Leadership Is Very Important to Coaching Professionals - Term Paper Example

COACH There are many different leadership styles that are applied to people in positions ity. Some people in leadership positions don’t even want to be there, and there is a style that describes this, as well. Leadership is something that is very intensely studied in business management, but also in education and coaching. In fact, coaching is referred to as a leadership strategy that is used in business as well. For coaches, leadership styles differ according to individuals and situations; however, this does not mean that they cannot be classified and analyzed. Coaches are expected to be able to take a long view, observe, and make constructive criticism that allows the person to be the best they can be. “A coach usually sits on the sidelines and provides encouragement and advice to the players on the field. During time outs the coach helps the players to see the big picture of what is happening… in a similar way, mentors can coach beginning teachers to connect theory with practice” (Boreen et al, 35). Mentoring and coaching can be very enlightening and positive ways for experienced leaders to reach those new to the team, but there are also risks to these strategies, as well as pros and cons to different leadership styles. Coaches may follow authoritative leadership roles, or be more confrontational to authority. Understanding leadership is very important to coaching professionals because they have to be able to differentiate between different leadership styles, use them appropriately, and find which is best for the situation. For example, the official leader in team development is different from the emergent leader in that there is more likelihood that the official leader will represent traditional organizational forces and the status quo. The emergent leader, on the other hand, may represent a challenge to this sense of tradition and status quo, and thus may present old issues in a new way or seek to change the basic organizational structure. It is likely that the coaching professional will therefore be more attracted to the emergent type of leadership than the traditional, but they should know the styles and characteristics of both. It is also likely that the emergent leader is going to have less of a solid bureaucratic support-structure than the official leader, and may not have the traditional, conservative authority within a school or organization that an official leader has. The coach acting in an official leadership role may be less willing to take as many risks. Many also think that coaches should realize that the authoritarian leader’s role is patterned around a rigid structure of control, hierarchy, and bureaucracy that is relatively static and derives its authority from the leader him/herself. This system has a vertical power structure in which the coach has ultimate authority and decision-making capabilities. The democratic leader’s role is also vertically integrated, but there is much more room for ideas and policies to move up and down the chain of command. Rather than gathering power from personal directives of the leader, this democratic leadership system is about reaching moderate consensus. Coaching is different in various environments, but simple rewards may not be as effective in every case for team players. Team members tend to respond in a less positive way to rewards; they need to obey team rules because they understood them, not because they are being rewarded to. For example, if a player on the team breaks the rules and is made to sit out for three games, they should not be offered a way out through rewards for extra practice. This may have gotten the player to stop, but it would have been for all the wrong reasons. Another way of cultivating relationships with players who might be disruptive is by getting them involved with their peers. The players on the team develop socially through sharing and interacting, emotionally by learning to respect everyone equally, physically by playing active games and getting exercise, and cognitively by learning key assessment requirements. This process of growth and development is framed by ideals in that it is the coach’s goal to provide an atmosphere where everyone benefits, rather than just some. In the educational setting as elsewhere, “There is mounting concern that unqualified and inexperienced coaches are mishandling issues of conflict. Dangerous consequences of this are that the clients development is compromised and harm is caused to individuals, teams and organisations. The damage caused can last long after the coaching has ended and may prove costly to correct” (Roberts, 2005). This can be applied in the organizational or educational environment, as noted above, and for the coach, it means that conflict manager is a leadership role of vital importance. Players can thrive in an environment where critical theory combines with objectives of supplying relevant information on coaching leadership. In independent observations based on the assumption that this is educational research combined with conflict management theory, I see of players that they are actively involved in the practices, scrimmages, and games, and had interesting things to say. This is because the school is not all equal in terms of where these behaviors take place. There are some environments in the school that have that combination of privacy and lack of supervision which lead them to be used for bullying and violence more often. For example, as one source notably points out in terms of setting, “Locker rooms can be the scene of fights, hazing, theft and vandalism. To improve locker room supervision, a glass walled office for coaches, phys ed teachers, or the athletic director should be located adjacent to the locker room… it is also helpful if lockers are short” (Duke, 2002, 174). This type of leadership solution shows respect for the student as well, because it respects their privacy and their own judgment. This can be involved in where the conflict is coming from in the student’s life. “You also need to realize that beginning teachers can have problems or concerns that are completely unknown to you. new teachers often feel reluctant to question a mentor’s classroom practices because they fear their questions will be construed as criticism” (Boreen et al., 36). Therefore, it is important when being a mentor to know how to facilitate conversation and communication that is two sided so that everyone involved can benefit. In other words, from a communication-based leadership style of decentralized authority, coaching is not just about speaking; it is also about listening and learning. Leadership styles are diverse, and coaches must find their own individual style. There are transformative styles that rely on individual characteristics to bring change, strategic styles that are more rational and framework oriented, and educative styles that are dedicated to bringing change. Knowing one’s style is important. It allows for better leadership. Successful coaching role recognition results in a positive level of achievement that can be seen to be separated from an analysis of the players’ social goals and therefore can provide a more detailed representation of achievement that does not make a big difference between behavioral and teamwork concerns. Therefore, the coach leader’s role should take into consideration the fact that a player’s progress is no longer only determined by strict standards only on a performance basis; it is also about their growth as a team player and athlete. In terms of the leadership of the coach along the lines of providing conflict resolution and providing a valuable instructional method, communication is also the key. There is a difference between positive and negative communication, and often this difference is that in positive communication, the leader knows how to listen as well as how to speak. In terms of solving conflict between groups in a coaching context, communication must be a two-way street in which both the sender and receiver of information benefit. It can be a win-win situation in the conversation between the coach and the team. The degree of relationship building between coaches, administrators, parents, and players is on the increase, and this is a positive aspect of change that brings to the coach more leadership opportunities. Integration of platforms is another important part of this shift; coaches need to feel that they are acting in leadership that is able to integrate improvements not on a case-by-case department basis, but on a whole basis in which improvements in one aspect or department are linked to other improvements to the school or district as a whole. “Conflict transformation is a growing field that generates self-awareness as well as raising skill levels, is truly empowering and the perfect compliment to a coaching approach. Conflict transformation allows participants to step beyond what has been traditionally thought possible because it offers the potential for a vertical shift (transformation) as opposed to just a horizontal shift (command and control)” (Roberts, 2005). This works in educational environments as is does in other environments; it is the coach’s responsibility to be self reflective. Being an effective coach and leader is also about being a team player. When a mentor or coach gets too fascinated by their own authority to see that they are working within a community of individuals who may have equally valuable contributions to make regarding the decision-making process, there will be no improvement in player motivation. The coach is not the lone representative of a school or district’s teams; it is bigger than that- there are lessons to be learned and given from and by everyone involved. It is my belief in terms of my willingness to serve as a mentor and coach that a cohesive school is a successful one, and a school can only be cohesive when all levels of employees believe that they can speak up and make a difference. The more people who can get involved in the process, the more it will be an accurate reflection of the school district and community’s true set of standards and complementary goals, which is ultimately shown through its teams performances, and assessed in the success or failure of their coach. For coaches, as mentioned above, roles will differ with different individuals. For example, the management style or role of a coach who is only involved in their title is different from the more relationship-oriented coach in that there is more likelihood that the titular mentor will represent traditional organizational forces and the status quo in their leadership styles. The relationship-oriented coach, on the other hand, may represent a challenge to this sense of tradition and status quo, and thus may present old issues in a new way or seek to change the basic structure through leadership, challenging the old way of doing things. Coaches who are true leaders also feed off of the feedback that they get from the team, which is highly individualized, and participate in team discussions. There is an intimate atmosphere to the team that I think is missing in many other clubs and activities that would tend to be more anonymous. “Large, anonymous schools are ineffective for the overwhelming majority of youngsters who are enrolled in urban schools. Children who come from socially stressed communities need to attend schools where they are known and their presence and absence is carefully attended to” (Roberts, 2005). The coach’s role is patterned around a structure of management (which is more basically positional than leadership), hierarchy, and bureaucracy that is relatively static and derives its authority from the school. As mentioned above, this system has a vertical power structure in which the mentor has authority and decision-making capabilities. The coach’s role is also vertically integrated, and in some schools more than others, there is much more room for ideas and policies to move up and down the chain of command. When a coach plays the role of the figurehead, the connotation is that their leadership is representative of the organization, and their personal actions are collated with the actions of the organization to represent symbiosis. That is, the shared vision between the organizational structure and the management structure in this role is very close, and the social implications of organizational representation are among the foremost in the coach’s actions. The coach will thus act as the visible social symbol of the organization. There is a strong emphasis on tradition and inspirational leadership in this role, but not as much of an emphasis on creativity. In addition, as one source notes, “Self reflection is a critical step in becoming a leader. It starts when you reflect on your experiences, including both successes and failures. Self reflective moments may come with a lightning bolt of instant insight, or they may slowly evolve through writing in a journal or going on a contemplative retreat” (Bennis, 81). The responsible leader knows their own weaknesses and limitations. The role of coach as leader, as well as the role of manager, have a very broad-based definition. Any role in which there is a subordinate is likely to also have a role of leader, but this is not necessarily true of being a coach. Traditional coaching activities include motivation, organization, inspiring teamwork, training recruits, etc. The coach should always be listening as well as speaking to enhance the communication paradigm within the organizational space and also so that they can make accurate assessments of strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats, in teamwork as well as in organizations. In terms of how the roles of power can be used in interactions with educational departments, the role of the coach as leader is defined both by connections to the organizational leader and by distance from the organizational leader. The coach often acts as a representative voice acting at the behest of the school administration to further establish or to connect the needs of the organization to school development initiatives. The liaison does not have as much authority of his/her own as he/she has the authority of positive and representative association with the organizational leader. In assessing leadership qualities in individuals, hindsight is often used, and hindsight tends to be biased in most cases, according to perspective. Roles of authority in coaching should be examined for personal meaning. Through listing wanted qualities of ideal coach characterization, a coach can see where skills that can be further refined exist and also see where room for improvement lies. Honest self-evaluation is an important part of any job, and is especially so involving coaching, where competition is often more intensely explicit than in other jobs. Coaches are not lone representatives of their trade; coaching as a profession is bigger than that, and there are always lessons to be learned from the techniques of other coaches, as well as lessons to be given. This is especially true within an institution with many different coaching staffs who may be able to give each other important advice and thus further the greater good by improving everyone’s level. By comparing an ideal blueprint of coaching to perceived reality, it is easy to assess the strengths and weaknesses of any given program. Getting together as a team of coaches and discussing the results of the differences between this ideal and the reality present is a productive way of improving everyone’s respective level in a pre-season environment, and will surely lead to more productive coaching during the season by resulting in the setting of clear and defined future goals based on perceived present performance. This meeting could also be linked or capped with the coaching staffs’ discussion of their best and worst performative moments in coaching to further assess and, hopefully, reinforce the goals stated in quality assessment. This slightly more personal exercise, I believe, would also result in stronger bonds between coaches who are able to see each other’s strategies and priorities in a new light. “By thinking like a coach, you can set the tone for a successful relationship. Mentors often realize that since beginning teachers are usually recent university graduates, they may have technological expertise, may know innovative strategies, or be aware of effective multicultural resources” (Boreen et al., 38). Coaching is a very important perspective from this reading. In forming qualities of an ideal coach, success is of course the top priority. But defining success can be difficult, since to me, the correct definition of a successful coach is not necessarily or wholly reflected in their win/loss ratio. Success to me is more than just statistics, even though winning the game is definitely important. But some coaches who are at the helm of very successful teams in terms of winning are not as attuned to my definition of successful coaching as other coaches who may be facing more of a challenge. In fact, many coaches may list growing apathetic and overconfident during a winning streak as one of the worst moments in their career. To me, the truly ideal coach is constantly working and constantly striving to take their team to the next plateau, which, to me, is a never-ending process. All of the athletes on the team should be motivated by the coach to be pushing the envelope and striving for the next level. During quality assessment, coaches may discuss various ways in which to help players do this successfully while still having the time of their lives. Positive motivation is very important in quality assessment: it may come up that the ideal coach is difficult to emulate, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from trying their best to spread their love of the game to the people who are learning from them. Many coaches list their best moments in coaching as having to do with successfully teaching an athlete to love the game, if that is something that can be taught. Other coaches list their worst moments in coaching not in terms of winning or losing, but in terms of not getting through to a certain athlete in terms of teaching or losing someone to drugs. It seems from the worst and best moments exercise that the ideal coach has goals that are personally tailored to encourage a group of individuals to work as a team. “There are many examples of team owners or general managers demonstrating an understanding of the dynamics of leadership in professional sports… Jim Fassel was the head coach of the N.Y. Giants from 1997 through 2003… Just three years… (,) the Giants finished up 4-12, and it was time for a change” (Leadership, 2010). Leadership is very important to consider when it comes to change, dynamism, and success. REFERENCE Boreen, J, M Johnston et al. (2000). Mentoring Beginning Teachers. York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. Duke, D (2002). Creating Safe Schools for All Children. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Roberts, T (2005). Coaching through conflicts. Management Service. Leadership in sports (2010). http://www.money-zine.com/Career-Development/Leadership-Skill/Leadership-in-Sports/ Read More