What is the type of leadership needed to lead a successful sports team?

1. Fransen, K., Vanbeselaere, N., De Cuyper, B., Vande Broek, G., & Boen, F. (2014). The myth of the team captain as principal leader: extending the athlete leadership classification within sport teams. Journal Of Sports Sciences, 32(14), 1389-1397. doi:10.1080/02640414.2014.891291

1.1. Through this article, the importance of a team captain and their leadership in the team was studied more in depth than previous studies. The articles experiment was survey based and questions tackled whether the team members relied on the team captain as the distinct team leader of that team. The result showed that almost half of the participants did not see the captain as a formal leader, instead they determined that the leadership role of the team was not solely based on the captain but each individual coming together as a hole in the team. This article connects to the previous entries in a way that it also evaluated the differences between leadership in the team member’s point of view rather than the coaches. This article showed me that maybe leadership isn’t only based on one or two people on the team, but how the team acts together as a whole. Through this article, the importance of a team captain and their leadership in the team was studied more in depth than previous studies. The articles experiment was survey based and questions tackled whether the team members relied on the team captain as the distinct team leader of that team. The result showed that almost half of the participants did not see the captain as a formal leader, instead they determined that the leadership role of the team was not solely based on the captain but each individual coming together as a hole in the team. This article connects to the previous entries in a way that it also evaluated the differences between leadership in the team member’s point of view rather than the coaches. This article showed me that maybe leadership isn’t only based on one or two people on the team, but how the team acts together as a whole.

2. Barić, R., & Bucik, V. (2009). MOTIVATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN ATHLETES TRAINED BY COACHES OF DIFFERENT MOTIVATIONAL AND LEADERSHIP PROFILES. Kinesiology, 41(2), 181-194.

2.1. The way that coaches talk to the team and their attitude toward sports as a whole has a big effect in how that team preforms. This article assesses the difference types of attitudes that coaches can have with the team members and how that affects the team leader along with the outcome of the team’s performance. The experiment that took place in the article analyzed two type of coaches, one that was athletically directed which resulted in a more motivational leadership in the team captain. As for the other type of coach, the attitude was less athletically directed, yielding a lower goal oriented team. I feel like this article took a different turn than the other articles in a way that it focused how the coach’s attitude effected the team captain, there wasn’t much comparison between relationships in the tram members like the other articles. The relevance that this has to my question is that is lets me broaden my answer a little more, weighing in the coaches attitude towards the team captain and how that affects the captains leadership in the team.

3. PRICE, M. S., & WEISS, M. R. (2011). Peer Leadership in Sport: Relationships among Personal Characteristics, Leader Behaviors, and Team Outcomes. Journal Of Applied Sport Psychology, 23(1), 49-64. doi:10.1080/10413200.2010.520300

3.1. This article took a focus on the transformational leadership theory, which was defined as style of leadership in which the leader takes on the changes for the team, creates visions and executes these effectively to the team to provide the greatest outcome in performance. The research that this article examines was based off of personal characteristics of the team leader and how that effected how strong the leadership in that team was. Results showed that team leaders with greater task and social cohesion had a more effective leadership towards their team. This article relates to the other because it discusses the team leader on a more personal note, and goes in depth into the type of characteristics needed to be a leader for a team, which brings me closer to answering my questions because it showed me that in order to have a strong leadership role on the team you must have strong characteristics in yourself and push them through to the team

4. Gould, D., Voelker, D. K., & Griffes, K. (2013). Best Coaching Practices for Developing Team Captains. Sport Psychologist, 27(1), 13-26.

4.1. Youth leadership is very popular among high school team sports, this article gained a more in depth view and understanding how highs school coaches cultivated leadership in their team captains. In this article interview based research was done with high school coaches, asked how they implement leadership through teaching a sport. The results were that the coaches all reported having a proactive approach when it came to the leadership aspect of being on the team which meant more involvement in making important decisions for the team, or taking on team task on their own. This all enhanced the team captains leadership skills and proved provide a good outcome for the team. The other entries talk mainly about relationships between the leaderships and athletes, this article differs in a way that it analyzes at the start of the leadership in the team captain, originating to the coach teaching leadership though the sport itself. This gets me closer to an answer for my question in a way that now I will look at where the leadership skills originated rom in a good team captain.

5. key words

5.1. team cohesion

5.2. relationships

5.3. insipration

5.4. leadership

5.5. team dynamics

6. Hampson, R. R., & Jowett, S. S. (2014). Effects of coach leadership and coach-athlete relationship on collective efficacy. Scandinavian Journal Of Medicine & Science In Sports, 24(2), 454-460. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0838.2012.01527.x

6.1. This article surrounds the question of “How is it that teams with mediocre players can sometimes outperform teams of superior talent during a match, series or possibly an entire season?” the answer was argued right after, which was the idea of collective efficacy. Collective efficacy is defined as a groups shared confidence and effort as a team and their capability to work together to get the win. This questions whether it is each person’s personal beliefs that make the team into a collective whole, or whether it’s the characteristics of the type of leadership the team has. Research in this article analyzed the coach’s leadership and the collective efficacy in the team, and how the quality of the coach and athlete relationship effect the teams and the importance of the relationship in the coaches and athletes leadership as a whole. This article provided me with more insight to the different kind relationships that there was in a team, it is not only between the athletes but also between the coach and each athlete individually. The type of leadership that is needed in a team needs to be strong and each member of the team has to have a strong bond with others on the tem as well as the coach since each individual must share the same belief for that team.

7. Smith, M. J., Arthur, C. A., Hardy, J., Callow, N., & Williams, D. (2013). Transformational leadership and task cohesion in sport: The mediating role of intrateam communication.Psychology Of Sport & Exercise, 14(2), 249-257. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2012.10.002

7.1. This article explores the relationship that team leader has between the athletes and how that relationship affects the team’s performance. “Intrateam communication” is mentioned throughout this article and it is defined as the process through which team members communicate with one another. Analyzing the communication of a team through personal, emotional, and inspirational changes between the team leader and it members helped evaluate how that team performed based off the kind of relationship the members had with one another. This article connects to the others by it having the focus on the relationships between the team members and how that affects the team as a whole, however this author of the article focused on factors that also took plays off the court, such as emotional and personal issues between team members. This specific factor brought me closer to the answer of my question because it showed that in order to be an effective leader of the team, communication not only about the sport and team is needed for the athletes to develop a strong bond off the court that makes them stronger on the court.

8. Eys, M. A., Loughead, T. M., & Hardy, J. (2007). Athlete leadership dispersion and satisfaction in interactive sport teams. Psychology Of Sport & Exercise, 8(3), 281-296. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2006.04.005

8.1. A sports team as always been seen to share and achieve a common goal, this article discusses the nature of athlete leadership. It provided a more in depth analysis on the relationship between individual perceptions of the athletic leadership needed and the leadership functions that were presented through that team leader. The article mainly concluded that the number of leaders within a sport is related to individual perceptions of satisfaction from the leader of that sport. I find this to be helpful in my question because I get to approach it from a different perspective, that being how each individual assesses the team leader through their experiences of leadership. This relates to the other entries in a way that it shows how each individual of the team has a separate view of that team leader and the way that leadership works in that team specifically.