Emergent Leadership Programs for Student Athletes

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Collegiate Student Athletes

Collegiate Student Athletes refers to student-athletes in colleges. There are various activities in colleges for students to be involved in, and one them is sports. Collegiate student athletes are the students who are engaged in college sports and are encouraged to build up a stance for willpower, working in teams, perseverance and self-control. In USA, such athletics is now being considered as an atypical body of higher education, even though it is rarely scheduled in the central mission of an educational institute. Athletics is now commanding excessive visibility, means, effect, and awareness within and outside various university and college grounds.

The history of collegiate athletics is old. College students didn’t always have the support of their faculty and administration and therefore, they first started athletic associations for different purposes without even obtaining permission from administration. By 1890, alumni members at various colleges attached with student bodies to form such sport programs that even the head administration at colleges had minimal control over them. In the late 19^th and early part of the 20^th century, college athletics was over shadowed by some specific sports and strong institutions, but its popularity and diversity across various colleges in the USA remained its exceptional feature. The eastern seaboard colleges were the ones to start college sports, but this practice was soon followed in different parts all over the country (Answers, n.d.).

Importance of leadership training for college athletes

College athletes are not only attending normal education but are also carrying sports along with their education, so they need to be trained differently in certain other things vital for their sports. But sports should not be the mere consideration as it has been observed that numerous college athletes are badly prepared for after-college life and a few experts have even said that they are not ready for anything except a professional sports career, which is achieved by merely 2-3 percent of them (Petina, 1990).

The fact remains that training them for sports is an essential part of their education. For this reason, attention is paid to the parts played by athletes as leaders and role models. Results from research shows that those college athletes who display leadership inclinations are positive and anticipate their college experience to be the same way. But leadership is a difficult phenomenon which changes with respect to each person and situation. Similar researches also show that when leadership scores increase, it more expected that good grades will be obtained and the explicit requirement of seeking counseling decreases. Besides, increased leadership scores also reduced the fear of finding difficulty in adjusting to college’s social life and increased the athlete’s knowledge of academic skills resources accessible to them. Positive association has also been found between leadership scores and general education, self-improvement and probability of moving on to a graduate school (Eiche et al., n.d.).

This means that college athletes display a positive association between leadership and internal sense of control. It is therefore important to place these athletes in programs that can build up their leadership skills, and create situations that can bring out leadership traits in those student athletes who otherwise may not exhibit them. When college-athletes compete in inter college and intra team events, it gives them a chance to show their leadership characteristics (Eiche et al., n.d.). Thus programs should be developed for student athletes that can enhance their leadership aptitude by their contribution in workshops and experiential learning and for this purpose; special programs are often arranged for them by their institutions.

There are different studies that have surveyed the association between perceived leadership styles and athlete satisfaction. Other studies have focused on the correlation which is present between participation of high school students’ in athletes and their leadership skills. The importance of leadership for college athletes as well as others sports is not to be underestimated since it impacts behavior. The characteristics of leadership are vital for developing managers, team captains and coaches; inspiration is an important factor that all of them should have; and in individual sports, the athlete himself/herself is the leader. Two ways have been identified by Carron in 1981 for becoming a leader:

Emergent Leaders- these leaders arise from inside a group as they are more skilful than others or have been chosen by the other members.
Prescribed Leaders- these are the leaders who are chosen by an external source for the team (Helpme, n.d.).

Leadership

Leadership is a characteristic possessed by an individual possesses and employed in both group and social framework. It is a mutual, bidirectional association which is intertwined with the ability influencing others to perform in a certain, specific way for achieving an objective (Holmes et al. 2008). The study of leadership has been conducted in various professions and though its context changes from one group to another, its construct stays the same. Effective leaders are those who can get things done by exercising their influence. People have inborn traits, some of which are specifically suited for leadership and good leaders are those who have the correct amalgamation of these traits (PL, 2009).

Leaders can be seen practicing different behaviors. The way a person exercises his leadership skills is subjective but there are some characteristics which are common in all good leaders. Leadership is the process by which team members are influenced for hard work and commitment team goals. A leader may be task oriented where the main interests lie in coaching, instructing, improving performance and succeeding or a leader may be person-oriented where their focus is on the interpersonal relationships between the members. It is important that a leader himself have those characteristics which are desired to be seen in his/her team. What characterizes outstanding leaders in decision making is that it is based on facts and application of common sense and simplicity even to the most difficult tasks. Leaders are responsible for providing a sense of direction to the team, develop an environment to reach the goals and foster an atmosphere where the members of their group can be trained and raised (Sugarman, n.d.).

Emergence has always played its part in leadership, even from a traditional perspective. It has been present in the form of informal leadership. Formal leadership implicates an officially-sanctioned, obligatory role whereas an informal one takes place impulsively and externally to the official sanction (silicon, 2004).

Theories of leadership

There are various styles of leadership that have been studied and different theories have been proposed over time in this regard. Some of these theories are trait theory, theory of transformational leadership, theory of participative leadership, theory of transactional leadership, contingency theory and situational leadership. The characteristics given by different theorists maybe broadly grouped as traits, behavioral, contingency and transformational, which also marks the leadership style but there is no single best leadership style which always succeeds. Around 50 years before, the trait model was popular but it was eventually replaced by behavioral models and then contingency models in the light of different evidences. These days, it is the transformational model which is gaining popularity (Hardcastle, 2006).

Theory of transformational leadership

Of these, one approach to leadership which is relevant in the context of this study is that of transformational leaders. These leaders are focused on the future settle high standards for their teams. They earn the confidence of others by being their mentor, motivator and by empowering them. They aid the achievement of high levels of performance by transforming mindsets, principles and behaviors through a shared vision. This is a people-oriented style of leadership and thus produces followers who are more satisfied and productive. The leaders gain leadership behaviors as a process of recalling their own experiences, monitoring other’s experiences and formal education (Laurent & Bradney, 2007).

Theory of participative leadership

Another relevant theory is that of participative leadership. According to this theory, leaders involve other members of the team in making decisions and this involvement enhances the perception of the problems and issues of those who are on the team. When people are involved in the process of decision making, they tend to be more dedicated to performing actions for implementing the decisions; the reason being that individuals have a tendency to be less aggressive and work more collaboratively when their objectives are decided upon a shared basis. Besides, people also become more socially committed to each other, thus respecting the decisions. An additional benefit of this leadership is that when more people are involved in making a decision, better conclusions are reached than when one person alone makes a decision (PL, 2009).

Leadership trait theory

Of particular relevance to the topic under discussion is the Leadership trait theory. It is based upon the idea that every person is born with certain character traits and some of them are linked with leadership. The theory proposed that it is possible to recognize leaders on the basis of identification of their traits. The traits are thus valuable as well in identifying characteristics of a leader required by followers. This theory has been criticized because of its assumption that leadership traits are inborn and can’t be altered. Even though it’s correct that certain traits are inherited by birth but it is mostly possible to change these inborn traits for better or for worse (Shead, 2007).

Emergent leadership

Emergent leadership means a group member who emerges as a leader and maintains this position. This topic has been under study for more than 80 years now and its origin traces back to 1920 to the concept of “leaderless group discussion (LGD)” by J.B. Rieffert, the director of German military psychology. Afterwards, other theories, techniques and models of emergent leadership came to surface but recently, the research has amplified on its role in groups. In 1979, a “valence model of emergent leadership” was given by Stein, Hoffman, Cooley, & Pearse, according to which, there are 3 stages in the process of emergent leadership, namely:

orientation
conflict and
emergence

The orientation stage is one where potential leaders proclaim their right for positions of leadership. In the second stage, the candidates for leadership go through leadership conflict. In the last stage, the winner of the conflict stage comes to surface and the group members subordinate themselves to this person at their own will. This model incorporated facets of the most outstanding theory of emergent-leadership proposed by Hollander known as “idiosyncrasy credit”. According to this theory, a group member who comes out as a leader is supposed to be a contributor to the task accomplishments of the group in order to meet the members’ expectations of a leader from the viewpoint of its members. The greater the leaders meet the expectations of the group; the more credit is gathered by its leaders. As a result, leaders exercise their influence and get accepted on the basis of the credits earned by them (Curtin, 2004).

In 1951, Carter, Haythorn, Shriver, and Lanzetta, on the basis of their research, proposed that individuals concerned with “reasoning” tasks should seek information for finding a solution to the reasoning issue and lead by performing enthusiastic actions which can successfully persuade group members for accepting their commencements in order to become emerging leaders. This theory was supported forty years later by De Souza and Klein as well in 1995 with their finding that there is more likelihood of emergent leaders to guide the activities of group members (Curtin, 2004).

An emergent leader is usually respected more and earns their team’s support because they are the choice of their members’ whom they are to lead. Leadership is a trait which is derived from the personality of each individual. All styles of leadership have their own pros and cons but it is the duty of the leader to provide and inspire the ones who he leads in the most critical situations regardless of the style. An emergent style is person orientated and is therefore more suitable for team games (Helpme, n.d).

An emergent leader does not have mere fixed personality characteristics but possess behaviors that are both task and relationship oriented. Such leadership has two vital components for obtaining an objective- the capacity to finish a task and promote group cohesion. The former is task oriented and the latter is relationship oriented (Holmes et al. 2008)

Developing emergent leadership programs for college-athletes

The Emerging Leadership programs for college student-athletes should be designed keeping in view those selected high potential athletes who display the tendencies to become great leaders. Through these programs, they should be equipped with the ‘insights, strategies and skills’ that are important for them to turn into effective leaders. They can be taught these by means of workshops, interactive exercises, literature separately or in combination (Baylor, n.d.).

It is evident that leadership is important for the smooth working of macro-level groups like societies or cultures as well as micro-level groups like workplaces and athletic teams. According to Wheelan and Johnston (1996), usually it is the team players rather than formal external team leaders who take up leadership positions. In order to have a motivated and skillfully performing team in athletics, task as well as relationship oriented style of leadership is important. It has been shown by some researchers that the leadership style of women is more relationship focused whereas those of men is task oriented. Since, college athletes are at the very beginning of their sports training, they should be trained in both these domains.

In this regard, Chelladurai’s model of leadership (1990; 1993) provides information that can be of assistance to frame the training of emergent leadership style in the policies of athletic programs for nurturing leadership, growth of student athletes and their development. The college student athletes have to be trained in their ability to distinguish certain characteristics and interactive styles which they want in their team leaders. These characteristics appear in various athletic experiences on the field as well as off the field. The student athletes favor peer leaders who have higher scores on ‘social support, positive feedback and democratic behaviors’; therefore these are the qualities that should be kept in mind when developing programs for emergent leadership. Potential leaders should be trained in understanding the needs of their group and of each player and to provide support even off the field. They should be sensitive to the needs of the players and have the knowledge to take action accordingly in order to motivate the team (Holmes et al. 2008).

The athletics in today’s world is played in a highly competitive environment, whether it’s a high school stadium or a professional arena. There is pressure on the coaches as well as the players to succeed since its measure is done in the win / loss evaluation. For this reason, leadership is gaining importance in sports at an increasing pace. In order to win, future leaders have to be trained to treat players with as much respect as they desire and deserve themselves. This implicates a need for developing programs to teach them that uniform leadership skills are not applicable to all players. The dynamics of leadership plays an essential part in professional sports and therefore at college level, athletes have to be trained in them, so that with effort, their goals may be achieved. The emergent leaders are selected by the team members but even then, it’s difficult to be an effective leader, as hard work is needed to gain the trust of each member of the team and comprehend their underlying motivational dynamics. While developing emergent leadership programs for college-student athletes, it is important to integrate certain teachings as they are rules valid to all leadership situations. Some of these rules are:

Deal with players with respect so as to earn respect from them in return.
Develop an understanding of each player so that identification can be made of their individual strengths and weaknesses.
Lead by example so that the players know what to do and how to do
Make sure that others in the team understand the strategy, so that they may support it.
Be decisive and certain as leaders are responsible for guiding others
Instruct positively, telling them what is wanted from them rather than what is not wanted from them (Moneyzine, 2007).

What the young college athletes are taught in leadership programs and what should be kept in mind while developing these programs are certain characteristics which determine and describe the manner in which effective young leaders exercise their influence on others.

It is important that leadership programs teach students the tricks to selecting the right strategy in different circumstances despite great stress. They should be taught to be well organized, detail-oriented and thoroughly prepared to absorb any shocks. They should have the art and the knowledge to motivate and guide others. They should be inculcated with the confidence to bravely change original plans when situations demand doing so; for this they have to be taught flexibility and exercised with having an open mind. Intrinsic motivation should be taught to them and this is something that they in turn should know how to impart to their associates. Again, it is vital to know each player and understand their dynamics and individuality in order to get the best out of them and make a positive team experience and foster communication within the group (Sugarman, n.d.).

The book ‘Leadership Challenge’ brings to light, 20 character traits which are mostly connected to quality leaders, the top five of them are:

Honest – it is this trait which builds the trust of the team members of the leader
Inspiring – it is a result of inspiration that teammates are motivated to follow their leader
Forward-Looking – it is of vital importance since a leader is the one who provides the rest of the team with a sense of direction for the future
Competent – a leader should be capable enough himself/herself to lead the rest of the team
Intelligent- it is the leader who is responsible for making strategies and adapting them according to situations

These traits can be learnt and then implemented even though it’s not easy and requires hard work on behalf of the learner or the trainee.

College student-athletes can be taught to learn leadership skills with practice and over time grow more inspiring, honest and competent. An individual can be taught to display these characteristics more as they are desired by the followers and have an effect on their perceptions of the leader. If students are taught to manipulate these traits, they can change the way their team members perceive them. They can enhance their ability to lead and emerge as leaders by the choice of their peers by putting in a little effort to build the desired characteristics and displaying them explicitly (Shead, 2007).

Conclusion

Thus we see that leadership is a trait which all athletes do have within them but some have a greater magnitude which turn them into future leaders and some have it at a lesser magnitude which restricts them from applying their leadership skills and differentiate the great leaders from the average players. A leader is capable of making the team have faith in him and themselves. The leadership needs training and charisma on behalf of the leader which is given to them by providing them training in such skills in the initial years as a young athlete (chase, 2007).

For this reason, it is important to train the potential leaders of the future and with this regard emergent leadership programs are important. As in athletes, leaders mostly emerge from within the group and are chosen by their peers or their coaches on the basis of certain traits. It is these traits that have to be polished and more training that have to be provided through these programs in order to make them different from the others.

References

Answers, n.d., ‘College Athletics: History of Athletics in U.S. Colleges and Universities’, Web.

Baylor, n.d., ‘leadership academy’, Web.

Chase, M. 2007, ‘The Importance of Being a Leader in Sports’, Web.

Curtin, J. L. 2004, ‘Emergent Leadership: Case Study of a Jury Foreperson’, Web.

Eiche, K., Sedlacek, W., Gaston, J. A., n.d., ‘An Exploration of Leadership Characteristics in College Athletes’, Web.

Hardcastle, J. 2006, ‘youth leadership in sports’, Web.

Helpme, n.d., ‘Leadership in sports’, Web.

Holmes, R. M., McNeil, M., Adorna, P. & Proccacino, J. K. 2008, ‘Collegiate student athletes’ preferences and perceptions regarding peer relationships’, Journal of Sport Behavior, Web.

Laurent, T. G. & Bradney, D. A. 2007, ‘Leadership Behaviors of Athletic Training Leaders Compared With Leaders in Other Fields’, Journal of Athletic Training, Web.

Moneyzine 2007, ‘Leadership in sports’, Web.

Petina, D. 1990, ‘Educating College Athletes’, Web.

PL 2009, ‘Participative Leadership’, Web.

Shead, M. 2007, ‘Leadership Trait Theory’, Web.

Silicon 2004, ‘Emergent Leadership’, Web.

Sugarman, n.d., ‘Leadership characteristics’, Web.

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