. Consequently, she learned the values of honesty and genuineness in leadership. In theory, it is important for a leader with over the hearts and minds of followers by being committed to them and showing genuine interest in their welfare. If a leader makes a mistake and acknowledges, honesty helps create a bond between him or her and followers. She has also learned from others and especially the great leaders she has come across in the course of her career, saying that she feels she is able to pull from her past and things the great leaders who were in her life did and did not do when leading her. She also credits learning from World Cup champion Carli Lloyd and Becky Burleigh. Sarah has been able to style her everyday real-world leadership by taking lessons from her upbringing, and the leaders she has had in her life.
Another problem with leadership practice is organizational inertia due to bureaucracy and unwillingness by leaders to own up to their decisions. In the case of the coaches discussed, they showed great commitment to their followers. They invested in them and worked hard to ensure performance remained high. In sports, the results of leadership are instant in the form of wins but in organizations, that is not always the case. Organizational inertia can make it harder to promote good leadership. The same case applies to a certain extent in sports where the management lacks the commitment to support the coach due to a variety of reasons.
In conclusion, there is always a discrepancy between the real world and the concepts learned in the classroom on leadership due to a variety of reasons. The main reason is that leadership is dynamic while leadership theory is often static or is based on assumption that certain variables that determine the quality of leadership are static (Cronin, Arthur, Hardy & Callow, 2015). In practice, leaders have to remain adaptive to remain relevant and effective. Secondly, experience matters although, in leadership theory, the role of mentorship is not highlighted sufficiently. Good leaders often got a chance to learn from others to polish their skills. Leadership is also a learning process where the leader has to keep learning new things and experimenting with new ideas.
The main insight from the alums make about management/leadership is that traditional values associated with leadership matters. Aspects such as honesty, commitment, leading by example, learning from mistakes, among others, matter in leadership and might, in fact, be the decisive factors that separate good from ineffective leaders. Consequently, leadership can be learned but also having a mentor is important. Good coaches are often mentored effective leaders, and that relationship, coupled with the personal experience of leaders as players and their personal observation, provides the foundation for good leadership.
References
Cronin, L. D., Arthur, C. A., Hardy, J., & Callow, N. (2015). Transformational Leadership and Task Cohesion in Sport: The Mediating Role of inside Sacrifice. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology , 37 (1), 23–36. doi: 10.1123/jsep.2014-0116
Newland, A., Newton, M., Podlog, L., Legg, W. E., & Tanner, P. (2015). Exploring the nature of transformational leadership in sports: a phenomenological examination with female athletes. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health , 7 (5), 663–687. doi: 10.1080/2159676x.2015.1007889
Price, M. S., & Weiss, M. R. (2013). Relationships among Coach Leadership, Peer Leadership, and Adolescent Athletes’ Psychosocial and Team Outcomes: A Test of Transformational Leadership Theory. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology , 25 (2), 265–279. doi: 10.1080/10413200.2012.725703
Stenling, A., & Tafvelin, S. (2014). Transformational Leadership and Well-Being in Sports: The Mediating Role of Need Satisfaction. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology , 26 (2), 182–196. doi: 10.1080/10413200.2013.819392
