Leadership & Team Work

Team Cohesion

An effective team has cohesion, the team members work well together and share similar goals

Cohesion is influenced by the motivational aspects that attract people to belong to the team and help the members resist the team breaking up

“the total field of forces which act on members to remain in the group”

(Festinger et al. 1950)

• The forces mentioned in the definition tend to cover 2 areas;–The attractiveness of the group to individuals–The extent to which members are willing to work together to achieve group goals

To be successful in its goals a group has to be cohesive. The extent to which cohesion is important depends upon the sport and the level of interaction required

There are 2 types of cohesion within a group

Task Cohesion

• The willingness of the team to work together to achieve their goals

• This is said to be the first reason why teams get together

• Task cohesion is said to be more important than…

Social Cohesion

• The willingness of a team to socialise together

• This is an added benefit to task cohesion. If you feel good about your teammates you are more likely to want success for each other as well as yourself

An example of good Team Cohesion

Some factors that affect team cohesion

• How the individual members of the group feel about the group as a whole

• Reasons for being attracted to the team (e.g. social reasons or wanting to win)

• Group performance – a winning team is more likely to be cohesive

• Support for the Team – a supportive crowd will help cohesion

• How well team members communicate• Leadership – a good leader will improve team cohesion• Sense of identity – wearing the same kit improves a sense

of identity and cohesion• Friendship – people who are friends off the field often

make a cohesive team on the field

An example of Team Cohesion

Team or Group

• Do you have a….– Football Team or Football Group?– Aerobics Team or Group?– Group of Aerobics Enthusiasts or an Aerobics

team

Group Forming

• There are 4 stages of group development– Forming– Storming– Norming– Performing– Adjourning

Forming

• The group comes together, with individuals meeting and familiarising themselves with other members of the group.

• The structures and relationships within the group are formed and tested

• At this point the individuals are seeing whether they fit in with this group

Storming

• A period of conflict will follow the storming stage as individuals seek out their roles and status within the group

• This may involve conflict between individual members, rebellion against the leader or resistance to the way the team is being developed or managed or the tactics it is developing

• There is a period of intense inter-group competition, as group members compete for their positions within the team

Norming

• The group members start to work together to reach common goals

• The group pulls together, roles are established and become stable

Performing

• Relationships within the group have become well established

• It is unrealistic to see the group as being stable and performing in a stable way. The relationships within the group will change and develop over time. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse

• New members are needed to stop the group becoming stale

A Group currently in a Performing Stage

Adjourning

• Once the team has reached its goals or has come to the end of its useful purpose then the team may break up

Social Loafing

• When players seem to lack motivation in team situations

• Social loafers do not try hard to achieve and seem to be afraid of failure

• They lack confidence and are highly anxious

• According to psychologists, social loafers may well lack identity in a team and therefore lack accountability

• They are not doing this to be lazy but rather to avoid letting the team down

Who is the Social Loafer?

Are all these people trying hard?

Is everyone here trying their maximum?

The Ringleman Effect

• Behaviour that occurs when individual performance decreases with an increase in group size

• E.g. 10 individual tug of war competitors can pull 100kg each!

• So, what should they pull together?• 1000kg?• In fact it would only be 850Kgs• That is the effect of social loafing

How to minimise Social Loafing

• Give individual feedback rather than team feedback

• Ensure that each team member has its own role

• Make sure that each team member knows their own role and that of others

• Use positive reinforcement• Monitor the performance of team members

(on video)

Leadership in Sport

Leadership can be defined as:

“the behavioural process of influencing individuals and groups towards goals”

(Barron, 1977)

Trait Approach to Leadership

• In the 1920’s researchers tried to prove that characteristics or personality traits were stable and common to all leaders

• Thus, to be a good leader you needed to have intelligence, assertiveness, independence and self control

• Therefore a leader who is good in one situation will be a good leader in all situations

Behavioural Approach to Leadership

• The trait approach says that leaders are born

• The behavioural approach says that anyone can become a good leader by learning the behaviour of effective leaders

• Thus this approach argues that leadership skills can be developed through experience and training

Interactional Approach to Leadership

• This method looks at the interaction between the person and the situation– Effective leaders cannot be predicted solely

on their personality– Effective leadership fits specific situations, as

some leaders function better in some situations rather than others

– Leadership style needs to change to match the demands of the situation (e.g. task oriented and relationship oriented)

Multidimensional Model of Sports Leadership

• Situational Characteristics – characteristics such as size, type of sport, winning or losing, the situation the group is in

• Leader Characteristics – the personal qualities of the leader. Some of the qualities needed are confidence, intelligence, assertiveness, self-motivation

• Member Characteristics – different personality types of different groups of athletes (including age, gender, ability level or experience)

• Required Behaviour – the type of behaviour required of a leader in a particular situation

• Actual Behaviour – the behaviour the leader actually displays• Preferred Behaviour – the preferred leadership of the group,

depending on their characteristics• Performance Satisfaction – the extent to which the group members

are satisfied with the leaders behaviour and with the outcome of the competition

Situational

Characteristics

Leader

Characteristics

Member

Characteristics

Required

Behaviour

Actual

Behaviour

Preferred

Behaviour

Performance

Satisfaction

The leadership scale for sport

• Developed by Chelladurai & Saleh (1980) to assess the 5 main types of behaviour of coaches in their position of leadership, and to evaluate how often they use each

• Training & Instruction – information is provided by the coach, aimed at improving performance in terms of technique and strategy

• Democratic Behaviour – athletes are involved in reaching decisions regarding group goals and group strategy

• Autocratic Behaviour – coach acts independently, forcing decisions on the group

• Social Support Behaviour – aimed at improving the well-being and welfare of the athletes and developing group relationships

• Positive Feedback Behaviour – rewards individual and group actions through acknowledging athletes effort and performance