Leadership style directed by the followers ability

Leadership style and coaching:

Teaching/Leadership style can dictated by understanding the learners competency and by the dynamics of the situation. While athletes progress through the 3 stages of learning they become increasingly competent. Learning is a maturing process and each phase of learning and maturity there is a leading style that produces the strongest results. The "X" factor in coach and teaching is referent power. Referent power is  power of an individual over the followers based on the quality of leader member relations. If the leader trusted, admired, and or respect you have rederent power.  The best teachers and coaches have good working relationships with their students. Leadership stratagies can be enhanced by understanding the relationship between your approach and the phases of learning your follower is in. They are also enhanced when we consider the impact of leader/follower dynamics. Understanding of your situation is the key for selecting the manner in which to lead or supervise. Here are some leadership models that include criteria that can help you better undertsand the situation you face. 

Situational favorableness: Understanding the role you need to play 
According to Fiedler, there is no ideal leader. Both task-oriented and relationship-oriented leaders can be effective if their leadership orientation fits the situation. The contingency theory allows for predicting the characteristics of the appropriate situations for effectiveness. Three situational components determine the favorableness of situational control:

1. Leader-Member Relations, referring to the degree of mutual trust, respect and confidence between the leader and the subordinates.
2. Task Structure, referring to the extent to which group tasks are clear and structured.
3. Leader Position Power, referring to the power inherent in the leader's position itself.

The role of the leader is most simplisticly broken down into two roles:

Task Leader – The leaders effort is being used to directly influence the business at hand, making group tasks are clear and orderly

People Leader – The leader’s effort is used to support individual needs. Build relationships of mutual trust, respect, and confidence between the leader and the subordinates

When there is a good leader-member relation, a highly structured task, and high leader position power, the situation is considered a "favorable situation." Fiedler found that task oriented leadership style is best in extremely favorable or unfavorable situations, whereas  people oriented leaders perform best in situations with intermediate favorability.

·         Are leader-member relations good or poor?

·         Is the task you're doing structured, or is it more unstructured, or do you have little experience of solving similar problems?

·         Do you have strong or weak power over your team?

Determine the most effective leadership style (Fiedler Model)

This chart shows a breakdown of all of the factors : Leader-Member Relations, Task Structure, and Leader's Position Power. The final column identifies the type of leader that Fiedler believed would be most effective in each situation.

 

Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory (Leading at the pace of your learner):

The theory states that instead of using just one style, successful leaders should change their leadership styles based on the maturity of the people they're leading and the details of the task. Using this theory, leaders should be able to place more or less emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the relationships with the people they're leading, depending on what's needed to get the job done successfully.

Leadership Styles/Phases:

According to Hersey and Blanchard, there are four main leadership styles:

·         Telling (S1) – Leaders tell their people exactly what to do, and how to do it.

·         Selling (S2) – Leaders still provide information and direction, but there's more communication with followers. Leaders "sell" their message to get the team on board.

·         Participating (S3) – Leaders focus more on the relationship and less on direction. The leader works with the team, and shares decision-making responsibilities.

·         Delegating (S4) – Leaders pass most of the responsibility onto the follower or group. The leaders still monitor progress, but they're less involved in decisions.

As you can see, styles S1 and S2 are focused on getting the task done. Styles S3 and S4 are more concerned with developing team members' abilities to work independently.

Follower Task Maturity/Experience Levels

According to Hersey and Blanchard, knowing when to use each style is largely dependent on the maturity of the person or group you're leading. They break maturity down into four different levels:

·         M1 – People at this level of maturity are at the bottom level of the scale. They lack the knowledge, skills, or confidence to work on their own, and they often need to be pushed to take the task on.

·         M2 – At this level, followers might be willing to work on the task, but they still don't have the skills to do it successfully.

·         M3 – Here, followers are ready and willing to help with the task. They have more skills than the M2 group, but they're still not confident in their abilities.

·         M4 – These followers are able to work on their own. They have high confidence and strong skills, and they're committed to the task.

The Hersey-Blanchard model maps each leadership style to each maturity level, as shown below.

Maturity/Experience Level	Most Appropriate Leadership Style
M1: Low maturity	S1: Telling/directing
M2: Medium maturity, limited skills	S2: Selling/coaching
M3: Medium maturity, higher skills but lacking confidence	S3: Participating/supporting
M4: High maturity	S4: Delegating

Coaching Changes and Trust

First-order and second-order change "Big changes takes a lot of trust"

“First-order” change is change that is consistent with prevailing values and norms, meets with general agreement, and can be implemented using people’s existing knowledge and skills. This is the predominate coaching style which does not teach players how to learn or seek to improve the learning fundations. This is when coaches  manage around the technical skill of a player or works within their current  learning ability. A change process becomes “second-order” when it requires athletes to learn new approaches, or it  may conflict with their current processes, the framework of learning or situational norms. Second order change is a deep process and can disrupt people’s sense of well-being. But this is the type of change that is self sutaining. The second level of change requires growth on the part of those undertaking change, often discrediting existing schemas and frameworks. The more fundamental the changes sought by new ideas and influences, the greater the extent to which existing schemas must be restructured to form coherent understandings of the new ideas. This may confront and challenge expertise and competencies. An athlete who felt secure in their abilities as they were in the latter phases of learning “consciously competent” is now placed a step back and is now “consciously incompetent”. Those that require the most fundamental changes in behavior are the most difficult to change because they also require fundamental changes in their knowledge and learning structure. This change is likely to induce resistance as athletes find they must deal with a challenging sense of vulnerability

Before asking player to jump into the deep of learning a coach must be able to answer the following.

·         Does the coach understand the nature of knowledge and the student’s role in learning?

·         How do these ideas of knowledge and learning manifest in your teaching methods?

·         Does the coach have the theoretical knowledge allowing them to act upon principals?

·         Does the coach have the ability to teach at the pace of the learner?

·         Does the coach have the trust of the athlete?

  

 As the athlete is being challenged by a new learning method and dealing with new stresses one major key element the coach must possess is emotional intelligence. Referent power is the key to managing the emotions of stress in a player coach relationship. Referent power, as an aspect of personal power, becomes particularly important as organizational leadership is increasingly about collaboration and influence rather than command and control. Referent power is gained by a leader who has strong interpersonal relationship skills. Emotional intelligence is the key to leading and gaining trust.

      Emotional Intelligences: (coaches should master)

      Self-awareness: Self-aware people recognize and understand their own emotions. Self-awareness lays the foundation for the other domains.

      Self-management: Because they are attuned to their inner feelings, self-aware leaders are able to manage them. For example, they are able to control their temper.

Social awareness: Social awareness includes the ability to empathize with others, allowing leaders to understand the appropriate thing to say or do in the moment and to sense the shared values and priorities that drive a group. “Empathy, which includes listening and taking other people’s perspectives, allows leaders to tune in to the emotional channels between people that create resonance. And staying attuned lets leaders fine-tune their message to keep it in synch

Relationship management: Leaders who understand their own vision, values, and emotions and who are attuned to those of the group can then use their relationship management skills to catalyst resonance